quick backstory on me before i get into this.

my name’s mykel, and i’m a 26 year old music producer & recording artist, currently running an onchain music project called “Tools for Modern Life”. (I’ll link it somewhere in the article so you can check the music out). i like to type in lowercase because i think it looks better.

although i’m *technically* a crypto native & *technically* an onchain builder, i’m really just a guy who’s passionate about the arts and fascinated by the tech world, who had a strong urge to combine those two interests and make an attempt at getting involved.

truthfully, i don’t know shit about this space, and i think that’s beautiful. it’s allowed me to create something special without paying too much mind to any of the noise. my project really has been able to make a small impact in my short time ‘building’ onchain, but i do think i hit a wall somewhere along my journey.

since the launch of my project, i began using farcaster and drakula as my main avenues to stay connected with fans of the music, and make connections with other people / projects who are doing interesting things in the space. needless to say, it’s been useful and fun. as time went on though, and overall sentiment started to shift, i found myself feeling lost and unable to contribute to the conversation.

it felt like on one end, i had exposure to the airdrop hustle side of things, a large number of wealth distribution system based upon tipping, and a league of participants who will shamelessly shill something to no end. and on the other end, were the project-leads, developers, CEOs, and other influential people who most of the time, might as well be speaking a different language when i’m reading their casts. as much as i try, there’s alot of lore, and new things constantly brewing that require said lore to understand, which makes it kind of awkward for a creator like me to figure out where i might fit in.

i would often ask myself things like, i’,m a builder right? i’m literally running a project, i know how wallets and layer 2s work, why do i feel so left out of the conversation? why do i feel like i’m not really supposed to be here?

after thinking on it for a real long time i realized: i’m fucking early.

there’s literally just not that many musicians attempting to build an onchain brand right now. that’s why it can feel sometimes like i’m just casting into the void, or in more literal terms, speaking to absolutely no one. but i know that there’s a role for people like me in this economic revolution. i want to one day be able to represent and lead by example as a creator who’s taken the leap and made the pivot into web3, and made a career from it.

while i may not have be as advanced as other crypto-natives and builders who make full use of the space, i think the message is that we all have our roles, and the power to create the world we want to live in, instead of watching everything pass by while we wonder what we can do to contribute. let’s carve our own paths forward, and band together whenever those paths cross.

with love, kel