Fintech Impact

Today’s episode is slightly different as Jason is not interviewing a Fintech but an artist - Krista Kim. She made global headlines as being the first artist to sell a virtual home via a non-fungible token (NFT). Krista Kim is a contemporary artist and founder of the Techism movement and a global ambassador for the Superworld and creator of the Mars House, and a talented artist. In today’s podcast, they will discuss “How technology is changing both the distribution and implementation of art?”

Episode Highlights:

• 1.10: Krista introduces herself as a digital artist, started creating digital artwork in 2013. While using smartphones, Krista observed how people were completely changing the dynamics of their social interactions because of social media platforms and how social media platforms were inferring cultures.
• 1.18: As an artist, she thought, “We need to ensure that people are free thinkers going forward in the 21st century and beyond, but the big question was how do you do that?
• 2.45: Krista says, “We have to have a daily practice of meditation because we have to strengthen our prefrontal cortex. It’s a muscle that actually keeps us as freethinkers so that we’re not perpetually addicted to our phones.”
• 4.45: Jason refers to the filter bubbles that people have created; they only hear what they want to hear. 
• 06.00 Jason says that they are going to discuss NFTS, digital art, and the metaverse in today’s episode. He says that unlike cryptocurrencies, where the entire idea is to make transactions with them potentially, which is something called fungibility, the ability to spend something in one place versus the other. NFT or non-fungible token is a token that denotes value or ownership of something specific, and in this case one of the biggest use cases has been in the art realm.
• 06.44: Jason inquires, “How did you get into NFT? What was the opportunity you saw that you clearly harvested?”
• 7.10: Krista talks about her journey as a digital artist and her research on the blockchain of art. She became whitelisted as it gave power to the digital artist to sell their art properly as a rare piece of work.
• 7.45: Personally, Krista felt that NFT was giving digital artists the power to sell their art properly as a rare piece of work, one or limited series. But an artist can control its rarity, and that is everything for a work of art.
• 10.11: Jason says, “What we’re seeing is just again another technology and especially Internet technology, basically starting to apply itself through yet another medium or another vertical of an industry which is artwork.”
• 11.06: Krista explains the difference between NFT and a copy of the NFT.
• 11.40 Jason denotes that “People have a hard time wrapping their head around digital currencies.” He gives an example of the games like Diablo or World of Warcraft, where even before there were markets that were built into these things, people were selling armor or weapons on eBay and transacting real currency and then meeting virtually to deliver on the actual product sold. 
• 12.36: Krista affirms Jason’s views and asks him to look at Mars house. She shares why Mars houses became such a global story? It is because it really is a marker, overtime, and it is the harbinger for our augmented reality lifestyle that is coming around the corner. XR lifestyle. The Metaverse NFTs are going into the metaverse, and that is the next generation. 
• 17.00: According to Krista XR experience is essential for brands moving forward in order to really connect with this generation and their communities in an authentic and meaningful way. 
• 17.45 Jason says, “Virtual environments are becoming more and more engaging and more and more desired to be participated in, especially amongst young generations.” 
• 19.58 Krista explains, “We are selling virtual plots of land that are basically mapped geographically onto the real world. Then we also have the actual interface that allows people to upload our digital 3D assets into the room space. So, you could imagine what concerts or Disneyland would be like with 3D digital NFT creating an immersive experience for you and your family like you could literally dance with Mickey Mouse or raise a pet Simba and you could wear the Elsa dress right, and they’re all kinds of incredible projects because the apple, the apple glasses, are coming out in a year.
• 21.08: While talking about big events, Krista says, “Many people were making so many wasteful decisions for these events that can easily be a solvable, beautiful, more amazing experience in AR. 
• 22.03: The fact that you can make friends and have playdates and kids in Egypt and visit the pyramids and learn all about it. That’s the future of education and travel, says Krista.
• 27.15 Krista is glad that she found a collector on Super Rare. She says luckily, “In the community, we have a lot of visionaries and futurists, and art on the Internet is a consortium of collectors, and they are investing in the future.” 
• 30.01: According to Krista, “We should have a healthy ecosystem, and that is facilitated through people who support the work. She adds,” I believe that the major change that we are seeing because of the NFT market is that their percentages are being lowered for 50%, maybe 30 to 20%, something a little bit fairer to the Creator and also the resale, royalties, and NFT markets.” 
• 30.08: For super rare, Krista says, “Where I am based, we get a 10% royalty per resale on the secondary market, and I think that tradition and that new system will be also adopted in the traditional art world where it hasn’t.” 
• 32.27: Krista shares, “How as a digital artist, it was kind of difficult to get mainstream art world support of her work.”

3 Key Points:

1. Krista shares the importance of discussing arts and humanities in the boardrooms. She points out the value of discussions and collaborations so that companies not only have engineers and entrepreneurs but also people who understand the human touch. 
2. Krista talks about the major power shift that NFT gives to the digital artists. They get an opportunity to market their work directly to the buyers and not have intermediaries get the gallery system and the traditional art system.
3. Jason and Krista talk about the next generation technologies and how the world or facilities can be improved using technology. 

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Smartphones are addictive devices - We don’t want to be addicted. We want to be free thinkers and sovereigntist human beings.” - Krista Kim
• “There is an experiential shift going into XR, and that’s where NFTS are going.” - Krista Kim
• “We actually promote the democratization of ownership of the world, and we actually want people to monetize from the activity on their plots of land that they own because we are selling virtual.” - Krista Kim
• “It is important to create responsible things that make the world better and more beautiful.” - Krista Kim
• “You can’t rely on the traditional arts system to actually facilitate any sort of innovation” - Krista Kim

Resources Mentioned:

• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Krista Kim: Website 
• Podcast Editing