036: NFTLA & Crypto In West Hollywood
My Experience at the NFT LA Conference Was Clouded by Weird Hollywood Vibes
I was looking for and hoping to experience a truly authentic crypto community in Los Angeles during NFTLA, but was swept up by the fog and funk. The amount of people who botched up the word “authenticity” on the panel stages speaks to the demo of NFTLA . You know… all those Twitter influencers with tens or hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of followers, who proclaim to be blockchain evangelists? Well, I have a theory, these influencers are only valuing the short term NFT hype. I’m not implying they’re all posers, but maybe they’re just on the very top layer of Web3. So this meeting of the NFT creator minds — and I don’t want to come off as too negative here — was heavily influenced by either Los Angeles’ entertainment scene or the shadiness of Sunset Drive.
Let’s start with the good parts of this post, shall we?
The conference was well-produced, with entertaining mini performances between the panels, including a spoken word performance by David Bianco, a live painting of a Bored Ape, and hula hop hip hop dancers.
In addition, there was a strategic effort by the NFT LA organizers to promote networking among attendees through a new application called Brella . Once you set up a business-oriented profile, the technology matches you with someone to meet at the conference with a dedicated space on-site. This was a strategic addition to traditional conference experiences where attendees are usually on their own with making relevant connections.
Crypto & Cocktails at Sunset
Post pandemic, LA can be crap shoot. So, I started my NFTLA experience on my own terms, creating my own space for my type of Web3 people. I invited friends and colleagues to chat crypto and cocktails at the Ever Bar in West Hollywood. I was honored to share space with Meg, Rama, Cal, John, Sunny, Todd, Jenea and so many other investors, enthusiasts, and creators. Building community is about creating unique spaces for people to meet. Crypto was founded online - in forums and private chat rooms. However, what makes it real, tangible and humane is when people gather in person. I was smitten to finally hug people I heard on Twitter Spaces for weeks. The beginnings of my crypto journey was birthed in the metxfaverse, on Clubhouse App and alone in my home. Which is why I love going to conferences to meet people who share my same interests. This is how we’ll mass adopt and change the narrative to be all encompassing and diverse.
There’s room for everyone in Web3, even the jerks!
Subsequently, there’s much to be said about gender and diversity, especially in Los Angeles, where beauty, fame, social class and money are prioritized. Blockchain is supposed to remove the everyday biases and judgments when it comes to financing, and yet there’s so much implicit bias that still exists in the space. NFTs & PFPs may conceal our physical identities, but they are quickly becoming a point of contention because of the value they unlock in the digital and now physical space.
Mix the shallow glamorous crowd with crypto people, and you have a very intriguing water cooler conversation. “NFTs must be totally over your head,” this white guy said to me and another female Web3 founder as a pickup line. We were standing in a courtyard at the UnicornDAO x Rarible party when misogyny reared its ugly head. “Yea we’re just dumb blonds trying to get casted in a Robert DeNiro NFT film,” I respond. “Don’t you know we’re at a Rarible party, one of the biggest NFT platforms that exist right now?! I’m actually a builder.” I don't know about you, but for me, being a woman in the blockchain space is like being at a party with a drunk guy who thinks he's funny and wants to whisper jokes into your ear. I could ignore him or brush him off (because he's not funny), but that would mean letting his words linger and stain my night.
In this same week, at my hotel during breakfast, I met a UK-based Sony Records executive and they seriously told me they weren’t engaging in conversation with anyone wearing clothing with crypto logos. They leaned over and asked to see the decal on my sweater, and to their satisfaction, it said “Balenciaga.” This person was also attending NFTLA but wasn’t excited about music NFTs and the idea that artists don’t need the help of a record label to distribute and sell music on a blockchain.
Meanwhile, Hollywood’s bad actor Charlie Sheen was also invited to kick-off NFTLA and confessed while on stage that he didn’t know about NFTs. I’m sure he still got paid in full and on time. And I digress, I can’t even exist in the space without being insulted or overlooked. I don’t think this has anything to do with Web3, but I swear to god let’s not continue this blasphemous behavior. I’m not cute for being in crypto. I’m intelligent and strategic and maybe you should take notes. 🗣
NFTs and Hollywood
Meanwhile, Macy Gray graced us with her presence at NFTLA in a dramatic fashion that would rival Beyonce's impressively memorable Coachella entrance. She was 10 minutes late but looked at home in her jean overalls. “No one writes credits on albums anymore,” Gray acknowledged about why music NFTs allow artists more creative control. “You can collect again, you cannot collect a stream! I used to collect vinyl albums and even CDs,” she added. The Grammy-nominated artist announced that she was dropping her own NFTs that will come with a lot of collector and fan benefits, like releasing exclusive songs to unique holders when a certain amount NFTs are minted on chain.
Just A Small Flock of Women in Web3 Collectors Live in Los Angeles
Beyond the curtains of Hollywood, surprisingly a small flock of women collectors live in Los Angeles and they are all bullish about women-led projects like 1989 Sisters, Women Tribe, and World of Women. They gave me hope for future crypto meetups on the West Coast. To grow the ecosystem into diverse mass adoption, we need collectors just as much as we need builders and this energy was magnetic, erasing away all the jerks I came across throughout the week.
On that note, I’m eager to continue to build with the womxn in the Los Angeles crypto community so that they get on the same page and leave the drama of web2 and Hollywood in the dust. This will clear the way for a better, more decentralized pathway, one that does not rely (so much) on outer appearances to prove us to be valuable.
Featured Events: NFT Girl Gang, Girl Haus & Tuttle Tribe, & Women Tribe
Kitty Grier from NFT Girl Gang hosted creatives and developers in the Hollywood Hills. There was a runway show in celebration of LA Fashion Week and large amounts of bitcoin wine was poured!
Lauren & Jojo from Girl Haus hosted an afternoon networking event in Downtown LA. I met a handful of women in web3 collectors. They were all eager to hear about upcoming blue-chip projects to invest in, including Iconic Miss Crypto Clinic!!
The Tuttle Tribe hosted a Genius Bar Social at Baron Davis’ edgy warehouse space, and a crypto bar was set up to welcome new women into the web3 space.
Women Tribe hosted an evening event to celebrate and welcome their new NFT holders.
NFT Collections I Discovered This Week
It seems like dozens of NFT projects are minting daily, yet only a few sell out and galvanize the Twitter spaces when the floor price suddenly rise to the blue chip ranks. Explore what’s on Crypto in the City’s radar.
DilDaos (NSFW, an engineer on my team wrote the smart contract.)
Two Platforms to Sell Music NFTs
Royal.io (Protocols: Ethereum, OpenSea)
Oneof.com (Protocols: Tezos)
Glossary Terms
NFTs: Non-fungible tokens. These are contracts that live on the blockchain and represent anything in the physical world. A house can be represented on-chain and in this case, a smart contract can take the place of a deed.
Hacks During The Conference
Play-to-Earn company Axie Infinity was hacked for $600M and the founder was onstage at NFT LA sweating rocks as things took a turn for the worst on Twitter. Source
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