Top eight takeaways from NFT NYC

Transcript

what's up friends welcome to web3 academy a place for entrepreneurs creators and marketers to explore and learn how to use web 3 to transform business models and create thriving communities enjoy this next episode [Music] gmgm what's up web3 academy doers it is the uh deep dive uh today we are deep diving on my top eight takeaways from nft nyc nfta nyc was a couple of weeks ago uh and man it was unbelievable if you have not been to a conference

in person yet whether it be crypto web 3 nfts you know really metaverse anything in the space highly highly recommend you hit up a conference as soon as you can really mainly because there is real builders there is incredible people building the space and you can never take away the opportunity to meet somebody meet a fellow builder meet a fellow doer in person the connection that you make the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas and really to to just jam out together is so powerful and i don't think that

can be understated so yeah get out there get to a conference if you can start engaging irl with web3 because it is just as important as engaging on discord and on twitter and all the incredible spaces that we engage and build online quick reminder before i start the show if you can please take a moment and give us a review uh hook us up with a five star assuming you enjoy our show it is greatly appreciated uh not just for us and the web3 academy community but further

for the onboarding of the rest of the world to web3 we need to onboard billions to web 3. there's only you know about 100 million maybe give or take maybe a couple hundred million of us in web 3 and in crypto and nfts right now and that's just scratching the surface and if we want to onboard more then we got to get this podcast higher on spotify and on apple so whatever you listen on please please please take a minute and give us a rating that would be much appreciated one more quick announcement before i start the show is if you want to get involved in web3 academy we are launching a dow

we are taking the first steps towards launching a token and to building something together and there is just an incredible group of people uh that are all [Music] coming together around this mission of educating the world on web3 on building resources and tools for businesses and creators in web 3 and we would love for you to join in so if you're not already in our discord join in our discord uh links will be in the show notes if you are in our discord and you want to join in in building the early stages of this dao two things you need to do one come to our monday

community call it happens every monday at 7 00 pm eastern in the discord or just send send a message to myself or another to kyle or another member and or leader of the discord or just post in the general chat say hey you know i'm interested in getting involved in the dao what can i do and we will see you there and we'll link up and get you get you involved because yeah there's there's big exciting things happening and we're looking for those people that want to be involved in the early stages and really building something that we believe is going to impact uh a lot of people and really help onboard businesses and creators to

using web3 to better engage with their fans to offer digital ownership to decentralize their business uh to do all the incredible things that web3 can do for you and your business and your fans so yeah hope to see you there big things happening check it out okay so for today's show i am going to read uh an article which i wrote and yeah just going to jump into it i might riff a little bit on and off but uh yeah buckle up this is going to be a good one top eight takeaways from nftnyc nftnyc is the super bowl of nfts this is what i learned

and at the nyc took place from june 20th to 23rd in new york a record setting 15 000 people attended the conference with 1500 speakers seven stages across multiple venues and hundreds of projects shilling throughout the halls you would never have known were in a bear market not to mention thousands of apes doodles moon birds crypto punks clones etc if i missed your nft project forgive me that all traveled to new york to attend the 300 plus non-conference events i'm guessing there was 300 plus to be honest who knows there was there could have been thousands there was an unbelievable amount of non-conference events one thing was for sure sleep was optional

and the hype was next level so what were my top eight takeaways from nftnyc number one we are so so so early number two token gated this that and the other number three nfts are so much more than jpegs number four pfp projects are social clubs number five nft brands are going mainstream number six bear market who cares number seven web3 knows a lot about friendship and number eight half conference half music festival let's get into each one of these and

break them down so number one we're so so so early i bought my first nft which is a llama for .02 eth in february this year that's right just five months ago and i felt like i was late to the party soon after that i aped into a couple of projects because you know fomo i learned the hard way that making money on nfts is harder than it looks well this was my first lesson in nfts the lessons i've learned since that have been so much more valuable prices go up down and sideways but technology is inevitable programmable blockchains and smart contracts are going to disrupt every

industry but we're just in the first inning scratch that we're still in practice before the game five years from now everyone will be using nfts whether they realize it or not but right now no one has this figured out i can't stress that enough nobody knows the answer the perfect way to do this most panels were called the future of with experts and top leaders using lots of if and when statements so the lesson is participate play and build it's the only way to figure it out don't wait for the playbook there is none yet get into the game

there's 100 200 million crypto wallets today and around 1 of those own nfts estimates are that by 2031 there will be 1 billion wallets just by being in web 3 right now you're setting yourself up to be an expert in 10 years when the rest of the world joins in the fun in order to be part of this massive opportunity to build a decentralized permissionless immutable world we must all learn the tech we must take the time to learn the foundations of web3 spend less time focused on speculation thanks to the bear market for helping with that

those who want to be part of this revolution highly recommend you check out our free web 3d lecture series called the web3 rabbit hole link will be in the show notes i can't stress enough how early i realized we are by going to a conference i think when you're off when you're online story you only see the hype you only see twitter unless you're on there every day you're only seeing the most popular tweets where people are talking about how much money they've made how great their project is doing how much is happening in web3 when you go to a conference

and you sit down at these various sessions and you sit there and there's top leading experts on stage and you realize they don't even know they don't even have the answers they're still trying to figure it out we are so so early get in the game now is your opportunity big things are coming if this grows the way the internet grew from 95 to 2005 was when the internet went from 100 million to 1 billion over that 10-year period it is projected that we are going to do the same from 2021 to 2031 we're gonna do have that same growth in web3 if that happens just take

a second and think about that think about how early that means we are right now get off the sidelines get in the game let's build together number two take away from nft nyc token gated this that and the other token gated is fast becoming one of the hottest trends in nfts and for good reason it cannot be understated enough how much we as humans care about access it makes us feel special ownership is the most discussed aspect of web3 and rightfully so but i would argue that many people especially those without wallets

value access as much if not more than ownership in order for me to access moon birds and zen academy proud proud hodler over here i used token proof to obtain token verified event tickets moon birds for example had multiple events some led by project the project team others led by holders with funding from the project point for community building in web 3 right there there was a hot wing eating contest for the fire heads and a david blaine performance for the wizard hats moon birds was token gating based upon rarities nft nyc shockingly did not use nfts or

token gating just boring old conference badges which was disappointingly lame and that's not the only place there was token gaining during nftnyc shopify launched their new product offering token gating commerce it's just in beta so the activation of this was pretty elementary in nyc but the fusion is very bright here this enables nft holders to connect their wallet and access member-only merch this is huge potential to recognize and reward loyalty token holders will be able to connect their wallet in order to access exclusive shopping experiences imagine getting early access to a merch drop or exclusive access to limited merch just for you as an nft holder

shopify's token gated ecommerce is currently in beta with some of the largest entity product projects including doodles world of women invisible friends and cool cats my advice to business owners and creators get an nft into the hands of 100 to 1 000 of your fans now give it away for free perhaps even make it valueless in order to remove speculation and eliminate the pressure that comes with price and speculation once in the hands of your fans this is where the fun begins i think a lot of businesses and creators are getting caught up in

the process of the nft itself giving the nft the art of the nft here's the thing you need to understand that is not what this is all about this tech that we are building it is not about the actual nft in the case of art yes it is about the nft right but in the case of your business or if you're a creator in the case of your solopreneurship or your entrepreneurial business it is not about the nft itself yes it's important yes you should think about it but it's not the biggest deal now it's different if you are a fortune 500 or fortune 1000 company then you might you need to be much more

thoughtful with the way that you launch a project but for most businesses for most creators you need to get into the gaming you need to play and what you need to understand is don't get caught up in the nft itself get to the part where you get to reward your fans you get to give them something you get to make them feel special that is huge that will make them more loyal to to you that will make them want to tell their friends about you it will make them marketers on the ground and it'll make them excited about your brand and here's what you can do once in the hands once you have an nft in their hands then you can use token gating and

you can use token getting to offer them access to many things including a physical or digital event merch even just a sticker a t-shirt or a hat i'm wearing my moon bird's hat right now if you're watching this on youtube a private discord channel an area of your website with discounts from partners and affiliates unlockable content such as a song just for nft holders or a pdf guide or a podcast maybe a calendly link to book a one-on-one call with you the founder or with the artist or maybe to join a group call with you the founder with the artist or with a sponsor or somebody in your ecosystem who your users would have

value to remember that you will offer many nfts to your fans over the next decade i can't say that enough this isn't like a one and done thing where everyone needs to stop and be like okay i'm going to launch 1ft nft to my fans it's got to be perfect no no it's not like that you're going to launch many nfts for fans we're all going to use nfts in so many ways in our businesses so don't get stuck on perfect for your first one you just need to play in the web3 sandbox now if you need help launching an nft for your fans or token gating your community you know you don't need shopify to do this stuff you just

reply to this podcast hit me up in discord send me a message on twitter myself kyle webthere academy hit us up any way you can and we will gladly help you and lead you through this process because it's a little bit confusing and daunting but we want you to start to use this technology we want you to play in the sandbox and token gating is a really powerful powerful tool that i don't even think most people are seeing and realizing yet number three take away nfts are so much more than jpegs to most people nfts are just jpegs of insert animal jpegs of apes jpegs of birds

you wouldn't think this after walking through the hundreds of booths repping projects at nft nft nyc in sports fashion music real estate investing and so much more there's a belief a deep belief in the transformative power of nfts to empower creators connect them to their collectors foster communities rethink existing power structures change how culture creation and ownership work and bring people with shared goals together while giving them the tools to achieve those goals it's important to remember that nfts are not a business

they are a tool for your business can't stress that enough they are a tool for your business in a music panel i attended with french montana a leading hip-hop and rap artist and other top-level execs in this panel they really pointed out the way in which you can use nfts for music as a tool so with smart contracts an artist can deliver a lot more than an mp3 which is really all fans can buy right now that's the only way they can interact you and support you listen your listen to your music or attend your show live but with nfts and smart contracts you can create

copywriting licenses enabling the use of your music in a film you can offer unique access to your most loyal fans you can share royalties with those who purchase say your first album when you had no fans you can reward people who attend multiple shows all while providing them long-term value and ownership which builds stronger communities ownership and engagement builds stronger communities at the end of this panel one one artist predicted that within the next five years a community would write a grammy winning song now at first i kind of laughed at this

as did many people in the audience but the more i thought about it i truly believe this is true because nfts can give access to fans to to do this to collaborate to be part of the songwriting process now if you think this is crazy i'm willing to bet one eth to anyone that is listening to this podcast send me a tweet message me in discord i'll bet anyone wanted that within the next five years a community will write a grammy award-winning song you heard it here number four takeaway

pfp projects are social clubs humans are social creatures one of our greatest needs is belonging as we move towards spending more time online we are starving to find our tribe while many web 2 platforms reddit and facebook groups have enabled us to build online communities they've been lacking in many ways ownership and recognition for contribution being at the forefront but also the ability to recognize fellow members across online platforms and the ability to recognize fellow members in real life nft's changed that we've seen this with the explosion of nfts being used as avatars in twitter

discord instagram reddit etc now because you belong to a particular nft community you are able to dm pretty much anyone within that community and get a response you can make connections and network with people that you would have never had a connection to before nftnyc showed how much this expands beyond avatars and into real life on the first day i met a fellow little noun owner because he had a noun sticker on his badge i saw it and we connected instantly we shared something in common he gave me a noun sticker which i put on my badge leading multiple people to

approach me throughout the week i also printed my moon bird on a t-shirt which i wore around the second day and i can't tell you how many fellow moon birds i met as a result of that if you're watching this on youtube i'm holding up my moon bird t-shirt just think about how proudly american college graduates wear their merch the same is happening with nfts these brands are not brands in the way that corporate brands are developed because corporate brands are developed for profit there's much less excitement to wear a coca-cola shirt than there is to wear a doodle shirt because nfts are built by

the community and that cannot be understated enough many project leaders recognized this which led them to host hundreds of token gated events for their holders the transition of nft communities into real life is really just beginning but there is massive opportunities here so if you're a community member of an nft project you've got to reach out in your community if you want to host an event whether it be online or in real life these projects have funding and they are looking for activation they are looking for their community members to step up and to give them an opportunity to connect with other community members

also if you are in experiential if you're in event marketing my gosh you got to get in touch with somebody in the web with any projects in the web 3 space because there is big budgets being spent on these events on these activations that bring community together number five takeaway nft brands are going mainstream it's time to talk about all the events outside of the actual conference honestly this was where all the cool was my first stop was the cool cats experience and wow was it was it impressive

they took a 30 000 square foot warehouse in central manhattan and turn it into an immersive family-friendly carnival-like experience my fiance and i spent three hours there and it was pure joy the entire time we collected points using rfid bracelets which you could then trade in for merch well there was exclusive merch for holders of cool cats what really stood out to me about this experience was that it was clearly targeting the general public and the response was big the non-holder line to get in was over 30 minutes pretty much the whole week here's cool cats attracting

non-holders attracting non-web 3 people into web 3. i'll bet you there was families there who had no idea what an nft was because this event was not about nfts it was about cool cats brand which is a super family-friendly approachable brand have you seen the cool cat it's adorable it's so cute so you can just start to imagine the application beyond nfts for these brands well-funded a lot of these nft projects very well funded and focused on branding because most of these pfp projects are just great art so they have strong art and branding of

which they can build on and they've got 10 000 fans already what a great launching point to start from illuminati which is truth labs had one of the most unique exp unique and notable events of the week imagine a cirque du soleil like experience with like multiple creative performances and of course lots of goblins trudging around making goblin noises constantly hilarious but definitely what stood out most about this event was the permanent tattoo station yes people were getting permanent tattoos of illuminati art this is probably the best marketing you could ever get for your brand

the passion and energy and enthusiasm that i experience at nftnyc cannot be understated people were pumped they are fired up there is this feeling that we are building something that is going to change the world i believe it's true i'm sure many of you believe it's true as well and that is leading to these incredible fans these like deep defense that are willing to tattoo art on their body permanently nouns dao which is one of the leading projects in terms of decentralization and cc0

had dozens of activations and events happening throughout the week now why do they have so many activation events well because they're all created by community members who got funding from the dow this is a fully decentralized team and this fully decentralized team is able to activate in so many different ways now i wasn't able to attend unfortunately any of these events but i did attend one and the one i attended was put on by nars dao which is a derivative of noun style uh which happened to be on go skateboarding day they took over a skate park in manhattan with a couple pro skaters videographers and loads of non-nft people getting in

on the fun again an nft project doing something that has nothing to do with nfts and quite frankly nothing to do with their nft holders i don't i highly doubt that there was many nars dow holders there this was more about sharing in the love of skateboarding which is the mission of nars dao is pretty specifically is to sponsor professional extreme athletes and skateboarding is one of those sports that they sponsor and i can tell you at the skateboard park there was kids and adults all hanging out because it was go skateboarding day perfect

and they were all seeing the nouns down logo everywhere and they're they're involved and they're checking it out it's clear that nft projects have the potential to become leading global brands in order to do so they will need to tap into an audience beyond just the owners of their 10 000 nft collections well it remains to be seen how big of an impact they can make beyond web 3 native consumers there were some big steps taken in nyc bear market who cares the big question surrounding nft nyc this year was the sentiment around the conference considering that eth was

down 70 from the highs in late 2021 and given that most nfts are on ethereum purchased in eth you know that's a it's a big loss for most nft holders mainstream media headlines said nfts were over uh yeah thanks for showing up it's over thanks so much but if anything the bear market made the conference and made the new york experience better as speculators were washed out this was a week focused on community building networking and growing deeper relationships i can't tell you how much it comforted me to know how many smart

capable and powerful figures are backing this tech well many wondered how many people would show up in nyc there was a clear response from the tens of thousands of builders and doers nfts are here to say we're not leaving we're building yeah yeah [Laughter] number seven takeaway web3 knows a lot about friendship ship friendship so important friendship oh so so important to our lives now i haven't been to any crypto

conferences but i'd say it's pretty clear that nfts are onboarding a new audience of users including those who stayed away from crypto there were artists collectors crypto natives corp execs gamers beginners entrepreneurs and everything in between everyone and i mean everyone was friendly af literally the most approachable and accessible people i've ever met regardless of status regardless of who they are no doubt that part of that is due to the amount of blue ocean in web 3 right now as we are so so early but it's also part of the culture of web 3 which aims to remove hierarchical structures

built by web the web 2 corp giants and tear down the walled gardens that control our data and sell it for profit the web3 culture was apparent in every interaction and this cannot be understated as in order to build a decentralized permissionless and trustless future we must work together we must be able to walk up to somebody in a conference and say hey how you doing what are you up to and literally that's what i did all day and that's what other people did to me all day it was wild it was actually completely insane how easy it was to make friends and connect with

people there everywhere you are whether you're at the conference whether you're at events whether you were on the street and you had some recognizable whether the conference badge on you or something there's this immediate connection and one of the reasons there's such a deep connection is because this is about so much more than money from the outside everyone thinks this is about money and that's quite unfortunate and thank god the bear market has changed that for a lot of people and i hope that people are waking up and seeing it but if you're inside this is not about money this is about building a better world this is about rebuilding the internet in a way that puts

ownership back in our hands back in the user's hands this is what we need and people feel that and that energy leads to incredible connections the term building with strangers is one that i heard many times well in nyc and i just love it building with strangers now many teams i think we're meeting for the first time because you literally meet online you often are building with strangers especially given the aenon culture of web3 but the foundational trust that exists in web3 is special and we must continue to foster that

usually at these events there's the experts and influencers behind a vip rope when you're at a conference there's that there's that that wall that gate that we can't get through right or usually when you're at a conference it's all about either how to make more money in your business or how to save more money in your business nobody was talking about money at nft nyc i didn't have a single conversation about money not a single conversation about crypto price everybody was talking about what they're building how we can collaborate how we can support each other in web 3 we're all equal

shout out to all the people that i met at nft nyc but more importantly shout out to all the doers navigating discord welcoming new members and sharing this space and making it so approachable because that is what makes these conferences what it is it starts online the way we're building this web three is we're starting it online and then when you get to these events and you see this culture in person my god it's like it pours out of you joy pours out of you in all directions you can't you eating grin the entire time you can't stop smiling it's wow you want to give everyone a high five the hype is so real the stoke is off the charts

now well it might seem cheesy i have always believed that friendship has the power to change the world i wasn't sure how the online communities of web 3 would translate to in real life but there is a genuine desire to help support and build together in a way that i've never experienced before in my 20-year career final takeaway from nftnyc half conference half music festival i thought i was going to a conference turns out what i went what i went to in in new york was much more fun than a conference and much more than that way

more than i could could have expected well we all know that nfts are building communities online mostly in discord of which i am part of an overwhelming amount and i'm sure many of our listeners are as well i i didn't know the extent to which nfts are building communities in person and doing it with the biggest celebrities and artists in the world jimmy fallon was spotted at apefest and not behind some vip area just out in the open here's a list of just a few just a few of the artists that performed during the week madonna performed at world of women chain smokers did a surprise performance at doodles along with a pre-recorded pharrell cameo pharrell was also announced as the chief brand officer for

doodles david blaine did a performance for moon birds tame impala also performed for moon birds at ape fest board apiac club's event listen to this list snoop dogg eminem the roots quest love lcd sound system haim little baby future timbaland and that's probably not it i'm probably missing a few zoo and loopy fiasco performed as azuki pusha t performed at adam bombsquad's event and that's not to mention others uh sia was seen miguel diplo chromio dead mouse and many many more isn't that incredible what conference

have you ever been to and again these were separate events none of these were to do with the conference it's important to know all of these events were put on by companies or nft projects outside of the outside of the conference but what conference have you ever been to where there's all these step events that's why i say it's like the super bowl if you go to the super bowl it's not just the super bowl there is tons of events and activities happening well this is the same thing because we are all coming together and there's these there's this community power there's this underlying layer of community power which allows these

gatherings to happen and then you've got all these celebrities and artists who quite frankly they want to get in the fun and they are getting in on the fun they're showing up they're doing performances they want to be part of it it's truly you know blow your hat off type of experience to see this firsthand and to realize not only are we so early we are building something massive like i said 2031 projections 1 billion wallets 1 billion what that's that's somewhere around 10 10 times what there is right now

we are just at the beginning now there is a legitimate question as to what is the real nftnyc is it the conference in times square or all these events hosted by companies or nft projects both have their place in my mind as i'm sure not i'm i'm sure i'm not sure one can exist without the other the conference serves as an important purpose to educate and onboard new people to web three now i think that the conference could do better next year but at the same time throwing a conference of 15 000 people in new york city of all places is not

simple my one advice to the conference would be to have 1500 speakers was way too many i know of many speakers who backed out of their engagements just because there wasn't there wasn't the excitement at the conference a lot of sessions unfortunately were low attendance you know you walk into a ballroom and there's 10 people there even though they're seating for 200. that's tough i feel bad for the speakers that's tough i've been in that situation it's not easy in that situation but at the same time all of the events outside of nftnyc are really they're for people in the in

crowd and i hate to use the word the in crowd uh in in this space because we're trying to break down the in crowd that's the whole purpose of decentralization but it's true when you're building communities when you're building social clubs there's going to be token gating right it's a big part of what we're doing here we're rewarding our fans and at the beginning there's not a ton of communities so not everyone's in a community yet right and that's okay we'll get there but you need the conference because that's that's the onboarding ramp right people can attend the conference who don't yet own an nft or who don't own an nft which is having an event in new york but at the same time

all of these events around the conference all of the energy and excitement all of these artists this like music festival-like vibe that was happening in new york that is also as important to this event as the conference itself that's where really that's where a lot of the networking is happening because it's so fun all those events are so fun which allows a lot of the networks to be happening now it's not all for nfte holders as i said the cool cats event was open to the public as were others the doodles event was also open to the public but unfortunately the holder's line was so long that i don't think the public could ever access it and there's some growing pains to be had here but i'll tell you one thing is for sure

i will be back next year and i hope you will be too now just to wrap up if you are going to a conference please let us know post in the discord one thing that i learned from going to this conference is the importance of having a tribe at these conferences it is very helpful to be able to have even just one other friend who you can meet up with because it's tough to go to a conference alone and a lot of us are going to these conferences alone so what we want to do in web3 academy is we want to start group chats

for every conference where we have any of our members at so if you're going to a conference please post in the discord whatever conference you're going to we will start a channel or a thread for that conference and allow others in the community to put up their hand identify themselves as hey i'm going to this as well and then you've got a little bit of a squad you've got some people to meet up with and you've got some help because honestly navigating these conferences is overwhelming there is so much happening and so much going on it's so hard to stay on top of it all i have to give a shout out to the jump community which had a great telegram group of about 30 people

sharing helping each other out and met up at many different times throughout the conference also shout out to the zen academy community same thing really supportive everybody sharing even though i didn't meet in person many people in that community i met as many as i could at some of the events that they hosted but more so the support of having friends online who can say hey here's where i've been here's what i've done you got to check this out you know that is so so helpful so we want to do that with weather academy jump into our discord and share that's all for today folks as i mentioned at the start of the show we would love to have you in the web3

academy dao if you're interested in getting involved every monday in our discord 7 p.m eastern we have a community call where we talk about what we're working on what's coming up and what roles and opportunities we have for you to get involved also if you are a project founder if you have a project maybe you're not looking to get involved in the web 3 academy dial because you're too busy with your own stuff i know the feeling well we have sandbox sessions that are for you a sandbox session happens every thursday in our discord and the idea is if web 3 is a sandbox what would you build so

one person or a few people who are building something in web3 or perhaps not quite yet building something but early stages and looking for feedback you get to present your idea to a group of eight to 12 people who will then give you feedback it is a highly highly valuable exercise and session for any web3 doer founder operator builder you get to come in and you get to get feedback from eight to twelve experienced web 3 doers from a variety of background there's devs in that call there's marketers in that call there's entrepreneurs founders in the call strategy leaders in that class really

really diverse group and they will directly give you feedback for one hour i can't tell you i mean that will ignite your business like like several months into the future you'll probably skip a few months of work by just having that one call so reach out in the discord if you want to host a sandbox session throw it up in the general chat in the discord we'll link you up we'll get you in there you can host a sandbox session that's all folks thanks for listening in have a lovely day wherever you are thanks for being friends of the web3 academy community i'm just i'm beaming ear to ear i'm

fired up we are building something for the long term we're so early man this is this is exciting have fun today guys cheers thank you for listening to web3 academy we hope this helps you along your web3 journey if it does please share this episode and subscribe so you don't miss the next one by the way if you have yet to join the discord community you are missing out this is where all the magic happens this is where we learn where we ask questions where we network uh you want to be in there the link to join is in the description below and finally a quick disclaimer nothing in this podcast was financial advice crypto and web3 can be risky you can literally lose it all in fact if you invest on account of what

we say you probably will lose it all so don't do that in all honesty the point of this podcast is to remove the noise of markets and price and focus on utility and implementation anyway so you should not take any of this as financial advice thank you friends and see you in the next one