Will Every Piece of Media Enter the Internet as an NFT? Variant Fund Says Yes - Ep.317
Unchained
Empowerment through Ownership: The Rise of Web3 and NFTs
This chapter explores the profound shift in investment philosophies shaped by experiences in the crypto and Web3 spaces, highlighting the emerging ownership economy. Through discussions on the struggles of social media creators and artists with traditional compensation systems, the chapter emphasizes the potential of NFTs to democratize financial rewards and ownership. The dialogue reveals how decentralized models can empower individuals and transform the digital landscape, paving the way for a more inclusive and equitable economic model.
Variant Fund is a venture capital firm that describes itself as “a first-check crypto fund investing in the ownership economy.” Jesse Walden and Li Jin, co-founders and general partners at Variant, join Unchained to discuss the ownership economy, issues with web2 and web3, NFTs, the future of work, and more. Highlights:
- where Li and Jesse met and how their backgrounds as investors + founders led them to the crypto space
- how Li’s investing niche, which she describes as the passion economy, ended up intersecting with crypto
- why Li believes that web3 platforms will be better for creators than the current web2 ecosystem
- why Jesse was so inspired by Bitcoin after working in the music industry for so many years
- why Jesse believes that NFTs are the “port of entry” for the mainstream adoption of crypto
- what other use-cases exist for NFTs outside of the JPEG or PNG meme (and why Jesse is so excited about music NFTs)
- why Li believes that web3 tools can help fix the issues inherent to the “gig economy”
- Li and Jesse respond to criticisms of web3 coming from Jack Dorsey and Moxie Marlinspike
- how Variant Fund thinks about investing in crypto projects
- what token allocation Variant Fund targets when investing in crypto projects
- why mainstream platforms are experiencing backlash for integrating with NFTs and crypto
- what trends in NFTs, DAOs, and the ownership economy Jesse and Li think will pop in 2022
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Episode links
Li Jin
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ljin18
- Substack: https://li.substack.com/
- Li Jin on the creator economy
- The future of the creator economy
- What the creator economy is doing wrong
- How to fix the “gig” style economy for creators
- How the creator economy could power universal basic income
- What labor should look like in Web3
- Building the middle class of the creator economy
- Other
- Web3 is the “golden age” of content
- Transitioning to Web3 from a non-tech perspective
Jesse Walden
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessewldn
- Website (no blogs since 2020): https://jessewalden.com/
- Random Tweets
- DAOs
- NFTs
- Music NFTs x Sound XYZ
- Commoditizing a compliment
- Writing
- NFTs make the internet ownable
- Product vs. Protocol
- Leadership in the ownership economy
- How DeFi crosses the chasm
- Crypto’s Business Model is Familiar. What Isn’t is Who Benefits
- Narrative Economics
- Progressive decentralization
- Layers of blockchain computing
Variant Fund
- Variant Fund Twitter
- Variant Fund website
- Writing:
- Mirror Blog (Feb 2021 article on NFTs)
- Variant Fund + Atelier joining forces
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