Merch hits differently when it’s made by a fan. It’s authentic and comes from the right place — the community — not executives behind the scenes interested in balance sheets and profits.

Curio Cards Merch came from Etheriad. He’s been a fan and cardholder since 2021. He’s always admired the artists and the founders’ vision of supporting them through the community. Rather fittingly, his own project builds on that foundation, championing the original collection, collaborators, and ethos.

What started as a simple, selfish idea to wear a hoodie to represent Curio Cards, evolved into a token-gated online store stocked with stickers, headwear, and an “Obnoxiously Orange T-shirt.”

31 people got a Curio Merch POAP

When the store launched in September 2023, it included a surprise for early Curio shoppers: the first 31 cardholders that signed up could claim a free, specially crafted POAP, or Proof of Attendance Protocol.

A POAP is an on-chain, visual commemoration of an event. This marks the fourth time the Curio DAO have provided POAPs to cardholders to celebrate an occasion. The previous three POAPs honored Curio Cards’ deposit into the Arctic World Archive in Svalbard, Norway, the now-famous Christie’s auction of October 1, 2021, and Curio Cards’ 5th anniversary, May 9, 2022 respectively.

After the launch, Curio DAO member OC Ripley spoke to fellow DAO member Etheriad for a fuller picture of how the ecommerce expert pulled off the store. Their conversation touches on the reasons for the merch line, Etheriad’s skill as an “artist”, crypto bull runs, and what he expects next from the first original art collection on Ethereum.

OC: What, in the mind of Etheriad, is Curio Merch?

Etheriad: First and foremost, I’m a fan of the Curio Cards project and the individuals involved. Artists, developers, organisers. I see Curio Merch as the gift shop at the end of the Curio virtual art gallery. It’s for the fans who like the project and wanna have something to rep or remember it. Whether that’s a T-shirt, sticker, mug, hat, whatever.

It was important to me, while building the merch store, to highlight and honor each artists’ own merch lines and add to that with Curio-centered merch. I intended merch to highlight the project, and allow for a way for fans to further support it, and also create an additional channel for people to learn about Curio Cards as the interesting experiment that it was in 2017, and still is today.

OC: How did Curio Merch even come to exist?

E: No one was doing it and I really wanted an official Curio Cards hoodie. It really came from being a selfish fan who wanted this to exist. I had learned so much from the knowledgeable Curio Cards community that I wanted to use the skill set that I had to give back to the project. I also have to get my hands dirty in order to learn, and this is a good opportunity to explore how token gating worked with IRL merchandise.

OC: It helps to get your hands dirty. For those who don’t know, how did you get involved with Curio DAO, and what’s it been like collaborating with them, especially on this project?

E: I reached out in Discord. I normally don’t do things like this, but I had so many questions about Web3 and NFTs. I found the Curio Cards discord to be really open to the people who had questions. It really just came from my want to learn about the technology, how they pulled this project off in 2017, and having followed blockchain technology since 2013, but never really digging in, finally deciding to dig in and make my stake.

I engaged and helped in the ideas for some other projects, but merch is where I really owned things.

OC: You’ve said privately you’d like to be “ready to deliver when the next bull market runs.” What does that mean and what are your goals with Curio merch?

E: I first learned about cryptocurrencies in 2013, so I’ve witnessed a few cycles. I’ve missed so much by sitting on the sidelines and watching. It was a scramble, putting things together with all the noise going on, but now, with the bear market, it’s easier to build with less noise and shake out some of the stronger ideas. I want to have a good list of ideas for merch, or other kinds of projects when the interest from the larger market returns.

My main goal with Curio merch is to create merchandise that allows fans of the project to represent the project in the way they want, to extend the exposure to new people. It’s been very important to me to stay true to the project and what it stands for.

Experimenting with new tech, collaborating with groups of people and supporting artists; I think these are of course things that have made Curio Cards stand out from the other projects. I want to continue those sentiments with merchandise. I want to avoid any feeling of cash grab, or cheap products, and have merch really be something for fans of the project that they’re proud to wear, and have.

OC: What was it like creating a token-gated store? Was this the first time, and do you see it as part of the future of e-commerce?

E: I’ve been a longtime fan of the Shopify e-commerce platform, which is what I decided to use to deliver merch. There are a few plugins to the website that allow token gating functionality. The technology itself is very simple. Allow the plugin to read your wallet, and if your wallet has ownership of the NFT, other functionality can be enabled, like discount prices, or in our case, exclusive merch that only holders can purchase.

OC: Let’s circle back. Before you got involved with Curio DAO, what drew you to Curio Cards? Why are you still hodling?

E: I first learned about Curio Cards during the Christie’s auction in October 2021. A full set including 17b was sold at Christie’s live auction and it was the first ever live auction to be conducted in ETH, and I think, the first cryptocurrency. I had learned about NFTs in March of 2021 and after taking a look at Opensea and having to pay an equivalent of thirty US dollars in gas fees, thought it was cool things are being built, but clearly the ethereum network was not ready yet. It wasn’t until September that I caught wind of all that went on over the spring and summer, most notably the rediscovery of the Curio Cards project from 2017. Seeing the set sold at auction caused me to do a ton more research on smart contracts and NFTs, and the Curio Cards discord was instrumental in my education. The story of the founding of the project resonated with how I learn. You must engage in something and get your hands on it to really learn. That attitude of learning, trying, and experimenting that the founders of the project had was still very present in the discord.

OC: Outside of Curio Cards, what do you do day-to-day?

E: I’m a software product manager, mostly in the healthcare space, as a day job. I’m involved in a couple other web3 projects that I think are interesting. I like to build things. Both digital and physical. But my main outlet for creativity is playing guitar.

OC: Interesting. I’ve heard you have a background in music. Is that still a big part of your life, and how?

E: Haha, yes. I love music. I am a guitar player by hobby. I enjoy playing lead guitar most. I was in a garage band many years ago and we won some local battle of the bands and got to record a few songs in a professional studio. After that, I spent a few years mixing live sound and considered a career in sound recording and sound engineering before going full time into software product management. Music, and guitar playing is really where my creative and artistic skills shine. I am not in any way skilled in visual art. I laugh because being involved in the Curio DAO, I’m often asked if I’m an artist so I feel the need to make the distinction that my artistic skills are in music, not visual like Curio Cards. Playing guitar is still a big hobby for me. My biggest contributions to the Curio DAO have been in project management. Organizing and prioritizing ideas and doing what needs done to get something delivered.

OC: What advice do you have for other people who want to get involved, not just with Curio Cards, but in crypto, NFTs, or something they’re curious about?

E: Do your own research. Learn and engage with the material in the ways in which you learn best. Watch for names of people. Follow the operators, not the money. Try to discern who is building the kind of things you want to see, and engage with them. Ask them questions. Reach out on Discord or X (Twitter) and share some encouragement while asking questions to better understand and challenge them. All of this technology is built for and used by people, so get to know those people, not just the tech.

OC: What would you like to do next? Anything new on the horizon you can talk about?

Etheriad: I’ve presented a lot of ideas to the Curio DAO about projects I’m interested in. Going from idea to execution takes a lot of time. I decided to focus on merch first. Staying focused to deliver one thing is really important. It’s easy to chase ten different cool ideas and never deliver anything. With merch up and running, I hope to shift my focus to one of the other cool ideas that’s come out of discussions hanging out with the people in the Curio DAO. There are some other physical products that would be fun to deliver to the community. I would like to see more in the 3D space from Curio Cards. I loved the Snowglobe project that was launched in the winter of 2022. I’ve loved seeing some of the smaller mints like the World War B book mint and the Elf Wizard mint. I think it would be cool to have a mint that is aimed at educating people who are brand new to the space and wanting to learn. Maybe as an approachable first digital collectible for them. That would be a cool project to deliver.

OC: Any final thoughts, or something you’d like to say to Cardholders?

E: The stories behind the projects are meaningful and I think the Curio Cards project has a rich and interesting history that highlights the importance of community cooperation, experimentation, and education. I would like to thank the artists and project coordinators of the original Curio Cards project for being bold and experimenting, and then coming back years later to encourage and educate people. I also want to say thank you to the Discord and Curio DAO members who have been so kind and generous in sharing their time, expertise and knowledge. It’s been a great time getting to know all of you to learn and build together. I’m really excited for where things will go next. There is so much potential for this technology and there are a lot of people building great things. Go highlight those people and their projects! Cool things don’t just happen. They are built by people. So, go support those people or try your hand and experiment with building something yourself. We would love to hear your ideas. Please share with me or the Curio DAO team on X (Twitter) or in the Curio Cards Discord.

To discover more of the meaning behind the Curio Cards collection, visit our blog here. This magical article on the individual sets, or this one on Curio’s technical innovations, brilliantly showcase the layers of an already historic art collection.