⚓ dox day
gm. yesterday afternoon, I told myself that I didn’t really have a lot to write about for the newsletter today.
flash-forward 8 hours and I had *too much* to write about.
I tried to keep it short and sweet so you all can get back to enjoying your Friday. let’s get into it.
ALPHA ⚓
one of the more underrated stories of VeeCon was that Betty, cofounder of Deadfellaz and all-around badass in the space, was set to “dox” herself for months now.
today it happened.
it would have stood as a significant event by itself. however, given the current landscape of cofounders in the space (looking at you, Zagabond), it took on a new meaning and couldn’t have come at a better time.
we’re looking for legitimacy in the space, and Betty’s doxing unintentionally provides that to her Deadfellaz community and to the NFT community at large. not everyone out there is a bad actor after all; in fact, some NFT founders are legitimately impressive.
in an exclusive interview with NFTevening, Betty goes into detail about her decision to dox. (I suggest you read it all; there are some awesome quotes in there. I’m not sure there is a cofounder more thoughtful in the space right now.)
“I decided to dox myself now because I value in-person connection. I enjoy meeting people and wanted to connect with my community on a new level.”
doxing to connect with your community more? and not doing it because you were caught doing something shady? more founders could follow Betty’s blueprint here and in doing so, could change the perception that “NFTs are a scam”.
so who’s next?
BETA ⚓
now for a darker doxing…
*disclaimer, this story contains a lot of NSFW subjects and language. I won’t dive too deep into it, but do note that if you go poking around, you’ll find some pretty awful stuff there.*
after a lot of sales and a 15 ETH sale of a Milady on Thursday, some shocking allegations resurfaced online about the project’s co-founder and creator.
A few weeks ago, this Coindesk article dove into the history and rumored identities of the Milady team. The article goes on to describe them as a kind of 4chan-esq figure…using their project’s prominence to indiscriminately “troll” people online.
group chat messages later surfaced where jokes were made about everything from sex trafficking cults to anorexia. there are racial, homophobic, and transphobic slurs used throughout too.
it’s not the first time tasteless and racist cofounders have allegedly created an NFT project. remember Jungle Freaks? I was shocked to discover in doing research for this that Jungle Freaks are not only still around, but have a relatively high floor considering the project founder’s history.
Miladys will receive some much-deserved blowback here. but I am concerned that, like Jungle Freaks, they may be just as resilient and keep on keeping on.
with each stride we make in the NFT space, it seems the bad projects can just as easily set us back.
DELTA ⚓
a little roundup of NFT news from major legacy brands to end the week:
Fox has announced they’ll be producing “blockchain shows”. though I’m sure he’s still unclear entirely what that means, they’ve tagged Dan Harmon (of Community and Rick & Morty fame) to produce the first one.
IMAX, known for their big ass screens and big ass cameras, will now get into the big ass blockchain game now too.
Hublot is the next premium brand to join the ENS bandwagon. first, it was beer.eth (Budweiser), then gucci.eth, and now hublot.eth. don’t sleep on premium brands wanting to get into NFTs. being cool is paramount to their business model and NFTs are cool right now (little do they know that we NFTers aren’t very cool ourselves, but they still think we are and that’s all that matters).
stop the simulation! GameStop NFT seems closer than we may think. any chance that it’s better than Coinbase NFT? it’s a pretty low bar…
and finally, a crazy stat to think about. it begs the question…could Yuga acquire some legacy IP too? I heard Gary Vee on a podcast once talk about how he almost acquired Animal Crackers a few years ago. is there something out there that fits into the Bored Ape Yacht Club brand that normies know of?
