Episode interview with Chris Wallace, find his Twitter chriswallace and check out his new project Woodies
Time Stamps
[1:02 – 2:27] Chris got into NFTs in March of 2021 when a friend invited him to the Foundation platform with a creator invite. He started posting pieces and people were buying them. From there he got really involved in Tezos with Hic et Nunc (HEN). He now has about 3500 NFTs.
[2:50 – 5:32] As artists were looking for a greener solution to NFTs, Hic et Nunc launched. Chris saw value in this system as it favored proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work. He also thought it was cool that it went beyond the 10,000 piece generative projects that were popular in April 2021 and that in general it just felt like a more creative and underground spot. Affordability and getting a better ROI were also contributing factors.
[5:46 – 8:22] Where on Ethereum artists may stick to generative or collective approaches that attract more money, with Tezos and HEN, minting is more affordable which is providing artist with an outlet that allows them to put out more interesting and experimental works. Chris gives the example of seeing really interesting GAN works on Tezos.
[8:22 – 9:57] The cost of minting has encouraged artists to have multiple personas or sub-portfolios, almost as if they had split-personalities. In a way this correlates with the traditional art world where, sometimes artists will prefer to work with smaller art fairs as it allows them to create without the heavy pressure of producing something more commercial.
[11:05 – ] Chris’s projects like Ultra DAO and Woodies are on Ethereum because at the time his developers had more experience writing in the Ethereum ecosystem and there were few smart contracts on Tezos.
The creation of Woodies started as a joke when artist Lucréce posted on Twitter he was going to sell planks of wood and use the money to buy a house. The idea advanced, artist from the Ultra DAO group got together, then artist J-838 really perfected the image with his drawings which reflected a more humanoid figure.
[15:13 – 18:50] PFPs officially started with CryptoPunks in 2017 but the modern PFP project really started this year with HashMasks. Chris feels that historical relevance is important but that ultimately, success of PFP projects comes from other factors such as lifestyle and people getting into a community that reflects their personal interests (i.e.; DeadFellaz, 0N1 Force, BoredApes).
[19:32 – 21:09] In questions of longevity in regards to identity based PFPs versus memes, Chris feels that memes also carry a strong sense of community and belonging (such as Pepe the Frog) and that really that’s what people are after and care about the most.
[21:18 – 22:53] Woodies hopes to appeal to nature-lovers as well as families and kids. They hope to eventually branch out to do outdoor events and festivals where people can get together. They also hope to evolve more on the side of building narratives and lore that can be used for education.
[23:27 – 28:02] Ultra DAO started as more of a faction inside of an artist project called Botanica where artist, liquid density, used 3D flowers which started a sort of gamified drop system. Chris is competitive and wanted to collect all the flowers and this is what pushed them to form a DAO. Ultra DAO later focused on historically and culturally relevant NFTs. Their current focus is Woodies and looking to how they can scale-up.
At its core Ultra DAO is really a collection of people who want to do cool things together. It is morphing and does not fit the mold of a traditional DAO.
[28:02 – 32:11] There is a tension that exist as we are wanting to be more decentralized yet we also want to be more community lead, but that also causes problems of confusion and ownership. Leaders or visionaries are needed but it is also important to develop mechanisms of democracy. You don’t want to create a dictatorial relationship. That’s why DAOs are great, you have a lot more opportunity to contribute but with less of the power dynamics that you would find in a traditional corporate setting.
[32:31 – 32:58] For her amazing GAN work, Chris’s favorite artist is Jenni Pasanen
