Crypto Collectibles: One Collector's Journey

Digital ownership through blockchain transcends the basic concept of "buying JPEGs" - it represents a fundamental shift in how we interact with digital assets and communities. In this riveting conversation with Shatt, we explore how his background in gaming provided the perfect foundation for understanding NFT value propositions from day one.

"Follow your passions even if others don't give a shit" stands as the guiding philosophy that helped Shatt navigate the complex world of digital collecting. Unlike many who chase influencer recommendations or trending projects, Shatt's approach centers on finding art that personally resonates - whether that's animated pieces that evoke emotional responses comparable to Pixar films or works that document the cultural evolution of Web3 itself.

The episode delves into the mechanisms of artist discovery in a space still lacking robust curation systems. From examining collections of established collectors to participating in curated drops like Click Create, Shatt shares practical wisdom for finding quality amid the noise. Particularly enlightening is his focus on artists who persist through bear markets - a signal of authentic artistic commitment versus opportunistic participation.

We witness a collector's evolution through Shatt's hilarious recounting of his first Bored Ape purchase - sitting on his front lawn afterward, beer in hand, wondering "I don't know what I just did. It's either really stupid or really smart." This candid moment perfectly captures the leap of faith many early adopters experienced.

Beyond collecting, the conversation explores how Discord voice chats create unprecedented access to knowledge sharing across experience levels, allowing newcomers to connect directly with experienced collectors and builders. This flattened social structure represents one of Web3's most transformative yet underappreciated aspects.

Join us for this deep dive into authentic collecting philosophy, artist appreciation, and community building that goes far beyond surface-level trends. Whether you're a seasoned collector or NFT-curious, Shatt's perspectives offer valuable guidance for navigating this evolving landscape with intention and authenticity.

https://x.com/Shatt_Eth

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and NFT Origins
• 5:17 Best Life Advice and Early Collections
• 8:20 Current State of Web3 and Future Potential
• 14:35 Art Collection Philosophy and Process
• 23:02 Quality Animation and Underexposed Artists
• 28:02 First Bored Ape Purchase Story
• 33:15 Community Building Through Voice Chats
• 36:54 Side Projects and Final Thoughts

Transcript

NorCal Guy: 0:00

Hey Shad, Welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Shatt: 0:03

Doing well. Thanks for having me.

NorCal Guy: 0:06

Dude, I'm glad we could make this work and get this going Finally. I know I talked to you about it a while back and then never got the collector side going, but now we're here, it's happening.

Shatt: 0:21

Yeah, it's nice to be on. It's good to see that you're bringing on some collectors too to get a little other perspective, other than just your collector's perspective right, right for sure.

NorCal Guy: 0:34

Uh, yeah, it's good. It's good, I love it. Um, it's. It's always a good conversation to have as well and to get the other views for sure. So what were your first thoughts when you heard about NFTs?

Shatt: 0:51

Oh man, I was all in from the beginning. As soon as I read on Ethereumorg, erc-721 and ERC-1155 standard, it was an instant click for me. I mean, I grew up playing video games, I'm digitally native and, uh, you know it's. I have. I have a very. I've played a lot of, a lot of world of warcraft and I have a lot of items in that game that I've collected that are stuck on their internal database. Um, and so having the idea of being able to actually own your assets and being able to trade it outside of a closed ecosystem was just yeah, it was just immediately got me hooked right on in.

NorCal Guy: 1:39

No, that's awesome. That's awesome because it took me a little while to like, oh okay, I should do okay, but congrats on that, it made sense to you. You know it's funny. I grew up kind of playing video games and I don't know if you're maybe a couple of years younger than me, but I just like I couldn't. Video games never grasped me. I guess you know it's part of it was because my parents were like no, you can't play that that much, and like I wasn't able to have a console until I was like junior high, um, so maybe that's part of it.

Shatt: 2:16

But yeah, yeah, having your parents tell you not to play definitely uh pushes a lot, of a lot of kids away. But uh, yeah, I, I mean like I was given like my own PC in my own bedroom at like 10 years old or something, and I mean like, and this is like back in the days of when Napster was still legal.

Shatt: 2:37

So, yeah, I've been gaming for a while, you know, so, yeah, it's nothing new for me.

Shatt: 2:44

But I mean mean like, yeah, even even like understanding the, the value prop for nfts, and like personal ownership, it did take me a little while to try to figure out what I should be buying, and that's kind of like why I started like my.

Shatt: 2:59

My first nfts were, uh were, sandbox land, since I played a ton of minecraft and I was just kind of it kind of gave me like a roblox kind of feel, where you could monetize building your own game and then some axes from actually infinity, because I wanted to play a game which I'm not really a fan of, uh, that that style card based, uh, turn turn based battles, um, but it was, you know, more, more of an experiment, um. And then I think it was, uh, like the, the pranksy nft boxes, uh, just because I wanted to start collecting some art and had absolutely no clue where to start, and so I figured, well, at least, at least with this I'll get a random assortment of different artists that I've never heard of before, and then I can go from there and do some of my own research.

NorCal Guy: 3:51

Right, that's funny. I also got in on those Pranksy boxes, did it for like the full year, that first year. Yeah, good times. What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

Shatt: 4:10

um, I would. I would probably say it wasn't. I don't think it was like a direct piece of advice, uh, but kind of like sprinkled in over time from my parents and and that was to follow your passions even if other people don't give a shit. Uh, it was. Uh, I mean I kind of just like went my own route as a kid and you know it wasn't always the popular things to do and it wasn't like I was a trendsetter or anything, but it was nice to have that backing and I can recognize it, being older now, how valuable that really was, because a lot of us get caught in the routine of chasing others' dreams rather than our own, and I think that was something that was really good to set me on the right path for myself.

NorCal Guy: 5:04

No, that's solid. I think that's one of the best ways to especially in this space, because there's so much like following, chasing what other people are doing. It's good to be able to do your own thing and, you know, get things at a reasonable price instead of buying the tops. Yeah, if you just listen to your influencers, you know get things at a reasonable price instead of buying the tops.

Shatt: 5:26

Yeah, if you just listen to your influencers, you know you gotta, you gotta look at the stuff that you want. And I mean like, yeah, you're not always going to be right in what you buy into if you're doing it for investment purposes, but there's also a bunch of products out there that are more product based. Rather than you know, I'm buying this to flip for something more. And you know, sometimes you find stuff that you wouldn't by just reading whatever the influencers are saying that week, that month, right right.

NorCal Guy: 6:01

So it sounds kind of like well, at least on in games, but did you collect any art or cards, comics, anything before crypto art, um?

Shatt: 6:12

I mean pokemon cards as a kid for sure. Okay, that was not, not as an adult. I haven't collected pokemon cards. Um, didn't get back into that scene when everybody else was doing it. It was really just so I could play the game and I liked the, I liked the characters and everything. Um, but no, I, I, I didn't collect art. The the only thing recently I've I'd collected, prior to nfts, was like some funko pops of the of the heroes from overwatch. Uh, you know, that was that was just about it. But yeah, no, I was never in the art collecting scene. I think I got some generic $20 print of just some paint strokes just to put on a wall, but yeah, it was never that interesting to me and most of the traditional art stuff it still doesn't click with me.

Shatt: 7:10

But I don't know, there's just so much abstract and even in art school you get put onto all these big artists that are, know their their biggest sales and whatnot, and I don't know. I I guess, like when I'm like looking, you know, to collect art, it's more of the like. Does it resonate with me? Does it, does it make me feel something, does it remind me of something? And traditional art never really has that feel for me, whereas, like digital art, especially animated digital art does. But yeah, now, now my house is absolutely covered with physicals of my.

Shatt: 7:58

NFTs, which is awesome. It's awesome. Yeah, I do like it. My walls look so much better with art on it. I didn't really notice it before, but yeah, it's a it's. It's a wonderful change. You know a mix of having the physicals and then, uh, some digital frames as well.

NorCal Guy: 8:12

Yeah, oh nice. What are the best things about web three today?

Shatt: 8:20

Oh, oh God, Uh, uh, oh, oh God. I'm like in a constant state of looking into the future when it comes to Web3, because this is like I mean this is the exciting time where, you know, specifically during the bear, where people just get to build and like it's kind of calm and it's not crazy, you don't feel like you have to be checking the charts every 10 minutes. You know it's uh, so like, right now it's the the best thing is is the community that's actually here to build and here for the technology. Um, I mean that that's that's part of what I'm here for, not the building part, but for the, for the tech and the innovation that comes with it. Um, I mean like, don't get me wrong, I like making money off of this stuff. That's that's always nice, but it doesn't normally work out that way.

Shatt: 9:17

But, uh, I mean, most of this space right now is just kind of, uh, not user friendly. Um, it's, it's in the it's in the rough. You know it's. We're still under construction. We're trying to figure it out. You know it's like we, we try out all these alt coins, all these shit coins. We try out other l1s, you know we, we try out daos and we're, we're like, I mean we're anybody in the space right now is a guinea pig, and if you don't understand that you should probably reassess why you're here. Um, but you know that's. You know there's always a higher upside when, when it's much more difficult for mainstream or you know the layman to to use the product.

Shatt: 10:01

But, uh, I mean, I do see so much potential in this. This definitely isn't a buy a bunch of JPEGs, shill it to a bunch of normies I don't know what the best term to say Non-web three people to get them to come in and then buy my bags and then for me to exit completely like that is a hundred percent not what I'm looking to do. Like I I do see like digital ownership as as the future and not like, oh yeah, in the like in the next 10 years, then it'll just be like the next phase and then we'll move on to the next cool thing Like this. This. None of this feels like a fad to me, I mean, except for some of the cycles and the waves and what comes with it. But like the, the underlying technology is is something that I think like becomes the underlying tech of the world, to the point where we don't even recognize we're using blockchain anymore. So that that's kind of what I'm excited for with it.

NorCal Guy: 11:03

Great, I like that. So, looking forward, where do you see digital art in five years and do you have any concerns as well?

Shatt: 11:16

I mean it's not going anywhere, it's just going to get more prominent. I think entices artists outside the space, or even people in the space that weren't artists before, to start making cheap, uh cheap art so they can flip it and get on the train. Um, but like overall for I I do, I do think, um, digital art, and hopefully we stay away from walled gardens, but you know, in comparison to the traditional art world, uh, I think it could be absolutely massive. I mean, with the traditional art world like it's they go with, like the, I think it's like the Ferrari model, where your status has to be high enough to even be considered to be allowed to spend money on their art, which is absolutely ridiculous to me.

Shatt: 12:21

And you know it's only digital art just seems to make so much more sense, especially with, like a lot of physicals. You buy it and then you put it in like a storage closet or a facility and like that's it, and it's sort of a store of value. Most of it goes down, some of it goes up, but, like with digital art, it's everywhere, for anybody, by anybody, and and I really like that, that idea of it, and I do think most of you know most of digital art if it's sold as an nft or hopefully we start calling them digital assets. In that case, most of them will be much cheaper, more print-priced. Oh right, right, right, yeah, I mean, I don't expect thousands of X-copy level of prices from artists out there, but yeah, I do see that being a massive part. And and the other part of that question was was what any?

NorCal Guy: 13:26

concerns about the space as it expands um, uh, not not too much.

Shatt: 13:35

Um, I, I know other people's concerns will pretty much come down to AI art and that whole copyright infringement of it, but I do think that all art that gets put online should be minted somewhere Not necessarily on ETH, because that costs a lot of money and if you're just like putting something to post on Twitter, you know, like something like that, you know it's like I feel like that provenance, that proof of you're the artist, is important and valuable for the future, especially as we go more global with everything. But, yeah, not too many big concerns, not really for my bags at least.

NorCal Guy: 14:22

Yeah, so what makes you decide to buy a piece? Do you watch an artist, Do you get to know them? Or sometimes it's like hey, I need that right now.

Shatt: 14:36

Yeah, I do that, I need that right now. Occasionally, I, I do that, I need that right now occasionally. Uh, hopefully it's with cheaper pieces. Uh, tezos is really good for that. And I do find myself when I'm okay, yeah, when I'm scrolling on tezos and a piece is like five dollars and it's like an, it's like it's either like a one of one or like an addition of 10 or 20. And I'm like, oh, that piece looks so cool and then I just buy it, like that's it. It's really like right click and saving for me, as I did as a kid for art, but I guess more so like on ETH, more expensive art.

Shatt: 15:14

I'm a big fan of the curated art, drop, nfts, uh, so projects like yours with uh click create, um, those are, those are my, my favorite cause. It's least effort on my end. You know, all I have to do is vet the people that are, vetting the curators and, uh, you know it's kind of a form of delegation for me, but it gets me in and it gets me to discover new artists and you know, that's kind of like the general path to get more exposure and to discover stuff, because it is really hard to discover in this space. And I mean, like this space is really tiny right now and it's difficult, and so, like this curation is super useful, um, but yeah, I have a handful of the other projects that do curated drops, um, but when it came like prior to those, for me, like deciding what art to buy was more of kind of talking with other collectors is the biggest thing Finding out what they like and why and it's kind of just given me a first draft of looking into them, into the artist, and then it was kind of just discovery through super rare or foundation. Uh, initially, um, yeah, I don't even know what kind of path I would go on at this point. Um, because it's I don't know, the space is so choppy right now and everybody's moved to to shit coins, so it's a that's that's all. The timeline is right now. But, um, yeah, it's a, you know like, so if I'm, if I am gonna get like go out and just like buy my own art, it's generally going to be from an artist I already own.

Shatt: 17:05

Um, and artists that have been in the space for a while and have been minting for a while, regardless of sale price, um, that's like a big factor to me. Uh, is is the artists that have been here, um, have continued to mint, even if they aren't selling, and continue to create art, even in a bear market. Um, you know it's, it's kind of almost like a college degree where it's proof that you're gonna stick it through, and that's kind of like how I feel with the, you know, with anybody who sticks around in this space during the bear, are the people that I pay attention to, because the ones that show up only you know when when charts are up, only when price is up only you know they're they. They might have different incentives, they might stick around till the next bear, but you know I'll wait until the next bear.

Shatt: 17:58

Um, but, uh, yeah, it's just, it's just finding some artists that you know their style really resonates, it tells a story that I'm part of. Uh, that that's generally my favorite. My favorite works is the, the pieces that are, um, that's art of the culture, of what is currently happening in this space, this Renaissance 2.0 that we're having, and any artist who does that, just a shout out to like King Xerox is all of his pieces. It feels like he just like takes the entire Twitter timeline and makes a piece about whatever's going on that week or month and it just like resonates and it's, I mean, like I'm a sentimental guy. I like to hold things that you know bring back memories and you know works like his definitely do that where you look at it and you're just like, oh yep, I remember that, like his open edition one where it was just a monkey spitting out a shitload of open edition prints.

Shatt: 18:59

you know that was that was during like oe season, like that's just like stuff like that, and like holding that art, even though, like I'm not holding that to flip it to make money like I'm holding it because I love that piece and it tells a part of the story that you know I was, I was part of for sure, for sure.

NorCal Guy: 19:16

Oh yeah, I like what you had to say about you know the artist pushing through, working through this. Um, I mean it's good to see them still here and they're committed. I mean that's like one of my biggest things is like you may not be big now, but if you are working hard and pushing is is one reason for me to to go with you, because I know you're willing to put in the work, the effort yeah, for for sure, it's.

Shatt: 19:49

Uh, how do you go about finding your artists and your pieces that you collect?

NorCal Guy: 19:56

oh man, it's. You know, um, I so I don't scroll twitter at at all, so I go off notifications. That's healthy. So I mean I miss a bunch of stuff. But I I you know have notifications turned on for a variety of people and if I happen to see a retweet or if someone DMs me like, hey, you should check this out, that's usually where it starts. But now, you know, with this podcast, the Collector's Vault, I'm also scrolling and checking out everyone's collections so I get to see, you know, what do they have?

Shatt: 20:40

that I haven't seen before, and so that's been fun yeah, I do think, uh, scrolling through collectors galleries, especially the collectors that are not really looking to flip but just looking to buy because they like art, um, you know right, it's, it's so cool to discover stuff. I mean, like, I think a lot of my initial, more abstract or generative art stuff came from scrolling through kevin rose's and dc investors galleries when, yeah, when he was still doing.

Shatt: 21:09

Uh, I think it was the modern finance podcast and I was like I was like, how do I find art? I'm like, oh, let me just scroll through his gallery, see what's in there. I was like, oh, I like this, you know, I'm like, oh, let me just scroll through his gallery and see what's in there. I was like, ooh, I like this one out of 50 pieces, so let me go look through that artist. And I was like this whole process.

Shatt: 21:27

It was cool and exploratory, but I feel like it needs to be a little more mainstream, in a sense Like, yeah, still have the to have like fully organic artist discovery, but also, you know, for for new entrants into the space that want to collect art. You know it's you're not always going to be able to just like reach out to somebody and be like, hey, be my mentor, guide me to find where the best art is, and more of like discovery platforms. But I don't know, maybe that goes back into the walled garden side of things and so I don't really have like an answer of how to how to get through and get that done well or properly. But hopefully there's a lot of options out there, right, right do you have a favorite movie quote?

Shatt: 22:17

I do not. I can't even remember the lyrics of a song I've heard a thousand times, and I watch movies once. So nothing really sticks All right.

NorCal Guy: 22:31

No, that's cool. That's cool, all right. Do you have like a? I know I asked you what your best piece of advice is. Do you have like a phrase that sticks in your head from anywhere?

Shatt: 22:45

On the spot no.

NorCal Guy: 22:47

That's fair.

Shatt: 22:48

I can probably look some stuff up, but yeah, I don't think I'll have it ready for this.

NorCal Guy: 22:53

That's all right, we'll move. It's all right, we'll move. What would you like to see more of in the nft or the crypto art space?

Shatt: 23:04

for the art side of things.

NorCal Guy: 23:07

Yeah, I mean like, like. For me I wish there was more experimentation, but or anything along those lines. I mean any thoughts.

Shatt: 23:23

I would. I would like to see less coattailing. I feel like there's like like a few artists will pop out and just have like an incredible style and as soon as they have like a sale over 10 ETH, you'll see your timeline just turns into like 50 other pop-up artists that haven't done any work before, at least have no proof of it anywhere, and all their work looks the same as that new artist. Um, right, um. But I, I would like to see a lot, of, a lot more animated art and and not just like not not like glitch art, but like, uh, gif art, either short loops of your own personal style, whatever you've converted other styles into over time, into your own um, or more stuff that is almost kind of like pixar style or like short film, almost very short film film. Um, there's a, there's a couple out there, you know, uh, ryan, ryan Talbot, uh, and like, uh, raphael I'm blanking on his um, yeah, raphael, urba or Pippo's, I guess is is a handle. I mean, I just absolutely love their stuff. Um, like, even like xulo, like there's, there's such incredible quality like 3d rendered short.

Shatt: 24:58

You know 5 to 15 second pieces that are out there and it's those artists seem to be I don't want to say undervalued though I do kind of believe that but more like underexposed to the space, because I feel like a lot of the collectors now kind of just like piggyback on some of the big collectors which, like I said a minute ago, like that's kind of what I did to start, go like that's kind of what I did to start, um, but it's like the everything is so focused on like generative and ai art right now, and I and I get it because we finally have a medium to be able to promote it and actually sell it and share it um, but then again it's like you know somebody who spends like days and days in blender and sets up like a scene where you could actually imagine it being like an entire short film or an entire movie, and those artists just like don't get noticed. And I mean like one of the right one of those artists that I discovered recently thanks to Click Create was Offshoot. Oh yeah, yeah, and that work is absolutely incredible.

Shatt: 26:12

Like I went through the rest of their work, I was like, holy shit, how have I not seen this before?

Shatt: 26:19

I am taken back by it and the, the sales on it just like aren't really there and I don't know if that's more of the artists not going ham on marketing and not paying people to show for them and not being in people's DMS asking to hey retweet this, it would mean a lot. I mean like, yeah, you know, do marketing, how you're going to do it, you know whatever, but yeah, I don't know. I mean, like, in those are the artists like I really want to collect, the ones that, like when I watch it, like I go through an actual range of emotions, like I'm watching a Pixar film where you're just watching something by yourself and like you just feel so much from it. That's the impact that I really love to get from the art, especially if it's something I can put on like my token frame and have it playing in the house as I walk by and just like a little glimpse of a feeling to just, like you know, throw something into the mix.

NorCal Guy: 27:18

But yeah, no, he's solid like. I remember he was one of the earlier pieces I ever bought on Maker's Place, way back in February. Oh gosh, does that site still exist? It does, it does.

Shatt: 27:36

Them and Rarible.

NorCal Guy: 27:41

But yeah, he's solid, he really loves what he does, and you can tell.

Shatt: 27:46

Yeah, there's more passion put into it than the monetary return, for for sure. But it's right. That's like that's one of those artists where you know, if you're looking for a return or store value, like those are the artists that you, you, you would bet on. I'm not and this isn't a show to say, go buy these artists work to make money, but you know, if you're going to collect art and it resonates with you, like that's the type of person, that's the type of artist that that I, I would look for right I agree.

NorCal Guy: 28:20

What is the best and the silliest thing you've ever spent money on?

Shatt: 28:25

jpegs on JPEGs. I think that covers that.

Shatt: 28:32

Yeah, well, I mean, like I thought it was just, I guess, to tell the story of buying my first Bored Ape. I mean, you know, that was the early days where I was listening to Bankless and they didn't say anything about NFTs. Really, they're all DeFi-focused. But that was the only podcast I could find. They kept on talking about crypto Twitter. This crypto Twitter that I'm like is this a different website? Where is crypto Twitter? I need some instructions, because I was the first of my friend group to be into crypto and so I was like I guess I have to figure this out myself.

Shatt: 29:17

And once I finally started like getting into, like starting like the beginning of collecting out of teas for me, which was like march of 2021, um, I kept on seeing these Twitter profile pictures of these cartoon apes and I didn't mint. I saw them around a bunch. I looked at the floor. I was like I don't really like the art, the floor. I was like I don't really like the art, um, but I was like these are selling for like almost an eath. I was like, okay, so if you hold one of these, you get access to a discord, to private channels. I was like, well, maybe these guys are serious about nfts if they're paying like three to four grand to buy this picture so they can get into a private discord to talk more about what other jpegs to buy. And I was like, all right, screw it, I guess I'll buy this robot ape for 1.4 eath.

Shatt: 30:21

I was like four grand for a freaking monkey picture and it's like, as soon as I click confirm, I saw it in my wallet. I shut down my computer, I cracked a beer and sat on my front lawn and I was like I don't know what I just did. It's either really stupid or really smart. But yeah, and then it took like two more days and then I bought another one, uh, just to flip for a punk, which never happened. But yes, yeah, I still have it.

NorCal Guy: 30:53

Yeah, it was a diamond tooth I bought off pranksy actually so if you could commission a piece and have two artists collab on it, which two artists would it be? Ah, oh man. A piece and have two artists collab on it, which two artists would it be? Ah, oh man.

Shatt: 31:12

Hmm, I mean, ah, there's so many Cause it's like there's so many artists that absolutely love their style, but, like that, the challenge of being able to blend two styles together to make it actually better rather than worse, oh gosh. To blend two styles together to make it actually better rather than worse, oh gosh. I'm going to have to think on that one.

Shatt: 31:40

I'm going to have to scroll through my gallery just a little bit, because I would actually I would probably say Lacone, mr Lacone, and oh my gosh, what would his style work well with though? Yeah, no, we'll have to come back to that.

NorCal Guy: 32:02

Alright, alright, that's fair. What is an interesting fact about you that people might not be aware of? Hmm?

Shatt: 32:18

Oh gosh, that I no. No, you guys all know about that in this space. You're facial. I got to figure I'm running two lives here, you know know, one with my pseudo and one with my meat suit. So all right, all right, we'll move on, we'll move on.

NorCal Guy: 32:38

Okay. What is your favorite way to connect with people in this space?

Shatt: 32:43

uh, voice chats, uh, discord voice chats feel the best and I don't know what it is, but so many people are against it. Maybe it's cause they're at work while they're scrolling on Twitter and responding and they can't chat. Um, I have a lot of people that are like, yeah, I can hop in and listen, but I can't talk. But, um, yeah, I would definitely. It's like, uh, but yeah, I would definitely. It's like finding the discords that aren't pump and dump communities, that aren't just in it to make money but are also people that want to learn and getting into those calls and just hopping in an open chat and all you need is like one or two people, up to like maybe 10, and then just kind of like free reign that chat and, uh, I mean it's. You learn so much about people and and you realize that just because somebody else is interested in this space doesn't mean that they do the same shit you do in meat space. I mean I've, I've met so many interesting people in this space, you know from from you know the serial entrepreneurs to high schoolers, to yacht designers. I mean like it's, it's such a wide range and I and I think it's so crazy too to be able to like you buy this maybe somewhat cheap asset or you get into a Discord and you know like, especially from like a kid's mindset, like you could be on a call with a multimillionaire or bigger, you know, in a few minutes and just have like a free chat with them and like this was never a thing before. That's really true and it's and it's absolutely wild. And I mean like some people are definitely utilizing it because they're coming in and they're they're getting like a post-grad course on on how to do business, on how to invest, on technical analysis, on trading and on psychology and like on art and all of this stuff. And all you have to do is just like hop in a chat or just hop on and start a conversation.

Shatt: 34:53

And and I mean like a lot of people try to go through twitter, dms and they go straight for the person that they think that can give them the most value. But like that's not generally the easiest way. Cold dms don't don't tend to work out. Um, yeah, but I mean like, yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's definitely definitely kind of like a shill of get in the right community, like figure out what community is the type of people like. I mean you. You see it now with with all like the pfps in this space, like each community has like a different vibe and you just kind of got to feel that out on twitter, find out which community is the right one for you and then work your way up into there and you know, if it's not the right people, then then step on out. But right, yeah, yeah, definitely. Discord voice chats cool.

NorCal Guy: 35:46

Well, is there any projects that you're working on, like talk about?

Shatt: 35:53

um, I am not currently working on any projects, um, but I I don't know if I'm allowed to announce it.

Shatt: 36:03

Um, okay but, but I mean like I'm yeah, I'm like I kind of like being behind the scenes advisor for people in the space who I think are doing cool shit, just to get fresh eyes on stuff.

Shatt: 36:19

But I guess one of the bigger things and this is, I guess, somewhat a shill, because, you know, I have hardware invested and money invested but looking into this other chain called Chia, it's a green L1 chain that's based on proof of space and time and it's kind of going the route of, instead of an ICO, they're going with an IPO and going through regulators and trying to build this chain for institutional use, basically primarily for institutional use, and so that's kind of like one of my side bets. But instead of like farming with an ASIC or GPU mining, it's storage-based, so I have a petabyte worth of hard drives in my basement yeah, farming, a way to secure the network. So it's just one of those. It gave me an opportunity to mess with hardware without having to go the whole ASIC scene, because I really hate reselling physical stuff, which is why I didn't want to get a bunch of GPUs, use a ton of energy, have to sell the coin right away to make sure I cover energy costs and all that.

Shatt: 37:41

It's more of a. You pay the upfront costs of the hard drives, you get a JBOD and shove them all in there and then just let it run. That's something that I've been tinkering with. You know it's I'm not betting the farm on it, but it's kind of like a, a side project to bet on it, kind of hedge my bets on crypto a bit here nice, nice, awesome.

NorCal Guy: 38:03

Um just following back, did you think of any collaborations?

Shatt: 38:08

Yeah, actually Lip Camarella. I think his work, possibly combined with Lacone's work, would be something interesting to see. I know if I sat on it longer I could come up with a bunch of combos that I would love to see, but I think that's just going to be the choice for now.

NorCal Guy: 38:35

Nice, cool. Well, shad, thank you so much for your time today and for coming on this podcast. I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Shatt: 38:44

I appreciate it. It's great to be here.

NorCal Guy: 38:47

Cool. Well, man, you have a great day and we'll be talking soon.

Shatt: 38:52

Sounds good, cheers.