Permaweb Pioneers

Benjamin's curiosity in "web3" technologies made a big leap once he decided he was done with "web2" after some great conversations with Sam Williams which eventually led to Benjamin becoming a co-founder of Arweave.news.As a budding programmer, the possibilities of Arweave sparked many thoughts, one of which was archiving the internet as we know it. "The robust promises of Arweave got me really interested in it as an alternative to the Way Back Machine... I thought wow, can't we just port all of this information over to Arweave instead?".After further exploration and discovery, another big "aha!" moment occurred in conversation with Sam regarding front-end interfaces and development on Arweave, "all you really need to do to make a Permaweb application is to be able to write front-end code and use a couple of libraries that query the Arweave blockchain for data". This insight enabled a huge leap in thinking through the potential of what can be built on Arweave and the accessibility of it from his set of already known tools, languages, and emphasis as a developer. Of course, the insights have continued on and Benjamin is now on his path in founding PermawebDAO, which currently represents a collection of products and services built on the Permaweb. There is more to come on this front, so be sure and give @xylophonezy a follow on Twitter. And of course, follow @onlyarweave on Twitter for all things Arweave :)

You'll notice something immediately unique about this podcast recording; our guest, Sirgulator, uses a voice modulator to remain anonymous. Gridacity.io creates fully on-chain games and interactive multimedia experiences. The team has already released two games - Pulsar79 and Reveries of Ymatar. Each of these games have a very retro feel, including the background music, movement, and general game design. Of course, the biggest difference is that these games are stored on Arweave and utilize Ethereum as well."We wanted to create something that was more similar to how it was in the 80's and the 90's, where you bought a game console and game cartridge, and the game cartridges is yours forever... being able to play it 20, 30, 40 years down the line."Sirgulator is dedicated to enabling actual game ownership, which is why they've chosen the Permaweb for their storage layer for these game NFTs. They've built out an interesting suite of tech that enables each game to be completely unique to any other version of their games. Imagine playing a game that is connected to the larger "theme" and also completely unique for you only... pretty cool to think about. The opportunities are massive as more individuals become frustrated by the closed source world of games and the inability to move assets or games outside of specific marketplaces. Gridacity intends on opening up the world of game ownership, propelling it to a whole new level where you can do whatever you want with a game after purchasing it, and keep it for many years to come. Be sure and follow @onlyarweave on Twitter to stay in the loop on all things Arweave and Permaweb related. 

Dive deeper as we speak with the founders behind some of the featured projects from the Open Web Foundry 6. This cohort (OWF 6) introduced incredible concepts and implementations, all built on Arweave. If you're unfamiliar with the Open Web Foundry, it's a 6 week intensive program/incubator where you can start with a concept and build out your MVP to present to potential investors. Along the way, you receive mentorship and assistance in building your entity. Learn more here: https://owf.devFeaturing:-- JB of contributor.town: Better coordination through data science. Building tools and "super teams" for DAOs and Profit Sharing Communities. -- Rees and AJ of fora.co: Social Web3 built on Solana (and stored on Arweave). Earn on every action. User Owned. Uncensorable.-- Ameer and Erika of kipengine.com: A Web3 game engine for the metaverse, all built on Arweave. -- Ross Peili of rarecandy.xyz: A publishing house that supports all types of artists. Also, possibly first to do an "NCO", or NFT Coin Offering. Be sure and follow @onlyarweave on Twitter to stay in the loop on all things Arweave and Permaweb related. 

"It's one of our goals to educate them [artists] what's possible with web3, if they lack that knowledge..."Artby.city CEO Jim Toth shares his perspective regarding artists and the need for a more transparent and equitable platform for those that create both physical and digital art. Their intention as a protocol and platform is to give back the power to the artists and the Profit Sharing Community (PSC) members. COO Slava recognizes the creative potential of uncensored and open source, pillars of Art By City from the start; "I believe that we collaboratively can build more than we can on our own... we can see more creative things happen in this ecosystem than we can without these tools... an open environment gives way for more innovation." Art By City is dedicated to providing an open and accessible entry into the Permaweb - their easy-to-use UI is both welcoming and inspiring. Explore what the several artists are posting by visiting: https://artby.city/discoverThe Art By City DAO (aka PSC) governs the Art By City protocol, which artists, collectors, and enthusiasts can interact with to publish art permanently, monetize their publications, and support artists.Be sure and follow @onlyarweave on Twitter to stay in the loop on all things Arweave and Permaweb related. 

The NFT rush has introduced a new community of investors in digital art, while also enabling the "art world" of the past to participate in this wild new landscape. Boris Pevzner, CEO of LiveArt, is building bridges for the "art world" and the physical pieces we've all known for centuries to the fresh landscape that is digit art and NFTs. Utilizing a number of mechanisms, including their team's vast experience via Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses, they have already amassed a large collector base and recently introduced a fresh artist on to the NFT scene. It doesn't stop there for the LiveArt team, they've built out a comprehensive price analysis and prediction tool for both digital and physical art, again, with the interest in bridging and growing the pool of opportunity for artists and collectors. While it's an audacious vision, things are already underway, with 750,000 signups for their genesis NFT drop which enables individuals to make claim to their $ART token after a year lock up from today. Boris and his team see a much larger vision for even what they've already built out, including the formation of a DAO to run things going forward. Find out more at liveart.io and liveart.xyzBe sure and follow @onlyarweave on Twitter to stay in the loop on all things Arweave and Permaweb related. 

Redstone provides customizable DeFi data streams delivered quickly, reliably and cost-efficiently, all stored on Arweave. Jakub, founder of Redstone shares his prior blockchain experience as an auditor and what ultimately led him to the Arweave ecosystem and the Permaweb. We hear from Marin, Head of Growth at Redstone, and learn about his transition from web2 to web3 and his interest in seeing this technology deliver good to the world. From data regarding physical crops to decentralized exchange data, Redstone is building an important bridge to provide reliable data streams stored on Arweave. Of course, it doesn't stop there, their developer tooling and optimizations for their Smartweave SDK demonstrate impressive skills in recognizing opportunities to deliver better building experiences on the Permaweb.Visit: redstone.financeBe sure and follow @onlyarweave on Twitter to stay in the loop on all things Arweave and Permaweb related. 

"What were trying to do is complement that [proof of humanity] with proof of contribution. The way you prove your contribution to the collective knowledge commons is by getting attention from other people who have a higher reputation."Koii is building out what they see as core infrastructure for the future of the attention economy. Al Morris, founder of Koii, shares his background exploring robotics and blockchain before finding Arweave and recognizing its massive potential. This interest has ultimately led to the building of several components of what Al and team call, "the web 3.0 attention economy".  A primary thesis for this vision is that creators deserve more equitable opportunities for the attention they generate. Current web2 companies exploit these creators for their own revenue and benefit, part of Koii's message is to do the opposite - enable creators to earn directly from the attention they create and generate from their work. Visit: koii.network and koi.rocksBe sure and follow @onlyarweave on Twitter to stay in the loop on all things Arweave and Permaweb related. 

In this episode we feature to primary topics directly with the founders themselves; DeFi data on Arweave, and photography NFTs. Jakub, the founder of Redstone.finance walks us through the data dashboards from both a philosophical vantage point and real-world use case implementation. We also hear from Marcin, their Head of Growth, about their path forward in DeFi and beyond. Their mission is massive, coupling data streams of crops and cryptos in a holistic approach to enable unprecedented access to DeFi data streams. We learn about the growing world of Arweave-stored photography NFTs via the ImmutableImage founders, Bjorn and Jeff. Utilizing Metaplex, they are providing high quality and curated photo collections for purchase via Solana, with all metadata stored on Arweave. They discuss their plans for the future, including expanding the number of photographers on the platform and broadening their collector base by offering accessible pricing and more. Check out Redstone.finance and ImmutableImage.comBe sure and follow @onlyarweave to stay in the loop!

"We wanted to make sure that we're building an actually decentralized social and not just a social media that uses cryptocurrency... Being totally decentralized is our guiding mantra." Decentralized communication platforms are nascent and becoming increasingly important in the fabric of our civilization. Explore this topic with Brennan Lamey, Founder of Kwil. Their team is focused on starting fully decentralized instead of a progressive decentralization model present in several communication platforms in the space. KwilDB is the latest tool the team is building out, a general purpose decentralized relatable database that can be used for anything being built on the Permaweb. The implications of this are potentially massive, enabling other founders and developers to ramp up their development speed and efficiency while building on Arweave. There are a number of layers that we walkthrough; including nodes, gateways and user interfaces on Kwil. Visit: kwil.comBe sure and follow @onlyarweave on Twitter to stay in the loop on all things Arweave and Permaweb related. 

This conversation is both technical and design-oriented as we navigate what it's like to build with Polygon + Arweave, and delve into the design ethos of NiftyPixels. Matt, aka "pencilflip", shares his technical learnings building on Arweave and creating an NFT marketplace. Kat, aka "Katherine" shares a bit about her design philosophy and approach to creating a pleasing aesthetic, while also being super functional and easy to use. This duo has gone on to create amazing NFT-oriented platforms, including their most recent projects: mycoverse.xyz, and Solana-based formfunction.xyz. They continue to build on Arweave as their storage layer for all NFTs :).Be sure and follow @onlyarweave to stay in the loop!