Never thought I’d create a Substack, but here goes nothing. 

Just to provide a little background, I’m a 27 year old attorney/sports agent…sort of. I passed the bar last year, but have found it incredibly difficult to practice law or recruit athletes because of all that is happening in Web3. I first got into Crypto summer of 2017 so I’ve had plenty of time to make great friends, great gains and get violently rugged. You really get a taste of everything once you’ve been in this space long enough. 

While the rest of my Law School classmates were busy doing hundred page readings about outdated Property law cases, I was speed reading Quimbee (sorry, Professors) so I could get back to Twitter and inhale any content associated with Web3, specifically DeFi. I’ve written a lot of my thoughts down over the years and will hopefully share those thoughts soon, but I want to spend the rest of this article (I guess that’s what I’ll call this?) talking about NFTs. It’s only been a month since I made my first *big* NFT purchase, but it feels like it’s been years. The warped perception of both time and money in this space is something you can only understand once you’ve fully submersed yourself in it.

Having been in Crypto since 2017, I remember Crypto Kitties and Crypto Punks, but I disregarded both and kept looking for the next ‘Ethereum Killer’ (don’t judge me - if you were around back then, I know you were too). It wasn’t until NBA Top Shot came around that the concept of NFTs slowly started to make sense to me. As an avid basketball card collector, I had the mindset of a collector. I understood that if you release any sort of collection with different levels of rarity, there are enough degenerates out there to create a market for said collection (I self-identify as one of these degenerates so this wasn’t intended to be an insult). Admittedly, it did take me a bit of time to understand why a short clip of Steph Curry that I could find on YouTube, when repackaged as a collectible stored on the blockchain, was worth more than my actual autographed Steph Curry card. Once I did, however, I started to realize the potential of NFTs.

Despite this, I STILL disregarded NFTs and thought 99% of them were going to 0 (I still somewhat think that, but I’ll save that for another time). The reason for this was because I, like many others, fell for the narrative that these were ‘just jpegs’. I remember browsing Open Sea thinking “maybe I should buy one of these apes.” But it would be crazy to toss a few ETH at a silly ape jpeg, right?! Oh how wrong I was. Because I was on the outside looking in, I kept this mindset up until January 26, 2022 when a particular NFT project caught my eye and I said to myself, “I NEED that jpeg.” That project was Azuki.

To give a little context for why I dove in on that day, I had just gotten utterly destroyed by TIME Wonderland and wanted to step away from DeFi for a bit. But that utter destruction was the catalyst I needed to open my eyes and finally have the ‘a-ha moment’ for how Web2 would pass the baton to Web3. The more I looked into what Azuki was doing, the easier it was for me to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3. This wasn’t just a jpeg, but rather the birth of a new brand.

To help explain what I mean, let’s use the lifestyle brand, Supreme, as an example. Supreme was founded in 1994, but didn’t hit its current level of success and notoriety until the past decade or so. It’s grown so much so that if I slapped a Supreme logo on this plastic bottle I’m drinking right now, I’d probably be able to re-sell it for $200. Supreme built its brand the old fashioned way. They released cool streetwear, collaborated with notable designers and brands, and marketed their brand extremely well. Anyone that wants to launch their own lifestyle brand can still pursue these traditional avenues to bring attention to and grow the brand. But now brands have a new tool at their disposal - NFTs.

For lifestyle brands, NFT collections can simply be viewed as a new launchpad for their brand. There can be perks associated with owning an NFT within a collection, such as discounted clothes, free airdrops, access to certain events, etc. But in the end, the goal is the same - to become a recognized brand. NFTs can be used to create a following, generate legitimate and organic growth/interest, and, most importantly, they provide an incredible fundraising vehicle. Just off the mint, Azuki’s team made $30 million in ETH. Since then, they’ve probably doubled that just through royalties off trading fees on Open Sea. Imagine Supreme launching an NFT collection that created a foundation for their brand while simultaneously getting over $50 million to work with - all within 2 months of launching.

After putting all of this together in my head, I started to explore other NFT collections - surely not everyone is creating lifestyle brands. Well, this is where my head almost exploded. I realized that I can’t view all NFTs as a single asset class. While they may all trade like one, the possibilities really are endless with NFTs. I’m sure everyone has noticed artists from the Disney’s and Pixar’s of the world leaving their jobs to create NFT projects. Once again, this is an example of the baton being handed from Web2 to Web3.

Let’s use Toy Story to help illustrate. Imagine Toy Story didn’t exist (sad, I know). Now Imagine Bob, who works at Pixar, has a brilliant idea for new IP. Bob speaks with the higher ups who green light his idea. Bob works with the rest of his team to develop the characters, create the world, and voila - Toy Story is born! The executives get hefty bonuses, the company makes a lot of money, and the artists continue to get paid their salary (this is all oversimplified, but you get the picture).

Now, imagine Bob has this same idea, but decides to use this new shiny tool - NFTs - to help bring his idea to life. Bob leaves Pixar and begins working on and designing characters in his own free time. Bob creates a 10k collection with Buzz, Woody, and the rest of the gang. The art is a hit and the collection mints out. The artist now has a treasury of tens of millions of dollars to work with to continue expanding this world and the IP. Bob now has the freedom to build out his own team and slowly make his way towards creating a full motion picture. Bob can also collaborate with a Studio to help expedite this process. Or Bob can simply sell the collection to Pixar and be rightfully compensated for his creation. Regardless of what Bob chooses, it’s safe to say that he has way more options in this new Web3 world. Best part - if Bob doesn’t have these ambitions and goals - he can just stay at Pixar and none of this affects him, anyways!

The owners of these NFTs can essentially be the shareholders and/or board members of this new IP. They can get all merchandise associated with toy story (clothes, toys, etc.) at cost, vote on the direction of the project, receive royalties from movie/merchandise sales, etc. Much like for Bob, this new Web3 era has opened up a world of possibilities for the investors. It really all depends on how Bob decides to structure it. Some projects will be more community driven while others will be more centralized - I guess we’ll see how decentralized the market really wants this world to be. Regardless, the point is that NFTs are going to allow creators to take back power from corporations. How much of that power creators give to their supporters remains to be seen. 

I could go on and on with these examples across a multitude of industries, but I’ll save that for later as I could talk about gaming and music NFTs for hours on end. I guess the point of this article was to both get my thoughts on paper and to help people understand that NFTs are much more than ‘just jpegs’. From a retail perspective, this doesn’t mean everyone will get rich - I see far too many people drooling over the next Pets.com. A lot of people will get burned investing in NFTs as most of the projects coming out now are clear cash grabs. But if you’re able to understand the ways in which NFTs can be used, it’s much easier to navigate these treacherous waters.

We still have a long road to go as there will be plenty more scams, and regulation is still to come, but the baton is quickly being passed to Web3. And the more people that understand what that means, the quicker we can arrive in the future.

While I’m sure a lot of this may not make sense to someone outside the space, I didn’t want my first publication to be too long. I’ll fill in the gaps over time and hopefully I’ll get better at this whole writing thing. I hope everyone who made it to the end of this article enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!