Will Every Piece of Media Enter the Internet as an NFT? Variant Fund Says Yes - Ep.317

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
    • https://drive.google.com/file/u/1/d/1C3fBfPgWxf-zqezGlPFr7VXIetlHlnaZ/view 
    • https://twitter.com/ljin18/status/1454096370281943041 
  • What the creator economy is doing wrong
    • https://li.substack.com/p/legitimacy-lost 
  • How to fix the “gig” style economy for creators
    • https://li.substack.com/p/the-creator-economy-is-in-crisis
  • How the creator economy could power universal basic income
    • https://li.substack.com/p/the-case-for-universal-creative-income
  • What labor should look like in Web3
    • https://li.substack.com/p/a-labor-movement-for-the-platform
  • Building the middle class of the creator economy
    • https://li.substack.com/p/building-the-middle-class-of-the
• Other
  • Web3 is the “golden age” of content
    • https://every.mirror.xyz/y_WLA-Tk3VF5uPqHi-glDLVVfHxLUbjXakRI7SMISas 
  • Transitioning to Web3 from a non-tech perspective
    • https://twitter.com/ljin18/status/1479111931977867275 

Jesse Walden

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessewldn 
• Website (no blogs since 2020): https://jessewalden.com/ 
• Random Tweets
  • DAOs
    • https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1459014962207244290
    • https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1470406564582498315 
  • NFTs
    • https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1473641606951669767 
  • Music NFTs x Sound XYZ
    • https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1471148257892044812
  • Commoditizing a compliment
    • https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1465713306363117578 
• Writing
  • NFTs make the internet ownable
    • https://variant.mirror.xyz/T8kdtZRIgy_srXB5B06L8vBqFHYlEBcv6ae2zR6Y_eo
  • Product vs. Protocol
    • https://variant.fund/writing/balance-product-protocol-web3
  • Leadership in the ownership economy
    • https://variant.fund/writing/leadership-in-the-ownership-economyscaling-decision 
  • How DeFi crosses the chasm
    • https://variant.fund/writing/how-does-defi-cross-the-chasm
  • Crypto’s Business Model is Familiar. What Isn’t is Who Benefits
    • https://variant.fund/writing/cryptos-business-model-is-familiar.-what-isnt-is 
  • Narrative Economics
    • https://variant.fund/writing/narrative-economics 
  • Progressive decentralization
    • https://variant.fund/writing/progressive-decentralization-a-playbook-for-building
  • Layers of blockchain computing
    • https://variant.fund/writing/layers-not-eras-of-blockchain-computing

Variant Fund

• Variant Fund Twitter
  • https://twitter.com/variantfund
• Variant Fund website
  • https://variant.fund/
• Writing: 
  • https://variant.fund/writing 
• Mirror Blog (Feb 2021 article on NFTs)
  • https://variant.mirror.xyz/ 
• Variant Fund + Atelier joining forces
  • https://variant.fund/writing/atelier-ventures-and-variant-fund-are-joining-forces 
  • https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/variant-debuts-a-new-110m-fund-for-crypto-startups-announces-li-jin-has-joined-as-a-general-partner/
  • Variant Fund team
    • https://twitter.com/spencernoon/status/1450500555961507844

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