Episode 44: Crypto Bushi | DAO Punks - Building an NFT Project
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Status
Timestamps:
00:00 - 00:44 - Introduction to Crypto Sapiens
00:45 - 01:36 - Guest Introduction
01:36 – 06:03 – The manifesto
06:03 - 16:00 – How Crypto Bushi came about DAO Punk
16:01 – 21:50 – Ideas on how people go from being Coprats to DAO Punk.
21:21 – 29:05 – Impact of the manifesto
29:06 – 35:15 – Digital Licensed Agreement terms and conditions
35:16 – 39:05 – Future of DAO punks
39:06 – 41:03 – Most influential throughout your Crypto Journey
41:04 – 43:00 – Conclusion
TRANSCRIPTION
[00:00:00] Humpty Calderon: Welcome to Crypto Sapiens, a show that hosts live discussions with innovative Web three builders to help you learn about decentralized money systems, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Defi .The podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only, and it is not financial advice. Crypto Sapiens is presented in partnership with BanklessDAO A movement for pioneer seeking freedom from the limitations of the traditional financial system. BanklessDAO will help the world go bankless by creating user friendly on ramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media, and culture.
[00:00:42] Hello and welcome back to Crypto Sapiens. Today we are talking with Crypto Bohi, founder of DAO Punks, and now also mean Lord at Bankless HQ we start our discussion with Crypto Bohi describing how he became Greenhill and joined BanklessDAO. After receiving an airdrop as an early supporter of Bankless HQ, he also recalls the role BanklessDAO community members had an inspiring DAO punks.
[00:01:06] We talk about the manifesto, which seeks to inspire a movement of cop rat to become DAO punks and to this effect, DAO Punks has created a grants program intended to provide individuals with the initial resources needed to take the leap and go full-time DAO in our conversation, we also touch on activating new joiners to a DAO empowering new ideas and making space for emergent leadership. So, without further ado, let's get started.
[00:01:33] Livefast: Hey Humpty, pleasure to be here. Thanks. Oh, I am livefast and, I have a very different origin story than CB over here. I've been in the crypto space for like, Oh God, like, it's gotta be like six years and if you even count the time before that, where I first heard about cryptocurrency, we're talking like, like origins, so like 2012 around there but I got, I found myself in DAO Punks, just, you know, Randomly shout out my, my friend B17Z, who's basically just like, you know, a friend of mine who I shoot the shit with about cryptocurrencies and just general things in the space. And I had talked to him one time about just like, you know, NFTs were blowing up and I didn't really know anything.
[00:02:12] I don't, I barely know anything. I'm constantly, I'm always like a year or two behind and I asked him one day, I was just like, Yo, I wanna own an NFT. I was like you own a few things you know this more than I do. Yo recommend me something, tell me something to look at.
[00:02:26] And he's like, Yo, check out DAO Punks. I think he's like, They got a good community, they got a good ethos, they have a good mantra of what they want, what they want. We're trying to achieve the art's pretty solid. And I was like, Yeah. And then like, And I remember the last thing he said is, Oh, by the way, if you get their NFT, you can get a, you can claim a free shirt.
[00:02:44] And I was like, Sold. So , I went on open sea and I was like, All right, like, what's the what's the floor price? Okay, cool. It's like 0.35Eth yeah, I'll pick up this. And so I bought, I picked up an NFT I liked just like some random one. I was like, Yeah, I like this. And you know, I bought it, claimed my shirt and I was like, Yeah, like, you know, we'll see how this goes. And then I kind of like put it away for about two months and I didn't really think much past that. And then couple months go buy and I just kind of like, was just starting to think about it and I was like, you know, I got like this end of tea, there's this community going on and I kind of wanna know what's happening, maybe I can get involved, maybe I can do something. I don't know what I can do, I don't know much, I know what I know and I know I don't know a lot of things about here, but, you know, let me just sit in. So two months after I bought my first my NFT of a DAO Punk, my Aon, I ended my first community call, sat in the community call. There was probably like five of us at the community call and I don't know what I'm doing, so I just sat in the community and I was just quiet, I just listened. I just remember like Hero and CB were in the community call and like they've been talking for like an hour about it and I'm just like listening and I was like, Oh, this is like pretty intense. You know, they're thinking about complex stuff and I don't know what I'm gonna do. I don't have an opinion on it and then they just straight up called me out, like in the middle of the call and they're like, Yo, live fast. You haven't said a single thing, what are your thoughts on this? And I was like, Oh, deer in headlights. I was like, I think you should do, like what about this? Or like, Here's my thought, but like, you know, I don't really know what I'm doing, I don't know what to think, and they just like, they just kept involving me. They wanted my opinion on this, I was in the community call and they were like, Okay, well we have community calls every week. You know, it'd be, you know, attend and ever since then, I've just been intending community calls and just doing things, just being more vocal in the discord and trying to give my 2 cents answer questions, just read and make sure things are going on. And, you know, before I knew it, you know, I just found myself to be around so much CB and the rest of the team let me become a community manager, and the next thing I know, I'm pitching like high powered ideas, the digital licensing agreement, how we should handle governance, how we should do grants. I just, you know it was just like, it's almost like an imposter syndrome. I don't really know much of anything, but the next thing I know, I'm like, Hey, I have this idea here's it flushed out. Like, what do you guys think? What, what, what are your thoughts about this and so that's how I came to be.
[00:05:03] Humpty Calderon: That's amazing. And again, I think a few things there to unpack too. So let's go back a little bit and then hopefully we can come back and touch on these things as well, because I think it's important to talk about this idea of how we build these inclusive communities, right? Especially when there may be a few individuals who choose to be a little more silent because maybe that's their nature, maybe. Feel like themselves they themselves are imposters in this space because it's so fast-moving because maybe they just got started, but they themselves are the ones that have these really big ideas that help these projects move forward and mature. So, yeah, 100% wanna touch on this, but I do wanna go back to that point that we're making earlier in terms of Crypto Bushi, what you were doing in terms the work previous to Web three. Was it art related? How did your art come to be influenced and how did that art eventually become what we know now as DAO punks?
[00:05:59] Crypto Bushi: Yeah, so that's interesting. So, no, I was absolutely not doing anything with art. I was kind of doing the furthest thing from it, I was. I was a business broker and so some people will call it like mergers and acquisitions. And so essentially what I was doing is I was working with like small business owners and I was helping small business owners and small business buyers basically purchase or buy and sell small businesses. And so these would be businesses like local restaurants, local bars, local like boutique stores, stuff like that. And so I was working with a lot of entrepreneurs and I was in my full capacity, I was basically like a salesman and I really enjoyed it. I mean, one thing that was really interesting that I think there's a lot of parallels with kind of what I was doing before and what I'm doing now, is that I was essentially helping people kind of break free out of the system like a lot of the businesses that I was selling, essentially what I was doing was I was helping entrepreneurs exit their business so that they could retire or maybe they had like a big life change going on. Like maybe they were, maybe they were sick or maybe they were moving because of grandchildren or whatever, and they needed to sell their business. And I was helping, you know, younger entrepreneurs who are hungry and, and ready to kind of take a new chapter in their life, step into a new business and into a whole new chapter and pursue new things. And so like some of my clients were people that would leave like the corporate world and step into like entrepreneurship.
[00:07:23] You know, a lot of people think that when you're an entrepreneur you have to like start a business. Well, you don't always have to start a business. There's a lot of businesses out there that you can purchase as well. And so that was basically what I was doing. But really I would say I was always kind of like an artist at heart though.
[00:07:38] Like, I think one thing that gave me like a really big competitive edge was. Growing up I was always like learning new kind of digital marketing techniques. Like I was learning Photoshop at a young age just for fun. I was like learning, you know, video production software like Adobe After Effects and Premiere.
[00:07:58] I was learning like web design, I was learning graphic design. I was always kind of learning these skills except I was just applying them differently. Like I was basically applying them to marketing so that I could, you know, get new clients and do more deals and so when I shifted completely and I left that behind, I basically just took all those skills that I was using and just reapplied them into something different.
[00:08:24] And so instead of like making marketing graphics and stuff like that, I was making other stuff that I thought was cool. But it all, everything comes full circle in life. It's kind of interesting, like there's a lot of times in my life where I was like spending a lot of time learning something. And I never could really figure out like how I could apply it but then as the years go on, you're like, Oh yeah. Like, you know, I got super obsessed with photography for like three years and I bought all these nice cameras and all these things and I never became a photographer. But all that time learning photography taught me like composition of photos taught, taught me color theory taught me, you know, how to properly edit photos, things like that, that I now apply to, like my art that I use today. And so I would stress to people that are listening to this, like, you don't always have to have like a reason why you're like learning something. Like if you're interested. Then that's the sign enough, like just keep doing it. Not everything has to be like fleshed out completely to where you're like, Oh, how am I gonna like monetize this? Or, Oh, I can't learn photography because I don't, I'm not gonna be like ever a professional photographer. It's like, well, you don't, you don't know what you're gonna use those skills for in the future. Like, you might not be professional photographer, but you might use those skills for something else, stuff like that.
[00:09:41] Humpty Calderon: Yeah, that makes sense and I think that is a gift of getting older, is that as you get older, hopeful that this wisdom hopefully comes into play. And you, what you learn, I think is the interconnectedness of everything both relationships work skills, values, and so, yeah, 100% agree with you. I think that many times we may see that we're doing something because it is fun, it's interesting, it's hopefully maybe helping us build out our career, but at the end of the day when we, you know, kind of jump into new life experiences, some of these things have relationships to one another and because we took the time to build out those you know, values or skills, We are better for it in this brand new experience.
[00:10:30] And so I think the same thing can be said for artists you know, business people and entrepreneurs who are coming into the web three space that anything that they have learned and utilized and maybe previous work experience can certainly be bridged into the web three ecosystem. In fact, personally I think that I would like to see a lot more like sociologists and psychologists and you know, these humanities individuals come into the space because I think that those would be incredibly valuable at Enrichening, this ecosystem and you know, because this is primarily driven by people. And for people. And so these, I think, you know, professionals with these ideas and education, I think could potentially help build out a, you know, this, this space into something a lot more dynamic, richer, fair and inclusive. Absolutely
[00:11:19] Crypto Bushi: I just wanna jump in real fast. I just thought of something too, I think's important to go off this as well. And this is another thing that like, you know, being a business broker taught me as well and this I think applies great with Web three. Like the number one mistake that I see a lot of people make, or at least a lot of my friends make right now, is that they identify themselves to what they do for a living and I just think that's such a dangerous concept because basically you're just putting yourself in this box to where. Then what you chose to do early on in life is essentially you and then it becomes really hard to change yourself in the future. And so I think there's a lot of people out there in the world that they think that like they only have one shot at like becoming this, you know what they want to be and they have a hard time like shifting that narrative into something else. And what I want people to realize is that like you literally are like who you say you. And so like, you know, one day you might be a salesman and the next day if you want to be an artist, all you have to do is start saying to yourself that you're an artist and start being an artist. You don't have to always be this one thing. And, and essentially that's what I loved about business brokerage is that. I saw people transition completely. I mean, I saw people who practiced, you know, corporate law for 30 years, drop, you know, drop that completely cuz they said, You know what? I hate this.
[00:12:49] I'm gonna buy a landscaping company and be a landscaper. And you know, that's such a weird concept to think about because that's not really something that society, you know, teaches you. But the same kind of applies over here in Web three. Like if you're not a coder right now, but you wanna be a coder, well guess what? You can be . All you have to do is start coding and now you're a coder. You know, granted, you're probably not gonna be a very good coder at first, but you're still a coder and so it's the same thing with like being an artist. You know, if you're, if you're like an executive assistant in the web two world and you want to be whatever over here in web three, I mean the, the opportunity is, is actually here and you can do that. It really just takes you starting to believe that you are what you want it to be. And I don't want it to sound cliche, like I think it's just, I think it's true, and I think Web three is opening up that space for everybody you know, let's, let's face it like everybody's anon in this space, even people that docs themselves, you still really don't know anything about them. Like basically we all believe what people tell us, and there's this kind of level of separation from web three identity to your real identity. And so it's, we're really all trusting each other here. And so when you go and meet somebody and they say that they're a developer, Then you probably believe that they're a developer.
[00:14:14] And so I really urge people like, take that opportunity. Like, if you don't like what you're doing now, just switch and start doing something else because like we're, we are probably in one of the only times in history where that's actually possible and I just, I just find it kind of baffling there's so many miserable, miserable people in this world because it really is like, you don't have to be miserable. You can, you can enjoy what you're doing and you can make a living doing it, but you have to just make that jump though.
[00:14:46] Humpty Calderon: Yeah. You know, I think you're touching on something that also I personally believe in and is one of the reasons why I'm an advocate for the Web three space and a huge believer in DAOs is I think that the future that they're facilitating is one that is self sovereign and I don't just mean that in the, you know, traditional ways, both in terms of ownership of identity and all of these other things that are attached to that identity. I also mean in terms of like choice and the work that you do, and getting fulfillment and building something, getting ownership in something that you believe in that aligns with, you know, your personal values because I do think that there is an attachment of your identity to your work, but I don't think that that is necessarily right or true. There should be, you know, these, that your identity should be driven by values, these core beliefs inalienable, right? And yeah, I think that that should be influencing what you choose to do for work, and there's a certain freedom to that in web three that I think can certainly create some new opportunities for people who may not have had that in the past. Also because it's global, it's asynchronous. We're able to work with people from around the world in ways that we, I don't think have had an opportunity to do so either.
[00:15:59] But you touched on some things just now that I think beautifully segue into the DAO punk mantra, right, Which talks about coprats and becoming a DAO punk. I think some of these values or some of these ideas and beliefs and how we connect to work are part of that coprat mindset. Can you walk me through a little bit about what, where that came from, that idea of like helping people go from being a coprat to a DAO Punk, and how does that exemplify itself in the project and just generally maybe in your life.
[00:16:37] Crypto Bushi: Yeah. It really started with just like a meme. I mean, me and Sygen were the really, the founding members of kind of the DAO punk idea. And, well, I don't wanna say the idea. It really, we, the Bankless DAO community was the idea and we just kind of we wanted to put a visual to it, so I won't say we were the founders of that idea, but we were basically, Talking about launching like an art project. Like we just wanted to launch an art project and cuz NFTs were blown up and you know, we, me and Syngen are both kind of builder mentality and we're like, Okay, cool. Like other people are building some cool stuff, like let's build something cool too.
[00:17:16] And we originally just started with just like wanting to make some cool art and Syngen comes from a fashion design background. He's worked for a bunch of really just impressive companies in the web two world. And so he had all the means to take like our artwork and, and turn it into physical. And again I wasn't an artist before. You know, it's still kind of weird for me to say I'm an artist now. So I had never had an opportunity to like put my artwork on, on shirts out in the real world. So when Syngen met, you know, brought that to me, I was like, Absolutely. Like that would be so cool. Like having some people walk around the streets with like some of my artwork on it.
[00:17:54] Yeah, let's do it. And it started with just such a basic idea and it just continued to evolve because you know, we started with just a super simple idea. I think we only want us to do like a hundred shirts or something. And they were just gonna be of like one piece of art and then syns like, Oh, well, you know, can we do a generative project? And I was like, No, absolutely not. Like I don't know how. And then eventually I figured it out and then more people started joining the team in Bankless DAO and we ended up having like 15 people at one point working on the project before it launched. You know, out of each meeting we just kept leaving the meeting with different thoughts and ideas, and Syngen was like, you know, this needs to be a movement. We need to turn this into a movement. And so that's when he came up with like the manifesto, which is really where this whole like DAO punk ethos was born. And it all was basically reflective. What we saw happening in Bankless style. And so that's what I mean earlier by like we we're not like the founders or, or the creators of the idea of DAO Punks. We basically are just trying to like, I guess record it in history, visually of what we believe DAO punks look like. And so we saw all these people working in the DAO in various DAOs, basically doing what they love to do, picking what they want to do, and, you know, making money doing it. And I think we both like to think that in the future, the world will be more like that, To where you don't have to be miserable.
[00:19:25] Like you don't have to like pick, you don't have to pick a job straight out of high school or college and then do it forever. Because humans are interesting creatures. I mean, it's like, you know, one day you like something, the next day you don't. So it's just, it's so idiotic to think that like, You have to straight out of high school know what you wanna study in college for four years. And then once you leave college, you do that for the rest of your life. It's just silly. But unfortunately society is built like that. And so really we're, we're just trying to imagine like, how would we wanna work, you know? And I think Syngen has always been a super big inspiration on all of this stuff because he's such a free spirit. And I know you, you've talked to Syngen a bunch, but he's just super inspirational . He, he likes to work on, you know, really big idea projects and I think, I think he was the original one who kind of came up with this whole ethos.
[00:20:16] Humpty Calderon: Yeah. I've also peaked at a recent deck and it looks like y'all are just continuing to build. Maybe I want. Awfully could hear, cuz I hear that y'all are gonna have some sort of like surprise stuff happening, but it may have something to do with a bus, which I think is super dope. kind of continuing on this mission right? And expanding that to a much wider audience.
[00:20:37] Crypto Bushi: Yeah. Yeah. GM bus. It's gonna be really cool. So I'll yeah, I don't, I don't know exactly when they're gonna launch it, but that's gonna be a fun experience too. It's basically gonna be a bus that travels around the country and, and potentially the world. And it's gonna try to help educate people on crypto past, like again, past what people believe. Like most, most normal people in the real world, when you talk about crypto, they just think about the investing aspect of crypto. They don't realize that like there's this whole kind of underlying community doing other things. And so we really need more people to go out into the world and say like, Hey, okay cool. You own Ethereum and Bitcoin. You know, let's go do some other stuff with it. Like you don't just have to hold it in like a custody wallet.
[00:21:20] Humpty Calderon: Right. No, I mean that's exactly the space that we would like to believe that we fill too, is that education initiative, because there's more than just, like you said, talking about the financial elements of crypto, but there's a lot more, There's definitely these more meta discussions, these social, social sociological movements, right? In terms of how it impacts people in the way that they work, how it impacts people in the way that they can govern themselves, gain ownership over things, you know, build along these like shared values.
[00:21:49] So since we are, I guess on that, I think I do wanna circle back on something that you were just talking about, and that's the manifesto, right? And I think that it's important to discuss the value of this generally in terms of like how you drive communities together or bring communities together through the values, right, Through the mission of an organization, and you were talking about how Syngen was influential to this. But I think before then, I don't think that I had seen manifestos being used as this construct that was not just a, something that was like marketing speak, but certainly something that drove an idea even further and made it relatable and made it kind of like the driving force of that project. So, I guess maybe if you wouldn't mind, and I know you touched on it a little bit already, but like what have you seen in terms of like the impact of the manifesto and how do you see maybe just these values and mission driving both DAO punks into the future, but also maybe even some of these other projects that you're involved with?
[00:22:52] Crypto Bushi: Yeah, I think it's super important, you know, what we saw during this big. Kind of mania phase with like NFTs in crypto obviously as well. We saw all these projects launching and they were just coming outta the woodworks. I mean, at one point it was almost like every single day there was like three or four projects dropping, and it was just amazing to see how many things were, were launching at one point. And I remember like everybody got to the point where it's like, this is not sustainable. And you know, obviously we, we see that now. And so I think if you're gonna launch a project, you really need to like take a step back and say to yourself like, Okay, why am I launching this project ? You know, what's the point? Why would anybody be interested in this project? You know, what is this project going to solve, if anything? And really try to like put all that stuff down. And I guess originally like a lot of that was through like a roadmap and stuff like that, but Syngen, Yeah, I think Syngen came up with the idea of the manifesto too. Like, Hey, we should have like a manifesto. And really what was nice about the manifesto is that it really, it really made us take a step back before we launched and say like, Well, why are we doing this? You know, what's the point? All these, all these questions that we had to answer. And it helped a lot because once you could effectively answer those questions it gave you a lot more like peace of mind that you're like, Okay, I'm moving in the right direction and that there's actually like a need here. And one thing that I, that I noticed too is that like a lot of people, when we did launch the project, a lot of people really did resonate with the manifesto. Like one of the things that I saw that was shared the most on Twitter regarding our project was the manifest. And so, you know, not only was it like a really great thing that kind of, it explained the whole project in kind of like one paragraph. It also really like, was a great marketing tool and it really like pulled people together towards like a cause because it kind of hit on some like heartstrings where people are like, you know what?
[00:24:56] Yeah. Like, I really don't like what I'm doing now. And it kind of helped people realize that they can actually like, You know, there is like a light at the end of the tunnel sort of vibe and so I think it's a super powerful thing. Another project that I know you had on not long ago that also had like a super hard hitting manifesto was Cult DAO and I think, you know, that was probably one of the main reasons why Cult DAO was as or still is, as popular as it is. It's because the manifesto is just so well written and it hits on like so many heartstrings to where people are like, you know what? I'm gonna get into this project just because I believe in the manifesto. Like I don't even care about the other stuff. And so I think it's important.
[00:25:38] Humpty Calderon: Yeah. And I mean we have livefast here on stage, so I'd be curious to hear from you how that manifesto impacted you, because again, this was something you brought up earlier in your introduction is in terms of like maybe your feeling of maybe having an imposter syndrome, but really being encouraged by the project and the people in the project to participate, to contribute and to come up with these really interesting ideas that are helping to continue to move the project forward.
[00:26:05] So, Livefast, if you wouldn't mind, I'd love to hear from you in terms of how this manifesto, I guess, helped with your introduction to the project and then maybe even to your transition in becoming an active contributor in that project.
[00:26:18] Livefast: I'm gonna out myself and I'm gonna feel embarrassed because like I said in the beginning, when I first got into the project, I went in with a, I went on my recommendation for my friend, and I liked the art, the art was dope and I bought it. I didn't read the manifesto and probably until like maybe my third or fourth week after attending governance calls, I'm so sorry. So, but like, but you know even then the idea of what it, the manifesto is and what it means to me is like, it's so in line with my personal character. Even in my, even in my personal life. I work for the people. I work in intellectual property. I actually help inventors and like companies like, you know, with intellectual property questions and patent protections and stuff. So like, I am for helping to improve other people's lives with their own ingenuity to really like, you know, they have an idea whether or not they get protection from that idea to make sure that it is new and novel. So, you know, even in, in, in a weird way, it is just like, I was like built for this like manifesto to help liberate other people to, you know, bring them into like, you know, removed, like help get them out of their other job and really towards improving their lives through whatever idea that they had had built upon.
[00:27:32] So it just, it just, it's in a weird twist of faith. It just kind of, it all seems to just worked out even in my current, like. Position where the stuff that I'm working on for, DAO Punks, it is all based on not improving myself, but just improving our community members and giving them giving them options or like the ability to do things that they didn't know that they would want or they could have. That's, you know, it's all about like, I'm trying, trying to just help them be better or have the option to do things that, you know, they didn't think were possible or that they could do or stuff like that, and remove roadblocks that may or may not be presented for themselves.
[00:28:10] Humpty Calderon: I mean, it sounds like either directly or indirectly you are repeating some of that, you know, the manifesto and some of those core ideas, Right, Of building something that is rewarding for people and to give them, you know, this opportunity to do meaningful work to build communities, to build bridges and blaze trails, as it says.
[00:28:30] So, yeah, it's, it's interesting. Right? I mean, it sounds like maybe for you, the art which also for me was hugely influential. I am a holder of a few DAO punks. In fact, there's one for me, one for my wife, and we got our shirts and we do wear them proudly. And so, yeah, I think that there's something to be said in terms of like the artwork that looks really badass, but also in terms of like just it's so deeply ingrained in the, in the project, in its, Right that maybe it ne it goes without saying. It really is just permeated the culture of the project. So I'd be curious since, since we already have you unmuted here live fast, Talk a bit about this recent initiative that was passed at DAO Punks and what that means for the future of the project and its community.
[00:29:18] Livefast: Yes, the DAO Punk's Digital License Agreement terms and conditions passed yesterday overwhelmingly with a vote of a 88 unique addresses 179 DAO Punks NFTs were voted in favor with two DAO punks voted in dissent.
[00:29:33] We are. Offering now owners of DAO Punks will have a royalty free license for personal use and will have an unlimited worldwide commercial license to use their DAO punks for derivative arts and other projects that they see fit. This was a project of mine or a topic of discussion for months.
[00:29:52] Long, long chats in in the in the DAO punks Discord over what can we actually do? I, you know, it started off as just a, an innocent question to to Crypto Bushi, Syngen, to the other high powered people in the DAOPunks team I am by no means you know, high powered I'm just another DAO Punks on Holder in the team. Just ask them a simple question, what can I do with my DAO punk? It seems to be unclear. We don't have anything in like down on paper or there doesn't seem to be any thing written and the response back was, yeah, we don't and I was just like, you know, I'm like looking like, you know, I look around at the other space and I just kind of was like looking at other projects as everybody does, and I just kind of was like, you know, a lot of people kind of like have. Like limits. And like they want, they like, you know, they say what you can and can't do and I just got kind of like fell down this rabbit hole question of just like, well what do we, what should we do with this? And I just started off and then it was just like looking at different ideas. What do other people, what do other big name projects have? What do they say that they can do? And I kind of as I did research and I looked into it like, you know, there is a wide wide gamut of like differing opinions of what you can do with your nft art from very restrictive to only personal use, to no commercial use, to, you have to get approval from the DAO for any type of commercial use or to flat out non-commercial use to the generic, like you can do whatever you want, there are no restrictions. You don't even have to own the NFT to actually use the art. And I came like, I just, I thought about it and I asked the questions and I posed questions to the community. And a lot of it was just like, a lot of people were very like, you know, this is, this is very complex. You know, you, you, you seem to be very interested in it. Just write flesh out like, you know, just talk about it. Like see what people are saying. And there's a few community engagements in there and I ask pose questions and I just kind of just ask, ask everybody, like, ask people. I was like, What do you think? What do you want? Like, what do, like, what do other people want to do with your DAO punk?
[00:31:53] And a lot of people were just like, I don't know, man. I just want to use it, I just wanna keep it what, it doesn't really matter to me. And so I kind of like grabbed sentiment and I came up with some ideas and I was like, Okay, so like here, we boiled it down to like a three options, you know, whether or not it was like the, the CC zero like, you know, protections. We went with the, like the yoga lab space board, a yacht club. Like, we're just like, Look, you can go, it's, you own the nft, you own it. Like go ham. And then there were like the other models where it's just like you, you own it, but you can't use it for commercial purposes. And I just knew, like in my core, that like, The DAO punks, I was like, you know, you, we want, like, we want people to use it and like I, we want people to use it and we don't wanna like restrict them and if this is what it, like if the DAO punk is very representative of what you're supposed to be and you, you resonate with both the archetype that we have cause we have each Dow Punk has like you're one of a few architects that you could be and people. Pick their do pumps based on their archetype, like they resonate you, you have this custom, like you feel this connection with it. Use it. I was like, you know, use it. Go use it as your avatar. Use it as your spokesperson for whatever you want. And I just pushed very hard for the license agreement as it's drafted right now. It's a. For co, you know, the board of yacht club license agreement that they have.
[00:33:09] And I just, I felt, I was like, You know what? This is us. This is what we want. We are going to use this. This is right in line with everything that we would have And I pushed hard and a lot of people had questions and was concerns, and I was like, Look. I was like, You know, this is, I think this is it.
[00:33:26] This is what we're gonna do. This is the best option for us. And I sat there and I wrote drafts and I wrote multiple drafts. I attempted to write, I wrote this multiple times. I sent it out to people and I was like, People like read this. And it was just like a few people were interested, Few people were questions, but a lot of people were just like, overall, were just like, I'm too sure. Like, maybe, maybe this is over my head. And I, and I, and I got, and I got this weighted too. I'm not a lawyer. I, I don't, I don't, I don't know the legal ease of this. And, and when it came down to it, I was just like, I had a draft, I had like what I considered like the final version of it. And I had it in my hands for about a month. And like, I was just like, I think I'm ready and I'm ready to like post it. And I, like, I sent out a few messages and like a lot, I didn't get a lot of reception back and I was just like, I, I don't know what to do. Like I have this draft, I'm like, I need to get, I was like, I would like to have like some lawyers look at it, like wanna get more feedback And I was on a phone call with crypto Bushi one day and he just like flat out told. Bro. He's like, Send . He's like, It's done. He's like, you go do it. He's like, this is what it's going to be. I was like, All right. Like, I called up, I have one friend, bless or heart patients who literally took one look at it, gave me some comments, gave me some notes, gave me some additional things to think about, and I made my last few edits. I was like it, this is exactly what we need. And I put it up for Snapshot and I was like, this is it for the DAO punks? They'll tell me what we want to do. And by overwhelming the majority, I mean, we had people turn out for this vote that like, I'm shock. I'm like, I'm so happy and I'm so proud of it. And it's just, it's, it did, it turned out better than I could expected.
[00:34:58] Humpty Calderon: Yeah, that's good. I mean, I think that that just goes to reinforce this idea of like community ownership, permissionless contributorship, Right? So it's good to see that this continues to be explored and, you know, tinkered with and perfected and improved, I guess is a better word within the DAO Punks ecosystem. So, to start wrapping things up, I guess I have two questions here. Now. The first one would be like, so what does the future look like for DAO Punks? Now that we have this new licensing agreement, I did see something about. I think it was through your Twitter account, Crypto Bushi that there, or maybe it was a DAO Punk's Twitter account that y'all are looking for new developers to kind of build out some new novel experience within the, the project.
[00:35:38] Crypto Bushi: Yeah, so our number one whole like roadmap or plan or whatever you wanna call it, the whole like reason for DAO Punks was to be like a grants giving DAO like we wanna be like a public good. And so we have all this e in our treasury that we fundraise from the primary sale. Granted, it's worth a little bit less in USD value now, but we have all this money sitting in our treasury and we, we wanna give it away and we want to grant money to people that have like similar ideals to us in terms of like working in DAOs, working in web three even projects. And so it took us about six months just to get like a working grant program going and you know, I think that's another thing to say here too, like running a project in web three and running it as a DAO is really hard. It's really, really hard. Just the nature of how DAOs are built. They're not always built for, for quick, decisive action. When you have everybody input inputting ideas, it's very slow. There's a lot of conversations. It takes a long time to do stuff, and so we were all super excited when we did our first grant rounds, but now that grant round's over and we need to continue to do grant rounds, and so really, our number one priority is to keep doing grants at least until we run out of money.
[00:36:56] The other facet of DAO punks that was always kind of interesting is that we also had this kind of play on fashion. And so the, you know, I think, again, it's kind of cliche when people say like, Oh, you get a free shirt. It wasn't just a free shirt. It was, we were basically taking this new idea of one of one NFTs on the blockchain, and we wanted to figure out, okay, can we take these one of one NFTs and then make one of one shirts in the real world, which hadn't been done before, but all of the technology to do it was there and it was present.
[00:37:28] And so we really wanted to kind of be like the first to do that. And so the shirts that everybody, They weren't just like, you know, one off shirts to where everybody got the same shirt, they were one shirt that had your specific DAO Punk on it. And it's the only one shirt with that specific DAO Punk that will ever exist.
[00:37:45] And so that was like a super interesting feat that we accomplished as well to even figure that out logistically. And so that was kind of another interesting facet to the project and we have some ideas on some more interesting kind of fashion related plays that, that we're exploring that we need some developers for. It would make us, again, like another first in the fashion world for doing something like this. And I like to say like, we're basically trying to merge the physical with the digital and in the fashion world that's still very new and young and so that's kind of a fun thing that we're interested in as well. But again, the first number one thing that we're most interested in doing is, is giving away grants. And making sure that we can help as many people as possible. And I mean, I think what's super interesting to note too is like we had like 50 people apply for the first grant and a lot of those people were from all around the world. That money really could go a long way in some places. I mean like $2,000 in the United States might not go that far, but like $2,000 in like places like Africa and places like that, it goes a really long way. And so we just want to keep continuing to try to help people and that's our number one priority.
[00:38:59] Humpty Calderon: Yeah, I'm a huge fan and proponent of public goods as well, and happy to see the alignment with that as well over at DAO Punks. So, one last question that we'd normally like to ask here to our guests, and I will share that question with you too, is, you know, it doesn't just have to be on crypto Twitter, but you know, who has been or what has been most influential to you through your crypto journey? It could be someone. Early on kind of facilitated that, you know, kind of idea and helped guide you. It could have been a newsletter, a podcast, you know, a blog. So yeah, it Who or what would you say has been most influential to you in your crypto journey?
[00:39:39] Crypto Bushi: Yeah, this is a super easy one for me. So I would say it would be Ryan Sean Adams and David Hoffman from Bankless HQ and it was funny because when I first kind of started getting some interest in crypto, I'm all like, I'm really one of those people that like, I have a very addictive personality and so when I, like, when I jump into something, I way overcomplicate it, like I obsess about it. I usually do way more research than I need to. And so when I first started getting into crypto, I was like, Okay, well I need to learn like as much as possible so that I can get like an edge, right? And so I started listening to all the podcast. And one that I really enjoyed was Bankless the Bankless podcast, which is super popular and they always just had some great guests on, and they're just some cool guys. And I remember there was one specific episode where they started talking about working in web three and stuff like that. And I'll never forget, David Hoffman said Web three is looking for more people to work in the industry. Like if you wanna work in crypto, you can work in crypto. All you have to do is just start doing it. And I remember thinking, I was like, Yeah, sure, whatever. Like I was just so like, yeah, okay. Like that's so much easier said than done. But long story short, like now I literally work for bankless. Like I work for those same guys that like, I was super excited and like inspired by. And so I, I think it easily hints down, goes to those guys.
[00:41:04] Humpty Calderon: And that's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with crypto Bushi and live fast. It's great to see the organic growth of communities and the value they unlock by empowering their members. I hope to see the flipping of more corporates into DAO Punks in the future. If you'd like to connect with Crypto Bushi, you can find 'em on Twitter at the Crypto Bushi.
[00:41:25] And to learn more about DAO Punks, you can go to DAO punks.io and on Twitter at DAO punks nft. Thanks for listening to Crypto Sapiens. If you enjoy this episode, please give us a five star review wherever you enjoy your podcast. It costs $0, means the world to us and helps others discover this content too. You can also find more conversations like this one by visiting our website@cryptosapiens.xyz. I look forward to reconnecting with you at our next discussion.