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Edge Of W3BX Feat. Gabe Weis Of Stoics, Amen Rahh Of K12 Crypto And Zeneca
A lot of what fuels the growing NFT space is the relationships that people build around the concepts of community and co-creation. This is what events like W3BX are all about. In this episode, we go to Las Vegas with Josh Kriger as he talks to some of the hottest names in the Web3 community right now. Join in and get the latest scoop from Gabe Weis of Stoics, Amen Rahh of K12 Crypto, and Zeneca. Tune in and learn how the NFT community continues to grow even in a bear market!
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Edge Of W3BX Feat. Gabe Weis Of Stoics, Amen Rahh Of K12 Crypto And Zeneca
This is Josh Kriger, cohost of Edge of NFT in Las Vegas at W3BX with none other than Mr. Gabe Weis. It’s great to see you IRL, my friend.
It’s such a pleasure. I’m glad to be here.
You look relaxed. I know it has been a rollercoaster of a month for you. Congrats on the Stoics sellout. For those that don’t know who you are and what you’re up to, why don’t we break it down for everyone and talk a little bit about the Stoics?
I appreciate you. I minted out a project called the Stoics. It’s a 5,000 PFP based on Stoicism. It has my cubism art as part of it. That was pretty exciting coming off of a year and a half of building my community through making art. The transition from artist to the Founder of Stoics has been an intense one. To your point, I’m finally feeling calm, which is a nice feeling after six months of working.
It’s cool because I feel like I’ve caught bits and pieces of that journey for you. I haven’t seen the whole thing. It has been a wild year for everyone. I was at a party where I met you when you were in town for that Bright Moments drop. It was so cool to see you elevate all the artists around you and support the community at that private event. Shout-out to Ash. Bright Moments was a moment. What were some of the other key moments that led to this opportunity? This stuff doesn’t happen overnight.
I’ve attended every Web3 event I possibly could in 2022. I drew 101 hand drawings for everyone like hundreds of them. Those were the allow list to get on the Stoic. The journey is NFT NYC and NFT LA. That was one of the most fun events that I did. That also helped spearhead it. I did VeeCon and another NFT NYC. The special sauce in all of this is having a human connection and meeting people. Otherwise, especially in this market, it turns into a race to the bottom. If no one has any connection to you, they undercut until your floor is below mint quickly.
W3BX: The special sauce in all of this is having a human connection and meeting people. Otherwise, especially in this market, it turns into a race to the bottom.
That’s true in life. I continue to hear stories about the power of human connection that occurred at NFT LA. I love the show we do and how we’re connected to the broader community. We educate and tell the stories of founders like you. There’s something about that physical connection in person that can’t be replaced. I was in Singapore and Korea, meeting founders and connecting with them, and learning about what was going on there. These are folks that I probably never would have built such a strong relationship with if I didn’t meet them in person. Nothing replaces that. That’s why in these times, we all have to get to know each other and go to events like this and NFT LA, and support real human connection.
The Stoics has a lot of sub-communities. There are the Bulls, the Wise Owls, the Whales, and the Royals. A lot of the thesis behind this is creating ways for people to have those real humans interact. We’re the only group doing Zoom calls together as little subcommittees. People like seeing a face and putting a face to it. It’s not the same as IRL. IRL is by far the best. That’s one of the big advantages of these conferences.
A lot of the thesis behind the Stoics is like, “How do we elevate each other? How do we build each other’s networks out?” My story is I had maybe 50,000 Instagram followers but I wasn’t selling a lot of art prior. To go from that to selling a few million dollars worth of art in less than a year and a half is all on the power of these new connections I met through Clubhouse and attending everything. I double and triple down when people say, “What’s the secret sauce?” I’m like, “You have to know people. You have to make sure they know why you’re doing what you’re doing.”
You have to put in the time. That’s amazing. With Zoom, there’s a lot of new technology coming out for making virtual conferencing more exciting. I’ve met a lot of people doing avatar stuff and metaverse stuff that’s compatible with Zoom. What are your thoughts on all that? Are you playing around with all that? Are you sticking to the vanilla stuff?
At the moment, it’s vanilla. I’ve done some of this metaverse stuff. It’s not what scratches the itch for me. If it scratches parts of my community, then we will start doing it but like baby steps. There will be a winner in all of this. It might take a few years. At some point, it’s going to be super user-friendly and awesome. I’ll probably do it more but right now, we will keep it at basic Zoom.
What’s on the roadmap for the Stoics?
It’s building out these sub-communities. The Wise Owls meet. If the floor price on OpenSea is the same or more in six months as it is now, then they get a nice perk. The Bulls have some running targets that they hit. When we’re at 1 ETH floor, they get perks. There are different incentives within the different groups. A lot of that is still slowly building out. A lot of people in the marijuana industry are interested. I have one with a joint. They’re thinking about turning that into an alpha group for the marijuana industry. I set it up for the infinite game. There are a million Easter eggs in it and so many different characters.
Something for podcasters maybe. What do you think?
Let’s do it.
Tell me. What do you think? What attributes fit media?
Thirty-nine percent of the collection is called Caterpillar. They can change. We have dynamic NFTs. On top of it all, we could handcraft one for podcasters. I’m trying to make this fluid, dynamic, and fun but also be able to bring on communities slowly that are interested. Maybe I’ll make twenty that are LA-based, and then we get it to folks in LA. There are a bunch of maps in it. That already is one, but there are different groups that can be made out of the Caterpillars. Nothing is closed off. That’s part of this infinite game that I want to be playing.
It makes sense. You have to be evolutionary in this space. Nothing stays constant at all in this space. It’s all trial and error. That has been fascinating to me with the interviews that we’ve had with some of the leaders in this space even Eric Calderone. There will be a fun announcement related to Eric soon. He was the first to admit that this was all an experiment for him and that we still don’t know the answers.
The only projects that I like are the ones that are thinking like that versus the second you have a roadmap, it’s almost like the fun is gone to me. I know what you’re going to do. If you don’t do it, then you’re not good at your job. If you do it, chances are it won’t be enough to keep me engaged. It’s keeping people on their toes and keep trying to figure out ways to delight them in the most ever-changing industry that we’re in.
I luckily have the benefit of the doubt of a year and a half of making people collect my art. They made money for me. I show up to stuff. They have seen that I’m here for the long term. That little extra trust layer means that I get a little bit more leeway to keep telling people, “Don’t worry. We’re going to have an insane amount of fun and have cool perks,” without necessarily saying, “This is exactly what we’re doing. Here are the dates we’re doing them.”
I wonder if some custom sneakers get into the mix. I’m checking out your sneakers. They’re pretty dope.
A lot of this also is Stoics that I meet in person are getting hooked up. I’ve been doing jackets for folks. I did shoes at the party. I want it to feel like something where you’re a Stoic. You come up to me like, “Will you draw on my shirt?” I’m like, “For sure. I’m always down.”
You wear multiple hats. You’re sharing a little bit of alpha with me that you had some other cool drops going on in the background here all while you’re building this giant project and community. What’s the scoop?
At NFT NYC, Avalanche approached me. They’re based in New York. They’re like, “We want you to do a drop here. We will do everything for you.” As a creator who does a ton of marketing, that sounded appealing. I dug in and was like, “I’m going to have to work super hard on this to sell it out.” It was the biggest drop on Avalanche in six months, which I didn’t know at the time. I didn’t know very much about Avalanche. I did a collection called Conscious Lines. It was 999. It sold out in 30 seconds. It’s doing well. One sold for almost $4,500, which is the biggest art NFT sale in Avalanche that I’m aware of.
What are Conscious Lines all about? Congrats, by the way.
Thank you. These are drawings that I did of all of my community organizer meetings for twenty years. I saved a bunch and then converted them into NFTs. It’s a seventeen-year journey of my art. It’s funny seeing some of the early ones from seventeen years ago until now. I picked all my favorite ones from a long time ago because back in the day, it didn’t always hit.
That’s cool that you were able to convert all this art into future value. It’s a beautiful thing. Do you have any plans with that project from here?
We’re talking with Avalanche. I ended up becoming one of the top influencers on Avalanche in the last few weeks, which is interesting. A lot of the folks came onto the Stoics. We have some tie-ins that we will be doing. I’m not a maxi for any chain. There’s cool stuff to do on Avalanche because there’s no gas. There are some burn dynamics and some cool stuff I want to build out on it that is a little more costly on ETH. It’s to be determined but I’m excited that it’s another avenue to share my work.
If folks want to follow along with your journey and get involved, where can they find you on Twitter? From Twitter, they can get to everything.
@GabrielJWeis on Twitter is the best way to get in touch. From there, you can see the Stoics and Conscious Lines and get to my Linktree and all the fun stuff.
Stalk you, find you in real life, and have that human connection that you’re so focused on. It’s beautiful. It’s great to see you. It’s great to see that your hard work has paid off in such a meaningful way for you and the community. I’m very proud to know you. It was great to spend some time together.
I appreciate you.
I’m here at W3BX in Las Vegas with none other than Amen Rahh, the Cofounder of K12 Crypto. As always, it’s great to see you, my friend.
It’s great to see you. It’s great to be here with you.
It’s not like we don’t know each other. We have been working up something special. We will talk about that a little bit, but let’s start with what you’re up to and why you’re up to it. Your story is fascinating. Education is key to impacting the world. We have learned that the power of what we’re building here with Web3 is only as good as the minds, bodies, and spirits to get it done. That requires the next generation of leaders.
We firmly believe that the pathway to a better world is through education. Here’s a little bit about myself. I’m a kid from Compton that didn’t always have the accessibility to technology and the future of work and learning during that time, growing up in the ‘90s in Compton. I then became an educator and a principal.
K12 Crypto firmly believes that the pathway to a better world is through education. Click To Tweet
Where were you a principal?
I was a principal at Watts and Compton. I opened my own school five years ago. I was one of the youngest founding principals in LA USD history, which is the second largest district in the nation. We yielded great results, two back-to-backs, and 100% graduation rates, but then we realized that we were still not impacting the system. We still weren’t changing the way society and education worked.
That led us to develop a startup called K12 Crypto, which is a learn-to-earn platform that allows kids to earn cryptocurrency, learn about cryptocurrency, and gain money for doing it. They don’t get that money until they graduate from high school. We developed a curriculum that is now going to bridge schools, districts, communities, and families together to be on our platform, and then collectively together with our partnerships, to bring them in person in Compton and Watts to have an in-person NFT Youth Summit.
W3BX: K12 Crypto is a learn-to-earn platform that allows kids to earn cryptocurrency, learn about cryptocurrency, and gain money for doing it.
The cat is out of the bag. You guys are cooking up something that NFT LA is proud to support. This youth summit was an a-ha moment situation for us when we met in the LA community. We had been thinking about this in 2021, but NFT LA came up fast and furious. We have a little bit of time to figure it out. Break down for us what you are building prior to NFT LA.
It was cool talking to us and building a relationship. What we define NFT as is next-generation financial teaching. For us, we want to bridge kids to the next generation of financial teaching by understanding how they can identify problems that they can solve with blockchain first. That’s phase one. Phase two is then to develop a product that uses blockchain to solve that problem. Phase three is developing art around that concept so they can tell a story to mint. We’re going to have kids mint NFTs on a marketplace leading up to our NFT youth summit, which is going to be this fascinating experience to launch kids not only to the world of Web3 but also to platforms and our partners that are on this mission with us.
That’s amazing. Break it down for us. When is it? What does the flow look like? Who’s going to be involved?
It’s exciting. It’s going to be on March 16th, 2023. It’s happening in South Central Los Angeles at this great facility called The Beehive. We’re going to bring all these young people together to be inspired and to be empowered to go into the world of Web3. We have great partners like NFT LA. We have other big partners that we won’t release yet because they’re key, but you will see them on our website as they flow out. It’s going to be a fascinating event with some celebrities and music. It’s an experience for the kids, but it’s also a sustainable type of experience because of our partnerships with LA USD and other charter schools across the country.
We have been around each other for a while now. I’ve witnessed how much this event lights up the room and how excited people are to help the kids, and elevate not only the LA community but globally, kids. What has been your experience empowering the kids? How did they respond to blockchain and NFTs? What drives them in terms of this space?
Every time we go and talk to kids, they light up because they’re like, “I want to learn this.” They’re already in this space from playing Fortnite and games and understanding the concepts.
Gaming is in their DNA now.
Even my daughter who’s seven with Roblox is understanding the concepts or the philosophy around digital currency and different things like that. What we found out is that the kids are the place and the pathway to get the adults to be onboarded too. Once the kids are excited about it, we can now start talking with teachers and principals. Once their kids are in there, the parents come too. This is why we see that it can’t just be one stakeholder. It has to be stakeholders. That’s what we are passionate about and excited about. It’s because we firmly believe that we can onboard the masses in a viable and reliable way with a summit and a platform that is for the people and powered by the people.
It’s amazing. If folks want to get involved, how can they contribute? What do they do?
The first thing you want to do is go to K12Crypto.com, learn about our company, and shoot us an email, and then we can start our partnership in regard to our event.
What’s the email?
The email is PrincipalRahh@K12Crypto.com.
We’re so excited to partner with you. We’re so excited about what you’re doing in this space. It’s going to be great. We will have this event happen before NFT LA. We didn’t tell people the best part, which is that a lot of these kids are going to receive scholarships to come to NFT LA and get that second dose of education a few days after your event.
You nailed it. That’s going to be fascinating because we’re going to take up to 50 kids to see NFT LA, which is going to be fascinating. They’re going to see the world of non-fungible tokens, blockchain technology, Web3, and the creator economy. That’s what we’re excited about.
I can’t wait. Thanks so much for being a collaborator and spending a little bit of time with us. Thanks, W3BX, for hosting us.
Thanks.
I’m here in Vegas at W3BX with no other than Zeneca. It is so awesome to meet you in real life. It’s quite fitting that we’re here in Vegas, which is a callback to some of your roots. What does it feel like to be back in Vegas? It has been a minute.
It has been a few years since I’ve been here. I was a professional poker player before all of this. People always say, “Three days in Vegas is enough. We’re here for a week. That’s a lot.” I’ve spent eight weeks here at a time. I’ve spent six weeks for whole summers for the World Series of Poker. It’s good to be back. It’s very different coming through this whole lens of being here for a conference because I never did conferences or anything like that but it’s fun.
That’s a good callback to how you got into this space. Maybe you can elaborate on that a little bit more for our audience.
All I’ve done before crypto and NFTs was play poker. I got into it when I was seventeen in high school. I started playing with friends and went online. I started making some money and more money. I was like, “Let me do this because this is fun. I don’t want to go to university or college and do that when I can do this.” One thing led to another. I was able to sustain myself for fifteen years as a poker player. There’s a whole other story. That’s another episode for another day just on that.
There are a lot of overlaps between poker players and crypto. It’s a natural synergy dealing with money and risk. I had a lot of friends who made that jump. They have gone into crypto. I initially dabbled a bit in it in 2017 when Ethereum started going crazy, but then the bear market hit in 2018. I was like, “That’s a fun experiment. I’m back to real life.” I didn’t get it. I didn’t have that conviction. I didn’t understand the power of technology. 2021 rolled around and everything in crypto is going crazy again. I had my friends started talking about NFTs. I was like, “That sounds like a scam or a Ponzi cult.” It didn’t make sense but eventually, they were persistent enough.
W3BX: There are a lot of overlaps between poker and crypto. It’s a natural synergy dealing with money and risk.
I did a bit of research myself and then learned about this whole creator economy, digital assets, and being able to own something in provenance. I was like, “There’s something happening here. This is a movement. There’s a revolution effectively.” I already had one foot out the door from poker. I was looking for something else to do. It was like, “Let me dedicate all my time and energy to understanding this,” and fall down the rabbit hole in eighteen months. I’m still falling.
All I heard about in Asia was gaming.
Let’s all hang.
He’s doing a panel. I’m on the panel with him.
Put the community to work.
It misaligns incentives in a way.
I’m a fan of the media.
That’s the goal.
Important Links
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@GabrielJWeis - Twitter
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Linktree - Gabe Weis
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YouTube - ZenAcademy
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Twitter - Zeneca
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@ZenAcademy_ - Twitter
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iTunes - Edge of NFT