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John Crain & Zack Yanger Of SuperRare Labs On RarePass & The CryptoArt Movement, Plus: Ivan Perez Of Howl Labs, The IreneDAO Phenomenon, And More…
With the continuous rise of NFTs in today’s economy, many things have been digitized and brought into the online world. The art market is one of the leading spaces to make this transition, giving artists a brand new platform to showcase their talent. John Crain and Zack Yanger Of SuperRare Labs are at the heart of this community, as they curate a diverse group of artists to promote and sell their work in independent NFT galleries and auctions. They join Jeff Kelley, Eathan Janney, and Josh Kriger to talk about making history in the CryptoArt Movement through RarePass, leading a revolution in creating innovative digitized art,and building a decentralized format through smart contracts. For this episode’s Sponsored Hot Topic, Ivan Perez of Howl Labs talks about dynamic NFTs and how they combine NFT-based technology with the DeFi world. And for the segment Why It Is Viral, they highlight how a Chinese influencer named Irene made more than $7M selling NFTs all by herself.
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John Crain & Zack Yanger Of SuperRare Labs On RarePass & The CryptoArt Movement, Plus: Ivan Perez Of Howl Labs, The IreneDAO Phenomenon, And More…
NFT curious readers, stay tuned for this episode and learn if Dogecoin is worth anything anymore, plus how a Chinese influencer named Irene made $7.5 million selling NFTs of herself, and it’s brilliant, and why the best Reese’s Pieces come from a Circle K in Florida. All this and more on this episode. Enjoy.
Don’t forget that we put a gathering together at NFT LA that brought out thousands of the world’s most innovative doers in the NFT space. Head over to NFTLA.live to get tickets to our bigger, bolder, and better but just as intimate and impactful event happening in Los Angeles from March 20th to 23rd, 2023. See you there.
This episode features John Crain, CEO and Founder, and Zack Yanger, SVP of Art Advisory of SuperRare Labs, the platform where you can buy and sell NFTs from the world’s top artists. I’ll give you a little bit about each of them. John co-founded SuperRare Labs in 2018 with the mission to bring Web3 to the art market. SuperRare has been a pioneer in innovating smart contracts that guarantee artist royalties in perpetuity.
In 2021, John helped launch the SuperRare DAO, which sits at the center of this new digital art market with more than $260 million in crypto art sales. Prior to SuperRare, John led product for Blockapps at ConsenSys, working with Fortune 500s, exploring use cases for smart contracts, and leveraging open data. Before falling down the crypto rabbit hole, John worked in advertising as a creative technologist for Digitas North America. John is also an avid surfer.
Let’s give you a little bit about Zack. Zack is the SVP of Art Advisory for SuperRare Labs and has been with the company since 2018 as the company’s first hire outside of the founders. He led curation and marketing initiatives prior to spearheading the art advisory business with a focus on the decentralization of SuperRare’s curation. Zack is at the helm of furthering engagement for the SuperRare DAO.
SuperRare Labs is a well-funded and fast-moving startup on a mission to reinvent the art market for the digital age. SuperRare Labs, creators of the SuperRare network, is a diverse creative ecosystem and digital art marketplace. The SuperRare platform is a social marketplace for cutting-edge digital, 3D, and VR creators and a new generation of natively digital art collectors. Zack and John, welcome.
Thanks so much. We’re excited to be here.
It’s great to have you.
Thanks for the intro. It’s a pleasure.
Art is so important. I was in a record store. The guy at the front desk said, “If you have any questions about the records, let me know, and anything else as well if you have any other questions.” I said, “What’s the meaning of life then?” He said, “Music,” which is appropriate for a record store guy. It’s a good reminder. It came up on another recent episode. There are all sorts of other things that go on in life but art is one of those things that makes life worth living. You are helping to craft a future of that crypto art market but I want to start at the beginning with you. What is the SuperRare origin story? We will let you decide who wants to speak first about that.
It all started in late 2017, the post-ICO craze. You may or may not remember. I’ve always worked at the intersection of art and technology and have been building software-based products of all shapes and sizes for quite a while. In late 2017, I was working with ConsenSys. I was already working in the Ethereum space and had been thinking about how Web3 would start to interact with creative industries.
I don’t have a finance background and was always interested in building new business models for creatives where they could think about platforms like Instagram. Instagram wants to sell more ads. Creators want to connect with their fans. They’re almost at odds. When I saw NFTs and the early developments around building the ERC-720 standard, I got very excited thinking about the big impact that this could have on creatives, specifically for the art market.
At the time, I was going to art fairs. All the art that was being sold was still canvas-based or sculpture, whereas a lot of the art that I was interested in creating was digitally-native. There’s no there-there almost. When I saw the NFT standard, I got super excited and originally launched the project with my brother who’s our CTO and my cousin who’s our Chief Product Officer.
We started prototyping. We launched the prototype about six months later, which is around the time that we met Zack who we have up here. Immediately, on launch, there was a small but vibrant community. We had an early Telegram group with maybe 50 people, mostly artists and some collectors, but people were very excited. There was palpable energy. You could feel that there was a spark of magic. This was going to be something big.
For context though, in the first year we launched, we did $90,000 in total sales. The entire year was $90,000 in volume. Since then, we hit $270 million in sales. It was pretty dramatic growth but it still is very early days. We’re seeing the art market itself digitizing but also the creation process. Art itself is digitizing. These two trends are coming together. NFTs are the layer that’s making this all possible.
It was during the pandemic. I’m sure NFT was going on but it was before we got involved in the show and everything started to explode. I was looking for something to make some of my Instagram posts interesting. I found some art websites. This guy was making little cool loops of some alternative universe. I reached out to him and said, “These are cool. Can I use these on my Instagram posts?”
It felt weird because I was like, “This guy should be compensated for this but he doesn’t seem to have any way to get compensated. He doesn’t care.” He’s like, “Go ahead. Use my art.” It’s so fascinating how quickly that all shifted within months of me doing something like that. Someone like that had a way to monetize something that people had given up in many ways.
If you look at the rise of NFTs and this insane fast rise that happened over the last couple of years, it corresponded very closely with the pandemic. Museums and galleries shutting down and people being stuck in their houses on their computers all day led to helping catalyze and get this industry off the ground faster than it probably would have without the pandemic.
It was a bit of a blessing in disguise. At that time, there weren’t many businesses in the world that were successfully operating through a pandemic. Pretty much any type of business outside of running an online marketplace was hurting at the time. For SuperRare, it was also perfect timing in the pandemic. As horrible as the pandemic was, it brought everybody online and into these different communities.
I remember that moment when you dropped your token to thank the community for being a part of it. It was an unprecedented viral moment. I was at Bright Moments that day, one of the NFT galleries in Venice. We did a show there at the very beginning. It was the talk of the town because it was such a disruptive idea of celebrating co-creation. It wasn’t a question, more of an honorary moment to also acknowledge your history.
I was surprised at how under wrap it was. It was pretty exciting to see it roll out and the waves that it made throughout the community.
You are making new waves. We’re excited to talk a little bit about the RarePass, which is another historic crypto art collecting opportunity. There are 24 artists in the mix. They’re all very important artists that help shape the crypto art movement. We would love to understand the details of this pass and the benefits and how this project came to be.
Thank you for asking. We have been working on this project for many months. We’re getting ready for the big launch. We couldn’t be more excited about this new collecting model in this project. We’re seeing it as a historic collecting opportunity and a chance for collectors to get access to a premium collection of crypto art from some of the most respected artists in this space with a single transaction.
We have put in a lot of work this genesis season to put together a lineup of artists that has a diverse range of styles but also are all going to be exciting to collectors. Collectors of this RarePass at the end of this program are going to be seated with an incredible collection of works that we hope will help them go on to become more interested in the crypto art space.
If you look at the craziness of 2021 in NFTs, we saw hundreds of thousands of new collectors come into this space through Bored Apes and rarity trait-focused collectibles but only a small fraction of those people have yet made the jump into one-of-one art collecting because it has such a higher barrier to entry. It is way easier to go to rarity.tools and say, “I want this collection. Tell me which one is the rarest,” and buy it based on the traits. To have tens and hundreds of thousands of artists, you have to research and figure out who these artists are, what they’re doing, and where I should focus.
It’s a big undertaking that is a barrier to entry. A big part and goal of this program are to create almost like a stepping stone curated option for collectors to be able to get access into this space without having to do all of the research required to identify who these artists should be. Lastly, on the past, I’ll get into some of the key details but it’s a rallying cry at the end of the day.
We have all seen the NFT media headlines, “NFTs are a scam. There’s nothing innovative or important to see here. This is all going to zero,” but we couldn’t disagree more. NFTs and collectibles are going through a bit of a turbulent time but crypto art is thriving. We had more collectors on SuperRare transact than we did at the height of 2021’s market in terms of the actual number of collectors. We know that there’s massive interest in crypto art versus collectibles. The goal of this program is not only to help onboard new collectors and give them an easier way in but also to excite the current collectors in the space.
Those are some powerful numbers. How many unique collectors do you have on SuperRare that have collected at least one piece?
Correct me if I’m wrong, John. The last I checked, it was in the 6,000 to 7,000 range. What’s interesting is that there have been 200,000 users connecting a wallet and creating an account but only 6,000 of them have ever purchased an artwork. There’s a massive group of people that we know are interested and want to get into it. They just don’t know where to start. You’re looking at all these artists like, “Where on Earth do I focus? How do I know what to do?” That’s a big part.
Jeff and I come from the food world. I would consider good food a form of art but ultimately, a simple choice is powerful for mass adoption. You could get overwhelmed choosing what you want to eat and choosing what artists you want to support because they’re all amazing in their own ways. I would love to dive into some of the details of the project more. Who are these artists? I assume it’s a diverse mix of folks and maybe some artists that are newer to the family and some artists that have been there since the beginning.
When diving into curating this group of artists, we wanted to make sure that we were selecting a diverse group of styles and artists that could give access to not just a series of works that are all going to be the same. We wanted people to get a diversified collection of works. There are 24 artists. It’s split into two distinct groups. Twelve of these artists are what we’re calling the airdrop artists.
Over the course of the next twelve months, there is going to be a monthly airdrop for all 250 pass holders. There are 250 passes. If you hold one of these passes, each month going forward for the next year, you’re going to going to receive an airdropped artwork from 1 of these 12 artists. They’re creating a series of 250. That’s not a multi-edition of 250 where it’s the same image 250 times. It’s a series. If you know XCOPY’s Grifters or Matt Kane’s Gazers, they all have a similar style to them but they’re all unique.
The pass holders each month in the first week of the month of the next year will receive an airdrop from 1 of those 12 artists. Those artists are XCOPY, Sarah Zucker, Robness, Pindar Van Arman, Other World, Matt Kane, OSF, Krista Kim, Helena Sarin, Coldie, Carlos Marcial, and Anne Spalter. In those twelve artists alone, the range of styles is incredible. There’s somebody that’s touching every style of digital art that we know of so far. There are also going to be twelve additional artists that are creating three unique one-of-one artworks. Each month, one of those artists will do a random giveaway.
We worked with Transient Labs to build out a completely on-chain randomization mechanism through Chainlink VRF that allows all pass holders to have an equal chance each month to win 1 of these 3 extra rare grail one-of-one pieces. That’s the list of artists. We’re excited for things to get underway when it comes to how the actual auction is going to work and the details for this.
Break it down for us.
It was important to us that we didn’t decide the value of the pass. We didn’t want to arbitrarily say, “This pass is worth 100 ETH, 50 ETH, or 10 ETH.” We wanted this community of collectors to decide in a fair way what these 250 passes should cost. We have set it up. The first RarePass is going to be auctioned in a 24-hour auction. Whoever is the highest bidder on that pass is going to become the owner of RarePass number one, which has some extra special benefits. That person will get number one in the airdrop series. They will get a bunch of swag and other things that you can see on the RarePass microsite.
The next day, as soon as that pass one auction ends, we will begin the Dutch auction. Let’s say pass one sells for 50 ETH. The Dutch auction the next day for the remaining passes will kick off at 50 ETH and run for six hours with a $0 end price. We don’t know what it’s going to sell for. The community of collectors is going to decide, “This could sell for a lot. It could sell for $1.” Whatever the community decides this pass is worth is what it’s going to sell for. That’s the goal of it.
Going forward, we think that it’s going to become a fun program because everybody knows this list of 24 artists. They’re all amazing in their own right but nobody is going to know the schedule. You know that you’re getting access to these artists but you don’t know who’s coming in January or February 2023. If you want to get all of them, you have to hold the pass for the whole year.
You can buy the pass, hold it for three months, get three airdrops, and then sell it if you got the artist you wanted but you may have to wait longer to get the one you’re waiting for. Depending on your style and who you’re interested in collecting, we will see some fun secondary market movement as people try and buy a pass before they think their favorite artist is releasing.
Overall, we hope that this can become a new model. This can be the template to it that can create a much easier way to get access to artworks and artists. The future should be curated by different entities. I would love to see an emerging artist pass where it’s all brand new artists. Their first entry to the space is likely at a lower price point but the opportunity is endless. We want to have a great template for how to make that into a program that can benefit all of the artists and collectors on the platform.
Art Market: SuperRareLabs hopes their community becomes a new model and template that creates aneasier access to artworks and artists.
That’s a very thoughtful approach.
It’s a nice intersection of some of the best practices of the last couple of years that have risen from the world of NFTs, the various launches, and different angles that have risen within the NFT space. There are all kinds of different jobs from super heavy art-based PFP drops to heavy encore functionality and utility. That intersected also with some of the core goodness from the traditional art world. The artists themselves are elevating these new works. I’m excited to see where that goes. It sounds like it’s going to catch hold.
One of the other pieces of that which we were talking about earlier was a simple choice and trying to craft a space whereby it’s easy for people to get the works that they want and not feel overwhelmed, especially people that are new to the space. Speaking of space, you have independent galleries that you call Spaces. Within those, people can curate, promote, and sell their artwork but also, it’s distinctive in that there is an opportunity for creation, shaping, and evolution process. I wanted to ask you about that. How does that work within the Spaces that you have on the platform?
We announced Spaces with the launch of the DAO in 2021. Spaces are independent galleries or curators that are part of the SuperRare ecosystem. In thinking about how this grows how can SuperRare support more artists and collectors, while our curation team is one of the best in the world, we can only onboard so many individuals. In thinking about how can you thoughtfully scale curation, the idea was to bring on additional galleries and curators.
The way it works is we have something that is called the Space Race. Galleries can apply. They submit an application. Token holders review these applications and then vote. It’s a democratic election to vote on these new galleries. We wrapped up our most successful Space Race applications so far. We had over 70 applicants. The voting starts. For any RARE holders reading, we’re going to be voting. It’s exciting. Some of these applications are incredible. These are very prestigious galleries and curators from all over the world who are coming into the NFT ecosystem in full force in a serious way.
That’s super cool. There are some elements in there around shaping those spaces over time as well. Are there additional voting mechanisms? How do those Spaces evolve with token holders and community involvement?
We view Spaces as a platform. There are some spaces themselves that are DAOs. These spaces are self-managing in different ways. You have some that are run by individual curators. Some are art collectives. They’re managed in different ways. This is super exciting. As with the RarePass, SuperRare Labs is pioneering new models and then pushing them out to the rest of the ecosystem to continue to use and evolve. We’re excited to see how the past takes shape but then also how artists in Spaces within our community also take the tools that we’re building and grow the ecosystem.
Let’s do it.
Zack, how about you?
I grew up in San Diego.
You didn’t have permission.
For $2, that’s a great pickup.
It’s a steal.
How about you, Zack?
Zack, how about you?
You hit the Elon Twitter pump.
Let’s have that combo.
Get that bad boy back. John, how about you?
He’s the OG.
Hustle, baby.
John, how about you?
Is that a normal word?
It’s a woo-woo word.
John, how about you?
The seltzer water returns.
More calls. We will sleep when we die.
#Hustle. John, how about you?
Are you still going to be in town on the 14th?
I’ll have to coordinate with you next time.
It’s good to see you.
What is it?
I’m on the website.
That’s the state of TikTok these days.
I’m sure we could find some other ones.
What a killer lineup and an amazing group.
Thanks so much.
Thanks for having us.
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