Twitter loves posts with images. Whenever I’m sharing a random quip, insight, or quote that comes to mind, I always head over to Unsplash to find a photo that has the right vibe for the tweet.
But what happens when I want an illustration? Or a Japanese wood block cut style image of Metroid Prime?
ENTER MIDJOURNEY
Not too long ago I heard about this project on Twitter when people started sharing all sorts of weird genre mashups & strange images that were clearly not man-made, but way too cool to be some kind of crappy computer generated thing.
Turns out it’s a badass computer-generated thing.
After hours of going down the rabbit hole I learned that I could try it out if I joined the MidJourney Discord.
(Easy. I already have a Discord account for my private “ZAVANT Squad” community that’s NFT-gated. If you’re interested, go here to learn more.)
The researchers plugged their badass image-making thingy into their Discord server so that anybody can interact with whatever demon lives in their computers, and ask it to give you any kind of image you want.
In fact, the featured image for this article is from MidJourney.
Pretty cool.
FIRST TASTE IS FREE
You get 25 requests and then you’re out. Pay up.
I blew through my freebies pretty quickly asking it to give me random nostalgia images like Snake-Eyes & Storm Shadow high fiving, spaceships, new year’s wizards. Medieval Batman. The usual.
I even asked it to “/imagine logo letter z corporate 8k wealthy trustworthy black white” and this is what it gave me:
That instantly became the server image on my private Discord.
Once I realized it can do anything I wanted it to do everything.
So I bought an annual subscription right there.
This is about the same time that I’m figuring out how to NFT-gate everything under the sun (read this for some background & to see another MidJourney featured image.) so I ask it to give me a portal to represent my hyper-dimensional art project “Dimension Z.” Boom. Done.
Then I asked it to give me a shard of black glass to use as the featured image for a magician-only project I’m releasing soon. Boom. Double done.
I’m using both as the images tied to the membership NFTs that I created.
ONE MAN MEDIA COMPANY GROWS
With MidJourney I have instant access to any kind of image I need for my social media, articles, NFTs, and whatever else I can imagine up.
And that’s the secret: the results are limited only by the imagination of the person asking for the images.
Pretty cool.
Combine this image-making capacity with the word-writing capacity of ChatGPT (article coming soon about that, too), and one person (me) can realize their vision more quickly & more completely than ever before.
INVITATION
Want to try it out? I’ve integrated the MidJourney demon bot into my private Discord. All you have to do is pick up a ZAVANT Squad membership, and then you can join up & try out your 25 free generations.
In 2009 I was invited by the U.S. military to perform my mind reading show at 12 bases in South Korea.
I jumped at the opportunity.
It was a fantastic experience, and I even made a travel vlog DVD (back when those were still a thing).
During my tour I had two quick interactions that have quietly been working their way into the core of my personal mission in the years after.
The Secret
After wrapping up one of my shows, the commander of the base came up to me and shook my hand while telling me how much he enjoyed the show.
He had something in his palm that he was giving to me while shaking my hand.
I accepted whatever it was while showing no outward signs of acknowledgement (play it cool, man!), and slipped my hand into my pocket to ditch it where I could look at it later.
A couple hours go by as I’m talking with soldiers, their families, signing autographs, taking photos, and doing all the things I normally do after shows.
And I can’t stop thinking about the weight in my pocket.
What a delightful & tantalizing secret.
At the end of the night I get to my hotel room where I can finally see what I’ve been carrying with me.
It’s a medallion. About two inches in diameter. Painted in several colors with shiny enamel.
It’s a challenge coin.
What Are They?
They’re given to members of a unit who display extraordinary achievement or demonstration of purpose.
It’s an authentication token that verifies the identity or membership status of the holder.
If someone claimed to be a member of a certain group, like the NAVY Seals, a real member knows what the NAVY Seal coin looks like so he could challenge that person’s claim by demanding to see their coin. No coin? That’s a no-go.
The Fire Is Lit
By the end of the tour I had another.
The second time I knew what was happening and still played it cool.
These coins are two of my most prized possessions.
Over the years I got to thinking: what would it look like if I had my own challenge coin for people who saw me at shows, bought my books, attended my lectures, and wanted to be part of the movement?
Even though the memory of the tour slowly faded to background noise, the thought has quietly been simmering in the back of my mind. Mostly quiet. But it’s there.
The Vision
Since we live in the future and we have something called the internet, I think it’s possible to have completely new ways of finding your tribe.
I’d love to empower my community members to access hidden posts, articles, videos, and training courses that I’ve spread across the many websites that I’ve built without having to set up the same profile on 10+ different sites.
I’d also like members to always have VIP access to any/all public shows that I do across the country. I’m performing in your area? Your name is always on the list! Come early, hang out in the green room. Stay late and we’ll get dinner at that dive bar since it’s the only place that’s still open at this time of night.
I’d also like them to have a place where we can all hang out, chat, make big plans, and encourage each other.
Goldilocks Begins: Too Cold
I’ve been building an email list for quite some time now. That works well in order to stay in touch with people, and to share updates of what’s going on, but it’s not suited for showcasing membership. Hard to show off “Hey, look! I have an email from Jonathan!”
Neat. Cool. So what?
Back in 2018/2019 I heard about NFTs and they sounded like the perfect 21st century solution for me. Digital playing cards? Digital membership badges? Awesome! Sign me up!
The first project that caught my attention was RavenCoin. Without getting too technical about it, the RavenCoin project makes it easy for someone like me to create a unique “coin,” connect a picture (maybe something like a biker gang patch), and set the limit on how many there can be. 10? 100? 1,000,000?
Cool, we can make limited membership. Very exclusive.
I made several versions of ZAVANT squad NFTs, paintings, and other experiments. Some I made a few (paintings). Some I made a lot (THEZAVANT). Some I only made one (MENTALIST).
I also saw that messaging was on the roadmap.
That means that anyone holding one of the coins that I made can receive messages from me. Cool! It’s like a secret radio that receives messages from me.
The dreams of global domination were closer than ever.
But there were several drawbacks:
Not a single person I know uses RavenCoin.
Communication wasn’t live; only a roadmap item.
Couldn’t do much with them when you owned them.
Too Hot
After my exploration with RavenCoin, I found Urbit.
It is the best project that checks all the right boxes (privacy, data ownership, peer to peer networking, etc) & it will eventually eat the world.
Eventually.
There are lots of positives, and I’m currently building a community on Urbit. If you’re on the network you can come join the party here: ~minder-folden/antechamber
But it has some drawbacks:
Not an easy thing for people to start using. There’s a lot of “technical debt” as they say.
Membership tokens are possible, but aren’t all that functional. Much like the RavenCoin situation.
I’d have to be starting from scratch.
Just Right
It’s January 2023 as I write this, and I’ve found a fantastic solution that fits my current setup & situation.
As of right now I have set up a couple flavors of NFTs that I can send someone. The challenge of getting someone used to using a crypto wallet like MetaMask is still there, but the hurdle is smaller because they will only be receiving the asset (which doesn’t use gas) and signing transactions (which also does not use gas).
Since it’s a relatively passive requirement (that doesn’t need them to go through the process of getting a particular flavor of crypto), I feel better about getting my Mom to use a wallet to receive an asset.
(“Can my Mom do this?” is a common metric I use to evaluate whether or not I can get buy-in on a technologically challenging project.)
Once they have the “ZAVANT Squad” asset in their wallet, they can then see secret posts on this site, watch exclusive courses on ZAVANT University, get access to a secret Discord server that only allows holders of “ZAVANT Squad” to join, and they can even hear extra “behind the scenes” podcast episodes on a completely different website.
All because they own one asset.
But Wait, There’s More
It’s great to hand out lifetime memberships for people who are diehard supporters.
But what about all those people who might not be all in?
That’s cool. I can even make temporary memberships that expire in 5 minutes, 5 days, or 5 years.
What about if I were in this for the money?
Yeah, we can do that, too.
Since I have a Stripe account for my businesses, I can sell these membership NFTs with credit cards and send them to their wallet without having to touch anything after it’s all set up.
This means I can sell books, e-books, show tickets, videos, courses, and more all through NFT-gated information on websites that I already own.
This solution has unlocked a ton of functionality around a wealth of information that I’ve already built on websites (sunk cost fallacy, anyone?).
Want In?
The hub of all the activity will be located at ZAVANT.xyz and Portal Key holders will always have the highest level access to any/all projects.
As of now, the best way to let me know you’d like to be a part of this wild ride is to send me a DM on Twitter. Get me an ETH (polygon specifically) asset-aware address, and I’ll get you something cool.
Now that you have the ZAVANT Squad NFT, you can join the private Discord here: https://www.guild.xyz/zavant and you can think about joining Urbit down the line, too.
Non Fungible Tokens are one of the most dynamic, interesting, and powerful new technologies on the horizon.
But “fungibility” is so wrapped in jargon that it can be tough to appreciate why it is so important.
To put it in plain terms: something is fungible if you didn’t care which one you got as long as you have one.
Are you standing in line at the grocery store and want one of those Hershey bars? Just grab one. They’re all the same.
Want to play a round of Galaga at a retro gaming bar? Use the quarter you picked up from the sidewalk before coming in. Or, use one from the center console of your car. The machine doesn’t care which quarter you use as long as you use one.
Something is fungible if it can be easily swapped out for another one like it.
Makes sense, right?
It’s something you already understand.
In fact, fungibility is also so blatantly obvious to most people that it feels confusing why we need to explain it in the first place.
But stick with me.
Non Fungible Token
Quarters and candy bars are fungible. You, however, are inherently non fungible.
You are the only you.
Even if you have an identical twin you are still the only you with your exact experiences, hopes, and ideas.
Easy to appreciate.
Now try this on:
When you were a kid your Grandpa gives you a silver dollar for your birthday.
It’s special. It’s a treasure. You keep it in your pocket every day for decades. Every time you feel it, you feel comforted by its familiarity and a little sad for the family you no longer have.
This silver dollar is not like the others. This one is special.
Here is an important point: it is only special to you.
Physically speaking it looks like just any other coin.
Physically speaking it is just any other coin.
Don’t think so? Take it to an arcade and it spends just fine.
The difference between how a machine sees the coin and how you see the coin is called semantics. Meaning.
It is not a difference of substance. You and the machine both understand it is a coin.
It is a difference of meaning.
That coin means 4 more games of Galaga to an arcade. To you it means years of fond memories.
Ok.
What does all this have to do with crypto & blockchain?
Copy To Infinity And Beyond!
You’re standing in line at the grocery store, you’re bored, so you pull out your phone to check Twitter.
You see a funny meme, and you save the image to your phone. You pop over to Facebook to share it and three hours later your Mom completely ignores the funny image and tells you to call some lady you met once 15 years ago.
Question: did you steal the meme from the original poster?
I’m not asking if they came up with the meme or not. I’m talking about the digital photo.
Did you steal that file from the original poster?
Maybe not.
Theft is usually taking what someone has, and leaving them without it.
In the digital world that doesn’t really happen.
You can save the photo to your phone 10,000 times and it’s still there with the original poster. If you want to explore this idea a little further, you can check out another article of mine that explains digital scarcity.
The point here is that the digital world is one where you can copy/paste to infinity and nothing is truly limited.
Until Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a really cool project that uses techno-math-wizardry to create a digital entity (like that photo) that is genuinely & provably scarce.
Again, check out that other article to appreciate why this is important.
While Bitcoin solved the scarcity issue, each Bitcoin (or sliver of Bitcoin) is fungible. You could swap it with any other, and you wouldn’t care.
Building on the innovation of provably scarce digital assets, Ethereum comes along.
It does the whole “fungible” trick pretty well with its own asset called “Eth” for short. I don’t care what ether I have; just as long as I have some I’m happy.
But it does a lot more than that.
You can create new types of assets on the Ethereum blockchain. It starts with some Eth and then you add the semantic data to it. In our earlier example this is the emotional content and family details about what the coin means to you.
With Eth that data can be anything. A photo, an audio file, blueprints, or whatever.
This process of adding unique details and information to the blockchain is what creates the Non Fungible Token.
How it works is a whole system of “smart contracts” and that’s a whole other conversation beyond the scope here.
And now we stick the landing: From this fungible baseline, Ethereum, you can create some “thing” (the Token) that is provably unique (Non Fungible).
Try It Out
Hopefully that gives you a better understanding of what people are talking about when they say “Non Fungible Token” or “NFT.”
If you’d like to see all the different shapes and functionality they can take, head over to OpenSea.io which is the world’s largest Ethereum-based marketplace where people can buy, sell, and trade NFTs from hundreds (if not thousands) of different projects. Each with their own vibe and nature.
For myself, I sell cryptoprints on two platforms (MakersPlace & KnownOrigin) and each print is a NFT created on the Ethereum blockchain, and once I make it, there can never be another like it.
There are some other exciting projects out there, and now I hope you can appreciate just how awesome they truly are!
