Last week in downtown Miami, nft now and Mana Common’s The Gateway: A Web3 Metropolis brought together the crypto and NFT community during Art Basel. Over the course of five days, attendees saw phenomenal shows and showcases from their favorite artists, got a sneak peek at what major brands like Porsche and Instagram have in the works for their Web3 plans, and witnessed some great musical performances.

nft has now also hosted a series of panel talks, where a wide range of leaders and leaders from the NFT community offered in-depth opinions on the state of Web3. It was a busy week filled with too many panels for everyone to attend, so we rounded up some of the best moments to play the hits for you.

Gary Vee, Entrepreneur and Founder of VeeFriends

During The Gateway’s first day of talks, NFT superstar Gary Vee (formerly Vaynerchuck) took the stage with Alejandro Navia, co-founder and now president of nft, to discuss the state of the Web3 landscape. Always candid, Vaynerchuck’s commentary touched on everything from the need for Web3 projects to focus on longevity in favor of short-term profit to how and why the concept of legacy is important to him. The talk was a much-needed injection of energy for a community still reeling from the FTX crash. Here are some moments from that conversation:

“We are in an economic correction. We came out of it the same way the Internet came out of it. From 2001 to 2004, many websites like Friendster became the previews for Reddits and Instagram. [of today]. In the next 36 months, people will build meaningful things instead of quick things to get quick money.”

“I am proud to be a true businessman. Real shit takes time to build. It’s supposed to be hard if you’re trying to live a one percent of a one percent life. Everyone talks about being about ‘that life’ until that life hits you in the fucking mouth.”

“Business success doesn’t mean shit. If I die tomorrow, I’ll trend on Twitter for 24 hours and then the next day everyone will live their life. I just don’t think being good at making money or being a good businessman allows you to think you’re better than other people. I do not have my validation in the success of my business. I have a lot more validation in how people who really know me feel about me.”

“I’m really not worried about the [crypto] winter. I think when all the dust settles in 22 years, you’ll forget a lot of the names we fuck with today and I’ll be fucking dominating. But if I don’t, I’ll be excited about World of Women or Bored Apes.”

Keith Grossman, President of WEATHER

The outgoing president of the former media institution took the stage at the Dupont Building in Miami last week to speak about the evolution of media in the context of Web3. Grossman, who recently announced he would leave Weather to join MoonPay as the company’s President of Enterprise in 2023, he told the story of how he helped create TIMEPieces, an NFT-focused initiative that earned the company more than $10 million in revenue in 2021 alone. Importance of Core Values ​​in Web3 Communities.

“It’s easy to be here today and talk about the success TIME has had over the past two years on Web3,” Grossman said of the publication’s impact on the space. “It is very important to remember that in March 2021 when we said that we were going to successfully enter Web3, we were ridiculed. But what’s really important is what’s fueling this. It’s not the market, is it? What really feeds Web3? What I saw were people’s digital identities. [Before] 2020, when we were all isolated, our digital selves were nice additions to our physical bodies. In 2020, we realized that our digital personas are the same as our physical lives.”

“[I told people,] Do you understand why a cat with the body of a pie dropping a rainbow just sold for $500,000? They all looked at me like he was crazy.

“You can be a greed-based community or a values-based community,” Grossman stressed. “Greed-based communities emerge in bull markets; in bear markets, the value-based ones tend to be the ones that survive.”

Farokh, founder of Rug Radio

Well-known and respected NFT thought leader Farokh dropped a big announcement at The Gateway on his opening day of panel talks last week. The founder of Rug Radio, Web3’s digital native media outlet, Farokh revealed that the project and community will get their own PFP collection called “Faces of Web3” featuring artwork designed by multi-disciplinary artist Cory Van Lew. This is what Farokh had to say about the project:

“In this market, people still want a PFP that represents something as part of their digital identity.”

“One thing that a lot of people have wrong, in my opinion, is [the idea] that decentralization is anarchy. It is not. To correctly get to where we want, it will take a few years.”

“We are constantly doing collaborations and working hard to create new shows. The NFT space demands that, in a way. It is very current… each day is like a week”.

Cory Van Lew, multidisciplinary artist

Well-known artist Cory Van Lew, who designed the artwork for the Rug Radio PFP Collection, appeared on stage with Farokh, offering his thoughts on the purpose and value behind PFP projects in today’s market environment.

“The Cory Van Lew and Rug Radio collaboration is a PFP project aimed at representing the faces of Web3. In this market, people still want a PFP that It represents something as part of their digital identity.”

Gmoney, Web3 icon, collector and opinion leader

The iconic NFT collector and creative director of 9dcc made waves across the internet when he revealed his visual identity during Art Basel last week. He also rounded out The Gateway’s week of talks by discussing the future of Web3 luxury on Saturday with Chris Coleman. This is what he had to say:

“What I learned as a founder is that you don’t need to drop like everyone else. You know, PFPs definitely worked for a while last year, I don’t know if they’ll work in the future. For that reason, I’ve been building slowly and taking my time, because I believe the technology will change.”

“One of the main reasons I really wanted to connect the digital and the physical is because we live in a non-expendable world. Even if we have the same black shirt, mine could be torn or have a coffee stain or whatever. That means it’s probably worth less.”

“When you talk to someone who is a teenager or younger, they just get it. They understand digital ownership.”

Betty, CEO and founder of Deadfellaz

The Deadfellaz CEO and founder is no stranger to controversy. Betty has long been a vocal advocate of creator fees (artist royalties) and she arguably helped influence OpenSea’s recent turn into a highly divisive royalty policy proposal. On Saturday, Betty took the stage with now nft co-founder and CEO Matt Medved to discuss what the fight for artist rights and empowerment will look like as Web3 continues to evolve:

“The connectivity of creative work gives people validation of their own existence in many ways.”

“A lot of people recently [told me] You are too political. You shouldn’t be a politician. Defy is political. Cryptocurrencies are political. Everything is political.”

“In my opinion, there is no such thing as balance. I think it’s silly, and I also think trying to please everyone is silly.”

“Drink [royalties] away, and we have to trust the institutions again. It disempowers us, which disproportionately affects marginalized creators. I’m here to protect those people and defend those people.”

“I want a future where creators are autonomous over their content.”

Shekinah Apedo, General Counsel of Deadfellaz

Speaking at a panel on the future of the Web3 legal landscape on Thursday of last week with panelists Amy Madison Luo and Mark Jansen, Deadfellaz General Counsel Shekinah Apedo expressed her dismay at the lack of legal education among Web3 enthusiasts. cryptocurrencies and NFTs:

“Something I would like to see is more consumers in the NFT landscape taking ownership of their own education…like the differences between copyright and trademark, and people talk about CC0 all the time, but there are six different classifications below that.”

“It kills me when I see projects that don’t have Terms of Service around their IP.”

“There’s been a lot of talk about creator royalties, but that can’t be their core business strategy. One of the most important things is to make sure you have your due diligence in order…trademarks, IP, etc.”

“We just saw that Kraken had over $300,000 in sanctions because they were completing transactions with a sanctioned nation… so when it comes to ‘Know Your Customer’, I’m really interested to see how it evolves.”

Ayla El-Moussa, multidisciplinary artist

When it comes to Web3, Ayla El-Moussa is a woman ahead of her time. The multidisciplinary artist (who has spearheaded the artistic nude movement on Web3 over the years) has long operated in a digital medium. El-Moussa, along with Lydia Chen, a senior NFT and digital art sales project coordinator at Christie’s, joined a panel at The Gateway last week with artist Rhymezlikedimez and Richerd Chen, co-founder of smart contract developer NFT Manifold. , to delve into Christie’s auction house’s journey to Web3 and what it means for artists and collectors.

“What I find so special is that Christie’s is creating this bridge […] what’s going on, as someone who hasn’t been able to sell in the real world because most of my work is digital, there’s this beautiful bridge now of having a primary sale with an institution that means a lot.”

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum

Joseph Lubin needs little introduction. Co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain in 2015, Lubin’s historical perspectives in the Web3 space are not to be taken lightly. Taking the stage on Friday of last week, Lubin spoke about the future of NFT and Web3 specifically in relation to the catastrophic fall of FTX:

“Now we’re in this phase of creative destruction where all the pieces are being recombined and people with experience from the past few years are now figuring out what to do.”

“I am grateful that [the fall of FTX] will allow us [to] drive a narrative that really sets out, in no uncertain terms, the value of decentralization.”

“Many people have been harmed for millennia by bad centralized systems. You can hide information, you can cheat in many different ways.”