NFCastle recap + NFTs and Mythology

NFT thoughts en route to Prague/NFCastle and post event recap

PRE EVENT

I was invited to speak on an “NFT controversy” panel recently at the Lobkowitz Castle in Prague at the NFCastle event. On the plane ride over, one of the proposed questions about ETH kept circling in my mind. ETH, ETHERIUM… a protocol to transmit data had some diehard fanatics and some serious critics. My mind, always looking for patterns, spontaneously zoomed out to the temple ruins on the Greek island of Delos. The cult of Apollo, the Temple of Isis, Hermes… and then thoughts turned to India, a living polytheistic culture I have spent years living in and studying…and then back to crypto and all the layer 1s…ETH, ADA, DOT, SOLANA, etc. Each with its devotees, each like a cult.. and then having just personally transited from a MOON/VENUS/SATURN cycle to a MOON/VENUS/MERCURY cycle I thought about what Mercury represents. Before GPS time and space was chartered by the movement of the planets as they crossed the astrological constellations, and humans recorded for millennia what the effects were of certain combinations of planets and stars. From this data subset we can make predictions of what will happen as energy unfolds thematically. So, Mercury (to the Romans) and Hermes to the Greeks, and Budha to the Vedic astrologers. The messenger god, with influence over communication and business. So I couldn’t help but think NFTs are some current incarnation of Mercury. See, these gods are anthropomorphized in myths and legends, and can be observed entering our personal lives and cultural timelines if we know how to observe on subtle levels. So, now 2021 we have new forms with which to communicate (Blockchain) and exchange information (NFTs) tied to commerce (Crypto). I’m not sure if it’s the age of Aquarius because it feels more like the reemergence of Mercury. Dressed in new clothes, but still made of the same essence. DYOR.

So let’s say that multi chain is akin to polytheism, and that this whole new digital renaissance, which started with http:// are actually a new mythology we are living through. Again, pattern recognition (double bottoms and falling wedges look the exact same on the 5min chart, the 4 hour chart, and the daily chart), so what is a myth really, how are myths spread, and which myth are we living through? I will try and distill things down (as I see them) to their most basic unit. A myth is a Universal truth wrapped in a narrative. Myths are spread through repetition; the poem Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey, the Bhagavad Gita… all rhymes, chanted over and over. Where does the hero’s journey go when it ceases to be kept alive as cultures transform? Have all the Egyptian gods died with the culture, or do they actually still live, just un-named and un-recognized? And back to now and us and this current mythology. Are we living through decentralized David vs global banking Goliath? Will the next Homer be a coder, and the hero’s journey be content traveling from node to node? The role of art is to reinforce, support, and illustrate the relevant cultural myth. (I wrote more in-depth about NFTs and art history in my previous article) So now it’s a battle of blockchains, and art/NFTs are the ammunition. Whichever network becomes the most culturally significant as hosting the best of culture’s offerings will be the one which will be the most important to maintain long term. There will be quicker and smarter solutions year by year, but the Louvre is the Louvre, and the Mona Lisa is the Mona Lisa. So, returning to myth (as there are myths within myths, and patterns within patterns), perhaps the crypto macro myth currently is the David vs Goliath, but we are all running our individual micro mythological narrative arcs simultaneously. I wonder if blockchain/crypto/web3/NFTs/etc is actually a key which will free us on the deepest level. In many heroes tales there is a key which will unlock a treasure that the hero sets off on to discover. So as our planet has trouble breathing and we all would rather distract ourselves by looking at our screens at simulated horror than the actual irl version, were we just given the key by Mercury to save ourselves? Yes, on the physical plane, because of the narrative of crypto being bad for the environment people like Elon Musk have made a call for BTC mining to be more green, which has led to Texas figuring out ways to promote solar, and El Salvador to BTC mine using volcanic energy. These are great first steps, and I think some of the smartest and most creative people in the world are working in crypto now, and because we are such a strong community we can solve these problems if we work on them as a decentralized team (the incentive is that we can continue faming irl). But I am also speaking of another way we can save ourselves. Will the pixel be our transcendent meditative object? After all, the pixel has no identity of its own, it can be any-thing at any-time. (I explored this idea in my film “Pixel Sutra” 2011, and text “Organic Cyber Cafe” 2015). Back to mythology…Narcissus… in love with his own reflection. We all are aware we live in a hyper superficial world, with more and more people wanting plastic surgery to look more like their instagram face filters. And with deep fakes and the oncoming Metaverse avatars and video games becoming more realistic, we will reach a point where people will begin to have a difficult time distinguishing which reality they are living in. I wonder what people can believe in if they can no longer believe their eyes. Not sure if anyone has termed this yet, but “Post Truth World” seems appropriate. And as much as it’s a crisis, it’s also an opportunity. Will an abundance of illusion make us recognize the illusion of all things? In Vedic tradition it’s called Maya, which only means ignorance, because when we remove our ignorance (duality) we see things as they really are (non dual). This realization at its best will awaken enlightenment (to non dual BEINGness), and at its worst lead to insanity without the proper spiritual grounding and support. What does this have to do with NFTs?! Well, PFPs and Avatars… we are already moving away from identifying with one constructed sense of self and creating multiples, where the avatars that represent our on-line presence are so valuable that people will turn down $10M bids on them. What was that Carl Jung quote? “Give a man a mask and he will show you who he truly is.” All these patterns are playing out in real time, and my mythological technical analysis could be off, but I’m looking at the daily chart, not the 5 minute time frame.

EVENT RECAP

@nf_castle, Prague. I went from working alone in my cave on NFTs for a year, with zero community, to making friends with some of the smartest and most passionate people in the space overnight. I had been speaking to Joan Manuel Sevillano, an old friend and the director of the Salvador Dali Foundation for months, planting NFT seeds in each call. He introduced me to @WRLobkowicz who invited me to talk and exhibit a piece at the event (Shout out to @RookWongley at @ProvenanceNFTs). Met @laurashin on the bus from the airport, and bumped into NFT OG @mitchellfchan and @0x_b1 on the cobble path to the hotel. Dropped my bags and ran to get a tour of the exhibition at the beautiful Lobkowicz Castle which overlooks Prague and holds Velazquez, Breugel, and Beethoven. It was dynamic to see the digital screens with crypto punks in the same room as 400 year old oil on canvas portraits of nobility. In retrospect, I now think there are echoes of different ancient coin museums I have seen, where the metals and the symbols on each coin changed civilization to civilization. NFTs are tokens after all, and while they are not fungible like most coins, they are artistic placeholders of value. The rest of the day and night are fuzzy. I was so jet-lagged but I remember having great conversations with new friends @quantstamp @coin_artist @gmoneyNFT and David and John from @protocollabs / NFT.storage and many others. Frankly everyone was fascinating, but I went home early to get a good night’s sleep before my panel talk in the morning.

It was a sunny and beautiful day and there is no way I can do the event justice, other than to say it was beautifully presented and every detail was thought out and flowed seamlessly. Each panel had so many moments of insight (I took so many notes). I shared the stage with @laurashin @MPtherealmvp and @KavitaGupta19 and @GmoneyNFT . I found the panel with @WillPapper and @MariaShen to be fascinating, especially learning that DAO experience on resumes can be as valuable as a 4 year Ivy League college, and to understand that these digital efforts (Proof of Contribution) will be the real social value in the future of this decentralized work space.

But the NFCastle was also an exercise /leap of faith into seeing how a private collection could use the power of NFTs and creativity to reinvent, reimagine, and fundraise in a new innovative way, which I’m certain will prove to others that not only are NFTs to be taken seriously, but also that they can do good in the world. I am working on an NFT charity platform as many of you know (www.3d3n.io) and I see the potential for so many new use cases which people are only starting to realize and test out. The NFCastle was a gathering of minds to push the conversation in so many interesting directions, and I feel like this is just the beginning of a whole new chapter for humanity.

-Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, Zurich Oct 19, 2021