Agree w/
@chrislarsc
Foundation was the first app that brought me into crypto. I remember being on Clubhouse learning about NFTs and hearing about some of the first photographers being onboarded to the platform.
@kayvon and the rest of the team built world-class tooling for artists and collectors over the years. Much respect for what they built.
Some reflections:
On Extractive:
Comments claiming the team was extractive is the same bs Dan had with Farcaster. People forget that these are businesses that need to generate revenue to be sustainable, we can’t just call everything a rug/scam/extractive just because it isn’t permanent. And in both cases, they were able to find new respectable stewards to carry it forward.
On Financialization:
Some, but not all people know the traditional art world has its own history of financial conflicts like bubbles, market manipulation, crime, incentives that only reward select artists and tax structures that blur the line of patron and self-interest. NFTs just made the system more transparent, and in some cases more equitable.
On Stigma:
One thing I look forward to seeing change is the public perception of NFTs, and crypto more broadly over long periods of time. Painters were threatened when photography was first invented, saying it wasn’t “real,” photographers said the same thing when digital photography was invented.. and now it’s AI. It was only 100 years ago that people said jazz was the devils music. I‘ll never forget when a close friend of mine decided to end our friendship abruptly, alleging that my interest in crypto was equivalent to animal abuse. My hope is by building neutral, open systems for the long haul NFTs can fade into the background like HTTPS.
