The year is 2069. I am watching a beautiful sunset from a floating porch 5,000 feet off the ground, and my bright-eyed granddaughter hoverboards up to join me. She is fascinated by the ancient history I’ve lived through, specifically the Great Metavolution, as we now call it. 

“Grandma,” she says, “tell me again how you made it out of the basement those bad guys put you in. How did you even survive without ultra-high-speed internet beamed from towers on the moon?” 

“Ah, right, the Faraday cage,” I murmur to her as my brain shifts focus almost five decades back, to the days of DM scams and having to pay for gas fees. The images get clearer and clearer as I remember Luna blowing up, Bored Ape Yacht Club taking the world by storm, and Index Coop putting BlackRock out of business and disrupting the financial system as we know it. 

It all happened so fast. It had to be done. 

I tell my granddaughter, “I was 27 years old and found my tribe with people I met through an app on my phone...” 

“What’s a phone?” she interrupts. 

“Don’t worry about it, it’s all built into your glasses now,” I continue. 

“... we know ourselves as Collectooors. We were early and we were confident. Some people didn’t like that. Some people didn’t believe that art could be pixels; a collection of data points within a smart contract that is very much alive. Just like you and I grow, change, and mature... so can art. NFTs can evolve, be affected by their surroundings, and to a point capture the deep emotion that a Collectooor shares with the piece and its native home – the technology.” 

My granddaughter’s mouth is wide open. I pause and she asks, “why did they try to stop you and the other Collectooors? Doesn’t everyone like art, and technology? A world without art and technology is like a world without ice cream and pizza!” 

I chuckle, “we had those good things back then too, and good things survive. That’s why the Collectooors stood strong, curating collections through the years, even during the dark times we had to stay in the shadows and continue building on our own. Why stop us? They tried, but to no avail. I think at the end of the day, we were misunderstood. People thought we were going against what society once valued for the wrong reasons – they would say ‘if you can’t touch it, it’s not real’ … ‘you’re paying for air’ … ‘I can just right click & save this.’” 

I gaze out to the fading golden orb that is the sun, the clouds glowing orange with pink undertones. I take a deep breath, the nostalgia overwhelming my senses in the best way possible. 

“Some people don’t like it when you challenge their status quo. The way things have been done, the familiar. Collectoors changed all that. We gave power to the people, to the artists, innovators. To the curators, the lovers of the intersection of art & technology. Gold mines ended up being discovered through projects the Collectooors aped into and helped introduce to the world. Some people just didn’t want to share,” I drift back into thought. Oh the opportunities I slept on, the late nights on Discord with the Collectooors. We had so much fun. 

My daughter’s glasses start to ring, literally. I hear a subtle, sweet tone. Something must be ready. 

“Grandma!! My metaDoggo just minted a metaPup! I gotta show...” she drifts away, eagerly gets back on her hoverboard. I’m proud of my granddaughter for being kind, for valuing the beauty of technology, the power of art. She is very much a Collectooor, if you ask me.  

I smile as I follow her silhouette descending back to the house. A home her grandpa and I were able to build with our bare hands thanks to some early bets we made with the Collectooors. 

They said we weren’t going to make it. 

Well, here we are, and we’re not going anywhere. 

To be continued...