Crypto Girls

Drum roll please... we finally found a crypto lawyer!

This week, we sat down with Cryptones, a Twitter friend and securities lawyer – or so we hope. (Slight disclaimer, we have no way to verify that he's actually a lawyer because, in true crypto bro fashion, he's anon.) Regardless, we had a long and fascinating convo about our burning securities questions, the Howey Test, and whether NFTs in their current form will even be legal five years from now. Be sure to follow him on Twitter, @cryptonesy. 

Also in this episode: A brief explainer on what happened with UST/Terra/Luna (aka, headlines you may have seen related to the crypto market crash). We will have more in-depth conversations on this to come in the following weeks, so stay tuned. 

Some helpful links on topics we mentioned:

• CoinDesk TV - The Hash
• Azuki Creator in Hot Water Amidst Rug Pull Allegations: Here Are the Facts
• Stablecoins Terra and Tether depegged from the dollar, leaving analysts wondering if this marks a ‘Lehman’ moment for crypto
• The Ripple-SEC legal brawl could be a game-changer for crypto

Vocab words: UST/Terra/Luna, Azuki, Fidenza, Art Blocks

What does crypto have to do with gaming? What is play-to-earn? What are Genopets? We discuss it all and more with Mackenna Elran, content specialist at Genopets, the world's first move-to-earn NFT game built on Solana. In the Genopets universe, users earn rewards for walking, running, dancing, or simply moving around in a game. 

Be sure to follow Genopets on Twitter, @genopets, to keep up with their journey from now to its official launch. 

Also in this episode: The crypto market crashed (again!). Links we discussed:

• Bitcoin and Ethereum Down Over 50% From All-Time Highs
• 3 Signals a Crypto Crash May Be Coming, According to Experts
• Genopets website

Vocab words: Ethereum 2.0 ("the merge"), stablecoins, staking, APY 

Fashion week has arrived in the metaverse, and there's no one better to break it down than
Dr. Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, a producer at Decentraland and the head of Metaverse Fashion Week. We sat down with Dr. Giovanna (aka, Gigi) to talk about what, exactly, happens at MVFW, why it's important to bring fashion to the metaverse, and whether our digital avatars will also have IRL wearables one day. 

Be sure to follow Gigi on Twitter, @ggcasimiro_, to keep up with the latest in metaverse fashion.

Also in this episode: The recent Yuga Labs disaster that caused thousands of people to lose thousands of dollars. 

Vocab words: Yuga Labs (again), gas fees, The Otherside, Decentraland

In this episode, we explore some of the most pressing issues facing the crypto space.

It's podcast inception: The basis of our conversation today is a deep dive into "The Most Thorough Case Against Crypto I've Heard," a recent episode of New York Times  podcast "The Ezra Klein Show. " Klein hosted Dan Olson, a noted crypto skeptic and YouTuber, to chat about what could go wrong if crypto doesn't work out. (Everything we chat about is contextualized in the episode so there's no need to listen before listening to our episode, but the link is here in case you do.) We were joined by Nicole Bennett, a copywriter and well-versed crypto skeptic – aka, she's done her research and does not buy into the hype.

We talk about the shift that caused the crypto world to go from taking on big banks to taking on big tech, why market speculation is a potentially harmful hallmark of the space, and whether or not blockchain technology is actually revolutionary. Also in this episode: A further exploration of Moonbirds, the pixelated owls driving the biggest crypto Twitter controversy of the last two weeks.

You can follow Nicole on Twitter + LinkedIn ... or find her trolling a Discord group near you :) 

A few outside resources that were mentioned: 

• "It's official: Elon Musk buys Twitter," Jack Morse, Mashable
• "The Most Thorough Case Against Crypto I've Heard," The Ezra Klein Show
• "The Blockchain Bachelorette," Katie Rothstein, Vulture (hi yes this is the piece in NY Mag Dylan mentions) 
• MyBFF Bracelet + community
• "Why you can’t rebuild Wikipedia with crypto," Molly White, The Verge

Other crypto skeptics Nicole mentions: Amy Castor, Ed Zitron, Stephen Diehl 

Vocab words: BFF bracelet, Moonbirds, FOMO

AkiyaDAO is "a Japanese ecovillage project funded by an international community of climate-conscious builders, artists and solarpunks." That raises a lot of questions: Isn't crypto bad for the environment? And what does an ecovillage even have to do with NFTs?

We sat down with Michelle Huang, founder of AkiyaDAO, to hear about the DAO's plan to create an IRL community (or a crypto commune?) using the power of NFTs. Tune in to hear more about how Japan's housing surplus crisis makes this possible, what Michelle sees as the biggest issue facing DAOs today, and the things she'll bring with her to the AkiyaDAO house one day.

Be sure to follow Michelle and AkiyaDAO on Twitter, @michellehuang42, @akiyadao

Also in this episode: The Moonbirds NFT drop that caused quite a stir on Twitter + wash trading in crypto

Vocab words: No new vocab, but always be sure to revisit our original episode on DAOs if you have more questions about how they work. 

There's no one better equipped to break down music NFTs than Joan Westenberg, a writer, angel investor, creative director, and marketing lead at MODA DAO. We sat down with Joan and asked her all of our questions: What even are music NFTs, how do you listen to them, and why do they benefit artists. We also discuss her work with MODA DAO, a DAO dedicated to the adoption of web3 in the music industry, and Riot Grrrls, an NFT project building the first women-led coworking community in the crypto world. She's also the author of  #DIY: Fuck the Gatekeepers, which you can read right here, and we unpack some of the life lessons she learned that led her to write a book. 

Be sure to follow Joan on Twitter, @joanwestenberg, and check out her Substack, pizzaparty.substack.com.

Mentioned in this episode: This Washington Post article about the "girlbossification" of crypto

Vocab words: KYC, doxxed

We're back and better than ever! 

We sat down with Aidan Cullen and Sophia Robinson from The Heart Project, a community-run creative studio that is making the world a better place for creatives. To date, The Heart Project has worked with iconic LA brand Fred Segal and singer Prentiss, and the team has a music project with Lil Dicky and Benny Blanco in the works. Through the project, they're enabling artists to take back control of the creative process. We got the inside scoop on what it was like onboarding their friends to web3, how they respond to questions about floor price, and what's next for The Heart Project. 

Be sure to follow Aidan and Sophia on Twitter, @aidancullen and @og_sophhh, and The Heart Project @heartnfts on IG and Twitter. This was a dream episode for us, shoutout Hearts! <3 

Vocab words: ERC-20 token, token-gated communities and channels, Cryptovoxels, Worldwide Webb Land

Drum roll please... it's a *solo episode*! Jk, it's a duo episode? Whatever you want to call it, it's just Dylan and Katie this week, breaking down 5 of the biggest recent crypto news stories.

In this episode, we're taking a closer look at some of the crazier crypto-world developments of the last month. The stories covered in this episode include...

(~0:00–18:00) Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club (arguably the most successful NFT project of all time) acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits, two other hugely successful NFT projects. We break down why it matters. 

(~19:00-26:00) More Yuga Labs news: The company also dropped ApeCoin this week, a coin that will have utility for members of the newly formed Bored Ape DAO. Someone was able to make a cool $1 million profit on the drop alone. We explore how that happened through the use of a "flash loan." Further reading here.

(~26:00-30:00) The Biden administration recently dropped an executive order outlining the government's plan for regulating crypto - but is it more like a plan for a plan?

(~30:00-32:00) In more governmental news, the Russian government is now so broke that they are turning to digital currencies for help.

(~32:00-end) And lastly, we end on some good news: The World of Women NFT project is taking the world by storm, and we love to see it! 

Vocab words: Airdrop, ApeCoin, flash loan, DAO. Be sure to listen to our previous episodes or DM us on IG or Twitter, @cryptogirlspod, if you have any questions or comments. 

On March 11, 2021, artist Beeple's NFT "Everydays: the First 5000 Days" sold at Christie's for $69 million. The sale shattered both art world expectations and auction records, and in the one year since, the "traditional" art world and the NFT world have become more intertwined than anyone could have predicted. 

We reflected on one year since THE Beeple sale with Artnet News Art Business Editor Tim Schneider, one of the leading experts writing about the intersection of the art market and the crypto world. Tim breaks down his own experience covering crypto over the last 5 years, how his perspective on NFTs have changed, and gives his take on where the market might be headed next.  We also discuss his recent study of NFT platform Foundation (you can read it here), where he breaks down 5 major takeaways that provide some of the very first insights into the impact of NFT sales on artists. 

Be sure to follow Tim on Twitter (@the_gray_market), Instagram (@the_graymarket), and keep up with his work on Artnet News. 

Vocab words: Beeple, Pak, Crypto Kitties