No question today, and no opinion. I am going to explain how I got introduced into the world of Web3, Crypto and NFT’s. This has been the most enjoyable journey of my life. And one that has barely begun.
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It all started in in 2019. I looked into XRP and didn’t take the plunge, as much as the ideals of Crypto currency were attractive. Then, in Jan 2021, a close friend started warning me of a global inflation and that it would be good to have your assets split out. I mostly ignored him and again, didn’t take the plunge. Still kind of intrigued by it all. Then I found NFT’s and Sorare.
Sorare is essentially a football (soccer) trading card game on it’s own platform. The fact that I owned my trading card excited me. And I could enter teams to win more. You can trade them for crypto currency, or directly with other users. The whole premise blew my mind. I have always collected things. Football stickers as a kid, and an adult, being one of the many things I have collected in the past.
I then got introduced to NFT’s on Ethereum and lost almost all of my NFT budget due to naivety and hype. A lesson that knocked me back, solidified my views about unique end user ownership and meant that I had to look to chains like Polygon and Wax to rebuild.
I found 3 projects/people very early in my Polygon journey and they have helped me push my vision and philosophy in this space. I remain close friends with all of them. And am very heavily involved with 2 and their/our projects and ideas.
CartrdigePunkz created and led by The Mattyverse. A project based on a video game philosophy. Our second NFT release will be coming in 2023 and we will meet the Punkz enemy, CartridgePrikz!
Crypto Goonz created by one of my partners in Crypto, Chris (aka CryptoAbsolem). Chris's art is unique and has enabled us to build our a story and much more as part of our project.
Website - cryptogoonz.com
Game for holders of DeadGoonz, AstrozGoonz and CyborgGoonz - Goonz Portal
Friday Night Punks created and led by Yan. Yan is incredibly passionate about Crypto and sports, particularly NFL. I love the art and the never say die attitude this project has.
All three of these guys have similar values to me, believe in the power of unique end user ownership and have lifted me on multiple occasions. This in turn, has helped me lift many other people in our larger community. If it wasn’t for these 3 creators, our community would probably look quite different.
It was the values we created as a project at CryptoGoonz that led me to meet a certain, well known, like minded, very friendly whale, Beluga. I met him on his first week in Twitter Spaces. On a show that ran 2-4est Mon-Fri… After my first time in that Twitter Space, I reached out and offered my support. I loved the feel of the room, the fact that anyone was given a platform to speak about them. They only needed to be polite and friendly. And preferably on the Polygon blockchain, #ThisIsNotACult, fondly known as #ThisIsNotAShill, had started. And the domino effect has been insane.
The whole community as we know it, was built from this Twitter Spaces. It ran for 6 months, before there was a 6 week break, due to personal issues for both Beluga and myself. I returned, Beluga-less, in early May. The show does go on.
So we are in November 2021. All three projects had successes and bumps in their roads. CryptoGoonz had created, and lost, hype twice. Both times, trying desperately to do everything we could, not to do that! Our first team had just fallen apart for a variety of reasons. Some bad business decisions had been made, even if they later worked out well. CartridgePunkz had changed our price, launch, model and more. Made a Movember project where all proceeds were donated to Movember. And Friday Night Punks (FNP), well…
I am going to digress a little about FNP. We were about to have something game changing happen to us. One of the holders put a picture of a FNP in the Autograph Discord, it got seen and FNP took off. Traded over 100 Eth on Polygon in a matter of weeks and then the community was hit with a take-down from OpenSea.
This request seemed spurious and was contested. FNP got reinstated on OpenSea for a few weeks, trade volume hit over 150 Eth despite this set back and then FNP were taken off OpenSea again. A company employed to protect NFL image rights had taken issue with Players Names and Descriptions being used. Declaring an IP infringement rather than the Fan Art the project had always intended to be. They are pixel art versions of NFL players.
The second take down could not be contested outside of court. We found this out after referring to IP lawyers. Following those talks, the collection was remade in a parody way. Player names and descriptions are parodies of the real life player. Written and thought up by the FNP community. Yan found all holding wallets and airdropped the new players to the existing holders.
Since the re-launch in March they have traded 75.5 Eth on OpenSea and have added more utilities. Check out the Discord to see how FNP are implementing Fantasy Football, their own Fantasy Football Platform and Madden into the utility behind the amazing artwork.
FRIDAY NIGHT PUNKS DETAILS
Website - fridaynightpunks.io
Discord
Back to November and you can see the scope of some of my learns in the crypto and NFT space. Every day was a learning day (and still is), and then Beluga and I had started building a huge creator led community without quite realising what we were doing. Managing expectations, learning how to protect our platform and the community that believed in us was interesting, and something I am still learning.
CryptoGoonz lost our first team in November and the charity launch for Movember with CartridgePunkz were 2 major setbacks. My personal growth was insane and along with the benefits came some big lessons and challenges. Not only in how to value myself and how to ensure my values are visible in anything I do, but in how to value the larger community I have mentioned.
Next time, I will pick up in December and talk you through to April. It will be heavy, and emotional for me to write, maybe for you to read as well. Thank you for reading again. I will also introduce you to Polygon Alliance (polygonalliance.com), you can see the thread at the top of this blog for more information on us.
I appreciate and value your time and am excited to be sharing more of me with you. Until next Friday!
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