Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) vs RR-BAYC - a bunch of nerdy white dudes accusing each other of being Nazis while using the same exact imagery (which still blows my mind) reminds me a lot of Silicon Valley politics: diversionary, unproductive, and largely misses the point.
There's been a few controversies in the Web3 space initiated by Web2 culture in the last few years that I feel like need to be mentioned here. And most of it has to do with the treatment (or lack there of) of the creative class:
I have a lot of respect for Andrew, don't get me wrong, but good intensions aren't good enough if you're serious about changing the game. You have to lead by example.
The pattern here is that there's an overall lack of appreciation for the perspectives of the creative class, which is why I think that most NFT projects are going to die a slow death as the artistic talent moves off the major chains and into better waters. I'm constantly amazed that people are putting in millions of dollars into apps and platforms that are so far off the mark from the actual artistic process themselves. They launch, get hyped, some people check it out for a while but finds no real utility, then the project eventually dies when it runs out of startup runway.
I mentioned earlier that I liquidated a big portion of my ETH holdings because I really wasn't sure if it was going to survive - tech is easy to fix, but culture is much harder. I’m sure The Merge itself will go smoothly, but the toxicity and tone-deafness is what I’m more worried about, long-term. Unlike Web2, Web3 ecosystems are decentralized, so you don’t have the option to strong-arm your competition like previous companies have done in the past.
The reason why I chose #Tezos and Teia to build and mint things on is pretty simple: the most of the devs there right now are also artists themselves - they understand what has been missing and what needs to get done in a very clearly way. Although the money isn't as good right now compared to other chains out there, as a creative, its a platform of sorts that just feels good to use because I do feel “seen” and listened to when new updates get pushed day by day.
My bet is that the industry will eventually realize this - which will come in the form of NFTs that people just think are cool. It's already happening in places lesser known, while the ones in the spotlight are already cannibalizing themselves through internal battles - just a matter of time, really.
If you're looking for a solution, the solution is easy - just create metrics around governance and voting power that has nothing to do with money. Attendance, actions, non-monetary contributions, 1-person/1-vote, etc. there are many ways to do so. But can Silicon Valley let go of the culture that basically worships money as their God and savior? Time will tell.