Steph and Dan, what's good?
Dennis, if you want to come to stage,
Carlos, if you could make me host
so I can invite people to stage too,
We'll give it like two minutes
for people to trickle in.
I'm excited for this conversation.
Dennis was starting beef on the timeline,
so now I'm even more excited.
I'm just trying to get more people,
Give it to like 04, let's say.
I think the way this will go
is in like a minute, Dennis.
I'll just have you give a quick introduction,
and then we'll just jump right
into like some of the topics
and then maybe 20 minutes into it,
and we'll probably let this last
for like 35, 40 minutes max.
Just like keep it concise.
Some of the conversations
going really, really good.
Well, welcome, everybody.
Appreciate folks who have joined already.
like people are trickling in throughout,
so I'm sure we'll see some more phases,
but I already see some familiar ones,
We got Dennis from Mirror today.
Dennis, if you want to give a quick introduction
and we can jump from there.
I'm Dennis, founder of Mirror XYZ.
Mirror is a Web3 publishing platform
that tightly integrates with NFTs.
We have some of the biggest projects
publishing their Hello World posts,
also dropping NFTs on Mirror
and also smaller creators
use this to publish essays,
give context to their art,
And we've been going at it
for a little over two years.
I was at another crypto startup
Back in the Bitcoin days,
there we were just thinking about
kind of non-financial applications
It existed before Ethereum existed.
That company was acquired by Spotify.
It was at Spotify for about a year
and then was in VC for about two years,
part of the founding team
So it's kind of been a long journey
And old friends with Forefront,
they've been Mirror supporters
and a huge fan of what you guys
one of the best newsletters
Have a really amazing community,
really awesome kind of numbership,
that is a big inspiration for us.
I'm really excited to be here.
And big fan of Spotlight,
what you guys are doing recently.
we'll definitely dig into that.
I want to dig into a little bit,
you listed some of like the,
that are using Mirror currently.
Like how have the types of people
that are using Mirror evolved
I think where things started was,
Mirror started end of 2020
when I think kind of before,
the big NFT wave took off
kind of OpenSea blowing up
like the PFP activity happening.
I think like our original appeal was,
built products and experiments
I think a big unlock for us
and enabling this like data storage primitive,
like permanent data storage
real content-based applications
Like when I was building media chain
it was just early days of IPFS,
like Palcoin didn't exist,
You can really put content on chain
to build content-based applications
So I think it really resonated
with people that you could
in a totally Web3 native way,
have the content live on chain,
NFT monetization to that.
So those were background,
but your question was around,
how has kind of usage evolved
I think that the most exciting thing
like the rise of on-chain brands
both projects and creators,
I think this is originally
kind of inspired by creators,
so I think it's like really cool
getting inspired by early adopters
and adopting like NFT strategies.
So I think basically blew it up
where they minted their logo.
I think this ties into like,
like how important storytelling,
is to building a strong brand,
building a strong community.
you got like a cool poster,
something you're proud of
to be part of the community,
if you love a sports team
represent your connection
are just this new technology
if you're like a skater kid,
everyone knows what you look like,
recognizes another skater kid
through digital collectibles
brands can put their logo,
like if Web3 really works,
those would be less successful.
maybe like more speculative
except expecting an airdrop.
in a continuous narrative
no recurrent touch points.
there's like an interesting
collaboration they're doing.
that you immediately recognize.
with projects like Rainbow.
like updated in real time
almost kind of like a universe
horizon of little mascots,
the return of the mascot,
of like some of the best,
that the community member
really interesting projects
where you want to re-engage,
and kind of collect them all.
participating over and over again.
some of the bigger projects
that are publishing on Mir
who are maybe just trying
and don't have that strategy.
are beginning to converge,
strategically release on-chain.
are starting to think about like,
how do we have consistent cadence
that isn't just like branded,
tokens that are commemorating
at least on Mir right now,
in like a converging direction?
maybe talk about like essays
and writing as a use case.
and something that resonates
kind of values based argument.
social platform centralization,
the advertising business model,
this kind of aspirational
like some of the original
foundations are lost there.
technology is very similar,
it's signaling that you're
part of a group of people
like-minded early adopters.
having a wallet is showing
you believe in this technology
and you support these values
we are kind of fellow travelers
part of the same movement.
without the Bitcoin white paper
a lot of these early values?
Vitalik is one of the best writers
the quality of the Ethereum community
of the Ethereum community
Vitalik hugely propagated those
with all the great writing
the potential of the psychology
and like I was saying before,
through the act of collecting
It's to say to the creator,
to the creator that to say,
I'm aligned with the story
we finally have this new technology
what I was saying before,
that's also participating.
between those community members.
I think like the first chapter
OpenSea is a commerce platform.
But I think the next chapter
and a lot more community driven.
different product experiences.
And there's some really cool
what's in your inventory,
if someone has the same taste
how can I follow their taste?
I think we're going to see
around not just the connection
NFTs that are in my wallet.
what is conspicuous consumption
their position in society
you are in a higher class
essentially expensive things.
extremely expensive house,
on the street or whatever,
throughout the 20th century
being able to afford luxury
you can rent it for a night
you can get fancy clothes
that aren't an investment
you care about climate change,
you care about the environment,
that you have these values.
the coffee making process,
some crazy roasting process.
you're a fellow traveler,
I think like tons of examples
I think a lot of these things
a strong craft behind them,
a strong history behind them.
It's showing people that,
I forget how many minutes
Maybe I know a little bit
I'm down with these ideas,
and it's kind of human scale,
things I'm interested in as well.
really interesting things
I think this is building up
why are billions of people
Because it's just going to,
I went on a little tangent there,
hopefully that was rolling.
I was actually having a conversation
that continues to come up
deep down the crypto rabbit hole
very deep down Twitter rabbit holes,
is part of many different subcultures
collecting things on-chain,
that needs to be drawn out
and actually get them collecting?
And it's a great question
powerlifting influencers,
because there's a united,
whatever is being shared,
look at what I just minted.