March 6, 2025 • 32 mins
Welcome to a fascinating exploration of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), where we delve into their evolution from niche collectibles to mainstream commodities shaping our culture and economy. In this episode, hosted by the ever-curious team, we are joined by Tony Herrera, a seasoned veteran in the NFT realm. As we discuss his journey and experiences from the early days of this digital frontier, listeners gain valuable insights into how perceptions of NFTs have changed over time, influencing the ways we understand value, creativity, and ownership in a digitally connected world.
We dive into the exciting potential of blending physical and digital art forms, examining how technological advancements have enabled artists and collectors to create rich, immersive experiences. Tony shares his ambitious vision for integrating innovative tools that enhance the relationship between physical and digital collectibles, paving the way for a new landscape of engagement through NFC technology. Furthermore, we shine a spotlight on social impact initiatives driven by the crypto community, emphasizing the critical need for inclusivity in this emerging Web3 space. As Tony articulates his commitment to helping underrepresented groups access and thrive in this landscape, we explore the profound societal implications of this digital revolution.
The episode culminates in visionary discussions about what the next five years hold for NFTs. Tony predicts that digital tokens will become an integral part of everyday transactions, allowing people to seamlessly engage with brands without traditional financial barriers. Through exciting projects like the TGN Arcade, we learn how gamification can play a pivotal role in enthusiastically onboarding users into the world of Web3. Make sure to tune in for a thought-provoking conversation about the future of NFTs, their potential for innovation, and the promise of a more inclusive digital landscape. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share your thoughts on the evolving world of NFTs!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
NorCal Guy (00:00):
Who is this?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Norcal guy, norcal guy, norcalguy, norcal guy, norcal guy,
norcal guy, norcal guy, norcalguy, norcal.
Tony Herrera (00:16):
And chill podcast Show it's chill time, norcal and
chill podcast.
NorCal Guy (00:22):
What the sh-?
What the sh NorCal and ShillPodcast.
So it's Shill time.
Norcal and Shill Podcast.
What the sh-, what the sh-?
Hey, everyone, welcome to thisnext episode of NorCal and Shill
.
Today we have Tony Herrera.
Tony discusses his earlyinvolvement in the NFT space and
(00:45):
how he initially didn'tunderstand the concept.
We also discuss Tony's favoritemovie quote and his interest in
collecting physical items tiedto NFTs.
We discuss the potential ofphysical digital integration and
the need for improved tools andinfrastructure in the NFT space
(01:05):
.
Tony mentions his involvementin projects focused on social
impact and onboardingunderrepresented communities
into the Web3 space.
We end the chat with Tonyexpressing his excitement for
the future of NFTs and theirpotential for innovation.
Everybody, please welcome Tony.
(01:27):
Hey, tony, welcome to thepodcast.
How are you doing today?
Tony Herrera (01:30):
I'm doing good.
Thank you for having me.
NorCal Guy (01:32):
Yeah, I'm so glad we can make this work.
I've been wanting to talk toyou.
I've seen you around, We've metand I'm glad we could come
together on this show and hearyour thoughts on some things.
Tony Herrera (01:43):
Thank you.
Thank you, yeah, that's goodseeing you.
I know that we ran into eachother the last and it's and it's
NYC, not this one, but the lastone we were at the.
So it was good to see you, youknow, I know we're both members
of the punk community and kindof like collectors of fine JPEGs
find jpegs.
NorCal Guy (02:10):
So, yeah, right, right we speaking of what were
your first thoughts when youheard of nfts.
I know you're an early so yeah,mentor.
Tony Herrera (02:14):
Uh, so I was actually.
I like to correct people, soyou're gonna hate it, but
because you're, when you saymentor, when you ask, when you
talk to, you're talking toreferring to punks, right.
NorCal Guy (02:26):
Right, right right.
Tony Herrera (02:27):
And just because I'm a purist punks are never
minted.
They're all claimed right.
Okay, yeah, so I'm fortunateenough to be amongst the 150
plus wallets that minted orclaimed punks Right, and that's
how I essentially to yourquestion.
That's how I essentiallylearned about NFTs before they
(02:50):
were essentially called NFTsbecause punks precede even the
ERC-20 platform.
But yeah, I came into punks sortof haphazardly through the
Mashable article, like a lot ofpeople did, and it was kind of
the earliest iterations of NFTsin a sense that here you had a
(03:12):
token on the Ethereum platformthat would essentially always
live on the Ethereum platformand I think that's what
essentially enamored me aboutbeginning back then with Punks
and later on with NFTs is thefact that here you have this
token that can represent art,can represent anything on the
ethereum blockchain, and it'slike immutable and will ever,
(03:32):
ever present on the blockchainand can't be removed.
It could be burned, but right,right, I mean it's.
NorCal Guy (03:40):
I don't know why it took me so long to understand it
.
Like I got Bitcoin, likeinstantly, I was like, oh, this
is awesome, but for some reason,attaching a picture to a rare
digital token, I was like that'sdumb, I don't know why.
Tony Herrera (03:54):
I think I understand you because when I
first got into the ecosystem in2015, I started looking at
Bitcoin and that's actually myentry into crypto was with
Bitcoin, started buying Bitcoinand then, you know, it's like
trying to understand it.
You know, like a lot of peopleread the white paper, didn't
understand a word of the whitepaper so I was like okay,
(04:15):
whatever, but I kind ofunderstood certain things about
the decentralization of it.
And then it was with Ethereumthat I really got enamored with
it because of the smart contractprocess.
The whole idea that you couldremove an intermediary from the
process was really sort ofengaging to me.
So I think for me it was likean instant thing.
When it came to tokens, Istarted gravitating to tokens so
(04:40):
much.
So, like my first entry beforea lot of entities was actually
ICOs.
I did a ton of tokens on ICOs.
NorCal Guy (04:49):
Yeah, okay, now that makes sense.
If you could live or moveanywhere, where would you live?
Why?
Tony Herrera (05:01):
I thought of this.
I really like where I live now,which is LA.
I've grown up in LA.
As much as the hustle andbustle of LA people, I love LA.
I think probably either MexicoCity or New York, and I would
have to say probably New York,although I'd probably leave as
(05:21):
soon as it starts to snow.
But yeah, I love the hustle andbustle of New York and I feel
like a vibrant energy wheneverI'm there.
I'd probably say New York,although I have to say that I've
been to New York a couple oftimes where the moment it starts
getting really cold, like below30 degrees, I'm like I don't
(05:43):
know that I can hang out herevery long, right, right, but I
think New York would be thechoice.
NorCal Guy (05:53):
What's the best piece of advice you've been
given?
Tony Herrera (05:58):
Wow, the best piece of advice.
I think the best piece ofadvice was given to me by a
gentleman a while back.
Is it best piece of advice inthis space or just any piece of
advice?
NorCal Guy (06:14):
I think any piece of advice is I.
I like to uh, just you know,like what's something you live
by I.
Tony Herrera (06:21):
I think the best piece of advice was something I
heard from an older gentlemanwho said you're going to get to
a point in your life where youwant to be the best son that you
can be to your parents, thebest husband or partner that you
can be to your husband or wifeand the best father to your kids
, or the best individual thatcan contribute to society
(06:44):
fathers your kids, or the bestindividual that can contribute
to society.
I think, and I think the mainthing take away was that it
costs you zero effort to be nice.
It's like you know, it's likeso.
I think that to me, you know,we'd live in a better world if
everybody just like walkedaround and was kind to one
another.
Right?
So I think for me, that would bethe best piece of advice.
NorCal Guy (07:07):
I like it.
Did you collect art or anythingbefore you got into the art
space?
Tony Herrera (07:14):
I've always been a collector of something.
I started off initially,believe it or not, with coins
when I was a kid.
I used to check the change andI would try to find Buffalo
Nichols or Mercury Dimes thiswas back when you could still
(07:37):
get a silver dollar or somethinglike that and I even bought the
books that held the coins,little blue books that had
perforated areas.
And then that was actuallyfunny that you asked, because
that was my first rug.
So that was the first rug, andI'll tell you what the rug was.
(07:57):
The rug was that I had a bunchof those books and I had them
where I would show them off, andas a kid I like show them off,
right.
And as a kid I was probablylike, literally like, maybe no,
no, I was probably no more than10 years old, right.
And one day, uh, the ice creamman came by and my sister, my
(08:17):
sisters and my cousins wantedice cream, so they didn't have
any money laying around, so theyfigured that they take the
money from this and I think theymeant to do it like they would
replace the money, not realizingthat the quarters were not just
regular quarters and nickelswere regular nickels so that was
like, that was the, that wasthe first major rug.
(08:38):
But I I went, I literally wentto the books and I'm like, and I
was like literally like intears, like so I'm like, I was
like literally like in tears.
So I'm like, mom, you know, Iwas like, yeah, that was like
yeah, so that was the firstcollection and then later on I
started collecting.
I have a fascination forarchitecture and other things.
(08:58):
Collected little things inthere, but I think the main
thing that I've always collectedis I collect old notes, old
bank notes.
I have money from when Mexico,before Mexico, mexico is the
United States of Mexico it's, Ithink, 33 states that are all
(09:19):
together that form the union,but back then, before the
revolution, like the state ofChihuahua, the state guanajuato,
the state of jalisco, would allmentor on money.
It's kind of funny because themoney that was minted by them
was actually minted by theamerican banknote company, which
is like, basically, it's likethis, it's like it was just a
printer, right.
It's like you needed a printer,you're gonna make your money,
you need somebody to print itfor you, right?
(09:40):
So the american american,american Banknote was the
company who printed those foryou.
So I have some bills from those.
I have those and every now andthen, if I travel and I'm able
to find an old bill, I just likeold bills.
I like to see old bills becausewhen we talk about Bitcoin and
(10:02):
stuff, it's like Bitcoin itdoesn't lose a value because the
note is no longer circulating.
It's funny that we see notes oneBay, all sorts of bank notes
on eBay, where they're sellingthem because now they have a
collectible value.
That's one of the things Ilaugh about when I tell people
that currency never goes toabsolute zero.
There's always some collectiblevalue.
(10:23):
Somebody will find, like there'sa trillion dollar node from
Zimbabwe or something like thatand like those don't have any
value, but they have collectiblevalue right, that's interesting
point, very interesting point.
NorCal Guy (10:39):
I haven't thought about that.
So what are the best thingsabout Web3 today?
The?
Tony Herrera (10:45):
best thing about Web3 today?
I think the best things aboutWeb3 today, the best thing about
Web3 today?
I think the best thing aboutWeb3 today is the constant
exploration and iteration onideas.
I think I'm always enthralledwith what somebody is trying to
build on Web3.
We're starting to see it right.
We're starting to see we'vegone through the wave're
starting to see.
We've gone through the wave ofICOs, we've gone through the
(11:07):
wave of NFTs and now we'restarting to look at all right,
what is the NFT and what is itto?
Does it get me into an event?
Does it get me into this?
So I think that we're startingto see.
You know, before we startedrecording, we were talking about
how OpenSea I always like totalk with people about how there
(11:27):
are items on OpenSea that youdon't realize that they're a big
value, because you don'trealize what they can do.
And like, for instance, wediscussed the fact that Ledger
has begun to sell redemptiontokens for their hardware
wallets on OpenSea.
So I could buy a Nano S or aNano X by starting by getting
the token and then redeeming thetoken on the website for the
(11:50):
physical merch for the hardwarewallet.
But I think what's interestingabout that is that I don't know
about you, but I live inCalifornia and every time I go
to the Ledger website and try tobuy something with my credit
card, I always get rejected bymy bank and I have to go back
and redo it.
I have to redo the orderbecause they'll send you a text
message saying was it you?
Yes, it was me.
(12:11):
And then I got to go back so nowwith the redemption token, you
just removed all that.
You removed the credit card youremoved everything, because now
all you do is trade your tokenfor the merchandise.
And that's really exciting tome about Web3, because now
you're looking at the potentialfor anything to be tokenized
where the ability for you to getit is not encumbered by a bank
(12:33):
refusing the payment orprocessing the payment or even,
like you could figure out, likenow it's like okay, well,
sometimes it's about a questionof shipping, right, it's like,
well, now you can engage with acompany potentially, and kind of
like look at a token in Web3and there's so much more that
you can do with the brand.
If the brand is willing toexplore the options of Web3,
(12:56):
right, the fact that they have adirect communication to you.
I see a lot of potential withthat.
NorCal Guy (13:03):
Yeah, no, I definitely see that.
I definitely.
I like that aspect of it.
I'm thinking of it in that waywhen do you see digital art,
NFTs in five years?
Do you have any concerns?
Tony Herrera (13:18):
Where do I see NFTs in the next five years?
I don't really have any majorconcerns.
I think concerns would bearound the fact that things go.
Is the concern sometimes thatthings are going to go to zero
and that's pretty much a given?
I mean, we're going to buy.
I'm okay with buying an NFThere and there where I know it's
going to go to zero, because Iknow that somebody is trying to
(13:40):
explore something and I'mwilling to go into exploration
right.
I remember a while back I boughta bunch of red line gazettes
that are an NFT of a magazine,right, and I thought this is
kind of interesting because whenyou think about NFTs, they're
essentially it could be a book,right, so I thought that was
kind of cool.
You know they're, they'reessentially it could be a book,
(14:01):
right, so I thought that waskind of cool.
So I'm not.
I don't have any concerns onthat end.
I think to to your question.
I see nfcs being almost almostpart of everything.
It's like just like email is apart of what we do and text
messages is what part of we do,and digital payments in the form
of credit cards and debit cards.
I think that all will becomevery much a process of NFTs, but
I don't think that people willrealize that it's an NFT.
(14:23):
I think a lot of people aregoing to be engaging with NFTs
and they won't realize that it'san NFT, because the ecosystem
will bring them things thatthey're engaging with.
What people understand iscoupons, right.
I go to shop at Adidas a lot andevery Like I go to shop at
Adidas a lot and every time I goto shop at Adidas, I have to
bring up my ID.
(14:43):
It's ID me and it's a QR codethat I present to them so they
can give me my discount and I'mproud to get my discount Every
time I go there.
It's like I want to get mydiscount, but if you think about
it, it's like that could be anNFT in my Ethereum wallet.
That is just a QR code thatjust says Adidas, I'm a veteran,
please give me my discount.
Right, it doesn't have to be.
(15:03):
I don't even have to realizethat it's an NFT because on an
app somewhere wallet without ithaving to be centralized to a
right now an email, the emailservice provider could rug me
(15:26):
and I no longer have access tomy QR code because I don't have
access to my email.
NorCal Guy (15:32):
Right, that's a good point.
It is going to be, you know, Imean there's a lot of friction
right now, but I definitelyagree that it is going to smooth
out.
It's a lot of friction rightnow, but I definitely agree that
it is going to smooth out.
Tony Herrera (15:42):
It's a lot of friction.
The tools that we need toonboard the next million people
have not been developed yet.
There's no easy I wasdiscussing this with another
project where there's no easyway for you to go into a store
now and do a point of saletransaction with tokens, right.
(16:02):
But imagine that if you walkedin and the cash register, the
you know the person that couldessentially scan and do
something, provide you a way tosend tokens like.
Imagine that a restaurant wouldaccept shiba tokens as long as
you have a payment gateway forShiba tokens to pay for your
meal.
Cool, you're done, you're goodto go Right right.
(16:24):
So we're not there yet.
I actually think we'll getthere sooner than most people
think.
I think we'll get there soonbecause, as NFTs begin to become
illiquid, they will be replacedwith NFTs that have some sort
of use, not necessarily in anumber go up scenario, but that
they're tradable for something,an experience, an event, a
(16:47):
product.
I think we're there and I thinkthe spare market is going to
get us there faster than wethink.
NorCal Guy (16:58):
Nice.
Tony Herrera (17:01):
Do you have a favorite movie quote?
Favorite movie quote God.
I'm a movie buff and I love alot of movies, especially like
foreign films.
So I think that my favoritequote that I go to oftentimes is
from Treasure of the SierraMadre, where I can't remember
the scene, but they kind of comeup on and he says you know,
(17:22):
they stop them and they want tocheck them.
And he says you're the police.
He says you know, show me some,show me the badges, show me a
badge that you're the police orthat you're and the.
And the guy on horseback isMexican with a big mustache.
His badges we only knowstinking badges.
NorCal Guy (17:42):
So that's my favorite part Nice, nice, I like
it.
What would you like to see moreof in the NFT space?
I know you've talked about likethe physical stuff.
Tony Herrera (17:59):
Is there anything like on the art side you'd like
to see more of?
Um, I'd like to see more of theartists, especially when it
comes to sculpture and physicalart, stuff that I want to hang
or put on a wall or that I wantsomething that I want that I
want it to be an object.
I'd like to see more artistsdoing a physical you know,
(18:21):
physical items.
Whether NFT is represented insome way tied to a physical, you
know, I think that right, Ithink that that's the area that
I would love to see is that I Iwas working with a sculpt, a
Mexican sculpture artist, awhile back, and one of his
reluctances to get into NFTs wasthe fact that he wasn't a
(18:43):
digital artist, that he's asculptor, and so I think that
now that we have the NFC chipsand RFID tags and all this other
tech, now you can imagine asculpture having the ability for
you to have a sculpture thatyou know, that you can do
something with it and take itinto the metaverse, or or that
(19:03):
becomes also tied to a physicaltoken of art.
I think that digital token ofart.
I think that that that's whereI like to play.
I like, I like, I like artistswho are like expanding the
boundaries of oh, I can createdigital art and I can tokenize
it, I can put it there, buttheir budget, but how can I
provide additional experiencedown the road?
And you're seeing artists dothat.
Tom Sachs does it, for instance.
(19:24):
Tom Sachs does very well withthat.
I have his rocket.
And then I ended up launchingthe rocket and then I had the
option to either get it At thetime, I was like trying to
decide where I was going to putit and I was wondering whether
my, whether, whether my wife waseven going to allow me to put
(19:46):
it anywhere.
And I was like right, and then,and then I was like traveling
at the time and I needed to toindicate what I wanted to do
with it.
So I ended up seeing that hehad this thing where like, uh,
you could send it to the museum,and I thought that was very
cool, because then I oh cool,I'll send it to the museum.
That is cool.
And now every time I see youknow shows where like G-Funk and
(20:15):
Derek Edwards from Proof orfrom Call of Currency he's got
they both have like I thinkJukka has like five or six of
them behind him where they cansee him, and then Derek has like
a few.
And every time I see him I'mlike, oh damn, I sent mine to
the museum.
But but I like the fact that,because on Tom he actually put
Tom Sachs, he actually put an M,like a really cool like M,
(20:36):
where it denotes that I sent itto a museum.
So I can flex, I can flex it onthe display and I can flex the
fact that it's not on my desktopbut hey, it's in a museum, you
know.
So that's kind of cool rightright, that's true.
NorCal Guy (20:49):
That's true now.
Okay, so something sparked whenyou're talking about the
physical, like the sculpture.
Um, now do you know what opendimes are?
Tony Herrera (21:00):
open dives.
No, I'm not familiar with opentimes um coin kite, so it's,
it's.
NorCal Guy (21:05):
It's a bitcoin product, I know.
Tony Herrera (21:07):
I know conchite, so it's I bought it I bought a
coin kite because they do the,they do the, uh, the, the ticker
right, the the yes, yeah, yeah,I love that thing yeah, the
block.
I love the block lock.
NorCal Guy (21:18):
Yeah.
Tony Herrera (21:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
NorCal Guy (21:21):
So, yeah, yeah, I have, yeah, yeah, so, so, so
Coincrate is like the, likeanother division of it, or that
is the head company, I don'tknow.
Open dime is a USB.
One time, use hardware wallet,which, which is secure.
It has a secure chip and thenwhen you puncture it with a pen
or something, when you plug itinto your computer, it shows the
(21:45):
seed phrase, so you can thenwithdraw the asset or the coins
on it.
Now I've always wondered whythey haven't done something like
that on ethereum.
Um, because coin kite is onlybitcoin.
He will not touch anything else.
But someone hasn't hasn'tinvented or done something
similar like that.
So, for one time, use ethereumhardware wallets that's
(22:08):
interesting so I like that ideait worked with like that yeah so
.
Tony Herrera (22:13):
So I like that idea, because I don't know if
you do.
You remember ether cards?
so the cards were early early,this would have been around 2016
, 2017, 2018 maybe you would goto.
You would go to events and whenyou went to a meetup they would
give you a card for that meetupand the back of it had a, had a
(22:35):
qr code with a with thehexadecimal ethereum address,
and since I could gift you thecard and I could scan it and
send you some eth or some tokensto that, to that, to that card,
and it included a scratch offseed phrase where you would
scratch it off and then youcould transfer those assets to
(22:56):
whatever the wallet was nodifferent than what Magic Link
does.
I don't know if you've ever usedMagic Link I haven't.
So Magic Link, which is what weuse for Digital Arcade, is you
could get a Magic Link with anemail, so it gives you this
temporary custodial wallet thatthe asset can be sent to that
wallet and, similarly, you go toyour email, reveal the seed
(23:18):
phrase and then transfer thatasset to a secure wallet.
But it's just that in thedigital form, right, it's your
Ether cards in the digital form.
So Ether cards went kind of bythe wayside once you were able
to just have somebody open up amatter mask and you know web3
wallet and send them the tokensright, so so.
But but I'm a physical guy.
(23:39):
I like like.
I like comic books andmagazines.
So anytime I can play with a,with a card, that that you can
touch and feel and that somehowinteracts with the blockchain, I
think that's very cool.
NorCal Guy (23:51):
Yeah, awesome, do you like?
Cause?
I always thought it'd beinteresting for like cause, it's
true, like for like oilpainters or sculptors, it'd be
interesting to have likesomething like that can't they
can attach to like the back oftheir painting or to that that
like.
Hey, this is your proof and youcan plug it in and verify
without like getting thebreaking the seed phrase yeah,
(24:14):
that's actually really cool.
Tony Herrera (24:16):
I'd love to take a look at it because I was
actually having a discussionwith eric sofro, who famously oh
, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is someguy.
Just he just created thislittle thing called squiggles,
right, it's like just a tinytiny project you know it's like,
but anyways.
So eric was talking and we werediscussing the fact of like
(24:37):
physical to to digital or youknow entity tied with physical,
and we were talking about tylerhobbs, uh, pedensis, and you
know how how right tyler tylerwill send you a print, a signed,
signed print, of a Fidenza, andso we were discussing whether a
token and the physical.
(25:04):
So let's say that you, you knowNarcal, has a token of Fidenza
and he also has a printedversion, signed by Tyler Hobbs
Is that pair more valuable thana un-minted token where Tyler
hasn't sent yet the print andsigned the print?
Which one of the two is morevaluable?
NorCal Guy (25:23):
Right, it's a great question.
Tony Herrera (25:25):
Yeah.
NorCal Guy (25:25):
And, like you know, when someone splits it, because
you know, yes, it's bound tohappen.
Tony Herrera (25:30):
That happened to me with Justin Ariz, arizona.
Justin arizona did a token andhe and I bought a couple tokens
from him.
Uh, it was, uh, I think it's uhscrolls.
There were like these, thesephysical pieces of art that he
had created, and the token was aredemption token for the
physical piece.
And so I bought it and he sentme the two physical pieces.
(25:52):
And this was before I sort oflike started.
I don't know what I was doing,but anyways, I put up one of the
tokens for sale and then DanSickles bought it, and then Dan
tweeted oh, I'm looking forwardto mounting this physical, you
know, from Justin.
And then Justin said, oh, youcan't because that token has
(26:12):
already been claimed right.
And then, oh, yeah, and then Irealized that it was my token,
right.
And so then I reached out todan and said by the way, the
token that you bought, I havethe physical and I don't feel
right keeping the physical.
So I want to ship you thescroll because because
technically, the way I see it is, it belongs.
(26:32):
This was, this was early days ofyou know, this was before
justin blew up with twin flamesand everything else, right, this
is like yeah, yeah, yeah.
And and and dan was surprisedthat I was even willing to send
it.
He's like oh, I'll pay you forit.
I'm like, no, I, I don't.
I think that, to be honest withyou, I don't think that this
token should be decoupled fromthe physical and for me to sell
you the token without thephysical, I feel like I'm not
(26:53):
doing you service right, doingyou justice.
So, since you bought it, Ithink it's only right that
either A I buy the token backfrom you I'm happy to take it
back and pay you what you paidplus gas or I can just send you
the.
So I ended up sending them thephysical.
But I think that that's myargument is that I've never sold
(27:14):
the token for anything thatI've claimed.
Routinely I get offers for myUnisox, the token, my Gen 0.
And I also get for my Punksshoes from Artifact and a couple
other items where I've alreadyredeemed the merch and people
want to buy my token and I'vealways thought, well, why do
they want to buy the token and I, I just won't sell it only
(27:37):
because I?
I just for me, it's like thevalue of the token is in the
fact that it's tied to themerchant.
I would only feel right to sellsomebody that token, like say,
the unisocs token, if I actuallysent them the unisocs as well
right physically.
Yeah, yeah, I see that I I agreewith that too, but I, but I'm
not going to send them a pair ofworn socks.
(27:57):
Right, but to be honest withyou, I actually haven't opened
the socks.
I haven't had the heart to openthe vacuum seal of the unisocs.
NorCal Guy (28:06):
Yeah that's fair.
Do you have any projects thatyou'd like to discuss?
Tony Herrera (28:13):
community into NSC space, web3.
And it mostly serves to educateand help the Spanish-speaking
community get into Web3.
(28:34):
So it's not a money making DAO,it's mostly a social impact DAO
.
And then I have another projectthat I'm working on right now,
which is TGN Arcade, and the TGNArcade that I'm doing with two
fellow punks, daniel Jeremy,daniel Artsofly and Jeremy Penn.
Daniel Jeremy, danielArtSofLion and.
Jeremy Penn, and that arcade isone around taking old arcade
(28:57):
machines and connecting them tothe blockchain, and what we've
done is basically started outwith a claw machine where you
fish out a prize.
The prize is an NFT and thatNFT could be anything, including
items that you can redeem forphysical items.
So we just rolled that out,just had our NFT NYC activation
(29:19):
rolled out the machine and we'resuper excited about the tech
behind it, because it's mostly atech, even though we have a
hardware, even though it's amachine, it's really a tech.
It's like.
The tech is that you can takean NFT in the form of a digital
asset, that is, a redemptiontoken that you could buy through
a machine, whether it's anarcade machine or a vending
machine and then that token canbe used to redeem a physical
(29:44):
item.
It could be a physical item,but it could also be an event
ticket, it could also be amagazine, it could also be a
subscription, it could also be afine JPEG like a Videnza or
Chromie Squiggle or anythingelse.
NorCal Guy (29:55):
So that's what we're working on.
That's awesome.
Now I can't wait to show up atone of these DGN arcades and
play Like I'm looking forward tothat.
Tony Herrera (30:04):
So we have the inner life activations which
we've already done New York, ourBasel, this recent New York one
but what you will be able to dowith DigiArcade is that you'll
be able to play.
Pretty soon You'll be able toplay to that.
So it's an application.
You'll be able to do Web3Connect and essentially pay to
play and win all manner of NFCs,and we're excited about that
(30:29):
because we started working withsome brands that are going to
bring some interesting prizes tothe price pool.
That'll be really interesting tosee what engagement we get with
those brands who areessentially new to Web3, because
they're really coming into Web3by essentially giving us a
bunch of prizes that you throwinto this machine.
(30:50):
They're not even.
They're not throw into thesemachines, they're not even
businesses that are deeply intoWeb3.
And for me it's reallyimportant because if we're going
to onboard users, we're onlygoing to onboard users into Web3
if we can find them somethingthat compels them to go into
Web3.
And if we're not going to getthem to come in and buy our
illiquid JPEGs, we have tofigure out what else they can
(31:13):
buy.
So maybe they can buy anexperience, maybe they can buy a
magazine, maybe they can buy abook, maybe they can buy a.
My dream is that tokenizedproducts would bring you where
you can do a mundane thing likebuying toilet paper in the form
(31:33):
of a token that you couldliterally redeem the token for
the toilet paper yeah, that'sawesome.
NorCal Guy (31:41):
Well, tony, I just want to say thank you so much
for your time today and forcoming on the show.
I really appreciate this chatthank, thank you and getting
insights.
Tony Herrera (31:50):
Appreciate your time.
NorCal Guy (31:53):
I hope to catch up again soon.
Happy to catch up, have a goodday.
We'll talk soon.
Tony Herrera (31:56):
We will Thank you.
NorCal Guy (31:58):
Bye.
Who is this?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Nor Calgary, nor Calgary, norCal guy.
Norcal guy, norcal guy, norcalguy, norcal guy, norcal guy,
norcal guy, norcal guy, norcaland chill Podcast Show it's
(32:18):
chill time, norcal and chillPodcast.
What the what the Chill NorCaland chill Podcast Show.
It's chill.
Who is this?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Norcal guy, norcal guy, norcalguy, norcal guy, norcal guy,
norcal guy, norcal guy, norcalguy, norcal.
Tony Herrera (00:16):
And chill podcast Show it's chill time, norcal and
chill podcast.
NorCal Guy (00:22):
What the sh-?
What the sh NorCal and ShillPodcast.
So it's Shill time.
Norcal and Shill Podcast.
What the sh-, what the sh-?
Hey, everyone, welcome to thisnext episode of NorCal and Shill
.
Today we have Tony Herrera.
Tony discusses his earlyinvolvement in the NFT space and
(00:45):
how he initially didn'tunderstand the concept.
We also discuss Tony's favoritemovie quote and his interest in
collecting physical items tiedto NFTs.
We discuss the potential ofphysical digital integration and
the need for improved tools andinfrastructure in the NFT space
(01:05):
.
Tony mentions his involvementin projects focused on social
impact and onboardingunderrepresented communities
into the Web3 space.
We end the chat with Tonyexpressing his excitement for
the future of NFTs and theirpotential for innovation.
Everybody, please welcome Tony.
(01:27):
Hey, tony, welcome to thepodcast.
How are you doing today?
Tony Herrera (01:30):
I'm doing good.
Thank you for having me.
NorCal Guy (01:32):
Yeah, I'm so glad we can make this work.
I've been wanting to talk toyou.
I've seen you around, We've metand I'm glad we could come
together on this show and hearyour thoughts on some things.
Tony Herrera (01:43):
Thank you.
Thank you, yeah, that's goodseeing you.
I know that we ran into eachother the last and it's and it's
NYC, not this one, but the lastone we were at the.
So it was good to see you, youknow, I know we're both members
of the punk community and kindof like collectors of fine JPEGs
find jpegs.
NorCal Guy (02:10):
So, yeah, right, right we speaking of what were
your first thoughts when youheard of nfts.
I know you're an early so yeah,mentor.
Tony Herrera (02:14):
Uh, so I was actually.
I like to correct people, soyou're gonna hate it, but
because you're, when you saymentor, when you ask, when you
talk to, you're talking toreferring to punks, right.
NorCal Guy (02:26):
Right, right right.
Tony Herrera (02:27):
And just because I'm a purist punks are never
minted.
They're all claimed right.
Okay, yeah, so I'm fortunateenough to be amongst the 150
plus wallets that minted orclaimed punks Right, and that's
how I essentially to yourquestion.
That's how I essentiallylearned about NFTs before they
(02:50):
were essentially called NFTsbecause punks precede even the
ERC-20 platform.
But yeah, I came into punks sortof haphazardly through the
Mashable article, like a lot ofpeople did, and it was kind of
the earliest iterations of NFTsin a sense that here you had a
(03:12):
token on the Ethereum platformthat would essentially always
live on the Ethereum platformand I think that's what
essentially enamored me aboutbeginning back then with Punks
and later on with NFTs is thefact that here you have this
token that can represent art,can represent anything on the
ethereum blockchain, and it'slike immutable and will ever,
(03:32):
ever present on the blockchainand can't be removed.
It could be burned, but right,right, I mean it's.
NorCal Guy (03:40):
I don't know why it took me so long to understand it
.
Like I got Bitcoin, likeinstantly, I was like, oh, this
is awesome, but for some reason,attaching a picture to a rare
digital token, I was like that'sdumb, I don't know why.
Tony Herrera (03:54):
I think I understand you because when I
first got into the ecosystem in2015, I started looking at
Bitcoin and that's actually myentry into crypto was with
Bitcoin, started buying Bitcoinand then, you know, it's like
trying to understand it.
You know, like a lot of peopleread the white paper, didn't
understand a word of the whitepaper so I was like okay,
(04:15):
whatever, but I kind ofunderstood certain things about
the decentralization of it.
And then it was with Ethereumthat I really got enamored with
it because of the smart contractprocess.
The whole idea that you couldremove an intermediary from the
process was really sort ofengaging to me.
So I think for me it was likean instant thing.
When it came to tokens, Istarted gravitating to tokens so
(04:40):
much.
So, like my first entry beforea lot of entities was actually
ICOs.
I did a ton of tokens on ICOs.
NorCal Guy (04:49):
Yeah, okay, now that makes sense.
If you could live or moveanywhere, where would you live?
Why?
Tony Herrera (05:01):
I thought of this.
I really like where I live now,which is LA.
I've grown up in LA.
As much as the hustle andbustle of LA people, I love LA.
I think probably either MexicoCity or New York, and I would
have to say probably New York,although I'd probably leave as
(05:21):
soon as it starts to snow.
But yeah, I love the hustle andbustle of New York and I feel
like a vibrant energy wheneverI'm there.
I'd probably say New York,although I have to say that I've
been to New York a couple oftimes where the moment it starts
getting really cold, like below30 degrees, I'm like I don't
(05:43):
know that I can hang out herevery long, right, right, but I
think New York would be thechoice.
NorCal Guy (05:53):
What's the best piece of advice you've been
given?
Tony Herrera (05:58):
Wow, the best piece of advice.
I think the best piece ofadvice was given to me by a
gentleman a while back.
Is it best piece of advice inthis space or just any piece of
advice?
NorCal Guy (06:14):
I think any piece of advice is I.
I like to uh, just you know,like what's something you live
by I.
Tony Herrera (06:21):
I think the best piece of advice was something I
heard from an older gentlemanwho said you're going to get to
a point in your life where youwant to be the best son that you
can be to your parents, thebest husband or partner that you
can be to your husband or wifeand the best father to your kids
, or the best individual thatcan contribute to society
(06:44):
fathers your kids, or the bestindividual that can contribute
to society.
I think, and I think the mainthing take away was that it
costs you zero effort to be nice.
It's like you know, it's likeso.
I think that to me, you know,we'd live in a better world if
everybody just like walkedaround and was kind to one
another.
Right?
So I think for me, that would bethe best piece of advice.
NorCal Guy (07:07):
I like it.
Did you collect art or anythingbefore you got into the art
space?
Tony Herrera (07:14):
I've always been a collector of something.
I started off initially,believe it or not, with coins
when I was a kid.
I used to check the change andI would try to find Buffalo
Nichols or Mercury Dimes thiswas back when you could still
(07:37):
get a silver dollar or somethinglike that and I even bought the
books that held the coins,little blue books that had
perforated areas.
And then that was actuallyfunny that you asked, because
that was my first rug.
So that was the first rug, andI'll tell you what the rug was.
(07:57):
The rug was that I had a bunchof those books and I had them
where I would show them off, andas a kid I like show them off,
right.
And as a kid I was probablylike, literally like, maybe no,
no, I was probably no more than10 years old, right.
And one day, uh, the ice creamman came by and my sister, my
(08:17):
sisters and my cousins wantedice cream, so they didn't have
any money laying around, so theyfigured that they take the
money from this and I think theymeant to do it like they would
replace the money, not realizingthat the quarters were not just
regular quarters and nickelswere regular nickels so that was
like, that was the, that wasthe first major rug.
(08:38):
But I I went, I literally wentto the books and I'm like, and I
was like literally like intears, like so I'm like, I was
like literally like in tears.
So I'm like, mom, you know, Iwas like, yeah, that was like
yeah, so that was the firstcollection and then later on I
started collecting.
I have a fascination forarchitecture and other things.
(08:58):
Collected little things inthere, but I think the main
thing that I've always collectedis I collect old notes, old
bank notes.
I have money from when Mexico,before Mexico, mexico is the
United States of Mexico it's, Ithink, 33 states that are all
(09:19):
together that form the union,but back then, before the
revolution, like the state ofChihuahua, the state guanajuato,
the state of jalisco, would allmentor on money.
It's kind of funny because themoney that was minted by them
was actually minted by theamerican banknote company, which
is like, basically, it's likethis, it's like it was just a
printer, right.
It's like you needed a printer,you're gonna make your money,
you need somebody to print itfor you, right?
(09:40):
So the american american,american Banknote was the
company who printed those foryou.
So I have some bills from those.
I have those and every now andthen, if I travel and I'm able
to find an old bill, I just likeold bills.
I like to see old bills becausewhen we talk about Bitcoin and
(10:02):
stuff, it's like Bitcoin itdoesn't lose a value because the
note is no longer circulating.
It's funny that we see notes oneBay, all sorts of bank notes
on eBay, where they're sellingthem because now they have a
collectible value.
That's one of the things Ilaugh about when I tell people
that currency never goes toabsolute zero.
There's always some collectiblevalue.
(10:23):
Somebody will find, like there'sa trillion dollar node from
Zimbabwe or something like thatand like those don't have any
value, but they have collectiblevalue right, that's interesting
point, very interesting point.
NorCal Guy (10:39):
I haven't thought about that.
So what are the best thingsabout Web3 today?
The?
Tony Herrera (10:45):
best thing about Web3 today?
I think the best things aboutWeb3 today, the best thing about
Web3 today?
I think the best thing aboutWeb3 today is the constant
exploration and iteration onideas.
I think I'm always enthralledwith what somebody is trying to
build on Web3.
We're starting to see it right.
We're starting to see we'vegone through the wave're
starting to see.
We've gone through the wave ofICOs, we've gone through the
(11:07):
wave of NFTs and now we'restarting to look at all right,
what is the NFT and what is itto?
Does it get me into an event?
Does it get me into this?
So I think that we're startingto see.
You know, before we startedrecording, we were talking about
how OpenSea I always like totalk with people about how there
(11:27):
are items on OpenSea that youdon't realize that they're a big
value, because you don'trealize what they can do.
And like, for instance, wediscussed the fact that Ledger
has begun to sell redemptiontokens for their hardware
wallets on OpenSea.
So I could buy a Nano S or aNano X by starting by getting
the token and then redeeming thetoken on the website for the
(11:50):
physical merch for the hardwarewallet.
But I think what's interestingabout that is that I don't know
about you, but I live inCalifornia and every time I go
to the Ledger website and try tobuy something with my credit
card, I always get rejected bymy bank and I have to go back
and redo it.
I have to redo the orderbecause they'll send you a text
message saying was it you?
Yes, it was me.
(12:11):
And then I got to go back so nowwith the redemption token, you
just removed all that.
You removed the credit card youremoved everything, because now
all you do is trade your tokenfor the merchandise.
And that's really exciting tome about Web3, because now
you're looking at the potentialfor anything to be tokenized
where the ability for you to getit is not encumbered by a bank
(12:33):
refusing the payment orprocessing the payment or even,
like you could figure out, likenow it's like okay, well,
sometimes it's about a questionof shipping, right, it's like,
well, now you can engage with acompany potentially, and kind of
like look at a token in Web3and there's so much more that
you can do with the brand.
If the brand is willing toexplore the options of Web3,
(12:56):
right, the fact that they have adirect communication to you.
I see a lot of potential withthat.
NorCal Guy (13:03):
Yeah, no, I definitely see that.
I definitely.
I like that aspect of it.
I'm thinking of it in that waywhen do you see digital art,
NFTs in five years?
Do you have any concerns?
Tony Herrera (13:18):
Where do I see NFTs in the next five years?
I don't really have any majorconcerns.
I think concerns would bearound the fact that things go.
Is the concern sometimes thatthings are going to go to zero
and that's pretty much a given?
I mean, we're going to buy.
I'm okay with buying an NFThere and there where I know it's
going to go to zero, because Iknow that somebody is trying to
(13:40):
explore something and I'mwilling to go into exploration
right.
I remember a while back I boughta bunch of red line gazettes
that are an NFT of a magazine,right, and I thought this is
kind of interesting because whenyou think about NFTs, they're
essentially it could be a book,right, so I thought that was
kind of cool.
You know they're, they'reessentially it could be a book,
(14:01):
right, so I thought that waskind of cool.
So I'm not.
I don't have any concerns onthat end.
I think to to your question.
I see nfcs being almost almostpart of everything.
It's like just like email is apart of what we do and text
messages is what part of we do,and digital payments in the form
of credit cards and debit cards.
I think that all will becomevery much a process of NFTs, but
I don't think that people willrealize that it's an NFT.
(14:23):
I think a lot of people aregoing to be engaging with NFTs
and they won't realize that it'san NFT, because the ecosystem
will bring them things thatthey're engaging with.
What people understand iscoupons, right.
I go to shop at Adidas a lot andevery Like I go to shop at
Adidas a lot and every time I goto shop at Adidas, I have to
bring up my ID.
(14:43):
It's ID me and it's a QR codethat I present to them so they
can give me my discount and I'mproud to get my discount Every
time I go there.
It's like I want to get mydiscount, but if you think about
it, it's like that could be anNFT in my Ethereum wallet.
That is just a QR code thatjust says Adidas, I'm a veteran,
please give me my discount.
Right, it doesn't have to be.
(15:03):
I don't even have to realizethat it's an NFT because on an
app somewhere wallet without ithaving to be centralized to a
right now an email, the emailservice provider could rug me
(15:26):
and I no longer have access tomy QR code because I don't have
access to my email.
NorCal Guy (15:32):
Right, that's a good point.
It is going to be, you know, Imean there's a lot of friction
right now, but I definitelyagree that it is going to smooth
out.
It's a lot of friction rightnow, but I definitely agree that
it is going to smooth out.
Tony Herrera (15:42):
It's a lot of friction.
The tools that we need toonboard the next million people
have not been developed yet.
There's no easy I wasdiscussing this with another
project where there's no easyway for you to go into a store
now and do a point of saletransaction with tokens, right.
(16:02):
But imagine that if you walkedin and the cash register, the
you know the person that couldessentially scan and do
something, provide you a way tosend tokens like.
Imagine that a restaurant wouldaccept shiba tokens as long as
you have a payment gateway forShiba tokens to pay for your
meal.
Cool, you're done, you're goodto go Right right.
(16:24):
So we're not there yet.
I actually think we'll getthere sooner than most people
think.
I think we'll get there soonbecause, as NFTs begin to become
illiquid, they will be replacedwith NFTs that have some sort
of use, not necessarily in anumber go up scenario, but that
they're tradable for something,an experience, an event, a
(16:47):
product.
I think we're there and I thinkthe spare market is going to
get us there faster than wethink.
NorCal Guy (16:58):
Nice.
Tony Herrera (17:01):
Do you have a favorite movie quote?
Favorite movie quote God.
I'm a movie buff and I love alot of movies, especially like
foreign films.
So I think that my favoritequote that I go to oftentimes is
from Treasure of the SierraMadre, where I can't remember
the scene, but they kind of comeup on and he says you know,
(17:22):
they stop them and they want tocheck them.
And he says you're the police.
He says you know, show me some,show me the badges, show me a
badge that you're the police orthat you're and the.
And the guy on horseback isMexican with a big mustache.
His badges we only knowstinking badges.
NorCal Guy (17:42):
So that's my favorite part Nice, nice, I like
it.
What would you like to see moreof in the NFT space?
I know you've talked about likethe physical stuff.
Tony Herrera (17:59):
Is there anything like on the art side you'd like
to see more of?
Um, I'd like to see more of theartists, especially when it
comes to sculpture and physicalart, stuff that I want to hang
or put on a wall or that I wantsomething that I want that I
want it to be an object.
I'd like to see more artistsdoing a physical you know,
(18:21):
physical items.
Whether NFT is represented insome way tied to a physical, you
know, I think that right, Ithink that that's the area that
I would love to see is that I Iwas working with a sculpt, a
Mexican sculpture artist, awhile back, and one of his
reluctances to get into NFTs wasthe fact that he wasn't a
(18:43):
digital artist, that he's asculptor, and so I think that
now that we have the NFC chipsand RFID tags and all this other
tech, now you can imagine asculpture having the ability for
you to have a sculpture thatyou know, that you can do
something with it and take itinto the metaverse, or or that
(19:03):
becomes also tied to a physicaltoken of art.
I think that digital token ofart.
I think that that that's whereI like to play.
I like, I like, I like artistswho are like expanding the
boundaries of oh, I can createdigital art and I can tokenize
it, I can put it there, buttheir budget, but how can I
provide additional experiencedown the road?
And you're seeing artists dothat.
Tom Sachs does it, for instance.
(19:24):
Tom Sachs does very well withthat.
I have his rocket.
And then I ended up launchingthe rocket and then I had the
option to either get it At thetime, I was like trying to
decide where I was going to putit and I was wondering whether
my, whether, whether my wife waseven going to allow me to put
(19:46):
it anywhere.
And I was like right, and then,and then I was like traveling
at the time and I needed to toindicate what I wanted to do
with it.
So I ended up seeing that hehad this thing where like, uh,
you could send it to the museum,and I thought that was very
cool, because then I oh cool,I'll send it to the museum.
That is cool.
And now every time I see youknow shows where like G-Funk and
(20:15):
Derek Edwards from Proof orfrom Call of Currency he's got
they both have like I thinkJukka has like five or six of
them behind him where they cansee him, and then Derek has like
a few.
And every time I see him I'mlike, oh damn, I sent mine to
the museum.
But but I like the fact that,because on Tom he actually put
Tom Sachs, he actually put an M,like a really cool like M,
(20:36):
where it denotes that I sent itto a museum.
So I can flex, I can flex it onthe display and I can flex the
fact that it's not on my desktopbut hey, it's in a museum, you
know.
So that's kind of cool rightright, that's true.
NorCal Guy (20:49):
That's true now.
Okay, so something sparked whenyou're talking about the
physical, like the sculpture.
Um, now do you know what opendimes are?
Tony Herrera (21:00):
open dives.
No, I'm not familiar with opentimes um coin kite, so it's,
it's.
NorCal Guy (21:05):
It's a bitcoin product, I know.
Tony Herrera (21:07):
I know conchite, so it's I bought it I bought a
coin kite because they do the,they do the, uh, the, the ticker
right, the the yes, yeah, yeah,I love that thing yeah, the
block.
I love the block lock.
NorCal Guy (21:18):
Yeah.
Tony Herrera (21:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
NorCal Guy (21:21):
So, yeah, yeah, I have, yeah, yeah, so, so, so
Coincrate is like the, likeanother division of it, or that
is the head company, I don'tknow.
Open dime is a USB.
One time, use hardware wallet,which, which is secure.
It has a secure chip and thenwhen you puncture it with a pen
or something, when you plug itinto your computer, it shows the
(21:45):
seed phrase, so you can thenwithdraw the asset or the coins
on it.
Now I've always wondered whythey haven't done something like
that on ethereum.
Um, because coin kite is onlybitcoin.
He will not touch anything else.
But someone hasn't hasn'tinvented or done something
similar like that.
So, for one time, use ethereumhardware wallets that's
(22:08):
interesting so I like that ideait worked with like that yeah so
.
Tony Herrera (22:13):
So I like that idea, because I don't know if
you do.
You remember ether cards?
so the cards were early early,this would have been around 2016
, 2017, 2018 maybe you would goto.
You would go to events and whenyou went to a meetup they would
give you a card for that meetupand the back of it had a, had a
(22:35):
qr code with a with thehexadecimal ethereum address,
and since I could gift you thecard and I could scan it and
send you some eth or some tokensto that, to that, to that card,
and it included a scratch offseed phrase where you would
scratch it off and then youcould transfer those assets to
(22:56):
whatever the wallet was nodifferent than what Magic Link
does.
I don't know if you've ever usedMagic Link I haven't.
So Magic Link, which is what weuse for Digital Arcade, is you
could get a Magic Link with anemail, so it gives you this
temporary custodial wallet thatthe asset can be sent to that
wallet and, similarly, you go toyour email, reveal the seed
(23:18):
phrase and then transfer thatasset to a secure wallet.
But it's just that in thedigital form, right, it's your
Ether cards in the digital form.
So Ether cards went kind of bythe wayside once you were able
to just have somebody open up amatter mask and you know web3
wallet and send them the tokensright, so so.
But but I'm a physical guy.
(23:39):
I like like.
I like comic books andmagazines.
So anytime I can play with a,with a card, that that you can
touch and feel and that somehowinteracts with the blockchain, I
think that's very cool.
NorCal Guy (23:51):
Yeah, awesome, do you like?
Cause?
I always thought it'd beinteresting for like cause, it's
true, like for like oilpainters or sculptors, it'd be
interesting to have likesomething like that can't they
can attach to like the back oftheir painting or to that that
like.
Hey, this is your proof and youcan plug it in and verify
without like getting thebreaking the seed phrase yeah,
(24:14):
that's actually really cool.
Tony Herrera (24:16):
I'd love to take a look at it because I was
actually having a discussionwith eric sofro, who famously oh
, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is someguy.
Just he just created thislittle thing called squiggles,
right, it's like just a tinytiny project you know it's like,
but anyways.
So eric was talking and we werediscussing the fact of like
(24:37):
physical to to digital or youknow entity tied with physical,
and we were talking about tylerhobbs, uh, pedensis, and you
know how how right tyler tylerwill send you a print, a signed,
signed print, of a Fidenza, andso we were discussing whether a
token and the physical.
(25:04):
So let's say that you, you knowNarcal, has a token of Fidenza
and he also has a printedversion, signed by Tyler Hobbs
Is that pair more valuable thana un-minted token where Tyler
hasn't sent yet the print andsigned the print?
Which one of the two is morevaluable?
NorCal Guy (25:23):
Right, it's a great question.
Tony Herrera (25:25):
Yeah.
NorCal Guy (25:25):
And, like you know, when someone splits it, because
you know, yes, it's bound tohappen.
Tony Herrera (25:30):
That happened to me with Justin Ariz, arizona.
Justin arizona did a token andhe and I bought a couple tokens
from him.
Uh, it was, uh, I think it's uhscrolls.
There were like these, thesephysical pieces of art that he
had created, and the token was aredemption token for the
physical piece.
And so I bought it and he sentme the two physical pieces.
(25:52):
And this was before I sort oflike started.
I don't know what I was doing,but anyways, I put up one of the
tokens for sale and then DanSickles bought it, and then Dan
tweeted oh, I'm looking forwardto mounting this physical, you
know, from Justin.
And then Justin said, oh, youcan't because that token has
(26:12):
already been claimed right.
And then, oh, yeah, and then Irealized that it was my token,
right.
And so then I reached out todan and said by the way, the
token that you bought, I havethe physical and I don't feel
right keeping the physical.
So I want to ship you thescroll because because
technically, the way I see it is, it belongs.
(26:32):
This was, this was early days ofyou know, this was before
justin blew up with twin flamesand everything else, right, this
is like yeah, yeah, yeah.
And and and dan was surprisedthat I was even willing to send
it.
He's like oh, I'll pay you forit.
I'm like, no, I, I don't.
I think that, to be honest withyou, I don't think that this
token should be decoupled fromthe physical and for me to sell
you the token without thephysical, I feel like I'm not
(26:53):
doing you service right, doingyou justice.
So, since you bought it, Ithink it's only right that
either A I buy the token backfrom you I'm happy to take it
back and pay you what you paidplus gas or I can just send you
the.
So I ended up sending them thephysical.
But I think that that's myargument is that I've never sold
(27:14):
the token for anything thatI've claimed.
Routinely I get offers for myUnisox, the token, my Gen 0.
And I also get for my Punksshoes from Artifact and a couple
other items where I've alreadyredeemed the merch and people
want to buy my token and I'vealways thought, well, why do
they want to buy the token and I, I just won't sell it only
(27:37):
because I?
I just for me, it's like thevalue of the token is in the
fact that it's tied to themerchant.
I would only feel right to sellsomebody that token, like say,
the unisocs token, if I actuallysent them the unisocs as well
right physically.
Yeah, yeah, I see that I I agreewith that too, but I, but I'm
not going to send them a pair ofworn socks.
(27:57):
Right, but to be honest withyou, I actually haven't opened
the socks.
I haven't had the heart to openthe vacuum seal of the unisocs.
NorCal Guy (28:06):
Yeah that's fair.
Do you have any projects thatyou'd like to discuss?
Tony Herrera (28:13):
community into NSC space, web3.
And it mostly serves to educateand help the Spanish-speaking
community get into Web3.
(28:34):
So it's not a money making DAO,it's mostly a social impact DAO
.
And then I have another projectthat I'm working on right now,
which is TGN Arcade, and the TGNArcade that I'm doing with two
fellow punks, daniel Jeremy,daniel Artsofly and Jeremy Penn.
Daniel Jeremy, danielArtSofLion and.
Jeremy Penn, and that arcade isone around taking old arcade
(28:57):
machines and connecting them tothe blockchain, and what we've
done is basically started outwith a claw machine where you
fish out a prize.
The prize is an NFT and thatNFT could be anything, including
items that you can redeem forphysical items.
So we just rolled that out,just had our NFT NYC activation
(29:19):
rolled out the machine and we'resuper excited about the tech
behind it, because it's mostly atech, even though we have a
hardware, even though it's amachine, it's really a tech.
It's like.
The tech is that you can takean NFT in the form of a digital
asset, that is, a redemptiontoken that you could buy through
a machine, whether it's anarcade machine or a vending
machine and then that token canbe used to redeem a physical
(29:44):
item.
It could be a physical item,but it could also be an event
ticket, it could also be amagazine, it could also be a
subscription, it could also be afine JPEG like a Videnza or
Chromie Squiggle or anythingelse.
NorCal Guy (29:55):
So that's what we're working on.
That's awesome.
Now I can't wait to show up atone of these DGN arcades and
play Like I'm looking forward tothat.
Tony Herrera (30:04):
So we have the inner life activations which
we've already done New York, ourBasel, this recent New York one
but what you will be able to dowith DigiArcade is that you'll
be able to play.
Pretty soon You'll be able toplay to that.
So it's an application.
You'll be able to do Web3Connect and essentially pay to
play and win all manner of NFCs,and we're excited about that
(30:29):
because we started working withsome brands that are going to
bring some interesting prizes tothe price pool.
That'll be really interesting tosee what engagement we get with
those brands who areessentially new to Web3, because
they're really coming into Web3by essentially giving us a
bunch of prizes that you throwinto this machine.
(30:50):
They're not even.
They're not throw into thesemachines, they're not even
businesses that are deeply intoWeb3.
And for me it's reallyimportant because if we're going
to onboard users, we're onlygoing to onboard users into Web3
if we can find them somethingthat compels them to go into
Web3.
And if we're not going to getthem to come in and buy our
illiquid JPEGs, we have tofigure out what else they can
(31:13):
buy.
So maybe they can buy anexperience, maybe they can buy a
magazine, maybe they can buy abook, maybe they can buy a.
My dream is that tokenizedproducts would bring you where
you can do a mundane thing likebuying toilet paper in the form
(31:33):
of a token that you couldliterally redeem the token for
the toilet paper yeah, that'sawesome.
NorCal Guy (31:41):
Well, tony, I just want to say thank you so much
for your time today and forcoming on the show.
I really appreciate this chatthank, thank you and getting
insights.
Tony Herrera (31:50):
Appreciate your time.
NorCal Guy (31:53):
I hope to catch up again soon.
Happy to catch up, have a goodday.
We'll talk soon.
Tony Herrera (31:56):
We will Thank you.
NorCal Guy (31:58):
Bye.
Who is this?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
Nor Calgary, nor Calgary, norCal guy.
Norcal guy, norcal guy, norcalguy, norcal guy, norcal guy,
norcal guy, norcal guy, norcaland chill Podcast Show it's
(32:18):
chill time, norcal and chillPodcast.
What the what the Chill NorCaland chill Podcast Show.
It's chill.
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