‘Degens’ and sporting forces meet at the Web3 festival
I heard the term “dough” for the first time when I fell into online poker. It’s short for “degenerate,” but some younger gamers, with cynicism and irony sharpened by a lifetime of unlimited Internet access, wear “degenerate” with a sense of pride. Degens put the time down. They commit to the cause, even when it costs them. Regular players can enjoy their big hands. Broadcast bad beats and big losses? Want to trade the financial hit for community influence? It is the hallmark of a real dough.
Although I was a regular player who spent late nights and early mornings grinding on the microstakes tables, neither my pockets nor my skills were deep enough to truly reach degen status. I thought I left them behind when I finally logged off.
Then I attended NFT Fest — where major players in Australian business and trade stood together with self-described web3 designers.
Both parties professed their commitment to the NFT space. However, the shit-posting irony of those present provided a stark contrast to the pragmatism offered by industry leaders.
Sporting leaders keep faith in NFT projects
To SmartCompany, I attended the Thursday afternoon NFT Fest sessions at the Alex Theater in St Kilda, Melbourne. Unlike recent NFT events held abroad, attendees filled the venue. I watched my step as I made my way through the crowded foyer, careful not to step on anyone’s toes; among a sea of polished oxfords and fresh-from-the-box Jordans, one participant stood barefoot. Near the theater door I found eight furry paws, belonging to a pair of genuine Samoyed dogs. (Samoyedcoin, a “promoting community, dog money and ambassador for the Solana ecosystem” sponsored the event.)
As dogs and dogs mingled in the foyer, representatives from Australia’s top sporting codes discussed the future of their web3 integrations. The AFL, NRL, Cricket Australia and the Australian Open are now deep in the space, with the latter confirming on Thursday that holders of the AO Art Ball NFT collection will receive a week-long double pass to next year’s event. The announcement was certainly a boon to participants who snapped up some of the 6,776 NFTs upon release in January this year. However, the discussion revolved around how best to reach everyday fans without the necessary technical knowledge, who may also be scared off by the recent declines of cryptocurrency players such as FTX.
Ridley Plummer, senior manager of NFTs and Web3 for Tennis Australia, said the organization was now working hard to introduce tennis fans, not just NFT enthusiasts, to its digital offerings. Finding ways to introduce NFTs to a fan base that skews older and more predominantly female than most other codes remains a challenge, he said.
“We want to start bringing tennis fans into the project, bring them on board,” he told the crowd. “I think we all know that there are problems with the introduction of ordinary fans in the web tree space.” Brands like the Australian Open using “the technology for good” will help “eliminate some of the skepticism that comes with things like the FTX saga that’s been going on,” he added.
Winning over wary consumers is critical to keeping the NFT program alive, Plummer admitted.
“We can’t just lose money on a project like this,” he said. So we have to continue to keep it going, continue to benefit the consumer or the holder at the end of the day.”
Joan Norton, Commercial Strategy Manager at Cricket Australia, further outlined how sporting codes are excited by the commercial potential of NFTs but wary of their mainstream perception. Cricket Australia has coined NFTs for use in the Cricrush game, but actively avoids using the term NFT in its marketing.
“One thing I would say we’ve been very aware of, coming from a CA [social media] point of view and what we put out is not to use NFT, but to talk about them as digital collectibles and tried to get people into the program instead of NFT, she said.
The sport of cricket certainly has more right to be outraged by FTX’s high-profile collapse than most other codes. Cricket’s global governing body, the ICC – of which Cricket Australia is a member – was forced to reject FTX’s sponsorship of the recent T20 World Cup, held in Melbourne, when the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed into liquidation. The global partnership is now in tatters.
Before taking the stage to moderate a discussion, Greg Oakford, founder of NFT Fest, emphasized the importance of delineating the NFT space from the chaos that unfolds in centralized blockchain operations like FTX.
“It’s up to each and every one of us here at NFT Fest, as leaders in this space in this nascent technology, to actually communicate in a concise way, in an articulate way, the difference between what’s happened with FTX and what’s happening in the NFT country, he said SmartCompany.
“It’s just brick by brick, block by block, teaching people the difference between cryptocurrency and digital assets, 100%.”
Crypto natives profess the value of culture
It was soon time for the degens. On stage after the sports league discussion were Web3 personalities Clouted and Boot, who championed new cultures created through Web3 communities. For Clouted, who works with brands at West Coast NFTs, and Boot, a Pepe poster and advocate of “post-ironic ironism,” the cultural bonds forged through NFT in-groups seemed to be as important as the economic value of these projects produce.
In a market where NFT values have fallen from their all-time highs, it is important not to assess a collection’s value on monetary value alone, they say.
Such a view is unlikely to sit comfortably with the industry leaders who presented the day, who hope their big-budget NFT projects produce more than just a sense of camaraderie among token holders. Still, for now, the sector seems to need its stalwarts, its true believers, while big brands find ways to win over everyday consumers.
I left NFT Fest both impressed by the turnout and the enthusiasm of those present. It must have awakened some dormant instinct in me too. Soon I was in the back room of the bowls club for a few hands of pub poker, surrounded by players who clearly knew each other, whose trust and humor were probably honed over years and countless chips traded back and forth.
My luck ran out early, as it tends to do, but it was a blow I could afford to take. On the way home I thought about the players still stuck at the table.
