Zachary Small (zacharyhsmall)

Very excited to dive into what I found in the onchain art world with @phil, and answer some questions about that sticky relationship between art, tech, and money.

• 0 replies
• 0 recasts
• 2 reactions

You could probably tell me, no?! I think the market is difficult right now — I would try to learn from the mistakes and successes of other projects. Who overpromised? Who overdelivered? A project like Bright Moments, which is detailed in the book, set a really clear path and timeline. And I think the members (who are reading this and can correct me) also thought long-term about their project. It wasn't just about what would happen next week or next month, but what might come from this community in a few years. The art world is ultimately very small and based on social relationships. I think the same goes for token-based projects. And of course it helps to have some killer art!

• 0 replies
• 0 recasts
• 1 reaction

Oh, I think the craziest example was undoubtedly what happened at Sotheby's with their failed CryptoPunks auction. It was perhaps the best chance that NFTs had to become part of the mainstream art world — there were a handful of influential, traditional collectors in the audience. But the collapse of the $30M sale with an anonymous seller claiming he did it on purpose, using the auction house's valuation as a base line for a a crypto loan, killed the possibility for the time being. You could actually read an excerpt about this, which ran in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/business/sothebys-crypto-nfts-auction.html

• 1 reply
• 0 recasts
• 1 reaction

I would say that blockchain data sites like Etherscan or Dune were great *initial* tools for my reporting. But I'm always skeptical of these tools, which can show more favorable or pessimistic outcomes depending on how the data is selected. That's why I spoke to experts at companies like Chainalysis and TRM Labs, but also direct sources in the market who were buying/selling. I certainly learned that skepticism from the traditional art world. You can look at an auction and it says "$1 billion in sales, 97% of lots sold" but then you realize half the lots had guarantees and the low estimate was actually $1.3 billion. Suddenly you see a different story!

• 0 replies
• 0 recasts
• 1 reaction