Warm days ahead…
It’s been a while since I last published. I’m hopefully going to start writing more in the following months. As summer starts, I have a feeling this summer will be extra special.
Last November, I was scrolling Twitter and noticed that one of my friends was attending NFT NYC. At the time, I was new to crypto and just minted my first NFT. I still had school but decided to book a last-minute flight to NY (a great decision I made).
NFT NYC: “The Superbowl of NFTs” - Coinbase
Going in, I barely knew anyone personally and had no conference tickets. It was only my second time visiting NY. Since I would be skipping an entire week of school, I wanted to make the most of my time so I decided to build my schedule with side events. I signed up for many side events and attended the ones that interested me.
The week was electric. I remember jumping between 3-4 side events a day while doing my homework. I would come back late at night, get up early in the morning, and repeat this for the next few days. It was incredible meeting people passionately building in the space and learning about various projects. I was blown away by the amount of innovation in web3 and realized I forgot there was a world outside a college town.
Each day, I was excited to have more conversations around the growing NFT space and hear more about the Defi community. From Bitcoin pizza to VR/AR NFT galleries to community talks, I was running all over the place. I even bumped into Vignesh & Anand - holders of Beeple’s First 5000 Days (most expensive NFT bought at $69M). Through the various happy hours/parties, I met a Times Magazine writer who mentioned my NFT rug pull experience in their next crypto article. Not bad to top off the insane week.
“One 19-year-old college student from the Midwest, in New York as a representative of his school’s investment club, eagerly introduced himself. He explained that even though he’d recently been the victim of a “rug pull”—in crypto terms, when you invest in a coin and then the creator disappears, tanking the value and taking your investment with them—he was still all-in on the NFT world” - Raisa Bruner, Time 2030
Since then, I have gone down the web3 rabbit hole. I started hopping on crypto Twitter, began working at Coinbase, and attended too many crypto conferences. The conference list includes Art Basel, Miami Hack Week, ETH Denver, and a Solana Hacker House. I think I spent more time in Miami than in my classes combined (oops!). I’m thankful to be able to meet new friends through active communities like DropoutDAO.
Next week, I’ll be attending NFT NYC again but not alone this time. I’m returning to where it all started - the city that supercharged my interest in crypto. This year’s conference will be bigger than ever. I’ll be going with my team at Pinata to engage with the greater web3 community. I look forward to catching up with many familiar faces on Twitter and connecting with new ones through the hundreds of side events hosted.
I’ll also be spending the rest of the summer in NY before heading back to college. Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York is a different beast. The lively city has a vibrant atmosphere with energy everywhere. The city really never sleeps. I can’t wait to experience the vibes. Summer 2022 is going to be a movie :)
I’m ready.