Welcome to Vrbish #006
While not trying to downplay the impacts of the Windows outage on emergency services and travel, my work email was functioning normally... that's messed up.
Luckily for us, the crack devs at Vrbs don't even use Windows, so there are plenty of updates to discuss this week!
Vrbs Impact
Dev Updates
Builder Spotlight with Wen.Airdrop
Vrbs Impact
"Do good with no expectation of return."
The Vrbs mantra is taking shape. Artists are finding ways to generate attention (Check out Vrbs Stories for the latest art drops) and builders are utilizing their strengths and interests to make the world a better place. Check out the updates below for one week of Vrbs making an impact!
Hiro joins the public spaces grant program with beach cleanups!
Karl gives free meals to the needy, and uses the power of Vrbs Resident Artists to design posters!
Bob Burnquist repping Vrbs at Skate Cuida
There are plenty of ways to get involved, your creativity has no bounds here.
Dev Updates
Despite the Windows outage, Vrbs Devs continued to push updates to the site! The rate at which they launch new features is truly impressive.
This week the Builders Directory was released, creating an easy dashboard to view contributors!
Builder Spotlight - Wen.Airdrop
[Curtis] When did you first become interested in Web3?
[Wen.Airdrop] I joined Web3 in late 2021, and immediately I got hit in the face by the bear market.
[Curtis] You seriously did. It's fascinating to hear the perspective of people that entered the space in 2021. If they stuck around, their psychology around why is often different from someone that entered in 2017 for example. Why are you still here despite seeing only down in the market?
[Wen.Airdrop] I came in initially as an investor. As I progressed, I created spaces to educate people on how they can get more value from Web3. I stayed as an educator.
[Curtis] So you found a purpose beyond the money, and work that was fulfilling for you?
[Wen.Airdrop] Yeah, I find it fulfilling building a brand, like what I'm doing with iheartdomains.com, and educating people.
[Curtis] Let's talk about that more, how did you get into the domain business?
[Wen.Airdrop] I stumbled across various naming services a few months in to my Web3 journey, and this is actually I how onboarded my mother! I should really talk about this more to honor her memory. I tried showing her NFTs, crypto, but it was crypto domains that really resonated. We purchased a few together, and now that she's passed I'm holding them in a wallet for my daughter.
[Curtis] I love that you're passing them along to your daughter. It clearly means more to you than just the business side. Thank you for sharing that with me.
[Wen.Airdrop] Of course, we'll hold those domains forever.
[Curtis] I'd like to shift and talk about Vrbs. How did you learn about Vrbs and what was it that attracted you to the DAO?
[Wen.Airdrop] I learned about Vrbs through Nouns! I has a community member of various Nounish DAOs and listened to a podcast where Rocketman was interviewed about Vrbs! Outside of Nouns, most DAOs don't fund anything. The communities could be interesting, but many have no clear way to use their treasuries, some with hundreds of thousands of dollars in them. Vrbs is one of the most aggressive examples of a DAO funding cool ideas.
[Curtis] It certainly is. And it allows people to use their strengths to support the DAO in their own way, like myself with Vrbs Coffee, or your Twitter Spaces. Why did you sign up to host these spaces and support Vrbs in this way?
[Wen.Airdrop] There's a huge community benefit to starting conversations. One of the things I talked about with Rocketman before creating the space was the importance of outreach. We agreed that a lot of DAOs aren't doing enough of it to grow and strengthen their communities.
[Curtis] That's an important point! Outside of spaces, you've been very active in supporting Vrbs, could you talk about some of your other initiatives?
[Wen.Airdrop] I just passed a grant to host a Coffee & Crypto Meetup. My north star with the grant is to inspire global meetups like the Pizza DAO, and continue the positive sum fly wheel of educating and growing the community! I wanted to discuss an idea with you actually, I want to host giveaways for attendees every month, where they can win a custom coffee mug and bag of Vrbs Coffee!
[Curtis] I will absolutely support that, just say the word! I guess I need to launch Vrbs Coffee officially first! One day I'd love to attend a meetup or even host one in NYC.
[Wen.Airdrop] Sounds good!
[Curtis] You've also made some Vrbs art if I'm not mistaken?
[Wen.Airdrop] Yes, I think it's been overlooked a bit. I was early to Warpcaster and created a lot of channels before they were popular, with the intention of selling them later like my domains platform. Now I've started to give purpose to some of those channels, one of those is Base Bull, which includes the art and a token. I've made art pieces inspired by communities like Vrbs, with an AI Art tool that I created. When you mint the Vrbs piece, 50% of the Creator Royalties go to Vrbs.
[Curtis] I'll pin the Zora post in my article for people to check out! I don't want to overlook one point you made. You created an AI Art platform?
[Wen.Airdrop] When OpenAI released their Custom GPT program, I immediately made 14 GPTs, trying to learn everything about it. I fed my AI Art GPT examples, iterating to make it better and better.
[Curtis] I love your mentality to dive into new trends and products early. How long did it take to create the AI Art GPT?
[Wen.Airdrop] It probably took a couple months to get it to where it is now. And that's just who I am! I obsess and learn everything I possibly can until I can accomplish the goal. Another example of a GPT I made is the chat bot on my website (iheartdomains.com).
[Curtis] We could all use more of that mentality!
Note from Curtis: If there's one thing I could ask of you today, go check out Wen.Airdrop's Vrbs piece on Zora, link below! The time and dedication he's put into Vrbs is truly inspiring!
Thank you for reading!
Vrbish has one mission: To amplify Vrbs and the creators that support it.
Please share this with a friend and help us share these stories. We could all use some more good in the world.
