As a representative NFT project in China, Weirdo Ghost Gang is growing more and more outstanding on the way of continuous building. As the "Man behind Weirdo Ghost Gang", Sleepy, the founder of Weirdo Ghost Gang, has always been quite low-key and introverted, a bit mysterious. So today, we are glad to have Sleepy, as the founder of Weirdo Ghost Gang, to share with you his practice, knowledge and views on Weirdo Ghost Gang, NFT and Web3! Without further ado, enjoy it!
Interviewer：@wenser2010
Interviewee：@Sleepy0x13
PART I TO READ: Interview with Sleepy, the founder of Weirdo Ghost Gang: I am just a simple idealistic man.(Part I)
Wenser: What about ManesLAB's product lines planning and so on, can you share with us briefly?#
Sleepy: In this regard, I don't know when this interview will be released, so I won't talk about anything too specific first, I'll talk about it from the top. In fact, my overall view on NFT, combined with an interview I recently read with a big brother from an investment institution, I think I have the same perception as this big brother: NFT has gone through a process from an asset to a collector's item, and now it should go from a collector's item to a practical process. Right, because you use blockchain technology to chain it, it's actually something that will asset it, it's an asset itself. And like PFP avatars, crypto artworks, you draw it well, it has an artistic nature in itself, as well as a collector's value. If you go further, you should explore what the use of these NFTs is.
Because I think the antagonistic point is that if you want to make things bigger, you need to make money for the community members who use (buy) NFTs and make money together with you. But the only way they can make money is to sell the NFT so that I can have income; but if he sells it, he is no longer part of your community. I think it's a not very understandable, but very cutthroat thing in itself. Because I've been around some, like Monkey, Azuki, certain members of these communities who have done a lot of activity for these projects and given them a lot of visibility, and the floor price has gone up. But if he wants to really put the float in his pocket, then he has to sell the only Azuki he has. I think that's a little bit of forcing people to use their love for electricity.
Wenser: It's a bit harsh. On the one hand, it's like the holder is throwing the project away after using it up; on the other hand, this project actually has a feeling of throwing the holder away after using it up, and everyone is abandoning each other.
Sleepy: Yes, so I think it's not very reasonable. So we are also exploring new paths. In plain English, that is, under the premise of compliance, how to let people do not sell NFT can also earn money, or also enjoy other rights and interests? And this part of the rights and interests is what our ecology will do, for example, other blockchain applications, blockchain products; there will also be some things related to reality. We are more of a culture company - doing culture-related things and lifestyle-related things, which must be inseparable from reality. At the same time, we also think it's necessary to push Web 3 to a more universal Web 2 world. We're going to try to make the Weirdo Ghost Gangs interact with reality a little bit more.
Wenser: In other words, Weirdo Ghost Gang is trying to explore a better way to empower holders with equity, which can be summarized as "non-speculative empowerment" if compared to the speculative profit of NFT after flip. You don't have to buy low and sell high, or you don't have to watch the market every day, watch the floor price, and then you can enjoy a kind of equity.
Sleepy: Yes. And you think, Meituan membership, Taobao 88 VIP (Two big platforms in China Internet), you still have to renew it every month, you do not want to use this month after renewal, you can not sell it, but Weirdo Ghost Gang NFT is different, one is you can hold it for life, two, if you do not want to use it, you can still trade it out.
Wenser: This sounds and feels especially like one of those club lifetime membership, elite club lifetime membership cards, that kind of feeling.
Sleepy: The Express Black Card, the Centurion Card.
Wenser: Yes, it sounds very tempting. The holder of the Weirdo Ghost Gang will soon be a "good elite" hahaha.
Wenser: OK, this piece of talk is about the same, let's talk again,
from the past Weirdo Ghost Gang from scratch, from 0 to 1 in this experience, as well as Weirdo Ghost Gang will soon be one year anniversary of this point in time, and even take the future into account, encountered some problems, challenges, and a lot of help in the past of Weirdo Ghost Gang, help you, help the community and so on these people you want to thank, what are they?#
Sleepy: Actually, the challenge is that what we do is long-term, it is not the kind of thing that "you can make money after buying today and selling tomorrow". However, in the industry, time cost is a huge factor that needs to be carefully considered. So, on this point, the community and onlookers actually need to spend some time to understand what we want to do? That's probably going to be a bigger challenge.
Wenser: It's true, or all Web 3 projects, actually face information gap, time gap. The fermentation of many things, the launch of many products, or a goal you really want to achieve, and finally complete it, actually need a certain amount of time, resources or other preparation, which is a very awkward or very difficult stage, is a phase of information opacity.
Sleepy: Yes, we did encounter it before, as mentioned earlier. For a while, our team has been working on a lot of things, but it's not very convenient to tell people about it until it's on the ground and there are no milestones. This led to some people in the community thinking we were doing nothing, but in fact we were.
Wenser: Every day is busy, right?
Sleepy: Yeah. It's a very difficult trade-off because you have to manage expectations (to avoid people not expecting you, or expecting too much) and you have to maintain a certain level of transparency.
Wenser: Indeed, this degree is not very good to grasp, because sometimes you say more, people may be misunderstood, or people want to deviate; you do not say people think you are not doing anything, lying flat all day long. However, I look at the ghosts later to do the monthly report and a variety of activities, I think these things to the community and the team of this mutual communication and understanding is still a great help. I think it deserves a lot of credit, really.
Sleepy: That's true.
Wenser: Moving on, is there anyone in particular you'd like to thank, or an organization or something?#
Sleepy: I think, first of all, we must thank our teammates. In fact, as I said earlier, we may be in this industry. First, there is no need to come out to do a project by yourself; second, to work in other projects or as partners. Probably receive the earnings, receiving the salary is much more than in our team, because, to be honest, we give everyone the incentive in the early stage, I think. I think the incentive we gave to everyone in the early stages was on the low side, but maybe we still read about interpersonal relationships, community atmosphere and so on, and still did a lot of things for the Weirdo Ghost Gang.
Wenser: It is also possible to fall under your personality! Hahaha!
Sleepy: I think it's pretty rare to be able to keep going at this together anyway. And then, you know, they face a lot of choices at the same time. Including some star-studded projects, they have also told them that they can have a bigger stage, but we, the little ones, have still been in and have persisted until now.
Wenser: You say that I feel that he was right not to go? After all, the star-studded project, to be honest, is 2023 years. We all have a certain awareness of you is to let him hang a horse ah, ha ha ha.
Sleepy: That seems to make sense? Just kidding. The other thing is, thanks to our community, because, without the Weirdo Ghost Gang community, there would be no us. This piece, it's really hard to say in specific terms, otherwise it feels a little too melodramatic, too fleshly. I'm not going to start talking about it here, it's all in the wine, like that feeling. In addition, from the beginning to the present some KOLs, influencer friends, such as like @Yongkun, @Christian, @CryptoTuTu, @Watell and so on. They have a lot of influence and have publicly expressed their support and optimism for us. I think for us to play visibility, including the establishment of community stickiness, in fact, are quite helpful. Last but not least, I would like to thank Blockbeats. Because Blockbeats (and some of the teachers in it) is really my leader in the industry, and has been helping me grow since I joined the company. When I said I wanted to do the project full time, my partners at Blockbeats didn't say they wouldn't let me go or anything, they were very open to me starting my own business. In short, I think our community and our team are conscientious and grateful, so we will always remember those who have helped us, and we will not let you down in the future when we have the opportunity and need.
Wenser: OK, let's go back to Weirdo Ghost Gang NFT, because I remember a long time ago, Weirdo Ghost Gang was very supportive of artists, because including yourself, you are also a Weir DAO artist, including many artist friends are also very supportive of Weirdo Ghost Gang project and you, that Weirdo Ghost Gang has done for artists and creators before.
What are some of the things that Weirdo Ghost Gang has done for artists and creators that are worth talking about? And as the founder of Weirdo Ghost Gang, how do you feel about the so-called creator economy that Web 3 often mentions?#
Sleepy: I understand. In fact, in our Weirdo Ghost Gang NFT series, there are 51 1:1 Weirdo Ghost Gang NFT that we co-created with artists. We don't limit creations. For example, they have to be the same style as our non-1:1 models. On the contrary, we welcome them to create in their own style, in the style they like.
Wenser: Respect for creative freedom.
Sleepy: Yes, so the royalties from the secondary transactions of these various and colorful 1:1 works, we are sending all of them to these creators. Because our previous idea was also very simple, that we try to run Weirdo Ghost Gang well and make it more and more famous, so that these creators have a relatively stable income channel and a way to expand their popularity. Yes, besides the economic income in terms of royalties, some of our other occasions, such as offline events, offline exhibitions and these, we also bring the artists' co-branded works to let more people know them. We have also made a creator's tool to help more creators to distribute their NFTs without code, but it is still in a stage of no large-scale promotion. In addition to that, we also plan to do a digital gallery called Manes Gallery - we hope to find or support a Web 3 era Basquiat, a Web 3 era Picasso, a Van Gogh. We will use our resources and accumulation in Web 3, including our accumulation of resources in Web 2, branding, assembly line factory, etc., to help more artists, while maintaining the purity and independence of art, to help them do something commercially.
Wenser: I understand, but is this something you can say? Is it a little too early to say? Hahaha
Sleepy: It should be possible, and there is no place for hype, I think.
Wenser: Yes, since you say you can say it, there is no problem. If you say you can not say, anyway, the last also put out hahaha.
Sleepy: The last thing you can't say is that you have to add a long string of "Bi----" sounds to ensure sth lol.
Wenser: OK, let's talk about a bigger issue, about NFT.
Because just now we also talked about artists, there are also some traditional artists into the Web 3 field, he also has some ideas, but may not have a good platform, way to find their own market, in this regard, in term of NFT for traditional art and digital art, is there any change? What changes do you think NFT will bring to traditional art and digital art, and what changes will NFT bring in terms of properties, regulation and laws? Especially the stronger shifts?#
Sleepy: Let's see. How do I put this? Because there was a very common statement in the circle before that NFT makes every artist better off and find their fans, which is true. But it's probably a lot harsher than people think, and not as rosy. If the artists themselves are not very good at operation and promotion, including some resources accumulation is relatively lacking, they still need other people to help. From this point of view, I don't think the difference between crypto art and traditional art is that big. After all, NFT is a virtual thing that you can buy back with a click of the mouse on the Internet, and it doesn't need any transportation or, at the extreme, a collection space with fixed temperature and humidity for storage.
Wenser: Similar to a collection level of an environmental preparation?
Sleepy: Yes. The other thing is the creator's royalty. Because other traditional art is a one-shot deal, it is not relevant to you (the artist) how high the subsequent price increases. But NFT allows you to get creator's income from every transaction. I think this will also give the creator more incentive to improve the art or to increase the operation. I think it's a good innovation because it's tied to his actual income.
Wenser: Indeed, the rewards for the artist are good in terms of the vehicle and the personal development of the artist, as well as the long-tail effect of the profitability of the artwork. Relatively speaking, there may be another big difference between traditional art and NFT, which is something like royalties - auction houses may charge all kinds of fees, whether it's commission or other deposit fees and so on, so in fact, for artists, there is not too high a premium in front of the auction house; but in the NFT But in the NFT market, it is a relatively free environment, this difference actually reflects the NFT regulatory issues, what do you think will be the evolution trend?
Sleepy: Not very good, you like to encounter regulatory issues, such as the securitization of NFT, but may be investigating the boring ape (BAYC) also did not have any results. Some people say NFT art money laundering, I think not only the NFT field has this problem, in fact, the traditional art field, money laundering is more serious, and the fee is also higher. So, while NFT may exacerbate this phenomenon, I don't think it's a problem for NFT.
Wenser: I kind of agree with that. And relatively speaking, NFT at least has on-chain records, so the traceability is more or less easier to check than the offline black box operation.
By the way, I just want to ask, what do you think is the most attractive attribute of NFT? Or characteristics, what is it?#
Sleepy: In fact, I probably talked to a lot of people before I did the Weirdo Ghost Gang, I said NFT is a cup, a glass, you pour a coke into it, it is black; you pour milk, it is white. I think, NFT's artistic properties or practical properties or financial properties, it actually depends on what you put inside, you put an artwork inside, such as a painting by Van Gogh, it is a work of art; you put an unlocked token, access, it is a financial product; you want to put a concert ticket inside, live house tickets, it is a consumer product, ticket, and so on.
Wenser: I actually agree with this point. I think NFT its container properties and based on the container properties to produce a scalability, this is very, very, very large potential. Everything can be NFT also good, or NFT can do a combination in many scenarios.
Sleepy: Yes, it may be a tool. In fact, I do not agree with the NFT track that many people often say now, because there is art and finance, you say it should be considered in the end what track? NFT is just a tool.
Wenser: It sounds a bit like NFT is the Internet, computers, mobile terminals, smart phones, what to install and how much to sell are more flexible.
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（Thank to the length of this article, plz click this part below to go to Part III )
https://mirror.xyz/wenser2010.eth/T3vMOv9rYmbjv2_4YYpf-zKtVe8iNvgxcU9FXEev4A4