BatSoupYum - Collector - Throwback

When Bat Soup Yum first dipped his toes into the icy waters of the NFT world, he was as skeptical as they come. But as he'll tell you himself, a simple bet transformed his outlook, leading him down a vibrant path where art collides with blockchain technology. Join us for a whirlwind tour through the evolving narratives of digital art and Web 3.0, guided by the insights of Batz, the enthusiast turned evangelist. Together, we traverse the peaks and valleys of the NFT market, chuckling at our earlier, less-informed selves, while pondering the profound implications of NFTs for creators and consumers alike.

Ever caught yourself marveling at the unexpected resilience of the art market, even when the going gets tough? Batz and I certainly have, and in this episode, we're bringing that marvel to you. He pulls back the curtain on his personal collecting anecdotes, drawing surprising parallels to the simple joy of baseball card collecting, and reveals the inherent value found in art that truly speaks to one's soul. We wrap up this segment with an eye on the future, eagerly looking at what team 6529 has in store for bolstering digital creators and the community that cherishes them.

The art of discovery in the NFT space can be as complex as it is exciting, and Batz is no stranger to its challenges and triumphs. We candidly discuss the intricacies of curating digital art, sharing how our own purchases are shaped by a commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices. As we round off this rich conversation, Batz unveils the collective aspirations of his team, 6529, aiming for an even deeper dive into the promotion and marketing of creators who are shaping the digital art landscape—one blockchain at a time.

Transcript

NorCal Guy: 0:06

who is this guy? North cowgirl, north cow.

BatSoupYum: 0:11

North cow-guy, north cow-guy, north cow-guy, north cow-guy.

NorCal Guy: 0:16

North cow and shill Puckett. So it's showtime, north cow and shill Puckett, put this down. The shill, north cow and shill Puckett. It's show time. Noor Cal and Shill what the shill? Hey, everyone, welcome to this next episode of Noor Cal and Shill Collector's Vault. Today we have Bat Soup Yum a man that needs no introductions. His Twitter profile says fight the power. He's part of team 6529. And, it's worth mentioning, he's our huge CDB fan. In this episode we talk about NFTs and blockchain technology. We share our personal experiences, insights and perspectives. From initial skepticism to becoming bullish on NFTs. Batz takes us on a journey of self-discovery and growth. He discusses the challenges and hurdles in understanding the space, the importance of curation and education, and the potential transformative power of AI art. Join us as we explore the intersection of art, technology and the ever-evolving landscape of Web 3. So sit back, relax and get ready for another exciting episode of Noor Cal and Shill Collector's Vault. Hey, batz, how's it going? Welcome to the podcast, hey, hey.

BatSoupYum: 1:46

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. This has been a long time coming and I'm sorry for the delay, so it's really good to be here.

NorCal Guy: 1:54

Dude it has been. I mean, you are one of the first people I met in the space, surprisingly, yeah, I was at NFT, NYC 2021, maybe. It was Colorado actually. Oh, it was East Denver.

BatSoupYum: 2:14

Yeah, we had coffee at Eater, that's right, and you were going to some raging party and I was going back to my hotel to go to bed. No, no, no, no.

NorCal Guy: 2:26

No, we got coffee, then we went and got drinks and then I think oh, we got dinner that night.

BatSoupYum: 2:34

Yeah, we got to the super rare part. Oh no, we went to dinner that night. We went to dinner that night we were with Peroke and Dee's of SF. Anonymous was there? Who else?

NorCal Guy: 2:48

Patty Tappy was there.

BatSoupYum: 2:51

Tappy SF.

NorCal Guy: 2:52

there it is, yeah and that dinner was like yeah, that was a really fun night.

BatSoupYum: 2:57

I actually took down. I remember from that night I took down some predictions about the space. I will not repeat those because I think every single one of them has been completely and utterly wrong, but I have them written down somewhere. So I think maybe we'll give it a few more years and it'll be fun to go back and read.

NorCal Guy: 3:14

I know, I think, yeah, I wish I had written those down because those were good predictions to at least go.

BatSoupYum: 3:21

No, they weren't. They were terrible. Actually, they were similar. I think my prediction was you know, I'm going to make this up and it was something along the lines of four days. It will double again from here.

NorCal Guy: 3:32

You know, something really just ridiculous in the PMP space.

BatSoupYum: 3:35

Not only has that not come true, I think the almost the exact opposite has come true. So yeah, a good case study, and not listening to me and my predictions.

NorCal Guy: 3:51

We never put any time Well. I think we only put like a one year time horizon on it.

BatSoupYum: 3:56

Yeah, I think I'm going to stretch that out. A broken clock is right twice a day. Maybe we will be too Right, right.

NorCal Guy: 4:05

Oh. So what were your first thoughts when you heard about NFTs?

BatSoupYum: 4:12

I thought it was a fucking scam, to be perfectly honest with you. I mean, my introduction to be fair to NFTs was not through digital art, it was through PFPs, and you know, my very first sort of getting my feet wet experience with NFTs was with HashMask back in late 2020. Right, okay.

BatSoupYum: 4:37

And I looked at these things and I thought this is ridiculous and there used to be. I've told this story a few times so I apologize if some of your listeners heard it again, but there was this betting site out there. They call it an educational site or whatever sort of regulators fail their ass, but it's really a betting site and it's called Polymarket and there was this guy, the CEO of Polymarket, this guy named Shane Copland, who's like awesome. I love this guy. He probably doesn't even know who I am, but I really like this guy and I used to traffic in their Discord and you know I just get people riled up. I had a bet on Joe Biden during the election and I was trying to tilt the odds in favor of Trump to get a better spread.

BatSoupYum: 5:16

So, I go out on the Discord and act like a jerk and, like you know, I got some Trump supporters and we're like that just to get a better, a better bed in. And I'm not a big gambler or anything. I just, you know, had this like I did, I did enough math to realize that this was probably the way the election was going to turn out. So, anyway, shane came in and you know, sort of like, at various times probably told me to turn it down or shut the hell up or whatever. But the one thing that was interesting about Shane is he at one point disclosed that he was into buying NFTs and I took that and ran with it. I was marvelous, I called him an idiot.

BatSoupYum: 5:49

Like you hear more on this is like right click and see, you know all the typical stories you hear about NFTs from people who are like completely skeptical about them. That unfortunately, to this day still persists. And then and then after like I kind of got it all out of my system, I was like, oh wait, a second, this, actually he might be right. I was like, oh shit, I'm going to have to eat my words and check this out. So I ended up, like you know, I ended up looking at HashMass and I was still highly skeptical and like I mean, relatively amount of money I've spent on digital art, I was like I think I bought a HashMass for like 800 bucks and in three days the like market price went to 600 and I lost $200, which you know, again, is not an interesting amount of money.

BatSoupYum: 6:34

But relative to the amount of time and energy I put into NFTs, like it's nothing. And I was like apoplectic. I was pissed. I was like, oh, you idiot. You know everything you said about this stuff was true and now this is your lesson and all that. But it did teach me one thing which was like I'm a big believer in something when you ever have like a new technology or a new, like, a new thing comes around, it's really fun to try it. Right, you know, like, like, what was the social media platform? That? That was like the flavor of the week two weeks ago. Brand back tech.

NorCal Guy: 7:10

You know, I tried it out, like why not try it out?

BatSoupYum: 7:13

like, see what it's about. And ultimately, you know I don't want to make some sort of predicting I'm a shittier predictions anyway, but I don't make a prediction about that particular platform, but it's fun to try out new technology. So I tried it out and what I quickly realized was that there was really something to this and an interesting about this and you know, it kind of took me down like the furthest thing at least in 2021 or in 2020, I was the furthest thing from any sort of art historian, curator, whatever it may be, and it's shit about art. Nothing and and and but I what I did realize was that digital art is art. I mean, long before blockchain was around, digital art is that thing and B. This was a way for creators to monetize their work via blockchain and that, to me, I really got. I was like, oh, wow, this I understand and this has applications not just in the art space. But you know, corporations and getting in touch with your cutting, and we can talk about this up later.

BatSoupYum: 8:16

But I'm a huge, huge proponent of know your customer and there's an old rule in marketing where 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers, right, right, and it's hard for me to imagine a better way to figure out who that 20% is than through NFTs. You know their wallet address. Oftentimes you talk to them in DMs or you've seen them around on Discord. They've voluntarily given you money, joined your Discord groups, spent hours and hours, you know, thinking about you, talking about you, dming with you, whatever it may be. And it's like that. I mean Procter and Gamble and large corporations pay billions of dollars annually to figure out who these people are. And here we are, right, here they just dropped in our laps and that to me and I think, brands. This is why you're seeing, like Lou Tanza and all these you know large brands like Nike. They're doing NFTs drops. It's not because they're like money grubbing. I mean, you know, a couple of million bucks to Nike is what they make in like a nanosecond on their shoes, like they don't give a shit about a couple of million bucks. What they're doing. And when you see brands like this, what they're doing is they're testing out ways to access that customer.

BatSoupYum: 9:27

So anyway, long-winded answer to your question is that I realize, yes, some of this stuff is really silly and stupid, but there's really something here and it's actually, to me, the best use case I've seen thus far for crypto, because you know it establishes the provenance and so on and so forth All the fun things that we love to think about. So that's basically my journey, and then from there it just took off and took direction. I mean, I never in a million years thought I'd be doing this at the point of my life, like this is just, you know, one of those things where I became passionate about it, right, and I'm really, really, really, really excited about this, despite what market prices may be doing right now.

NorCal Guy: 10:08

Right, right, I mean, yeah, I think definitely. I mean we, we started early, you know, you've been in it for the long haul. You definitely, you know, have a long term belief. Yeah, I feel you on that, we're just getting started basically. I mean, to me it feels like when I first heard about crypto and I was like, okay, this makes a lot of sense and I'm like I'm all in. And so I got that same feeling when I heard about it finally grasped, grasped, what this was.

BatSoupYum: 10:40

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty powerful once you start to get it. But the hurdles and the friction and sort of like going from point A to point Z and for people to get it, is massive. I mean it is massive. You really have to be having, I feel like right now at least an open mind about what's going on here in order to get it, because it is so easy at all the various touch points, from getting from knowing absolutely nothing to to you know where most of the people are in the space right now, right, it is so easy to just be like this is stupid, this is stupid, this is stupid. Just give up. And we have to eliminate that over time.

BatSoupYum: 11:22

But yeah, I mean like download MetaMath and you know Vladimir Putin's coming after my NFTs or the North Koreans. And then, like you know, it's like okay, I lost my seed phrase, wait, how do I store this? Wait, how do I know? It's just like a giant pain in the ass. And oh, by the way, when you buy it, you can't even display it in your house yet because there's no display. You know it's like right, or the displays that exist are like $30,000.

BatSoupYum: 11:45

Like it's just like it's too much, don't be interesting thing to me, and the reason why I'm even probably more bullish about it now than I was even a year ago to get out of the bull market, is because in spite of all this, in spite of all this, it's succeeding. You know, it's like it is still succeeding. So it's a glass half full, glass half empty type of way to look at it. But think of all the bullets that this space has taken, starting with 3AC, then FTX, and it is like what else can you throw at us? And we're still here. And we're still. The creators are still here, we're still buying, we're still. Yeah, I wish it was as fun as the bull market, but when you go through something like this and it survives there, it comes out stronger and it'll be really, really fascinating to me to watch how this looks when things stop going down only.

NorCal Guy: 12:45

Right. But that's the interesting thing. I feel like we're still making it in the art side of it. We're still making sales here and there and still relatively not much of a loss or a down like, at least for the larger artists. It's still at that point where they were selling in the bull market on some of them. Yeah, I think it's fascinating to watch that too.

BatSoupYum: 13:12

I mean look at what Sam Sprout did last week or look at Fadens. I mean there's been a couple of really nice Fadens sales recently and I still see not on the same scale, but I still see emerging artist sales happen quite a bit. I think Patrick Amadon has this fantastic idea for a site called 404. And there's sales on there and I mean just perusing that, I'm getting serious FOMO. It's like there's a lot of very good art out there. It's not selling.

BatSoupYum: 13:40

I think what happened was we just got this explosion of artists and supply and without a simultaneous increase in collectors, in fact, I think the number of collectors actually gone the other way, which is clearly not healthy. But I mean it's not great for creators, I understand that, but it also is healthier for the ecosystem, because now we are at levels where I think it makes sense, where art makes sense, where the people who are dedicated to this are going to separate themselves from the people who are just kind of tourists. And it's not all downside in a bear market, though I do very much empathize with creators who are trying to make a living off this, because it is really really hard right now.

NorCal Guy: 14:23

Yeah, it really is. So did you collect art or anything else like baseball cards or comics before?

BatSoupYum: 14:32

Yeah, when I was a kid, way back in the day, I collected baseball cards and I mean I literally collected baseball cards. I mean like the worst freaking period of baseball card history. It's like you have this barbell of baseball card in history where you had these like grails. Then you had this like two decades of just absolute dog shit where these cards are worthless. And then you're going back to grails and of course I'm not collecting baseball cards anymore. I'm done. So I mean I don't know what the lesson is there, but I definitely like it definitely was EV negative for me on the whole if I go back and look at it.

BatSoupYum: 15:08

But this is the thing, everything's a monetary experience. I had a blast doing it. I hung out with my buddies. We used to trade all the time. It was just fun. And I kind of feel the same way here, like if you really I think I said this on the Super Earth Stations if you really collect what you love, then the enjoyment of doing that is worth more than zero. So I don't get terribly upset when I buy something for two weeks and it goes down to one Because I like the thing that two weeks. And I still like it now. And if I really liked it I'd buy another one at one. It's like a convoluted logic there, I guess, but that's kind of how I think about it. So anyway, yeah, I collected baseball cards.

BatSoupYum: 15:47

I am not a traditional art collector. I have devoured art books and classes since I started on this, so I feel like I'm a little bit more conversant. But look, I mean to be honest, if MoMA shows up and these museums show up, it's like it's just time to hand me a toaster and show me the door Right. I mean, it's like I'm not going to hold my weight against these folks. I just have the art side. They're PhDs and art history majors and all that. I am not that, but I am conversant enough to get my way through and not sound like a complete idiot Nice.

NorCal Guy: 16:26

So are you taking online classes just like YouTubeing stuff besides the books?

BatSoupYum: 16:31

Yeah, so I've been taking. There's a couple classes at the Great Courses, which is kind of this Boomer platform that I have, but they do have interesting classes there at least. And then the MoMA has a free class actually that I really like. Yeah, it's really good. I wish it had a little bit more background info, but it actually takes you through some of the more modern day contemporary artists and I really like that class. I'm working my way through that right now. Oh nice.

BatSoupYum: 16:56

And then there's some books out there that are just spectacular $12 million stuff. Shark is excellent, boom by Schnersen is fabulous. I've read a couple of Jerry Saltz books, who's a Trattor curator. That's really good. I'm working my way through a. I can remember the gentleman's name, but he was the former art critic, many from years with New Yorker. He wrote a book of essays. That's really good.

BatSoupYum: 17:18

So yeah, I'm kind of like getting my way through some of this stuff and finding that I'm really interested in it, in a probably a very unhealthy way because I don't have a bankroll to buy anything or shit, but it's really fun and I have a much deeper appreciation for art and especially like going to museums and kind of understanding what I'm looking at now versus before, which, to be honest, I would go to a museum and I'd be like find like five things I really like, but I didn't really know why I like them. Now I can kind of feel it a bit more. So it's fun, that's good. Yeah, yeah, I get. The whole thing goes. I say there's a lot, the whole thing goes to zero. I just do regret I tapped into the left side of my brain. It's been a lot of fun and I don't think it's going to go to zero. I hope it doesn't go to zero, but the downside here for me is very limited, because I'm just enjoying myself and I like this. I like empowering creators. It's fun.

NorCal Guy: 18:13

Yeah, so what are the best things about Web3 today, and do you have any concerns as it expands?

BatSoupYum: 18:22

The best thing about Web3 today is, to me, is the ability for creators and collectors to connect without any people in the middle. Right, that, to me, is the best thing about Web3. Now you could be like oh back, you've bought stuff off the auction houses or you've bought stuff at Super Rare, and that's absolutely true. But the purchase itself is much different than what comes after, which is typically a relationship. Imagine buying an Andy Warhol when he was alive and then hopping on DMs or hopping on a rotary phone and be like hey Andy, what's up? Man, I just bought your barrel of morale orange, whatever, I'm just not going to hop in DM would probably get a restraining order against you or something. So the best thing to me about Web3 is that and I don't mean this in a touchy peely way it's just super interesting to me that if you look at art dealers, who definitely add value I'm not going to get all over art dealers but they take over 50% in many cases of an artist's sale. I don't know. That strikes me as a pretty ridiculous number. I know that we give Super Rare foundation a lot of shit, but it's not 50% the ability for an artist to, in a much better way.

BatSoupYum: 19:38

Connect with their true fans is, to me, a very powerful concept. I work with 6529 and leave this as all the time. Some random artist in Tennessee with a beautiful butterfly collection can actually sell that collection online to their true fans. That's unheard of in the traditional art world. They'd probably lap you out of there if you talked about your butterfly collection, but turns out there's a lot of people who are in the beautiful butterfly collections and so you can find those people here, and that, to me, is a really, really fascinating part about this Kind of even going back to what I said earlier about finding your true fans is that you can find these people for sure.

NorCal Guy: 20:19

No, that's been a thing that I loved about it. Like we've bought some things for ourselves and you know you never get to talk to the artist, the artist isn't at the gallery. But here you can, you can talk to them, you can before you buy. After you buy, you just like get their thoughts on, like hey, why did you do this? And you do build, end up building a friendship with a lot of them.

BatSoupYum: 20:44

Yeah, yeah, and I, you know, no matter what happens, I think that'll persist and it's really cool to me, yeah, really cool.

NorCal Guy: 20:53

Where do you see digital art and NFTs in five years and do you have any concerns about that?

BatSoupYum: 21:02

Yeah, you know, I really am completely convinced that this, you're gonna see this whole space leg significantly higher, and I don't mean in price, I mean in terms of interest from people, like significantly higher once we've nailed digital displays in homes. You know, it's just, it's absurd how little progress we've made on that. You know, I don't keep up with it daily, so I'm sure, like Samsung has something out by now and you know whatever. But to me, the most simple and straightforward use case is what is already in your house, which is a computer monitor and a TV. Yeah, somebody needs to just create and repurpose and I'm sure somebody has, and I give a DM after this and be like that's you idiot, it's already exist. Somebody needs to create a mainstream piece of software that allows you to display digital art on your TVs in an aspect ratio that doesn't just kill it, and I don't know if that's possible, but you know, like it doesn't just kill it and that is simple enough that you know, for example, my mother could understand and use and pick it up. And my mother, you know, is not like tech savvy, but she's not an idiot either, I like to think, at least, and so you like, she just got to be able to figure out, and once we hit that threshold then I think it'll take off. It'll become a lot more interesting to people, because people want to be able to buy and display art. It's sort of like you know, there aren't that generally it's only rich people who buy art and then just dash it away at a free court, right? It's like you know, if you want this to get out to the masses, I really think the display is important.

BatSoupYum: 22:37

So in answering your question along those lines, I do think number one we need displays and it's coming. I mean, there's no reason why it is we're not recreating, you know, semiconductors here we're like, you know, it's like we already have the screens. They're 500 bucks for 50 inch screen at Best Buy, like it's not a massive lift. Now you could argue like oh wow, you know it's not horizontal, it's vertical or whatever. That's fine, and you know what my view on that is. We can argue all that shit, when we get one, let's just get one. And then we can start iterating on. Okay, we can twist the screen and make it horizontal versus vertical and all that stuff, but like, right now, let's just get one out there that people can use at least, and even if it doesn't look ideal like it still makes it a lot more interesting.

BatSoupYum: 23:21

So that's number one, and then number two and I think you're starting to see a lot more of this is that and you know I'm gonna keep hammering on this because I think we get caught in these debates between crypto art and digital art and I don't know, there's like five different words for it. It's just art, it's like, it's just what it's art. So, like I don't know, like you know, I think it really digital art gets it's like a blessing at a curse. You know you get the good of the blockchain, but you also get the bad of the blockchain. The bad of the blockchain is FTX and and all the bad actors we've seen, and it really tainted the space. The good of the blockchain is that we have proven on some of the ability for digital art to still work. Right now we're in the bad of it, but at the end of the day, it's still art.

BatSoupYum: 24:01

Like I mean, digital art has been here since the 1950s, since computers have been around, right, so it's not like. It's not like we need to call it a door or digital art or whatever. It's just art and that will persist in all markets, right, that will persist whether we have digital displays or not. It's still art. I mean, there's X copy, was, was, was putting shit up on his Tumblr account back in 2012. Like it's, it's digital art. So you know, my view on this is that if it's art, the museums and the collectors are going to come eventually because art is art and there aren't that many backwater, quote, unquote areas of art that they haven't discovered. I mean, go along the Stutterbees. I was just looking at the Stutterbees contemporary auction site, or no, christie's rather and you know there's purses and watches and furniture and you know all this stuff. It's all art. There's no difference between that and what we're doing right now. It's all art, right. So for me, it's just a matter of time before and I think you're starting to see it.

BatSoupYum: 25:00

I know MoMA with the Rafiq exhibit and, by the way, I mean we cannot possibly give people like Rafiq and people enough credit for how far they've advanced this space. For, on behalf of all of us, because you know, I mean you go into the MoMA. I don't think I've been there, but I was there last time. I was in New York and, holy crap, like there is a younger audience engage with their phones out filming this beautiful Rafiq exhibit in the lobby of MoMA, and I'm pretty sure that got their attention because they've extended it like two or three times, right, so you know the museums are coming. You know now Rafiq is on this giant what a bowling ball globe thing and lost tickets, which is just spectacular.

BatSoupYum: 25:42

Yeah, I mean, stuff like this is cool. It appeals to, you know, younger generations. It's like and you know not to put a fine point on it, but anything that appeals to younger generations those, these places smell money. I mean, I can promise you billionaire smell money because they've been smelling it their whole lives. So, yeah, they're gonna show up eventually too. There's already a couple here, as a matter of fact. So, like it's just, it's just gonna take time and we need to really get rid of the stain of FTX and some of the bad actors off of this and it'll come. I mean, there's no reason why it won't. I can't think of a single one, so for sure.

NorCal Guy: 26:19

What would you like to see more of in the space?

BatSoupYum: 26:24

Oh, that's a good question. You know there's there's a negative answer to this and there's a positive answer to this. The negative sort of like the. The negative answer to this is, obviously I would like to see more honest folks in the space. But I don't mean I'm gonna answer it negatively, I mean it just like we're fixing a negative right. So fixing a negative is like more honest people, which you know I can, I wish I could. You know, I wish I had a billion dollars sitting in front of me, and that's not happening either. So it's just, you know, it's just part of the process of of a new technology.

BatSoupYum: 26:57

I really think that the friction of dealing with getting from point A to point Z that I referred to earlier is such a barrier for so many people, like it is really hard to get in, onboarded into this space, let alone understanding it. I mean, it's like you know. I know Super Rear is making an attempt at curation. I think Foundation is as well. They just announced last week. Like it's, we're moving in the right direction. But, you know, think about if you, in an ideal scenario, if somebody you know and respect that has nothing to do with blockchain or art or anything like that and you handed them a MetaMask wallet with you know three ETH in it and said, go, go, buy your favorite NFTs, they would be like, huh, you know, it's really hard, right. It's like, oh my god, there's like you know blur farming and you know board apes, and then there's Super Rare Art and then there's like Foundation Art and there's like Discovery and 1155s and 721s and it's like we've stuck, I mean in between you and I and people that are probably listening and we kind of get all that. But this is like you know, you know speaking, you know well big Latin to people of 24-7. You know like they kind of get it but they mostly don't, and that needs to change it.

BatSoupYum: 28:09

On the positive side, the more constructive answer to this question, what would I like to see more of? I really think you know in at least on the art side, we need a better way to curate and understand and educate and I have, I know again, I think Foundation Super are doing their best and they obviously don't have unlimited resources, but it's come and swell like I mean finding the process of discovery and again, my ad-op to Pat Patrick Amidon for launching 404. You know, the process of discovery is really hard, really really hard, and it doesn't need to be this hard. It's hard in traditional art too. I'm not gonna say like there's ever gonna be an easy way to do this, but it's like we have. I mean, it is really tough right now, so I'm very hopeful that that fixes itself over, you know, a short period of time. I think it probably will, and discovery will become easier over time, but it's very difficult right now.

BatSoupYum: 29:05

So I think you know, if I had to pick one thing, that would probably be it on the positive side, but there's probably like a list of a hundred things I could come up with it. There's a lot. I mean, again, it's sort of nature of, if you think, if you could turn this into a positive story. Right, we have all this stuff that needs to be fixed, that could be fixed, it could be done better, right, and yeah, and somehow we're still persistent. You know, somehow there's still something here. Somehow, you know, sam Spratt's able to sell a one-on-one at an all-time high a week ago, right, I mean, it's just like there's something here and people haven't abandoned the space entirely because of it right, that's true.

NorCal Guy: 29:39

So along these line, well, kind of along these lines, what makes you decide to buy a piece? I mean, I know there's a lot of factors, but is it? Do you have like a certain approach to when you go to buy a piece?

BatSoupYum: 29:54

yeah, and, by the way, I should mention, like everything I'm answering right now is for me personally. I work with the 6-9 group. Like none of this has anything to do with that. They would probably disagree with me vehemently on some of this stuff. So, like, just, you know, take all this with a great assault and realize that it's my own opinions, only my.

BatSoupYum: 30:13

So my filter, my first filter, is I am very it is very, very important to me to support under represented groups. So women, you know, top of the list, artists of color. I have a very large collection of art, my black artists, and you know it's just like that to me is super important because I feel like I'm not just here to I don't know buy a bunch of art and write off into the sunset and be like, wow, that was really fun. I'm way more interested in kind of leaving I don't know, a legacy or a mark or make studying an example or however you want to say it like, I'm just tired of watching these groups be picked to the curve, especially in the art world. Thankfully, a lot of that, I think, is starting to correct, but it's really slow. So I'm going to do my small part. I've said from the very beginning. I'm going to do my small part to try and make a difference. It's small but I'm still going to do it. So that's probably my first lens. Then it becomes a lot of the traditional factors. It's a lot easier, I think, to buy I don't know, like a next copy or a Tyler Hopps, fidenza or whatever. Those are really fun and they've been proven out.

BatSoupYum: 31:30

To me, the real fun right now is, especially in the bear market, is that artist discovery piece I mentioned. Curation is something I would change. Well, the other side of curation and again the artists on this call are probably going to shoot me for saying this, but from a collective standpoint, the fact that curation is so shitty is great for people like you and I right, because we can go on this mission of discovery and find this stuff we love and these great artists and these just really really interesting projects that are out there that take time and effort to find right now. I hope for creators' sake that this doesn't persist because, again, we really really need better curation in the space and better discovery. But the most enjoyment I have in the space is finding an artist that I absolutely think is spectacular, finding a piece of theirs that I love and going for it. I really I think that's like.

BatSoupYum: 32:27

That to me is a lot of fun, and then, just and then the post script is, you know, watching this artist or this person go off and continue to have sales and success and happiness, or whatever it may be Right.

NorCal Guy: 32:42

No and it's yeah. Right now I mean yeah, I agree with you, but it also I mean to our advantage, because I feel like from the get-go you were one that would comb through and see what was out there and you can find those hidden gems.

BatSoupYum: 33:04

Yeah, it's really that process to me is really fun. I know Foundation has redone their page and Super is gone through a few iterations as well. But on the art side it is to me it's so fun to go onto the old Foundation page where it just was like the Wild West or the old I don't know people on here remember Hiccat Nuke, but that was the Tezos platform which is now Object, and it's so fun. It just you're like, it's like, I know, an art fair for me, I don't know, it's just really fun. You're just, you know, without all the sweaty, you know, annoying people like bumping into you and pushing you out of the way and all that, and it's just like cool. It's a lot of fun. The discovery process in this space is super enjoyable to me. I really like it.

NorCal Guy: 33:50

Yeah, no, it's been great. It's been great for me as well. So what's the best piece of advice you've been given, or is there something that you live by?

BatSoupYum: 34:07

Well, I'm fascinated. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I'll give you two things. Number one I'm very fascinated by this. There's this quote by a philosopher named Pascal and it's been bastardized a few times and read down at the current iteration of it All of humanity's problems can be traced back to its inability to sit in a room for 15 minutes quietly. And the more you think about that, the more it is true. And it explains a lot about what you're seeing right now, I think in Web 3, where people just get bored, it's the next dopamine hit and it just goes on and on and on, and it's like I can't believe we're falling for this again.

BatSoupYum: 34:47

They had this study. A group of scientists followed it up with a study. This is true, this is true. So I could give you the link, give you what. I had it somewhere with this study, where they put a couch in a room, sealed up the room, and in the room was a button and they showed the participants. They said if you touch this button, it will send an electric shock through your body. You're going to be in this room for 15 minutes. Literally, this is an actual study. So they put these people in the room for 15 minutes. It's something like 22% of women and 60% of men voluntarily shot themselves because they were bored. It's like an amazing custom of the human condition. First of all, it probably means women are a lot smarter than men in general, which is something we could talk about later. But anyway, to me that's just a fascinating story and it also explains a lot of think about what you're seeing, especially in the PFP space, where you just have this constant drumbeat of just new project all-time highs, slow and steady decline rug. It's like oh again.

BatSoupYum: 35:54

And then the second piece. I think this is probably like I put in my top five favorite quotes of all time, but I don't know if it's my number one, I have to think about it. But it reminds me a lot of what I see on Twitter a lot. And it's by Mark Twain and it goes something like never argue with stupid people. They'll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. And it's like why are we getting in these fights on Twitter? And we're fighting with traditional, normal people who have no idea what NFTs are, and we're arguing with them Guys, let's do other stuff. Yeah, like, hang on Just like in this circle of stupidity with these arguments is just not getting us anywhere. So, anyway, those are the two things I'd probably point out the most that I think about a lot.

NorCal Guy: 36:42

Yeah, if you could live or move anywhere, where would you live, and why?

BatSoupYum: 36:51

Yeah, that's a really good question. I would say that my top. I don't know if I would live there necessarily, but I think the best cities in the world I've been to are old Jerusalem, kathmandu and Kyoto, and there's something about all three of those cities that I love and there's probably downsides to them all as well. I mean, old Jerusalem has issues all over the Middle East, so forth, but I would say those are three of the best cities I've been to super cultured, very interesting people, great food.

BatSoupYum: 37:23

And if I had to pick one, I'd probably I think like Kathmandu would be my style. I kind of like the edginess of it and that old school Asia feel to it. It's really, really a neat place. But I could live in a lot of places. To be honest, I would say my typical, my number one criteria is it has to have good food. I'm kind of like about not bad food and bad restaurants and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's probably like number one. I mean Paris is probably the standard answer, with all the art and culture and so forth. I absolutely love that city. But I wanted to give you something a little, I guess, sexier than that.

NorCal Guy: 38:06

So what is the best thing and the silliest thing you've spent money on?

BatSoupYum: 38:13

Oh boy, I don't know. The best thing is going to be a weird one, because a lot of it depends on price, based on today's prices, and I think whatever is going to be considered best, at least of the things that I've bought, is very much TBD and is going to change dramatically. Like I was looking at a top 10 list of artists that NFT now put out by dollar amount the top talent and the gross selling artists and it's like the one thing that was striking to me about the list that they put out was how different I think it's going to look over the next two to three years versus what it looks like today in the past two to three years. I mean part of that is because we were in a bubble and hundreds of millions of dollars are flying around and all that. But I also think part of that has to do with the fact that taste and styles and creativity is changing. Again, I don't want to keep breaking up Sam Spratt, but A as a brilliant artist. B did something with art that nobody has done before, kind of like it's really fascinating to me. I mean, he did something that a traditional artist could never do For sure, and that to me is an extraordinarily interesting case. That because it's a unique thing to us to Web3. You cannot do what he did in the traditional art world. That, to me, is super fascinating and I think that what that's going to do is change things over time. So that is my long-winded free ample.

BatSoupYum: 39:49

I am very, very interested in where AI art goes from here. I don't know where it's going to go. I'm very bullish on it. I bought up AI art piece yesterday as a matter of fact, so I'm clearly not thinking it's going to zero. It's going to be very interesting to watch because I think acceptance of this space already is at all time low levels near it and you layer things like AI on top of that and it just is like wow, this is super polarizing. I've said this before, but I think usually in the battle between artists and quote unquote taste makers, artists always win. So I have no doubt AI art is going to be an incredible force going into the future and some of the stuff people are putting out is amazing. So I would say the best thing I've bought with that mindset is Claire Silver's piece on Super Rare. It's called Claire and it's just this beautiful AI output that she generated by feeding it inputs of herself dressed going to an event at Sotheby's. So that, to me, is going to be very, very fascinating. I think right now to me that's the best, but again it'll change dramatically in a year or two and I'll say something else. But to me I just like that intersection of early AI art I own some lost Robbies as well Just that intersection of AI art and digital art to me is fascinating and I absolutely no idea how it turns out, but I'm really interested in it.

BatSoupYum: 41:26

The worst thing I've bought, without question, or the silliest things, I guess you could say I got caught up for sure. I got caught up in some of this PFP promo and every now and then I have this. So the way that 3Security generally works, or it should work for everybody listening here is you should have a minting wallet, you should have a transactional wallet and then you should have a vault that you should set up on DOSUS, the minting wallet. I keep some of this stuff in there that I have, these dreams I'm going to flip for a million dollars and I'm not even going to flip them for a dollar. But, like some of this stuff, I have these moments of just absolute self-loathing when I go through my minting wallet and I'd be like what was I mean? Did somebody put something in my drink? What was I thinking? Oh my God, like God, like, just like. This is I got just like some of this, like I've been about to go through a couple months of just like temporarily losing my mind or something like this before I got my six by two. That was like a twenty, twenty one, and it's just like, oh my God.

BatSoupYum: 42:36

But, that said, there's a learning experience from that. You know. It's like wow, you know, I really shouldn't have done that. And then sometimes I find myself just doing it all over again and be like, oh my God, you're idiot, like what are you doing? But then it's like.

BatSoupYum: 42:50

It's also an interesting learning experience for me because, like you're never no one in this space nobody, I mean I know, like what you see on Twitter and all these people that are like these, god, like traders and all that no one has a perfect record. Like in most people, I probably have, at best, like 55 to 60% batting, batting average on successes to failures. Everybody's got failures in this space. I don't really spend a lot of time like you know, oh my God, I really screwed that up, because what happens is if you get that mindset where, like you're afraid you're just not going to end up buying the things that you should be buying, like I, just I let it go, it's water off the bridge and, you know, on to the next. You know interesting thing, I don't have time to go back and dwell on all the stupid shit I've done, because I've done too much.

NorCal Guy: 43:40

For sure, for sure, oh, so this is a good one. If you could commission a piece and have two artists collaborate on it, which two artists would it be?

BatSoupYum: 43:58

Yeah, I was thinking about this question and I am really. This is a really hard one. I think that the best collabs that I've seen are done by Coldy with somebody else. So the artist named Coldy, who's a great artist and a really really great person in general, and his collabs he's done. He did one or two with X copy. They're just spectacular. He's done one with Hackatow that I really love and he's done quite a few collabs. I think he's a really good collab artist. So that's probably the the one on the one side of it. Similar to his style is an artist named Rebecca Rose who does very like, similar, like that kind of 3D style. I think it would be really interesting to see those two do a collab together because they have very like, kind of it's not even close to the same, but kind of that interesting 3D, maybe lenticular, type of style, and I really like it. I like both of their styles, so that would be an interesting one.

BatSoupYum: 44:59

I think some I don't know who this would be, I mean hardly Davidson is a fantastic, is fantastic, especially I mean all around artists, but also on the sound side, and I really really like when an artist links up with a talented musician and comes up with a perfect, and you're going to ask me give me an example and I can't think of one right now. But but like you know, a perfect rendition that fits the piece is just so fun. You know it's really cool, it adds to the piece. I think you know exponentially, rather than you know medically, and to me I really like that type of stuff. So you know linking up and you know the music with the art. The digital art to me is super interesting.

NorCal Guy: 45:45

Yeah that'd be good. That's a good, good suggestion, that collaboration.

BatSoupYum: 45:54

So what. I'm sure you could come up with hundreds. I mean, it's a collapse are weird, though in the space it's collapse tend not to do great, and it's because, you know, I think people get a little bit confused about whether they're buying an X copy, or whether they're buying a coldy, or whether they're buying like how do you price that? And so forth. I think it gets a little confusing to collector. So what I've noticed is like collapse are not I don't know. You know they get weird at times. Some of them are absolutely brilliant. I, sarah Zucker, did one with Pac. That is just like phenomenal. I think Mondo owns it. Like some of them are. Just like it's like one plus one equals five, but I think in general, a lot of collectors get confused by them. So that's, you know that. Just add that on a collab. Yeah, I think that's.

NorCal Guy: 46:42

I mean that's probably due because you're not having both artists sign for it. You know ownership of it. You know, I think if both artists were able to sign on it which I think maybe foundation kind of shows that they show splits, I guess you know.

BatSoupYum: 46:58

I don't know. Yeah, foundation will ask for royalty splits, which is, I think, I love that.

NorCal Guy: 47:02

I think it's really cool, I think, like if you could show like both artists both artists they're both to their wallet sign for it, then I think it wouldn't be as big of an issue, because I remember there was that X copy eclectic method collab that sat for a while.

BatSoupYum: 47:19

Because, yeah, that was a really good one. Yeah, eclectic method is like, but not, I mean, I'm like a massive fan and that was a great collab. I think Beanie owned it for a little while and then I think that got sold, maybe last year or something, for like 70, there's something like that. But that was a really good one as well. Yeah, good example, right, you know, it'd be really interesting. It's like I don't know if it's possible and I don't know it's probably possible, but you know, a photography collab I think would be fun.

BatSoupYum: 47:49

I know you're a big photography collector guy and, like you know, I think that would be. You know, I don't know who or how I would do it, you know, but it would be really fun to see, like you know, I don't know, like Casemard, you know, team up with you know, maybe, like I don't know, I don't even know who, like it would be weird, but it would be kind of like interesting to see a photography product. Right, there probably is one, and again, I'm going to get it together Like that's you idiot. I collabed with so and so last year. Okay, fine, I'm sorry, I'm so good. Yes, I get it. Okay, I'm sorry, right, right.

NorCal Guy: 48:25

Yeah, I think thinking about collabs is kind of fun for sure, because it just doesn't happen very often in the space. No, it doesn't, you know. But I think if we had both artists signing, then it would make more sense. You're like, okay, they both did this. Yeah, it's not coming from one wallet.

BatSoupYum: 48:47

Yeah, I agree.

NorCal Guy: 48:50

What is one interesting fact about you that people might not be aware of?

BatSoupYum: 48:58

Oh boy, let me think about this for a minute. One interesting fact about me that people aren't aware of I am very, very dedicated to doing one form of exercise every single day. I don't mean like I'm like an artifaction collector, like a track one guy or something you know, a bat scissor.

BatSoupYum: 49:28

It's like a professional baseball player, tommy Wilson, we have professional athletes of this group. I am not a professional athlete, but it's just like and by one thing I mean like you know, like today I did a half hour yoga. Okay, sometimes I'll go on, you know, for a long walk. You know it doesn't have to be like a high heart rate thing necessarily, right, I'm very much, I'm a huge believer, if nothing else, even, you know, both for your physical and your mental health. Getting outside preferably, but not necessarily, but just doing one thing that does not involve you being in front of a screen, but it does involve you moving your body around. I think it's super important and has helped me tremendously for both of those aspects, both physical and mental.

BatSoupYum: 50:10

So I dedicate, you know, somewhere between 30 to 90 minutes every single day to doing one thing. I almost excuse me, never do the same thing twice in a row. I'll do it. You know, I might go for a run twice in a week, but I never do it twice in a row. I like the aspect of cross training and doing different things. I get bored very easily. I'm definitely one of those people that would hit the buzzer in the room and shock the shit out of myself. So I get super bored super easily. So, like you know, I just kind of mix it up and I find things I love to do and I just do it. You know, one a day, and it keeps me balanced.

NorCal Guy: 50:44

Yeah, sounds good. What is your favorite way to connect with new people in the space?

BatSoupYum: 50:53

Oh, wow, that's a good one too. The most fun and if anybody hasn't done this yet, I'm sure they'll do it the most fun you will have are going to the event. Yes, although there's a big downside to doing that too. I probably have a tweet about this, I think after two NFCM season. Go trying to keep up with artists you are going to get buried. Artists are made for this. They are made for nightlife. They go to bed at ridiculous hours, they wake up at ridiculous hours. They sleep in the room. I have stuff to do the next day and so trying to out party an artist, you are going to get killed. But, that said, it's really fun. It's really fun to see everyone and see putting a name face to a name and all that. So I would say that's the most fun way to connect. But Twitter, dms or Telegram or what have you there's other ways to connect as well, and that's always super fun too. So, yeah, I would say those two.

NorCal Guy: 51:54

Are there any projects that you're working on that you'd like talk about, or?

BatSoupYum: 52:00

discuss. Oh OK, yeah, I mean I work with the 6529 groups so that we always have endless amounts of work to do. I would just say, from our standpoint, if I could grade, give ourselves grades and hopefully nobody on my team is listening to this or else they're going to yell at me but if I could give ourselves grade, I would say we've done very well supporting the space, we've done very well buying art in the space and I think we've done an excellent job actually of that. What we have where we can improve on what we have not done as well and this is we're cognizant of this, by the way, so it's not like this is a huge surprise is in the support aspect of what we bought and what we didn't buy and just like kind of being more out there. I don't know. It's more than just setting up a booth at NFT NYC or Arpozo Miami and stuff like that. It's a lot more than that. But you get what I'm saying. We definitely have room and we know this. We definitely have room to be more vocal and be more marketing and on behalf of the entire space, on behalf of creators and what we're doing here, we do a lot. I mean, 6529's account is constantly about education and promoting the space.

BatSoupYum: 53:23

I think those of us who are not 6529 could do a lot more Nice. So that's the projects we're working on. I would say that's coming. Stay tuned. We're working on figuring out how to best do this, but I have a lot of respect for people like Cosmo and Ryan Zurer and others who have really put themselves out there, gone to museums, put shows on. That's exactly Times Square and digital art and Times Square during NFT NYC. It's spectacular, it's awesome. I mean there's no greater OK, so, probably in Tokyo, but in Hong Kong, but there's not that many places that have screens like that where digital art just looks so amazing. And going through Times Square while some of that stuff was on display, it was like jaw dropping. So yeah, I have a lot of respect for them and I think we can afford to do a lot more and I think we're going to. So that's probably the best answer I can get to that question.

NorCal Guy: 54:25

Cool Well Bat. Thank you so much for this interview. Thank you for your time today. I had a great time Thanks for having me.

BatSoupYum: 54:32

It's an honor to be here. I've been a huge fan of yours and Clutch and it's almost like you're going to come out of this period. There's people who stuck around for it and it's pretty clear we're going to know exactly who those folks are and I have a lot of respect for you and Clutch because you're obviously two of those folks.

NorCal Guy: 54:51

Well, thank you very much. I hope you have a great day and we'll talk soon.

BatSoupYum: 54:55

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Who is?

NorCal Guy: 54:57

this. Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy, who is this guy? North Calgary, north Calgary.

BatSoupYum: 55:07

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NorCal Guy: 55:13

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