DankRares Jason Bailey

SuperRare makes it easy to create, sell, and collect rare digital art. Their smart contract platform allows artists to release limited-edition digital artwork tracked on the blockchain, making the art rare, verified and collectible. In this episode I interview founders Jon Perkins and John Crain about what motivated them to create the market and where they see the blockchain art space going in the future. I am personally a big fan of their agile approach to development applaud them for listening to artists and collectors and designing around their wants and needs. Learn more at Artnome.com

KnownOrigin is part of a new breed of art marketplaces built on the blockchain. With Known Origin, blockchain and "digital scarcity" enable art lovers to collect digital art that is provably rare, opening up new channels for supporting artists and building your collection. Unlike many other blockchain-based marketplaces, KnownOrigin is carefully designing a bridge from traditional art sales to a blockchain-based art marketplace. They do this by having a physical presence with popup events in major cities globally and through innovative technology for storing, printing, and displaying art that would otherwise only exist digitally on the blockchain. Learn more at Artnome.com

Travis Uhrig is the founder of Curio Cards and he organizes the Bitcoin meetup group in San Francisco, which boasts over 6,000 members. Last May, he quit his job altogether to become full-time crypto. This is around the same time that he launched the first set of Curio Cards. Curio Card's mission is to create a platform for artists and collectors that finally benefits artists. As it states on their website: "Until now it's not been possible to sell digital artwork without massive fees, theft, or restrictive DRM." Curio Cards is changing that. The project is doing phenomenally well, with over a thousand cards sold and artists making on average $300 - $900, according to Uhrig. Any artist can submit their work for free to be voted on at community.curio.cards. Learn more at Artnome.com

The original description from March 2018: "Artists are making thousands of dollars selling their work on blockchain-based marketplaces. Even better, these marketplaces take zero commission, so the artists receive 100% of the payment for their work. But where did the idea for these blockchain-based marketplaces come from? Joe Looney, the Godfather of CryptoArt and the creator of the Rare Pepe Wallet. In this interview I talk with Joe to better understand how the Rare Pepe Wallet evolved from a small group on Telegram into the successful marketplace it has become today. We go deep into the subject of digital art and digital ownership and what it means for the future of art and collectibles.  Side note: Many know that Pepe the Frog was co-opted as a hate symbol by the alt-right in the past. Joe and the Rare Pepe community disavow the use of Pepe as a hate symbol and instead choose to use Pepe as a vehicle for designing and sharing creative memes." Learn more on Artnome.com.

The DankRares podcast explored CryptoArt and NFTs before they were called NFTs. The show included interviews with OGs in the space and several platforms that are now famous but had not yet launched (SuperRare, KnownOrigin .etc). In mid-2019 when many people lost interest due to the bear market fewer people were listening and Jason (Artnome) stopped paying to host the episodes. 

Now in early 2021 with CryptoArt/NFTs booming there have been a few requests to bring back the content as part of our history. This first episode is probably the most cringy/boring because it is just me trying to explain to my friend Adrienne Burke-Moran (co-producer along with her husband Erin Burke-Moran of Caspian fame) asking me to explain the space at a time when I had limited knowledge. Hopefully, there is some charm to be found in my early naïveté/enthusiasm and a window into a simpler time in the world of blockchain art (as the old folks use to call it).