Pop and Quantum partnered to hold a discussion hosted by Raven 50mm with panelists Jonas Lamis, Ed Balloon, Jaime Schmidt and Chris Cantino to talk about community building within web3. Recorded in person on August 27, 2022 at Quantum Space LA.
Raven 50mm hosted Jonas Lamis, Ed Balloon, Jaime Schmidt and Chris Cantino to discus community building within web3. Questions for the panel included:
Follow Raven at https://twitter.com/raven50mm, Jonas at https://twitter.com/jonaslamis, Ed at https://twitter.com/Ed_Balloon, Jaime at https://twitter.com/jaimeschmidt, and Chris at https://twitter.com/chriscantino
Follow Club CPG at https://twitter.com/CPGCLUB
To learn more about Crypto Packages Goods, visit https://www.cryptopackagedgoods.com/
Welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. It's a lot of ya.
My name is Raven Trammell AKA Raven, 50 millimeter. I am the host of this panel for this evening. I am a photographer as well as community builder and the events manager here at quantum space, Los Angeles. And I'm so grateful each and every one of you is here joining us this evening. We have an incredible panel.
And panelists as well. We go through and let everybody introduce themselves individually. So I don't butcher anything. Jonas. Let's start with you. And then we'll go to Jamie ed and Chris.
All right. Thank you, Raven QM, everyone. That's what we say in the quantum discord. Hello everyone. Welcome to quantum space. My name is Jonas and I am a quantum team member. One of the quantum co-founders there's four of us. Quantum was started by Justin Aversano myself, Chris graves, and Alex shadow.
And we've been on a, a fast growth tear here over the last year. We incorporated quantum just about one year ago today. And did our first, yeah. Did our first drops for photography last November. And then we added our quantum key holders in March of 2022, opened this space in June and now we're all down bad.
It's been quite a ride for the last year. All right, so HEADSS ups HEADSS up. Welcome everybody. Happy to talk to y'all later about what's going on with quantum, but I'll turn it over to,
Can I hear me now? Do you know who I am? If you didn't, if you didn't hear me, my name is ed balloon. Ed balloon. Like the balloons here on the floor, not red. No, I'm not red. you? I I am a community builder.
I'm also an artist. I host a BI. What way your bipo the homie space, Twitter space where we, spotlight a lot of artists margin, marginalized artists in a space. I also am, as I said, an artist, I have this cool puppet called ed, be the puppet and, that looks like me. And it uses the medium, the stop me stop motion, medium.
And I have a collection called the run add collection which was a thousand pieces. And in that collection I made sure that we had with secondary sales, 50%, would we go to buying art from marginalized communities marginalized artists in the communities in the space.
And yeah. I also am a musician as well, so yeah, I'm a whole bunch of things, but I'm happy to be here. Cool. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.
All right. Hey everybody. I'm Jamie Schmidt. Thanks. Thank you. Gosh, I'm. I'm first of all, I'm co-founder of club CBG what's up club CBG. Co-founder with my husband and business partner here, Chris.
We started, I won't get too much of the history, but back in the clubhouse days before web three was a thing it has since evolved and Chris. become more of the face and I've taken a backseat with some behind the scenes strategy, started another project or brand called BFF. Yeah.
Thank you. And our goal there was to really help onboard primarily more women and non-binary people into web three. We've been doing a great job of that. Lots more in store. And I guess one last thing about myself. I'm a web two entrepreneur turned web three. So I have a history in CPG as well.
Starting a business that scaled from my kitchen to an acquisition. So I can talk web too, if you want. I never get tired of hearing that story. Chris Cantino I'm a co-founder of club CVG, a project started September 29th last year. 11 months later, here we are, we were. A group of 300 people on the internet. Now we're a group of 300 people in real life and 3000 people on the internet. Club CG is a community that is designed to help people grow, incubate their ideas, to learn, to build together to de-risk, whatever they're building on through a network of people that are bound by a token.
So by being a member, you can get ideas, you can get feedback, you can find a developer, you could get invested in, you could get hired or find a mentor. Or just meet somebody, change your life, and that was kinda like the dream and the premise of what we've done. I'm happy to say, like we come really far.
We're excited for what's next. So thank you everyone for coming. And looking forward to speaking to my new friends from qu then the balloon show. Yeah. Cool.
Awesome. Thank you all for those intros. And again, thanks everybody for being here. The topic tonight, we're gonna be all of us, mentioned community. So we're gonna be discussing building community within web three and, using these tools to uplift and enrich our communities. And so to start, my first question for each of you is in your experience, what creates a thriving community? What are the components that are needed to, really uplift the communities that were within Jamie I'll start passing to you.
For me, I think first and foremost is people need to understand why they gathered in the community. And I think in a lot of instances right now, it's because there's a token, and we're curious about the money making potential. We're curious about who the other holders are, but I think as the community's mature and as the market evolves, I think it. Extra important to really understand what that like underlying sort of common denominator is like, why, what do we all have in common?
And why are we here? And what's gonna keep us here. So that from a, a business owner's perspective is how I think about it from a community member's perspective. Of course, it's a place where you feel comfortable, you feel safe. You can relate to people you feel heard and you feel like, you can be yourself in the most authentic way.
And CBGs a great example. I'll leave you to speak more on that, Chris, but from the BFF per perspective specifically, one way we've really approached this too, is through building things like micro communities where people can come together based on shared interests.
So I think of, the bigger community is. The heartbeat. And then within that just this deeper kind of purpose and yeah, go ahead. You're not a community just because you have a token, it's you're only a community when you're Bo bound by a north star.
There's something out in the horizon that if you could ask anybody in your community, like what do we do? Everybody should be able to answer that question. And I think if you ask CPG, what is the purpose? I think there's a very clear. We're here to grow, to build together, to create these game changing products together and, learn a little bit and make some great relationships along the way.
With BFF, like the mission is very clear. We're gonna onboard more women and non-binary people into web three. Like you could say these things in two seconds.
Like obviously we need to be bound by something that anybody in the community can repeat and say if you say, what is the purpose of being in CBG P what does it mean?
And everybody in the community should. Be ready. Ready to answer that question? That's what I think a community is. If the answer is we are gonna make the biggest PFP project in history. But there's no how what is the, how we're gonna do it? What's the qualification that gets you there.
It's not necessarily a community. And that's okay. Like we all believe, and we have purchased collected things that we find compelling because it has a story or we believe in the founder or we believe in the leader, we wanna hold it passively. We don't maybe. It's not gonna break our heart. If it ever leaves our wallet, we'll be happy to make a profit on it.
I think like a real community is one. That's your heart. It's hard to leave. If you would feel like it would be hard to sell or remove it, or you feel like an emotional attachment to it. Because there's a real exchange of value between the people and the community and that's what makes one.
Yeah. I agree with what both of you was saying. I look at community really oh, just being in these spaces, I'm in this space, the, we, these space when it comes to like projects, like I see it as and this may, I don't know, I'm not sure how you, how y'all connected to music and I really see it like hip.
Like in the beginnings of hip hop and you know how people were like, oh, this is something I want to be a part of. Not really so much only about money, but because it was a movement, something that you. You were tied to connected to. And I think there was something more and deeper than only finance, like finances, or like that type of value. There was something also about culturally, right? There's this thing where oh, I can only feel this way if I'm in this community, if I'm listening to this, if I'm about this this is my family here. And so I also see that too. And I think web three, like this is what we're doing.
I see that. And so I think when communities, when we have these communi. That's what you want. At least for me, I wanna see being in these communities like, oh, is this going to be more of a movement? Is this something where all my like IA it's I'm on the same page, we're on the same page. And also like it's pushing it's pushing the space forward.
Like when you see this, you wanna be a part of it. Not because only, yeah. You're making a whole bunch of money because it's cool. And I, I know when we say cool, that kind. Comes off as like cheesy in a way, but who do you where you're like, oh no, I need to be a part of that because I'm repping that.
And that's what I see. I hope that answered your question. good. Joyce, did you want, yeah. All I would say is at quantum we started our community around the work of Justin Aveo. He he had done the twin flames drop and twin flames was. The discord that basically we took over and turned into the quantum discord.
There was already this really cool Nu nucleus of people who were passionate about photography and were passionate about the gr the blossoming NFT space around photography and about Justin and his work. And we just added fuel to the fire with that related to quantum. I do think that having IRL experiences like we're doing today is a really awesome community builder as well.
And cross pollinating, CPG, and quantum, and everybody else who's here is amazing. And I hope that if you are parts of other other web three communities, I'm sure everybody's got a dozen that they're a part of, but the ones that you're really passionate. Figure out how you can have IRL events with your folks as well, because it's a really cool way to stimulate those relationships.
Yes, very well said. Thank you. Thank you all for the, that insight. We touched briefly on, on onboarding and a lot of these projects can be onboarding tools and ways to. Get members within our communities into the broader ecosystem of web three and NFTs. And so my question is what might actual, actual accessible onboarding look like for the overall global community?
Rather than just within here in our bubble, I RL and our smaller communities, but global.
go first again. I think a lot about accessibility in terms of free content and just value that you don't have to pay for. I think that's the first step for BFF that's really at the forefront of everything. We do, we, our community with free airdrops of NFTs. And from there, of course they started to pick up value and secondary and such, so now we have a token gated community, but I.
As we build out benefits and utility, amongst our members, it's equally important that we keep a significant offering to the people that aren't, are able to buy in and to become, paid members. And so I think on a more, more global scale, of course there's things like, language barriers and economic structures that we need to be broken down and all that.
But I think in terms of, me and BFF specifically it's really important for us. To keep that, that, free offering and something accessible, no matter how big we scale and what our, token price becomes.
Yeah, I think it's it's like distribution is the goal and it sounds amazing. And, accessibility is the prize of distribution. Once you get there, you've reached millions of people, hundreds S of people, you could have an NFT that cost 2 99, not. Like $2 99, Cent's like you could really have something that was free or like a public utility is I think the decentralization and the ultimate promise of web three, that's like the goal that's out.
But what we learned, I think building investing businesses is like, when you start with a big group and you scale too fast, it's really easy to just topple over the front of your skis. CVG started as 300 people. I think there's a temptation now to have a 20,000 we're gonna. Flood the market with like 30,000 FTS, they're gonna be like one E and a lot of these projects have realized that supply is so important in getting that, that product right.
At scale is not something that you can just like rush to the end. Just understand that like any other business, web three is not like the promise of the money. People feel that and they sense that and they pursue it and they run so hard. So hard into it and they fall, they trip and fall over.
And a lot of these companies that you think are successful day are doing that right now too. They may be made millions of dollars, but they're about to like, they're about to fall over the barrel and it's it's just I just challenge people to just think with first principles, take things one day at a time and be prepared for it to take many years.
Yeah. I believe when it comes to onboarding or being more accessible, To the space to the web three space. Really? I think IRO is the way to go. Especially getting out of that bubble. It's something I've been thinking about being in a space currently and just oh, how do I get my friends really into this?
And how do I, in a way where it's more, it makes sense to them. And something I'm still thinking about. But I do know IOL is a way for me. And I think y'all are doing already with quantum. Honestly. But yeah I think that's where we have to go. We have to use IOL events. I am as a musician I'm trying to figure out ways of possibly doing shows and using that as a way to like also, team up with people and onboard folks, as, trying to, as in having them maybe, see if they will be willing to sign.
For Le I don't know, I don't wanna say lectures or anything like that, but maybe sessions. Because I think what's really important is security that we don't like to talk about. We dismiss it, but it's very important. And I, cause I came into that space and I had I made sure I didn't get a wallet until like it was three months in because I saw people getting hacked and I was like, nah, that can't.
And , and it still can't be me. So Lord don't let it happen, but it was and that's, but it's very important. And so I really wanna make sure that's it, like people are educated about that. And be because that's also really important when it comes to onboarding. So yeah, we.
If you gimme your seat phrase, I can help you with that. So I do think it's been we're running in an interesting early experiment here at quantum, which is the I R L minting stations that you see around you here on the walls. So our, one of the things we really want to try and figure out is how do we get normal people who don't know hardly anything about crypto, who don't have a wallet who have.
Moved money from their bank account to coin base to their meta mask to actually engage in this ecosystem. And there's a whole bunch of those people walking up and down third street every weekend here. And so that's one of the things we wanted to test. And so if you haven't seen it already, these, this like right over here, this screen that says safari on the top of it, there are a collection of one photographs.
For $75 that will min that one of one on Ethereum. And you can use a credit card to do that. And so we, we have a growing number of people who are coming in off the street, who are crypto curious, I guess you'd say. And the quantum guides are explaining things to them. And every day they sell a couple new NFTs and onboard a couple.
People to the ecosystem, which is really cool. Raven earlier today he ran a a crypto 1 0 1 session NFT 1 0 1 session. We're starting to try and do those on the weekends to let yeah. Good job, Raven. We're trying to do those to just, provide general education Linda DER's piece back there, the kind of the pink and blue one that's vertically on the wall there.
Linda. A Senegalese generative artist, AI generative artist, and she's the first Senegalese artist to drop a large collection, which she did on quantum. And you can mint a piece right there of her work with a credit card. So yeah, there's all kinds of onboarding opportunities, think globally and act locally, wherever local happens.
can I add something quick too? Yeah, please. I think it's really important too to meet people where they're at, if we're truly trying to onboard the mainstream. One thing I'm proud of with BFF is we do SMS and our response is huge. So we're texting people who aren't necessarily on Twitter.
They're not on discord. And so they want the text message with the information. We have a newsletter that hits inboxes, where people, again, who are busy and wanna read it, their leisure and can't join the Twitter spaces. So I think that's really critical and I think a lot. Web three brands get skeptical about that or think, oh, that's such a web two move to be texting people.
But like web two moves are important to bring people into web three. And so definitely I think that gets overlooked. So you're telling us to get on that Instagram, get on it. Yeah. Instagram for sure. Yeah. LinkedIn.
No. Yeah, that was, that's a great perspective and insight to add. I feel like because we're so focused on decentralization that forget about the good old fashioned email list and sending out information via emails. We all still have an email address. And so I think that can sometimes get lost. So yeah. Thank you for that. We touched on and we talked about I R L and the importance of gathering in person which I feel like we're kind.
We were also, oh, we're getting into the metaverse the metaverse and now we're like, oh wait, we should step out of that and get more into IRL or in real life. If you're not familiar with that term, I had somebody ask me what is, what does that mean? I'm like in my own little, we're all in our bubble here with our terminology, but we're seeing more NFTs being attached to physical items or goods with different projects.
And I'm just curious on what you're all thoughts about that with being business owners and ed, with yourself, being an artist some speak of that as utility. And so that can, as artists we feel a little way about that word, but we're seeing more of that entering this space, especially with bigger PFP and collectible projects.
And so if you guys could just give your insight on what you think of, I think the word has been figital digital NFTs combining the digital asset of the NFT along with the physical item are good. I didn't even know about that word. Wow. go for it.
Yeah. I am a musician, right? And so the whole utility thing, I've actually been doing it, so I've been having performances and if you have a run ed you can, you get access to the concert, and the VIP treatment. And it's something that I feel like is actually, It I actually like that. I want to be able to see my collectors and also see, have them see me perform and be a part of that.
And because why not? And so I think it it works. It makes sense. My think really is more is there intention, right? Not just doing it because you are losing, oh, you don't know what else to do. Oh my gosh, I'm a project and they have a, they have. NFT that's part of my project.
Do I just now give them a t-shirt right. Like I, cuz I know I wanna be honest. I'm not trying to know, not trying to for anybody, but what is the intention? Because there's sometimes when you have the product and it's not, the quality isn't there and all these things. So I really want people when it comes to giving fulfilling that utility purpose, that there's a lot of intention behind it, cuz that matters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I'll just build quickly on the sort of utility and perks piece. That was a big part of BFF's second collection. Our U collection was to have perks attached to different traits. And, we did a lot of hyping getting people excited about, different things. We were going to reveal and offer that were, some very, some physical, some experiential.
And it was great, we had a lot of things to offer, but then you're also, you're setting yourself up to fall short. If you don't, if your PFP doesn't have that particular trait, what can you do, to step up and give the same value to those holders? And so I think there's a lot that we're all learning as communities there's yeah.
I think you said it perfectly. It has to have. Purpose and intention. And I think the trick there for every community, if you're a founder, is to slow down and to know that you don't have to rush it. And I think as holders to have, to allow founders the space to really plan out and do you know, the best research to produce the best products and things too.
So I don't know if that answered your question about fi, but yeah. Did you have a comment.
Just going back to the brand thing, and thinking about should a NFT be attached to a pro product or, vice versa, the idea that this, anything can be done. A lot of things can be done off chain, but like when it's on chain, like you own it.
Like I talk about this idea of a subscription. If you pay Spotify $15 a month, you don't own your subscription, you're renting it. And your margin is getting cut because shop Spotify has to pay apple, for all those payments that are made in the app store. When it's on the chain, it's like it's composable, it's transferable.
You can make money, it can become more scarce. It can be forlable. New things could be built upon it. Software applications could be built upon it. In this way, like the NFT is inherently better than like a login or like a subscription that you cancel have to call New York times to get 'em to stop it for you.
You could just sell it say, fuck you, New York times I'm selling your NFT. And I think that's that concept of ownership is very new, but that's why it's so compelling. I think there are opportunities that are. I think that there is the reverse side of things where brands think they'll launch a product and they'll leverage like the board, a BYP to launch M andm or candy, or, whatever it might be, which is really interesting.
Cuz you can tap into this crypto affiliated community. But if there's nothing really meaningful behind the product, it's only gonna go, so far. So it has to either be like a part, an endless part, like a reveal or. Something to like a means to an end. So I would just say don't think that we're gonna rely on other people's IP as like a long term business plan.
If you like, think that IP is very important to you in storytelling. And please lean into that. Start at the very end of the story and work your way all the way back through every experience, your consumer, your customer, your community member is gonna have with your product before you launch that PFP.
Don't do it the other way. Don't start with the. And then try to figure it out later just put your heart into it and figure out what it really means and what the north star of what you're building.
Figital is a really terrible word, I think. It does not help us onboard the normies now. I would say for quantum, for example, there's two very different types of things that we've sold so far.
We've sold. and when we sell art, we're not trying to sell utility. We're trying to sell, really highly curated artists' works that you can collect and enjoy. And then the other thing that we have sold is actual utility, which is the quantum keys. That are memberships to quantum space here, right?
Which is where we are. And if you have a quantum key, it is all about utility. It's about using this space, having your own party here, having your own artwork on display coming, and co-working outta here, stop and buy and having a beverage. So I think there's a lot of experimentation to do in this space.
I don't think we should be like leaning on the artists to provide utility for. Amen. Amen to that. or taking all their royalties.
All right. We're not opening that. No, not chill. We're not opening now right now. We're about to wrap it up, Chris. Geez. Alright. I have one, one last question and then we'll open it up for four questions from you all.
What is one tip you'd give to a creator or entrepreneur entering web three. And I'd like to hear from each of your perspective.
Yeah, you can't be everything to everyone. And the sooner you realize that, I think you find your purpose and your community knows where to find you. And I think that's hard when you have something like a token, because a lot of people again are coming together for the financial potential in that if you're not focused specifically on the art.
So just accepting that whether you're an artist or a, a PFP 10 K collection, it's you will never be everything to everybody. And so figure out, what that looks like.
Oh, man, this is so much, there's so many things I want to tell people. Oh, and I can, one, make sure you're buying things that you actually like, and not just going off of hype.
Please. Cause the hype will go away and it be in your wallet if you don't like it. I don't know what, tell you some money to move outta your wallet. Another thing is also being I don't know. It's very difficult. Cause I know when I came to the space being an artist of color, being a black artist, it was, I would see things and it was very difficult.
And I think it's better now, but it was very difficult talking about issues. And I guess if anything I don't know. I do know it's very D. Sometimes navigating these spaces and not seeing your own, but I do also want folks to know that it's still very necessary and important for the presence to be there.
Yeah I hope that means something. I, cuz I've seen people come into the space and they're like, oh, this is just too much. I feel invisible. , I've, and I don't wanna be here anymore and, or people, coming into the spaces and seeing things, they're like, yo, this is just not what I'm about.
And I'm, and I really have to tell them you really need to be here. I need you here. Your presence is very necessary. This is, something that you have to be a part of. And so I guess really what I'm trying to say is I just need, when it comes to people, black people, all people of.
Non-binary I need y'all there. Like it, your presence is so important. Because if not, it's going to be what it's always been. So I just, your presence is it's in, you need to be there. And I know it's a lot, it's a lot to take in, and I'm not saying you have to go on the stages and talk and do all you have to do, but your presence matters because even a DM to someone who is like you can change their life and make them wanna stay there.
I've seen lives change, just being in a space. My life has changed. And it only has changed would have changed if I, it wouldn't have changed if I didn't, if I left. If I allowed, whether it was racist comments or those things to remove me from, doing what was really important.
And so we have to be that movement, we have to really be strong for each other because our presence really ma really matters. So yeah, I hope that was that, yeah. Yeah. Thank you, ed.
And just to build on this opportunity the web three movement this movement in front of us is so potentially transformational. It can remake the world. Really. It what could happen with web three is as big as the industrial revolution, right? It's bigger than the web.
It's bigger than the internet, I think because. It has the potential to decentralize everything in a trustless way. And that's, what's so important and because everything can change, there is an opportunity for everything to be remade in a different way. It doesn't, it's not like we just have to take all the same systems and strategies that existed in the 20th century and now do them again.
But with tokens this, the opportunity is to do them very differently. This time. And so the, we are all so early in this space, like 99% of the things that are gonna be changed because of web three have not been changed yet because of web three. So this is a great opportunity for everyone to become an entrepreneur.
Doesn't matter who you are, where you come from or whatever. There's an opportunity to make a huge impact here over the next couple decades. Yeah, said. Yeah. Web three makes everybody an entrepreneur. That's the cool part. And then back to what ed was saying, which is probably the soundbite of the night.
I think that we talk, we have a lot of good ideas about what we're say, like maybe some advice for how to grow your business, or how to think about web three and NFTs. But I think what Ed's saying is actually something that we need to actually talk a lot more about and be persistently attentive to.
So just, it's a big space for that. And then my advice is I think they just knowing who you are, right? This sounds cheesy, but like I could never have launched CPG if I hadn't built and invested in so many CPG businesses with Jamie, right? That's what made me uniquely qualified. That's why people gave CPG permission and like trust to enter the community.
And then everybody that came in created this immense value. The networks that shared every day. That's not, I feel like I'm a very, I'm one out of I'm one, 3000th of CPG today. But I think that if you're trying to start from scratch with your community, just know what you're uniquely qualified for and what people give you permission to create.
And they'll trust you. And they'll exchange value that you can readily exchange value for them. Cuz then they'll come back and do it, and ed does that with music and enter. Jamie does that with BFF and content and education, Jonas and quantum do that with with photography and real life fine art experiences, and even in a 50 millimeter art collective of photographers, so like you all knew what you were good at. And then you created space for other people to join and exchange the value together. And it really is, it is if you get it down to that formula and then you start small without going too. Then you're all good. Good from there.
Like you really are. Cuz you can just only add more. The hard thing is just like taking it away. So know who you are and start small. Awesome. And have patience, be persistently curious and everything will come over time. There's just no rush. We have three hyper cycles. They look a lot faster than they really are.
Like I say, a lot of these, you. Thousand plus market cap, collections that look on the surface like they're doing okay. It over time, even the ones that are well funded, like only one out of 10 of them will survive just like any other startup. Build slowly persistently and with great care.
Awesome. Thank you all so much. Thank you.
Q&A
All right, we're gonna open it up for a few questions. If anybody has me, I'm happy to bring you the mic.
Hi everyone. First. I want to thank all the amazing panelists for doing this. It's been such a joy. I think that we can all agree that we're still so early in the space. There was a report that came out that, only 16% of Americans have interacted with cryptocurrency in the last year. And for context in 1990, Only 16% of Americans had interacted with the internet.
So that's really exciting. And I wanted to, my question is about mass adoption. So I'm always the person at the dinner table who's explaining crypto to the rest of the people there. And I think that it's become apparent to me that words like NFT, utility roadmap have all been tainted by the oversaturation of Ponzi schemes and cash.
And my question is how do you respond to that? How do you engage with crypto naive people on the topic of why NFTs are the future and web three is the future.
That's a good great question. Yeah, the I press department. The answer is like they're right to be skeptical. And I've our background, actually, Jamie and I, we met working at a residential psychiatric hospital, working with young kids. We were like is in like the psychology and understanding that like, people need to be heard.
They need to be understood and they need to have their questions persistently to lead, to, and to not ever get over your skis being aggressive or trying to sell anything. The second you feel like you're selling someone. Then it's like game over for people. I think the cool thing to do is just like, just literally send them an NFT.
I, this is sounds dumb, like the crypto curious person, and it doesn't have to be like a great piece of art. It could be something that you made on your desktop. It could be poetry and it could be a music and it could, it's just a file that lives, on the blockchain, you could send it to them.
It'll be meaningful to them to discover and own it. This actually just makes me think about, what you do here at quantum. We were talking cuz like probably five or six people came up to me with the same reaction was that when they walked into quantum, it was like, wow, that's art on the wall.
Because it's not entity. It's not, with a token or it's not blockchain, it's just art. And I think when you see that kind of like for the first time in your eyes can open that, that you own this thing and it could be bought and sold and it's compos.
Yours. That's like a, that's a beautiful moment. Yeah. And in realizing that the old, the other, I think like the, another credible, like way place you can start is just telling people, understand that, like this technology is 24 7, that it's open sourced, that it's can bank unbaked people everywhere. And that people can then own their assets and grow them together through the communities on the blockchain is.
yeah, just a really quick ad. I would say definitely being open to and admitting the flaws of the system, right? Yes. It's not perfect. And yes, there are a lot of risks and there's things that suck. And and then secondly, it's just finding that one use case that resonates with that person.
Whether it's jewelry or fashion music, whatever it is. I think then it's okay, the light bulb goes off and they start to get a yeah. Anything to add. Oh yeah. I was I really agree with, yeah. Bring 'em by quantum space. yeah. I think one of the one of the old venture capital adages for advice to startups is to do things that don't scale.
That's what they say, do things that don't scale. Like in the early days, you gotta figure out how to make it work before you can build complete process around it and automate it and make profit. So as an industry, we are still in the do things that don't scale phase, I believe, which means a lot of hand to hand combat.
A lot of one-on-one conversations, a lot of deflection and answering questions and skipping off people who don't want to listen to it. And qu this quantum space, we're definitely doing something that doesn't scale here. It's not like we could build, 200 of these around the world. But.
If enough people come through here and places like this and talk to people like you all, then eventually it will hit the tipping point from a scaling perspective. I think
We'll go to a couple more questions. Any women with any questions? Come on ladies. No. Okay. There we go. You .
My question a lot of what we hear particularly on Twitter, the internet things along those lines is that NFTs are a waste of energy. NFTs are a waste of time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There have been cases where nonprofits have sought to raise money through NFTs and have the backlash has. Just shameful. It's been, so it's so bad.
And my question, is how do you go about, and how do you plan on going about fighting the misinformation that, that seems to really stick to this particular aspect of web three? I know things are coming up that, Ethereum is going to no longer be harmful to the environment, so on and so forth.
But it, it just seems to be, there are certain talking points re regarding this whole space that seem to be detrimental to everybody who's trying to move forward.
Man, damn actually answer the questions. The last one. Let I, you can't I, we had a Twitter space on this topic you can't dismiss that. There are some issues still in this space as we said. But I also, you can't dismiss my experience either, right? and my experience is something it's why I'm still in the space.
It's also the technology, it's all these things. And I it's it's you just can't make it black and white in a sense. It's there's gray there. And so I guess the whole thing is if that's not enough to convince you, then I don't know what will be, but that is all I have.
And that should be enough. That is the world, right? There's a lot of things that are great that we still do anyway. But for that instance, I'm not trying to say that's why we, you should do it anyway. Like I'm not trying to dismiss that, but I am going to say, when it comes to web three, there are things that we have said, Hey, there's some things that are not good yet.
Or there's a lot of flaws that we said, we have to be honest with that, but there were also a lot of good things here. Cause if there wasn't, they wanna be artists like. Or Raven, who are out here every day, because we see potential in here. We see things, we have changed our lives being in this space.
And others. Being able to send by art and have that E going to artist in other continents, quickly, instantly that that is. And I don't know, I there's a lot of lists. There's like a, there's a lot of things to list of just oh, how, why this is good.
And there's a lot of things to list of okay, why this is bad, but you have to really be able to find some type of comfort and say, okay, this is probably this makes sense. And I understand that. And it until then though, it's going to have to be, unfortunately we're gonna agree to disagree until, people are on are on board, but that's what I have.
I hope that was, that. Yeah I, and I was high. I agree as a platform runner that's my main argument back is it may not be for everybody yet. It may not be for you yet, but it is for the artist. And if I just look at the quantum stats, since we launched last November, we've done about 50 drops for photographers and about another 15 drops for digital artists across those 65.
Artists it's been more than 50% female. And the average photographer put as much as I think it's about $90,000 into their pocket from their drops. And for many of those photographers, that's like more money they've made on photography than they've made in their entire career on photography. And they've made lots of Instagram likes in web two, but they didn't put very much money in their pocket.
And this has been a real emancipated way for many artists to start to get some equity out of all of the hard work that they've put in. And so I think in the NFT space, that's a really great argument, regardless of platform how it's empowering people. Yeah, you're a very on message about the quantum stuff.
And it's so clear. It's a very clear value proposition. It's my job, right? It's very good. It's come in and see the art and celebrate and support these artists in a way they've never been able to been done before. And that is actually something that has, can, that has helped convert this 10% of.
15% of the us population that's in crypto. That's something that's been a huge onboarding factor. We can't like diminish that. That's why a lot of us are here. We're artists. I believe probably looking around this room. I see a lot of artists. And so that's a very compelling use case for creators, but for, my uncle Joe in Cincinnati, there's nothing that's been built that makes his life better in a tangible way, like a daily thing that he can wake up to.
And he says, this works better for me. I think that there's a use case to say you have one login for the entire internet, you just log in with the connect wall. You don't have 5,000 passwords. That's great. But it takes a lot of time. That's the same case with the email. People said, oh do, but I have to create a password.
And I have to say that and who owns that? And now people are getting used to that all over again, from step one. So until there's something that like really tangibly makes people's lives, like intuitively feels discernible to them and they can participate in. It's gonna struggle. That's why.
Web three, social gamified. Social is like huge right now. And that's why every pitch and what everyone wants to do is because we think that is gonna be the native thing that uncle Joe who's on Facebook can now make a little money by being on Facebook. And I think that's where these kind of cycles will go through is until we have like a big adoptable, social social moments.
Amazing. Thank you all for that. For that insight. We'll do one more question and then we will get back to. Oh, you were quick with it over here. I got you.
Hello? I'm very happy to be here. Hey, we all know you. Yes. Pop knows you. I know I thank you. I'm extremely excited to be here. It means the world to me. And I wanna ask something in regards of, I understand, for example as he said, that the crypto space right now, it's the 16 pop, like 16% of the population of the United States knows about, or has gotten involved in some way with the crypto space.
But I'm really wondering because I come from a third world country, I come from Mexico city and here, like almost no one knows about crypto, It's very hard for them to get into this space because it's just not affordable at all. For us, like we make, an hour, we make $1, so it's just impossible for third world countries to come into the space.
So I'm really wondering, if we're going, gonna go towards a decentralization worldwide, how can third world countries get involved into the space and it can be affordable for them to get a part of all this? And not because, I'm very concerned about getting, like people that is already rich, more rich, because I think that's not the point of web three.
Like we should go away from that. And I think we're pointing towards that and that's. I'm concerned because, yeah. It's about the artist and I understand it, but at the end, I think it's about the people, like we should go back to the people. So how can we help these, like these people?
Because there is a lot of inequity, like throughout the world, so how can we make a change? How can web three make a change throughout the world and not just for ourselves as artists? Yeah. Thank you.
That's a, it's a very difficult question. And it's a, the same concerns that I think a lot of folks on the stage and in the room share is that you see the promise of decentralization as pie in the sky.
And maybe it is, it's worth every effort that we have and trying to do what we can to get to a more equitable place. And that's why a lot of us are here. There are a lot more incentives at play. Now that can be aligned with tokens and ownership. The fact that I say people all over the world now are adopting crypto in mass as a replacement for financial institutions that have put a bag over their head or screwed them.
And just resulted in like a lot of pain for people. Now, people are sovereign over a lot of their own assets and they're invested. they believe in the technology. There are legions of coders all over the planet who want to jump into open source code materials and fork them into ways that favor decentralization, that favor everyday users of the products over centralized creators.
So I think it's very real, it's very real promise. The promise is not like necessarily what you asked about and it's what could we do about. But what we can do about it is we can write the code. We can tell the stories we can tweet, we can engage. We can talk to mom and dad about what it means and just kinda show up, if you believe in this, you'll naturally show up and you'll be called to be an ambassador of this space.
And one day, hopefully we get there. Yeah. I totally understand your question and I. My parents are Nigerian and if you're not aware, like that's also, but they also, crypto was actually illegal. And so as much as you want to, like you, the goal is to like, have everyone have all this access, you also have to understand that if you still have governments at play right.
And they can do things. And so like you legit, there are people in this space currently right now. Because they see the promise of it, but they also are still risking themselves right. Being in this space. There are still things where you're like I get it. I understand. Like you want it to be this way, but unfortunately, sometimes you have people who are in, positions of power that make it very difficult.
And there's not only those who are just like legit this space currently right now. But you also have people of go in government, like in positions, in government, and so you have to find ways that you can. Not, putting yourself in more danger which is also very difficult now when it comes to making sure that you want to make, it you wanna make sure that we all have access and not the rich get richer.
That is something that I think people in this space are trying to do. Like those who care about this space, are trying to do every day. Like how do we make sure that we are VI given visibility to people? Deserve it. As an artist I, I, for example, I try to find ways to give visibility to those that don't have it that I feel like need platforms that I feel like need to get some type of sales.
What can I do? I have the generational wealth fund. I'm like, okay. Sec, like 50% of secondary sales will go to buying, art from marginalized communities art from marginalized communities. Okay. That's what we're doing. We'll also get collectors in. See if they can also help. But there's also deeper things, it's also given tech people education around the tech because not everyone's an artist. But some people have that that knowledge of tech. But putting them in position so they can show that. And so there needs to be more of people coming together to to think about these things and to not be afraid to approach them.
And I think sometimes it's not so much about people. Wanting to do it, but because they are not aware of it. And when aware of it, because they're in circles and their circles aren't diverse. And so the goal really is to make sure that they have diverse, so diverse circles. So they know about, they have these conversations that give them perspectives of okay, we need to be doing X, Y, and Z.
And that helps move the space forward. And it helps, helping artists and people in this space. So they have. To be able, to make it I understand the wa me tone has died. But I still am a believer in it a bit, I get it though. Sometimes I'm really upset.
Some days I'm like, okay we gotta do some things. But yeah, I hope that it helped, but I do feel you and I appreciate you being here and I appreciate you, talking and being in this space, it's very difficult. It's very difficult, sometimes going into spaces and you see a lot of.
Flexing the PFPs and the money and all those things. But you also, there's also it's deeper than that though. There's, it's deeper than that. And I'm glad you're still here every day and I'm glad you're still out here cuz that this is what I'm talking about. Yeah. And I real quick on that too.
I think in the I media term is on the communities to make space. For, for different regions, right? Like pop is a great example. There are sub chats for different parts of the world. And so when we host events be mindful of the times that we're hosting them and what language is accessible and just and just, maybe we can't go by crypto right now, but it's is there a community that we can come to and just learn together right. Until we get to that point where there's, potentially a little more I guess equality. Yeah.
Awesome. Thank you all so much. Let's give a round of applause for our amazing panelists here.