What in the very real fuck have I gotten myself into here?
January 24th, 2022

I’ve never been one to sit still.

There’s just too much happening out there for me to ever feel content for long, too many things that catch my eye, there’s just too much for me to not wanna check it all out. In my life I’ve been a picture framer, a coffee barista, a bouncer, a yoyo demonstrator, a store & gallery owner. I’ve managed production for designer toys and yoyos, I’ve organized the World YoYo Contest (and ended up on Netflix for it), I’ve been a stunt double for Owen Wilson and I’ve created tricks with pocket watches for The Lone Ranger.

Now I manage a boutique yoyo company, help run the International YoYo Federation, I’m operations manager for Bindlewood.com, and most recently I’m co-founder of a company that produces backend structure for NFT projects. I do all this while raising four kids and trying to be an attentive and useful husband. At my core I’m just an old punk, getting older and rounder, but trying my best to hold on to the same ideals I had when I was younger and slimmer and didn’t need to be in bed by 10 pm.

So why NFTs? Because surely I have enough going on, right? All those other things I listed are pretty fun, and they pay the bills, and I’ve been involved in yoyoing for 25+ years. Hell, I have a patent on equipment for a style of play that I created. I’ve created a comfortable little niche for myself in the world where I get to do things that I love and get paid for it and work with my friends to contribute positively to the world around me. So why NFTs?

Because I think they’re what’s next. And I don’t mean that in a gross, speculative way. A lot of people are definitely in this space just to make money flipping jpegs and sure, I guess, it takes all kinds right? But that aspect of NFTs really doesn’t interest or compel me in any way. I’m here because I see this is the next way to build community, and really….all those things I listed above? They’ve all been about building community. Whether it was community for yoyo players or artists or collectors or other skill toy enthusiasts, my goal has always been to connect with more people, and help others do the same.

Some of the very best times of my life have been sitting on a gym floor at juggling conventions meeting new people and finding out how many different threads connect us. Sitting on the curb outside a yoyo contest and explaining to someone how I came up with some of the stuff they know me for. Manning a booth at a designer toy trade show and chatting with people about character design and what I find compelling about the weird ass monsters that my friends make. Everything I do has always been about creating connections. And to me, NFTs are about creating community to build things and keys to unlock those things. NFT technology represents another flattening of things, in the same way that early internet suddenly equalized things for everyone who could get access. For millions of people around the world, the internet represented a new reckoning of who could get to what, and I see NFTs and crypto wallet technology as the next evolution of that, where the content you build and create online stays with you, instead of being beholden to a platform.

The technology is still young here, and the implementation is clunky. The environmental issues around Ethereum and Bitcoin are still pretty egregious, but those very issues have given rise to more eco-friendly chains like Polygon and Tezos. No sooner is a problem created than a group of interested and capable people rise to find a solution for it.

There is plenty of shit in the NFT space to be frowned upon, but there is decidedly more than enough good and promise for me to be willing to jump in and be part of what I see as the next wave of a creator-friendly internet.

I’m glad to be here, and if you’re reading this I’m assuming you are too. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

-S

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