Meet the creator behind London’s most bizarre NFT: Goth Girlfriends’ No Face
The anonymous No Face sat down with AltFi to talk about all the degradation, death and decay, and being a million miles away from the “bro-y” NFT world.
Image source: No Face / Goth Girlfriends.
Tattoos, tarot and NFTs.
A gallery opening full of funeral flowers, black lipstick, Dr. Martens, colored hair and a coffin.
A Discord community with just one rule: Do not be a dick.
And an anonymous founder and creator who aptly called No Face.
Confused? Hold on, because we’ve just scratched the surface of the Goth Girlfriends world: the alternative NFT for the goth community.
After about nine months of working in the more “traditional” NFT (non-fungible token) space, No Face, the company’s founder and great high witch, decided to launch her own project, in the form of Goth Girlfriends.
“I did not see anything that represented me and all the things I liked about NFT,” No Face said AltFi.
“It was amazing artists who did amazing things, and amazing developers who created these platforms and these projects, which were really cool.
“But I did not see anything that really embraced the kind of subculture that I have been in since I was a teenager, with alternative music and alternative fashion and a gloomy outlook on life, let’s say.”
“Goth” in the company name “Goth Girlfriends” is used as a summary term, said No Face.
They quoted Creepers Ian Miles and explained that it is about “degradation, death and decay” in a broader sense, which includes punk, metal heads, emo and “the scariest side of life”.
Somehow, this theme of extended acceptance within what seems like a very niche group makes a lot of sense, and it’s a thread that runs through the ethos of Goth Girlfriends.
Sitting “a million miles away from the bro-y optimism or rise and grind style of crypto” is this alternative community with a passion for all things scary and gothic.
Neither goth nor girlfriend is the first word that comes to mind when you think of the NFT room, and that’s exactly the point.
“We’re creating a space in the NFT world for people who may not traditionally feel seen or welcomed,” said No Face.
“It simply came to our notice then. And the feminine side of it too, they added.
A non-fungible ticket
Take a step back, NFTs are digitally owned tokens that can be verified on the blockchain.
What this means is that instead of being a file stored on your device, it is stored in your wallet in a decentralized manner on the blockchain and can be tracked.
So every transaction that has ever been made can be tracked, and this is how you can confirm that your NFT has come directly from the creator’s wallet and is authentic and unique.
For Goth Girlfriends, while the project may be based on NFTs and it may be the ticket to the entrance, it really is what it is: an entrance ticket.
Yes, it comes in the form of a unique piece of digital art, but while the golden ticket may be shiny, it is Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory that is far more exciting.
“I think what we’re trying to do is build a community and a brand, and then the technology we use is almost a platform for that, rather than the unique selling point,” No Face said.
“I think the way you want to see all successful NFT projects go is by creating a brand behind it, whether it’s in finance, in entertainment, in technology, or in music and the surrounding environment, which is what we are. trying to do. “
No Face really emphasized that Goth Girlfriends is a traditional community, rather than just an NFT project.
“It is, too. We use NFTs, “they said.
“But NFT is the ticket to the rest of it. So NFT is the entry point.”
What’s inside the factory?
So in addition to getting a one-off piece of digital art from HE Creative, buying a Goth Girlfriends NFT gives you access to a number of benefits.
It gives you access to items, tickets, events, group chats, the list goes on.
The company plans to have its own events in the future, and these can for example be free for Goth Girlfriends, or items can be discounted.
In the long run, it is looking to run tours and festivals, start a fashion line and a record company.
So far, there have been airdrops, free posters and the pop-up gallery event in Soho with the tattoo artist and tarot reader.
Yes, people really went to a gallery opening and left there with art on their arms.
“My incentive is much bigger than just selling out NFT projects,” said No Face.
“I have done it before. And yes, that was fine. But this project has a real purpose and a niche that is very close to me, and important to me. “
The goal is to create a space for people who are dissatisfied and marginalized, No Face explained.
Part of it includes the small task of “Gothic world domination”.
“It’s about bringing back this idea of the alternative subculture as something important,” they said.
“It is a positive space, and Gothic world domination is not about dominating people, it is about creating a space for us to be who we are, on our own without fear of persecution.
“It may sound pretty cool for an NFT project, but that’s also what I really think.”
Faceless No face
Another great feature of the NFT world is the anonymity of it all.
Not surprisingly for a creator whose name is literally No Face and whose images online have made faces blurry.
Appropriately, No Face chose to name themselves after their favorite anime character from Spirited Away – a genderless ghost “who just wants a friend and causes a lot of chaos in the process”.
Something the entrepreneur said they could relate to a lot.
“I think technology is open to everyone,” said No Face.
“I think that’s what attracts me to many cryptocurrencies and NFTs, which are two sides of the same coin.
“The whole thing about being anonymous means you are not being judged on who you are.”
This comes back to the fact that Goth Girlfriends sets itself apart from the traditional NFT space when it comes to demographics.
For many people, their Goth Girlfriends NFT is their first, No Face said.
There are 9973 random pieces generated by a script with around 600 attributes and 27 unique designs with No Faces input.
There are different rarities, and you can consider yourself lucky if you find one with blue or green or red skin or golden accessories, but each one is still unique and different.
“I think we are building within NFTs and within this space because we know we are at the start of an economic and cultural revolution that will be catalyzed by this technology,” No Face said.
“And what we really want to do is create a space within these very male-dominated areas for the rest of us to learn and grow together and to show people that [even though] the technology is new and the markets within it are volatile, in fact the price of Goth Girlfriends has not changed in Solana terms. “
Challenges and logistics
All Goth Girlfriends NFTs are priced in Solana, and of course cost 0.666.
They chose Solana for a number of reasons, one being that it immediately provides an answer to one of NFT’s biggest counter-arguments: the environmental impact of cryptocurrency.
Fortunately, a Solana transaction is “incredibly energy efficient” and uses less energy than two Google searches.
As with any currency, fiat or crypto, there is volatility in the strength of the price of it, and that is the biggest challenge for Goth Girlfriends.
However, there are ways to manage that treasury, No Face explained.
Some of Solana is sold to stablecoin USDC, but the company also receives a percentage of every secondary sale made.
So if someone decides to leave, or perhaps has bought several and wants to sell some of them, Goth Girlfriends gets five percent of each transaction.
No Face strongly encourages people to buy an NFT as a product, not an investment, whose value may go up or down.
“I would say that if you buy flip it, then it’s your decision,” they said.
‘And I can not control it. If the price goes down then the price goes down.
“There’s nothing I can do about it as an NFT project founder.”
The plus side to falling prices is that for some people, there will be a lower entry barrier, and they will be able to buy an NFT more easily, they said.
“It’s just the nature of crypto and being valued in a currency that is volatile,” No Face said.
“This means that those who bought before could get it cheaper.
“But it is also true the other way around. It could have gone up much higher and it would have been more expensive.”
The lowered access barrier also extends to resale, where it can cost even less to buy an NFT.
There is almost as much volume on secondary sales as there is on primary sales, something quite common for NFTs, perhaps partly because you have a choice over what your NFT will look like, as opposed to the candy machine style of buying direct.
The future of NFTs?
The other big argument against NFTs, after the environmental impact problem, is that it does not support artists and creatives, or that it can lead to plagiarism.
For Goth Girlfriends, the solution is that all artwork is made by HE Creative and can be traced back to the project box.
There is also a general skepticism about what many people feel is exactly the same as a picture or a screenshot.
“I think there’s a lot of negativity around NFTs,” No Face said.
“I think what people do not understand is that they are just a medium of expression, such as a canvas or a sculpture.
“They are just a way for us to create, and the symbol itself is just a way for people to own them.”
So this is the future of the art world?
“I think it’s the future of all digital artistic expression,” said No Face.
“And not just art, but all cultural objects will exist digitally.”
Source: NFTs by HE Creative, photos by Jessie Rose.
