🎙 "Collector DAOs Are Going to be a Game-Changer for the NFT Space:" pplpleasr
In this week’s episode we talk with the DeFi artist of the moment. Pplpleasr got into DeFi drawn in by the crazy yields but really stayed when she resonated with the community —the gaming-like, niche subculture of memes and internet-native humor. She start...
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In this week’s episode we talk with the DeFi artist of the moment. Pplpleasr got into DeFi drawn in by the crazy yields but really stayed when she resonated with the community —the gaming-like, niche subculture of memes and internet-native humor. She started making videos for many DeFi teams, from Yeran to Pickle Finance. Her latest and best-known work though is the video she made for the highly anticipated v3 of Uniswap. The clip of a unicorn in an otherworldly oasis, Ethereum dapp symbols floating about, gained her universal praise. But it’s what happened later when it gets really interesting,
Pplpleasr decided, like many other artists these days, to sell the video as an NFT. But unlike most artists fetching big chunks of cash, she was set on donating the proceeds to charity. Also unlike other auctions, it was a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, created just for the occasion, what ended up winning the piece. In this interview she explains exactly why she decided to give half a million dollars away, and who will be receiving those funds.
She also gave us a peek at the creative process that went into the video and at the thrill of watching her work start a bidding war. But the most lasting outcome of all this, she says, will likely be the fact that now it will become increasingly common for community members to organize and purchase artworks together, which they wouldn't have been able to access otherwise.
We also talked about how many of her artist friends are getting into NFTs but then cashing out into fiat and her hopes that more would stick around for longer in crypto. In any case, she’s confident NFTs will continue being a gateway into crypto for a wider audience.
The podcast was led by Camila Russo, and edited by Alp Gasimov. Transcript was edited by Owen Fernau and Dan Kahan.
🎙Listen to the interview in this week’s podcast episode here:
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pplpleasr: Sure. So I've been basically working as a 3D artist for about six years now. And I used to work in Visual Effects for a bunch of movies, and was also working at Blizzard on their cinematics team. And then basically, how I got into crypto, working in there, well, I have been holding 2017 ICO coins since 2017. But back then, I was sort of just sitting on the sidelines of crypto and I never thought that there would be a possibility to actually be working or contributing to the space, I was just sort of speculating.
But it wasn't until last summer, DeFi summer, that I really started to pay attention because of the crazy yields that DeFi is seemingly able to generate, definitely caught my eye. And then I also had accepted a job at Apple last March, but then due to the pandemic, they couldn't get my visa application through because the US airspace basically just shut down when the pandemic started.
So while I was waiting for my visa, that was the first time since working that I actually had some time off to sort of create my own artwork. So I created my art Instagram account and then I just started having fun with it and basically using the skill set that I have learned all these years from working to manifest my own visions and creative expression. So that's kind of how it started. And then towards the end of DeFi summer, I got in contact with Yearn Finance. And then there was a Twitter influencer, Blue Kirby, who had seen my work and he was the marketer for Yearn Finance at the time.
So we sort of got in touch and then I made a little short video for Yearn Finance. So that was actually the first video that I ever made for DeFi. A lot of people think it's the Pickle one, because that's the first one that graced Twitter. And the Yearn one never got posted because the product at the time got delayed for many reasons, like the video that it was intended for. But I'd love to share that one on Twitter sometime just because I think it's fun and just because nobody's ever seen and it's my first one. I had a fun time working on it. So that's basically how I got into DeFi.
I also saw it as a way to also sort of make a little bit of money while I was waiting for my job. I didn't intend for the DeFi stuff to become my actual job. But it actually just ended up being really fun. And I think I really resonate with the culture of the DeFi crowd as well, because we all share this love for memes and there's a very specific, niche subculture that goes on here where we all have a similar sense of humor. And I don't know, I just love the community. And so I think that made it really easy for me to create content that was easy for everybody to sort of enjoy and relate to as well.
“I didn't intend for the DeFi stuff to become my actual job. But it actually just ended up being really fun. And I think I really resonate with the culture of the DeFi crowd as well, because we all share this love for memes and there's a very specific, niche subculture that goes on here where we all have a similar sense of humor.”
And yeah, that basically was what drew me to DeFi. And I love that, everybody was so trusting of my creative abilities. It was like, everybody would just give me a blank canvas and just say, just run with it and do what you feel like doing. I was learning on working on these as well. It really helped me understand DeFi a lot better, because there's a lot of really complicated concepts in DeFi that need to be understood.
And so to sort of convey these in an entertaining way through my videos, I need to sort of understand and learn first. So all in all, it was a win-win. It helped me understand these and that that helped me become a better investor. And then also I'm able to have a creative outlet and get paid for it as well. So, yeah.
CR: I love it. I love how it was kind of the crazy DeFi yields that got you into the space and how that led you to actually having a job in this space. That’s so interesting. And definitely you should post your first DeFi video, your Yearn Finance one, like, I'm sure everyone would love to see that.
PP: Yeah, I probably will.
Uniswap v3
CR:So right now I think you've become like a kind of DeFi celebrity because of your Uniswap video. So I'd love to hear more about how that came about. Like did Uniswap approach you to make this video? What was the creative process like?
PP: Yeah, so Uniswap approached me, I think they reached out to Tarun Chitra, who then texted me. This was in January. And then he was like, ‘hey, somebody from the Uniswap team contacted me asking if you'd be up to work with them?’ And when I got the message, I was pretty excited. I was like, yeah, of course.
“I knew that there were going to be a lot of eyes on this animation, so I really wanted to make it stand out in a way.”
And obviously, the v3 announcement was such an anticipated event. I didn't even think that it would be for v3. Like, I just thought that oh, because the video that I made for Harvest Finance was back in October of last year. And because Harvest’s strategy at the time was using the Uniswap liquidity pool, so I had sort of like this Chad dancing next to a small unicorn. And when I was doing that, I had a lot of fun. And then I thought that oh, a unicorn is actually a fun subject to make a video on.
It was just a thought last October that, oh, I'd love to collaborate with Uniswap one day. And then yeah, so then in January, when they reached out to me I was pretty excited. But lo and behold, it was actually for the v3 announcement, which obviously made me even more excited, but also a little bit nervous, because I knew that it was a very highly anticipated event. So I knew that there were going to be a lot of eyes on this animation, so I really wanted to make it stand out in a way. Then we kind of kicked off concepts towards the beginning of February, so then we would start going back and forth and talking about several potential ideas that could be good for the video, and then kicked off production.
I've been working on it pretty much since mid-February, and then recently in the last week of March we delivered the video.
Behind the Unicorn
CR: So was it a lot of like collaboration between you and the Uniswap team coming up with the idea and, I don't know, the color scheme? How did you decide on the whole concept? Maybe we should describe the video for people who haven't seen it on our listening. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should go check it out. It's definitely a beautiful little piece of animation. It's like a unicorn floating through a blooming garden, right?
PP: Yeah. So the shot sort of takes place, I don't know, it's supposed to be otherworldly. So you don't have to take it too literally. But it's kind of like a desert/forest/oasis kind of land, mystical land. And we start by seeing the unicorn come into the frame, and then the unicorn sort of introduces life and growth into the land. And then we see the bonding curves, which a lot of people are calling noodles or pasta because I guess they kind of look like them in the video…
“I mean, this is going to sound a little bit exaggerated, but it's just sort of like the land of crypto or even DeFi was kind of obsolete before Uniswap came and then sort of changed the game for everybody.”
CR: Oh, those are bonding curves.
PP: Yeah. And then those bonding curves sort of unite with the unicorn and then they travel together to the Ethereum haven, or Promised Land I guess you could say. And yeah, that's pretty much the video. And in terms of the color palette, obviously knowing that Uniswap main color is sort of pink, you definitely see it in the beginning with the unicorn. And that's a main theme throughout the video. But then towards the end, it sort of blends in with a little bit of blue and purple, because that's the color of Ethereum.
And also the saturation. So in the beginning of the video, it's a little bit less saturated, because the real sort of deeper meaning behind this was, I mean, this is going to sound a little bit exaggerated, but it's just sort of like the land of crypto or even DeFi was kind of obsolete before Uniswap came and then sort of changed the game for everybody. Right? So that was kind of the concept behind it is just so then when the unicorn is introduced, then this sort of dry and desaturated land becomes more and more colorful, and then towards the end it's in a harmonious environment with Ethereum basically.
Easter Eggs
CR: So there was so much meaning throughout the whole video. Even the saturation, the colors, I love how much thought went into all this. And then, as soon as this came out, everyone was kind of dissecting all of the symbolism and there were tiny shapes floating about. People were looking at this, like, what looked like the MetaMask fox, I think. And yeah, what else were some of those symbols that you included?
PP: Yeah. So in the second shot, you first see the Aave ghost, it's pretty subtle, but you see it. It flies up first. And then there's the Unipig for Optimism, and then the MetaMask fox. And then there's a Sybil logo as well, which is the purple one with the white swirl around it as well as the rainbow for the Rainbow app. And that’s just in the second shot. In the fourth shot, there’s Unisocks that actually sort of flipped byl. We discussed about the potential sort of Easter eggs to put in there.
Obviously, there's a lot of DeFi elements that live on the Uniswap ecosystem. And the thought, like everything I can put in the video, there's just too many things. But it's more just a representation about all of these elements of DeFi coming together and their relationship with the Uniswap app. And a lot of the colors and the noodles are sampled, all of the different token colors as well. Yeah, and then I also explained in my behind the scenes video that because one of the main features of Uniswap v3 is that you can now choose your own portion on the price curve to provide liquidity, that's why you see that sections of the noodles in the video, are like, there's a color and then sometimes it slides around.
“That's actually sort of a recurring theme in a lot of my videos, is that I put in a lot of subtle details or elements that either are a reference to the protocol itself, or other elements in DeFi. It's kind of like when you watch a movie and you're trying to spot the symbolism or something.”
CR: Oh, that's why. Okay, I love finally getting all the meaning inside the video. There was just like so much to it. And then obviously like the stars kind of form v3.
PP: Yeah, that's the cliffhanger ending which is sort of like the climax of the video. And the constellation itself has symbolism as well. I don't know if you've seen it was made by a 0x DeFi, so this sort of uni-verse, like do your own research website that maps out all the different liquidity pool formations on Uniswap, and then how they're connected with each other. Actually, I think I might be able to just share my screen.
You know what? It's all in the behind the scenes video. So if anybody's interested, they can just go watch it. But yeah, it's sort of like a complicated web of relationships between the different liquidity pools, which looks kind of like a constellation, which is why that's in the end of the video as well where you see the star. So that's what that represents. Yeah, and then I also made separately a constellation that is spelling out v3. It's meant to be not immediately obvious, so it was really fun reading through the comments and seeing people sort of spot that out. Yeah.
CR: So I'd love to hear more of your reaction to people's reactions to the video. It was just like, it came out and it went instantly viral. What were you thinking?
PP: I mean, I was a little bit nervous on that day. Obviously, I wasn't sure what people's reactions would be. I was nervous that people were going to be upset because it doesn't tell you much about v3. But it is meant to be a teaser, sort of the final hype leading up to the actual blog post which was announced the next day. But I mean, I was glad to see that pretty much most, or 99% of the reactions were all positive and then that everybody was just excited to see the video.
And it was fun seeing people trying to identify the different Easter eggs. That's actually sort of a recurring theme in a lot of my videos, is that I put in a lot of subtle details or elements that either are a reference to the protocol itself, or other elements in DeFi. It's kind of like when you watch a movie and you're trying to spot the symbolism or something. It's just like a fun activity for people to watch something and then try to decipher what is going on in the video. Yeah, it’s like a little Easter egg hunt.
NFT for Charity
CR: And then the decision to sell it as an NFT, how did that happen?
PP: This was actually an idea that I had come up with sort of halfway through production of the video. I think it is obviously also motivated by the recent wave of NFT craze. I've been dabbling in the NFT world a little bit last year. But then as my schedule with doing videos for DeFi protocols was getting a lot busier, especially from the start of this year, I didn't have time to insert myself in the NFT space. And I was feeling a little bit of FOMO there because obviously I would love to be a part of the community as well. And so I just thought that, oh, why not hit two birds with one stone by also releasing this as sort of like an NFT? And I just brought it up as an idea to the Uniswap team. And I am super grateful that they were so supportive of the decision, and they thought, yeah, that's a great idea, we should do that.
And then really, it was since last year, I had always wanted to imagine myself doing an NFT drop, and then donating the proceeds to charity, because I'm not rich enough myself to be able to impact. I thought that well, I have this skill set where I can potentially generate something of value that can sort of give back. And then it was always like a thought in the back of my head, so then I thought, oh, well, this is sort of like a perfect opportunity to do that. And so I also brought that up initially as well. And they obviously were supportive of that decision, and so that's kind of how it came about. And yeah, I'm just glad that they were so helpful about it.
“And then really, it was since last year, I had always wanted to imagine myself doing an NFT drop, and then donating the proceeds to charity, because I'm not rich enough myself to be able to impact. I thought that well, I have this skill set where I can potentially generate something of value that can sort of give back.”
CR: Okay. So this is something that you had been wanting to do for a while, like, do an NFT drop. And use that as a way to have an impact, like, give back because it's not like every day that you come about hundreds of thousands of dollars to give away?
PP: Exactly. And yeah, I mean, it's definitely, there's sort of a lot of capital floating around in the NFT space right now. And yeah, it would be awesome to sort of redistribute that to other parts of society that maybe don't have access to that same capital.
Stand With Asians
CR: I mean, I think this is amazing. I really kind of commend you for that. And I think you're so right, there's just so much hype and money sloshing around this space. And that's great. Like, it's amazing to see just especially artists being able to monetize their work. And it's not just like speculators aping in the next yield farm. But with NFTs, it's great to see that creators can benefit from all this hype too, but also like giving it away to people who are 100% outside of this space, and having all the NFT craze go towards something else. I think it's awesome. Can you talk about the charity that you chose?
PP: Yeah. So it's actually an ongoing process because we wanted the decision to not immediately decide on a specific charity. Being that it was going to be an auction, and then we didn't actually know how much it was going to sell for. And so just in case I chose, like five different charities that I only raised like $100, and that's not very impactful to distribute. Right? So it was always sort of part of the plan that depending on how much the amount was raised, then we can decide on multiple charities.
But I did already, prior to the drop, get in contact with the representatives of the Stand With Asians Movement. And so, obviously, I'm sure you've heard as well recently, in the United States, frequently in New York as well, there's been a lot of unfortunate and racist attacks on the Asian American community and just discrimination. And you know, there was a shooting in Atlanta, just a lot of really tragic events that were sort of catalyzed by the whole pandemic situation, and causing tensions between different ethnic groups as well.
I read an Instagram post, not too long ago, from one of the sons of one of the shooting victims of the Atlanta shooting. It really broke my heart and makes me sad that this is happening to, I guess you could say, my people. Asian Americans are always made to feel second, or just not welcome in this country. It still happens to this day from minor things like microaggressions up to extreme things, like being literally assaulted or attacked on the street.
And so, this Stand With Asians Movement is just bringing awareness to that. And then they also are working with nonprofit organizations as well. All of the funds, after the 15% that Foundation had taken, is still sitting in my public wallet, and it's still there. And so we're just going to properly do research and hopefully give back by helping small businesses that are owned by Asian Americans. So we're going to have a proper discussion about that this week and then hopefully finalize on how we're going to properly distribute the funds and then follow up on Twitter with a post and detail out how we're going to be donating these and then also, obviously, providing proof of the Etherscan Txs. Yeah. So…
“Asian Americans are always made to feel second, or just not welcome in this country. It still happens to this day from minor things like microaggressions up to extreme things, like being literally assaulted or attacked on the street.”
CR: Nice. Okay, so the idea is to give most or all of it to organizations helping combat this situation where Asian Americans are being targeted or discriminated against?
PP: Yeah, and also, maybe not a lot of people know this, but the wealth disparity between the Asian American ethnic group is also one of the largest of all ethnic groups in the US. Even in New York, like where you are, one in four Asians are living below the poverty lines.
CR:
I had no idea.
PP: Yeah, so it's actually an ongoing issue. And we're definitely going to look into sort of distributing to other minority groups as well. Because, I guess, when you lack resources or access to the same things, of course there's going to be tension between different minority groups. And I think that's sort of an ongoing situation that's happening in New York as well. So yeah, that's something that I would love to address or at least help make an impact towards.
CR: Yeah. That's great. And maybe just to add to your own background we were chatting before. You've actually lived in New York for a couple of years before going to Taiwan where your family is. So I guess you saw that disparity firsthand, right? Is that why you're really passionate about this issue?
PP: Yeah. And I was also in New York when the pandemic hit the hardest. And obviously, there were a lot of small businesses that were either being vandalized in Chinatown or just general racism. It even happened to one of my friends actually, where she was just walking on the street and then somebody spat on her and then told her to go back to China. And she's not even Chinese. Yeah, there's a lot of really terrible things going on. And so I definitely sort of saw that firsthand in New York. And yeah, a lot of businesses in Chinatown had suffered throughout the pandemic as well.
“And obviously, there were a lot of small businesses that were either being vandalized in Chinatown or just general racism. It even happened to one of my friends actually, where she was just walking on the street and then somebody spat on her and then told her to go back to China. And she's not even Chinese.”
Choosing a Platform
CR: Yeah. No, that's obviously unacceptable. So I think it's great that you have the ability now to contribute to that cause and raise awareness as well. I knew about this discrimination and how Asian Americans were being targeted, but for example, I didn't know about the wealth disparity in New York. So it's great that you can raise awareness to all this.
And then on the NFT sale itself, would love to hear about your decision to go with Foundation. Because I mean there's many different NFT marketplaces, so would love to hear from an artist perspective what that decision process is like?
PP: Yeah. To be quite honest it was because I think Foundation, or I had thought at the time, would be more on brand with DeFi, because there’s several other platforms that could be more centralized and the whole community that I surround myself with is a more decentralized one. And also, because I had reached out to some other platforms, but some of them either didn't get back to me in time or something, but either way. So there wasn't really any particular reason why I went with Foundation. It just happened to be that way.
CR: That’s fair enough. I mean sometimes it just happens, things just work out easier. And then I think I've read, but I didn't look very closely into this, but you talk about easter eggs in the video, there was an easter egg in the NFT as well, right?
PP: What do you mean?
CR: Wasn't there a Unisock or something in the NFT?
PP: Yeah. There’re socks that are floating sort of towards the end of the video.
CR: Okay. So I thought there was also maybe a sock somewhere, I don't know.
PP: If it came with actual Unisocks we’re going to have to talk to the Uniswap team about this.
CR: Okay. Maybe I misunderstood when I read it. But…
PP: Oh, no, it might be a surprise later.
Bridging The Gap
CR: So right now, this huge sale of your NFT comes right after a bit of a controversy also in the NFT land last week with Beeple, the artist who sold the first NFT on Christie's. And people were a little bit upset because he cashed out the over $60 million he made with the NFT and just cashed out his ETH and went 100% to fiat. Some people in the community were saying he made all this money from ETH, but he hasn't really given anything back which is totally the opposite from what you're doing.
So I think the contrast there is pretty clear. So wanted to hear your thoughts on not necessarily Beeple specifically, but whether there's this expectation of artists to give back to the Ethereum community after monetizing their work through NFTs or you think that's not really due, like people are able to monetize their work however they want and do whatever they want with their money? Or do you think there's kind of like a moral obligation to give back, what are your thoughts here?
PP: Definitely, I don't think there's any moral obligation to give back. I think it's because there either is a lack of knowledge around the sort of central crypto ideologies right now in terms of what the crypto community calls “normies”, aka just regular people who don't generally either work in the crypto ecosystem or dabble in cryptocurrencies.
And it's interesting because I actually, having been in crypto way before this NFT craze and stuff, I had always thought that Bitcoin would be the factor that would cause a rush of “normies” to pay attention to cryptocurrency, but who would have thought that it's actually NFTs being the one that blew up. I'm having literally people that I used to work with or know, or friends just texting me and going, hey, what's an NFT? How do I buy some Ethereum so that I can get involved with NFTs?
“I had always thought that Bitcoin would be the factor that would cause a rush of “normies” to pay attention to cryptocurrency, but who would have thought that it's actually NFTs being the one that blew up.”
So anything that sort of on-ramps people into crypto I'm always happy and supportive of and in which case would be NFTs. And I pointed out this before as well, where I noticed there's actually a large gap between the NFT art community and the crypto DeFi community. And so the whole way that this auction kind of came together was also a very happy accident, because it brought to light the power of DeFi or this whole idea of a community and a lot of people in the NFT space didn't know really anything about DeFi before.
And so this was also a good way to raise awareness for DeFi to regular people as well. And I think that, you know, so I started lurking in discords, I definitely noticed that a lot of the artists come into the NFT space, they're still thinking about everything in terms of US dollar value, because this is at the end of the day, I mean it could be also not just US dollar, but any currency that I use. But let's use US dollars as an example, because this is the currency that you're using every day to go outside and buy coffee or something. So this is the most tangible one.
And so it's normal that they're sort of using that to evaluate the NFT space, even if the main currency is Ethereum. But I think they're still thinking of it in terms of, oh, well, this much Ethereum equals this much US dollar. And then so naturally, they would think that when I get this much US dollar, I want to spend that US dollar. And the only way to do that for them is to off-ramp that cryptocurrency and so sell that Ethereum back into US dollars.
So I think this sentiment is obviously understandable. And it's not sort of a moral obligation, but I just think that it's a shame that there's this gap, because if these artists have a better understanding of cryptocurrencies or DeFi in general, they can actually grow their wealth, right with DeFi products, or even just holding Ethereum. I see so many artists on the discords, even when Ethereum was $1,000, and then they're like, okay, well, I'm selling, and I'm like, wait, it's going to go up. Like it's not to their benefit to not hold the cryptocurrency right? Obviously, it is a volatile market so you never know if it's going to go down or anything. But if you believe in it enough, which I do…
“I just think that it's a shame that there's this gap, because if these artists have a better understanding of cryptocurrencies or DeFi in general, they can actually grow their wealth, right with DeFi products, or even just holding Ethereum.”
And it's actually great that recently, VISA has announced that they're going to be using USDC and Ethereum, which is huge news and good news for crypto. So I feel like hopefully, as these types of announcements and events happen more frequently, it'll help artists who’re coming in from the regular, non-crypto world understand that this is a real currency that has value and that you can use them. You're not just only dependent on fiat as a currency, and then it'll help the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem grow even larger.
CR: Those are really great points that you made. On the one hand, I also agree there's not really kind of a moral obligation to do whatever you want with the money you raised. But on the other hand, it is a shame that they are not taking advantage of DeFi as a means to grow wealth and put their money to work. Even if you don't want to hold a volatile asset like ETH, maybe you can put stablecoins in a lending pool and earn interest rather than just exchanging it to US dollars, where you can’t really make much with that.
So it's interesting what you're seeing as well, that it's been amazing to see NFTs be the thing that's attracting this wave of new users. And I think it makes sense, before, everything in crypto was about speculating and making money and 100% financing and money-oriented. But now for the first time, there's this other use that's not finance-oriented. So you have a different audience that this technology is speaking to. And so it's amazing to see this new wave of users. And so cool that you're seeing it in your own group of artists and friends that people are getting interested.
So for now people are coming into crypto, selling their NFTs, but then cashing out. So the next step would be for them to come, make NFTs, monetize them, but then stick around and not immediately leave the space.
PP: Yeah, definitely. And I think what I really loved about the outcome of this specific auction is that, the formation of the DAO and the whole spirit of DeFi, I think it also brought to light to people the power of DeFi that there is actually. And because of DeFi’s ability to generate yields and more wealth for people, there's a lot of heavy hitters and bidders out there as well who are living in the DeFi space that people probably (as in the NFT art circle) didn't previously know about. And I think they're now starting to pay attention. Like, well, okay, there's people who are willing to drop some heavy ETH on art and DeFi space as well. So…
DAO for Art
CR: Yeah. Would love to talk more about this DAO that formed specifically for purchasing your NFT, PleasrDAO. Do you know a little bit of the backstory of how this came about, and the people involved?
PP: Yeah, so it's maybe growing, so I'm not actually sure about exactly how many members. I just remembered that after I had… Because I didn't even really previously tell anybody that this drop was going to happen. It was always for my people who have been following me before, not always, just like, sometimes when I make an animation, I will also make a later rollout of behind the scenes video where I talk about how I made that animation. And then usually, a lot of people tune into watching that because they find it interesting.
And so my thought for this one was, this time when I put out that behind the scenes video, I'll also announce that it's going to be an NFT. And so the behind the scenes video itself is acting as a promoter for the NFT drop. And then when that happened, which was like less than 24 hours before I was going to do the actual drop, a bunch of people in the DeFi community had seen it and then obviously, everybody had seen the Uniswap feature video. And even when the video was dropping, there was no NFT announcement, a bunch of people were commenting saying, oh, is this going to be NFT? How do I buy this NFT?
“And even when the video was dropping, there was no NFT announcement, a bunch of people were commenting saying, oh, is this going to be NFT? How do I buy this NFT? “
So there was already interest around this. And then the cofounder of PoolTogether, Leighton, actually Leighton Cusack, he just assumed that it was going to be too expensive for him to afford, but he really wanted the NFT, so he tweeted out, hey, does anybody want to put together a quick DAO to purchase this? And then from there, he generated interest. And I'm sort of learning a lot of this after the fact too.
I remember that day, somebody had told me that, hey, do you know that there's actually going to be this DAO that's forming right now and they're recruiting members right now to buy your NFT? And I was like, oh, that's crazy. And then it wasn't something that I had ever considered and I don't think anybody ever considered. And it is, after this auction, the first of its kind, which is where people have come together to join forces to make a DAO that's for purchasing NFTs, which is crazy when you think about it. Because there's a massive potential and purchasing power. And so it's started a whole new movement essentially.
“I remember that day, somebody had told me that, hey, do you know that there's actually going to be this DAO that's forming right now and they're recruiting members right now to buy your NFT? And I was like, oh, that's crazy. And then it wasn't something that I had ever considered and I don't think anybody ever considered.”
But yeah, I think that's basically how it started. It was just through word of mouth, people would rope other people into the Telegram channel. And so I knew that this happened and when it happened, I was pretty excited about the concept of the NFT being owned by a community as opposed to one person, because again, that's also in the spirit of it being decentralized or where it's by the people, for the people and not just one person who owns this. Obviously, nothing against individual bidders, as long as it's going to a good cause, everyone wins. But it was a new concept that was interesting to me. And I wasn't expecting them to actually win, but it was a crazy last few minutes of the auction that I'll probably remember for my whole life.
“I was pretty excited about the concept of the NFT being owned by a community as opposed to one person, because again, that's also in the spirit of it being decentralized or where it's by the people, for the people and not just one person who owns this.”
DAO Versus Whale
CR: Okay. Can you dive into that? The bidding war that happened in the last minute, how were you experiencing that?
PP: So it was in the morning of my time, so I woke up and then the bid was less than an hour left on the auction, the bid was still sitting at 100, which was already seriously crazy, 100 way exceeded my expectations for how much the NFT would go for. And then this was when the DAO made their first bid at 110, and then I thought, oh, wow, the DAO is actually making a bid. And then so 110, I thought, wow, okay, well, you know, they're going to win.
And then after the DAO made that, and then the real sort of war started within the last 10 minutes of the auction, which is really crazy. Because at that point, I thought, okay, it's definitely over. And then within the last 10 minutes, this one other mysterious wallet showed up, and then did 120. So then the DAO came back with 130 or something, and then the other wallet came back again with 140 something. And then I think the DAO came in with 165. So then that wallet was outbid at that point.
But then a new wallet, which I think he goes by the name, Vas Rel Por. Very mysterious, bidder, who had a lot of ETH and somebody was texting me about this in real time too, because they were tracking the wallets on Etherscan. And then they were like, oh, this mysterious bidder just added another 100 ETH to their wallet, and then another 100 ETH. So they were literally adding 100 ETH at a time to load up. And I was thinking oh, this was just crazy. I never even expected something like this to happen and then there was the final bidding war between that wallet and the DAO. And then eventually it went up to the wallet bidding up to 275 and the DAO hit back with 310 and then they won the auction.
“...they were literally adding 100 ETH at a time to load up. And I was thinking oh, this was just crazy. I never even expected something like this to happen and then there was the final bidding war between that wallet and the DAO.”
And then what's even more interesting is after the auction ended, the mysterious bidder on his Twitter made a tweet saying okay, well since I lost, is the DAO actually taking members? So then he or she asked to join the DAO.
CR: That's amazing. So they ended up also partly owning the piece?
PP: I don't know if they did end up joining the DAO. I hope they did.
CR: They could have.
PP: Yeah. I think they did. I don't know. Because I'm not in the DAO, so I don't know who they let in or who they don't. Because I know there are other people asking for admission to the DAO, but they did mention that they're not taking on new members until further notice. But I feel like they let the mysterious bidder into the DAO, but I'm going to have to clarify on that. I don't really know.
CR: Okay. Well, that would have been a cool ending.
PP: Yeah.
CR: I mean, totally I agree like the fact that it was a DAO that ended up buying your piece makes this whole story even cooler. And it is the first of its kind, like a decentralized organization forming to acquire NFTs and art. Because before most DAOs have been to invest in different projects. So the NFT bidding wars are going to get even more intense, because so far it's been individual collectors and whales outbidding each other. But now if you have the power of a community behind the wallet, it can get even crazier.
PP: Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I mean, all I can say it's crazy, because I woke up and then now there's a DAO named after me. But obviously, it's great. This whole story just came together in such a cool and interesting way. And I'm glad that it's a win for everybody. It's raising awareness for the charity of the cause. It's raising awareness for Uniswap. It's raising awareness for the concept of DAOs and DeFi.
And what's even greater is that the DAO still has left over Ethereum in their treasury, and they're going to keep it in there, and they're going to keep developing this DAO to commit themselves to further investments into NFTs and collecting art, which I think is going to inspire and encourage a lot of people as well. Because I think maybe there was this concept of, oh, what if the supply overcomes the demand, as in there's not enough liquidity amongst collectors anymore, something where everybody's trying to sell their art. But with this new introduction of collector DAOs, I think it's going to be a game-changer. So that was really cool to see.
“...there was this concept of, oh, what if the supply overcomes the demand, as in there's not enough liquidity amongst collectors anymore, something where everybody's trying to sell their art. But with this new introduction of collector DAOs, I think it's going to be a game-changer.”
Pplpleasr and NFTs’ Future
CR: Yeah, it definitely adds fuel to the NFT fire, which some people are already warning, that it might be in a bubble, but maybe it will keep inflating a bit longer. We'll see. So, what's next for you? This is huge proof that there is a lot of interest in your work. So do you plan to continue making art or creations for DeFi projects? Do you now want to sell your own pieces as NFTs and maybe keep the proceeds this time?
PP: Well, there's so many options. And this auction happened so recently, I don't think I really had proper time to sit down and think about what's next yet. But the same sort of community that supported and gave me a home for my work, I don't think I'm going to abandon. So I'd love to just continue making videos for DeFi protocols because I find it fun. But yeah, I'd also love to mint some of my own work as well. And I think there's interest for that. And there were people also expressing that okay, well, I couldn't afford this one. But are you going to do any drops in the future? And so maybe I'll do one that's either open edition or just more affordable so that not just mega whales or a DAO can own some of Pplpleasr’s work.
CR: Nice. That's awesome. I think a good candidate would be your first Yearn video.
PP: Yeah, maybe we'll see.
CR: Okay. And then to start wrapping up, I would love to hear your bigger vision for NFTs. Where do you see this space going? And how do you plan to leverage it as well in your own work in the future, in the more long term vision?
PP: I mean, I just hope that the space itself keeps expanding and growing. And I think that there's a lot of potential beyond just selling either videos or art, I mean JPG or IPFS. Anyway, and that sense of storing data, I think there's a lot more potential. For example, in gaming or metaverses as well. Real time assets are something that haven't even been explored yet in NFTs. They dabble in that in Decentraland or those metaverses.
But I think there's so much potential there to be had, but maybe the hardware that we currently have, either hardware or software side, haven't caught up to really support a very rich metaverse yet, for example. Which is why in terms of NFTs, it's also lagging a bit behind there. But I would love to personally see that space grow more and I'm excited about it and I would totally participate in it as well.
CR: You mean like NFTs in the metaverse?
PP: Yeah in the metaverse or in games, like NFTs could be even a special ability for a character or a skin, obviously, is a given. And you obviously see real life use cases of this existing in real world games already. So why not in the metaverse or on the blockchain?
CR: Are you a gamer?
PP: I don't have a lot of time to play games or watch TV these days, so I wouldn't call myself a super gamer. But I, obviously having worked at Blizzard, I'm familiar with games and I play some as well. I've played Overwatch, I'm not very good at Overwatch actually. And I have a Nintendo switch that really kept me company throughout the whole pandemic as well. Like I love playing Super Smash Brothers. I did the whole Animal Crossing phase as well. What about you?
CR: No, not really. I mean yeah, we have like a console here, but I don't. No. Not too much. I like outdoor games a bit more, like just not too techy, tennis, riding bikes...
PP: A lot more healthy.
CR: Yeah. So okay, but then NFTs as an enabler for artists like yourself… A lot of the hype around NFTs is around the potential of this technology changing the way artists want to take their work and connect with their communities do you see that sticking around or maybe it's just a phase that crypto is going on right now and it will kind of blow up and go away a little bit like ICOs?
PP: I don't think it's going anywhere. The technology itself is too revolutionary. And also, as I previously brought up, it already exists, this concept of ownership outside of NFTs and crypto.So this is cementing it with brand new technology that didn't exist before, in a way more efficient way. So I don't think it's going to go anywhere.
“I don't think it's going anywhere. The technology itself is too revolutionary. And also, as I previously brought up, it already exists, this concept of ownership outside of NFTs and crypto.So this is cementing it with brand new technology that didn't exist before, in a way more efficient way.”
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