Whewww! It’s only Day 2 of NFT NYC and my mind is already spinning! I wouldn’t be surprised if I have 3 part recap next week, but I’ll share that load by having Precaps™ (jk it’s not trademarked feel free to use that term) while I digest all the observations, thoughts, and happenings of NFT NYC.
And today’s theme is around…
Energy
A big question surrounding NFT NYC this year was the sentiment around the conference considering ETH has been down 70%+ from the highs earlier this year.
I think the TLDR to that question is: Very positive. No one cares about the price.
When I say ‘no one cares’ it’s not in a literal sense. Of course we care about the value of our precious jpegs, and the currency (ETH and other tokens) they are denominated in. Both are down bad.
Take my Doodle for example:
Now apply those numbers to pretty much every NFT project valuation, give or take. You’d think that everyone that has NFTs looks like this 😂
And you’d be right! We do look like that lol.
However, this conference and all the events related to it are not about the NFT space being down bad. It’s about:
Celebrating how far the space has come and how much it’s grown
Meeting new friends and catching up with old ones, IRL!
Having fun events, activations, and parties
Although it’s only been a day, I haven’t really heard anyone discuss floor price or being down bad. We know we’re all down bad, so why continue talking about that? We’re here to celebrate, be forward-looking, and have a good time!
On top of that, the energy in the space is augmented by memes, humor, and sarcasm. Because of the confluence of all types of creatives and professionals, NFTs benefit from unique activations that larger brands would consider too risky. The one that has been making rounds is courtesy of Bobby Hundreds (Founder of the streetwear brand The Hundreds).
At first some people were confused at what was going on here, but soon realized that this was a brilliant marketing stunt. It got viral to the point where it was trending on Twitter!
Why is this notable?
The NFT community makes fun of itself so much to the point when actual naysayers make arguments about NFTs (from Bill Gates and mainstream media to family members and friends), we don’t really care…There are some valid points, but we continue to march forward. The criticisms fuel and encourage the broader space to improve.
And a movement starts getting dangerous (dangerous in a good way!) when it doesn’t really care what others think (we take constructive criticism though 😉).
In essence, this meme which was popular a few months back sums it up:
Personally, I’ve never been so passionate about something until I came across NFTs and the broader Web3 space. In the past when I saw people dressed up for anime conferences or people huddled up at board game stores playing Magic The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons, I thought it was sort of weird.
But now being in my own version of that with NFTs, I get it!
The unfair advantage the NFT space is we get a little star power as well 😏. This pushes the ‘Culture’ pillar of the 3C Model further.
Alright, time for me to get out and head to some more NFT events!
See you later this week (pending how late I get back and how much I sleep lol). I like this precap format :)
The “precap”!
Thanks for the precap! I wanted to go but couldn't and appreciate this post!