Proof of Passion

the frenzy around NFTs right now is instructive. Because much of the hype is pure status-seeking. And that’s a healthy reminder that people will always find value in being early to the next thing, part of the innermost ingroup of something cool. And that’s a feature, not a bug for NFTs. It may in fact be the point. NFTs are evidence of your cultura... See more

All of this erodes the value of ‘traditional’ media companies and cultural institutions since individuals will be more able to provide proof of passion without branded legitimization and artists will be able to fund their creative endeavors by selling proof of passion to their engaged communities. There will also be major downsides to transforming ... See more

More positively, establishing a track record through proof of passion may finally enable a scalable business model for independent cool-hunters and curators. Those who consistently invest in overlooked and underappreciated items that then wildly succeed will be sought after. Marketers and algorithms will surveil their purchases, swarming in after. ... See more

The social returns to prescient taste and committed fandom just went up dramatically. This dynamic will upend how cultural trends are born, financed, grow and die, change marketing and community building, and turbocharge the value of influence. It will also create a backlash to the financialization of every aspect of creativity, and leave us to gra... See more

music producer 3LAU just sold the first tokenized music album, an NFT version of his album, Ultraviolet, for $3.6 million. The NFT is also redeemable for additional perks such as a customized song. Again, it’s possible for creators to tie directly economic flows to these items, enabling holders of assets to receive revenue from the project as it la... See more

Twitter let us tweet about the show before anyone else. Instagram lets us post a photo from the undiscovered holiday spot. But these techniques had two issues. First, they required a certain degree of obnoxious spamminess. For someone to notice your coolness, you had to broadcast it to everybody, and, well, that’s not that cool. Second, for the mos... See more

In retrospect, this is an obvious extension of the social Internet. Social networks made social capital -- that is, popularity and influence -- scalable and quantifiable. We went from vaguely knowing who were the most admired kids in school to knowing who exactly are the most admired people in the world. In doing so, social media commercialized the... See more