[Music] okay telling me to dance [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] hey everyone what's going on this is tj sterling uh president lead artist of ray comics and i'm here at the 10th annual schomburg center black comic book festival um i am super excited to be here today we've got an amazing panel on stem and nfts and uh i would like to kind of first by saying uh the quick the name of the panel the name of the panel is stem and nfts and comics bridging the gap of current and future technologies art and comics today i'm in conversation with noon liliwa of crescent city monsters and dream fury comics uh dedran sneed of subsume media the seed gifted of pbs media's media studios ryan benjamin dc comics and amica cedu um gentlemen thank you so much for joining us um just want to say one more thing before i have you guys give your intros everyone who's listening please go to schaumburg event shomcom.org for to basically see all past and present future panels um and gentlemen please uh jump in please give us your bios we'd love to hear more about who you guys are and what you guys are doing okay i could go first um so my name is newton levoir i'm a comic book writer comic book creator mostly known for crescensity monsters uh crescent city monsters the comic book series um that deals in on new orleans supernatural horror with a voodoo twist to it um it's an award-winning series we won uh four uh glyph awards in 2020 and we were nominated for two um ringo awards in 2021 and when i'm not writing comic books i'm actually programming i'm in the i.t field so technology is something that i'm passionate about and i'll look forward to discussing the merging of my my two favorite loves comic books and technology into one thing so thanks for having me and a pleasure everybody i'll take a moment to go next my name is denton snead here in atlanta georgia the founder sabsoon i susume media is a technology platform that's the intersection of creativity technology and community where we use things such as comic books graphic novels and animation as a way to find inclusion and equity in tech so for me my main series that i'm known for in the comments world is sorghum and spear this is an african fantasy series about young girls who try to fight and hormone monsters during the last generation of their people have an opportunity to work on a couple graphic novels and collaborate with a lot of the fantastic artists writers and collaborators here at the schomburg for myself outside of commons i work as a creative and technology consultant for a lot of fortune 500 companies having an opportunity to build programs in education in stem primarily for k-12 students a pleasure to be here with john pleasure thank you my name is nasi gifted i am the uh writer and creator of aqua futurism series called uh pb soldier uh and i'm also founder of confess um where we celebrate uh black comics animation and game designers um just uh outside of my love for comics and and writing comics and everything i'm a educator by day uh so i'm a school administrator who actually uh builds stem programs so um i've been there's uh just looking to inspire uh the next generation of technology leaders and i'm you know glad to be on this esteemed panel with all of you this uh afternoon yeah definitely going to be a fun panel up yeah so my name's america chadu uh long time uh a friend and colleague of uh nazi gifted of uh pbs media uh been an advisor as well as uh a uh two decade now uh stem engineer i've been in the life sciences for a long time and that emergence is here man so i'm really excited to talk about how technology and creativity are really merging together thank you hi my name is ryan benjamin i'm a professional comic book artist i've been in the industry for going on 30 years now um i i first came in working for image comics branched off into marvel comics and now i'm at dc um so you pretty much name it i probably touched it and worked on it from x-men to iron man uh uh batman and superman i've i've done it all um i've also been working in the video game industry uh primarily for sony entertainment uh for about 17 years um so so i've been doing a lot of stuff with them i worked on a lot of different video games um the the latest game i finished uh was uh mlb2021 uh so so you'll see some of my work in on that one uh currently i i i also uh run a comic book workshop called comic pro bootcamp uh where we teach uh the new up-and-coming uh students that's out there the the the artists who who want to get their their toes wet and and see what it's like to be a professional in this industry and i i also teach there with a couple other instructors awesome thank you so much gentlemen and just uh kind of uh to guess riff off a little bit of what ryan is saying comic pro boot camp and these types of programs are absolutely essential to uh the growth of comic book artists and creators all over and the schomburg for the last 10 years has showcased some of that amazing talent up and coming in the black comic book space so we want to say thank you to schomburg again happy 10th year anniversary i also want to remind everybody in the audience that this is a live recording so you can essentially post your questions in the chat it's a live q a so all you have to do is type in your questions we'll do your our best to answer them and um now we're going to get into the discussion about uh stem and nft so uh gentlemen anyone can can start anyone can answer this question i'd love for you to tell us the tell the audience what is stem and why is it important well stem you know we we all know stands for science technology engineering and mathematics um this is one of the highest sought after slash highest growth um fields in the industry right now um a number of uh individuals when we talk about that are actually in this field make up only five percent of this uh and the number of uh when we talk about higher education degrees and everything um most people when we say uh 34 um enter to stem fields uh only uh uh 10 of those individuals who actually major in the stem major actually graduate with that major so those are some of the stats that's coming out but one of the reasons that there are so many opportunities out there is because uh here in the united states we are outsourcing a number of those job opportunities so it's essential for us to be able to um capitalize and be a part of this industry and then taking your love for comics animation uh game design and being able to use that passion and turn it into a career um is an excellent opportunity to be able to jump into amazing thank you so much uh necede um emeka please jump in we'd love to hear your uh your perspective on stem as well yeah yeah so uh yeah just to add to what nasa was really saying uh if if you start to really begin to look at the stats specifically over the last 10 years we have these huge huge enormous gaps in in the workplace as it pertains to technology skills and then whatever um you know whatever industry that might end up applying to so over the past decade i would say right now um it normally or typically would require let's say an engineering degree for example so um a long time ago about two decades ago i ended up getting an engineering degree and that engineer that engineering degree got me the opportunity to to uh jump into um pharmaceuticals and medical device even though i started off in uh banking for for a few years um but now the the barrier for entry is it's a lot lower now um i mean literally at this moment anybody here online with maybe uh uh an investment of about you know one to 2k and 12 months can can really set themselves up with the right sort of certifications and and start a stem career so um so just to add to what nasi was basically saying um science technology engineering and math is is now really um really more available readily available and then now now we have the uh the creative spaces um being able to participate with that uh with that alignment of uh the blockchain and nfts and things of that nature that we'll end up getting into a little bit deeper thank you so much gentlemen um in terms of the importance of stem and youth in terms of them learning um next level stuff i mean i know for me growing up uh science was one of my favorite subjects i was not a huge fan of math but when i was able to combine mathematics with some type of science and i loved engineering classes any of those types of things to me were very exciting and i feel like the the essence of what stem is makes all of those different you know disciplines extremely exciting and and kind of blends them together maybe one of you guys or anyone could kind of speak about the importance of why we need stem in the schools at a very early age or an earlier grade if you will yeah so just to kind of uh pick up on that uh it's fair to say that um so the big thing with with engineering is um you know sometimes we shouldn't just limit it to you know just the the numbers on the on a piece of paper um it really boils down to us being able to problem solve and uh we uh just as black people uh creatively you know uh for centuries have always had great and strong contributions um in the area of solving problems for that respect of civilization so um i i really think about how um we can really start to you know merge a lot of our history and a lot of uh those contributors uh through storytelling um and really begin to make them aware of um of how you know they can you know pick up a cell phone and um you know start to ask google some of these questions and literally that can start to take them down a path to where they're going to solve a problem uh for for different you know for communities not only our own but but you know um the masses as a whole so so it's really just getting our kids to really just start to think start to um answer questions and more importantly start to ask the questions you know to start going down that line of thinking of problem solving you know not just you know stem itself right yeah and i have something to add to that too so um when i think about stem i think about um something that kids need to be exposed to in at an early age right like like most people say and agree with right and when you look at it a lot of these stem programs are something that starts in school and um or maybe some kind of after-school activity that people go to right and that's really great and i think those are beneficial but i think what we need to do too is we need to encourage the technologies that are inexpensive and bring that also to the home right because um i was fortunate enough when i started uh programming i was i was around 11 years old right and that's because i had a computer at home so i would be able to spend hours at home um programming you know so not only was i learning at school you know i took a couple of programming courses at school but most of my programming was at home so whether it's like robotics or computer programming or just any kind of science i think if we can find a way to port a lot of the things that we're learning also at home i think that would be a big deal and great thank you i was going to say dedrin this is right up your alley i'd love to hear what you think about this oh absolutely i think what uh the gentleman have said absolutely is is concurrent with uh what we need to see from our youth i think the thing that i found in our experience and working with a lot of k-12 not only here in the united states but we have a lot of work that we do within the caribbean is the space of children finding their their path into stem as far as looking at this as a workforce development standpoint so the thing about that is of course when we think about engineering and stem and mathematics a lot of times we look at those as linear paths that you have to be good at math to be in stem but as we see in the creative economy particularly here with as we transition web 3.0 metaverse and all these other parts is that kids that are good at music are going to be the people that are going to drive the uh drive change same we were talking about comic books animation um just uh the the overall culture particularly of our youth that are both entrepreneurial both creator culture and are more transmedia than ever before meaning they have access to streaming uh they create and share their own content in between they're already involved in stem and a lot of times they already have these skills and and already have the imprint of being digital citizens it's the idea of them being able to find a way to leverage their passions and their talents and make this a sustainable career so the sooner that we're able to impact and intersect with these kids i've found a lot of times that they're already well ahead of where they think they are they just need to see an example and a path forward i'd like to i was just going to say i like to kind of build on what dedrin kind of talked on talked about with the misconception that you need to be exceptionally good at math to participate in stem so the one thing so i happened to be good at math when i was growing up so um you know i i was uh i was a computer programmer right but um when i'm programming i i rarely use math right it's believe it or not you you really don't have to be good at math to become like a computer or maybe in some other fields you have to be but um in my day-to-day as a computer program i i i rarely use math right it's all problems problem solving so if we can frame um stem in that context that you're just really kind of problem solving maybe you know that that could be the gateway for kids to um um actually start participating is that instead of thinking like oh i have to be good at physics i have to understand math you know just just say hey you know what this is more of a problem-solving thing can you if you like to solve problems then you know this is where you should be at and yeah so that's what i wanted to say you can go ahead ryan yeah i was gonna uh jump it so but i was just gonna uh just piggyback off of that as well um and i know we can talk about problem solving and the main thing uh with problem solving is being able to um think critically right being able to have those critical thinking skills and be able to analyze break down something uh to the smallest pieces and then being able to put it back together uh that is the aspects of you know stem that a lot of people um with and then that aspect um that deidre was talking about is that that level of exposure you know um there is a number of opportunities out there when we talk about stem if you look at it and if you look at an animated film you look at the hundreds of job opportunities that's there you know when you're looking at the credits you know some of them require some type of technical degree some of them just uh require a certain level of skill set um but all of them uh opportunities most of them are stimulating and because of that exposure um you know within that you know you have those opportunities and we um a group of people who don't know about those various opportunities and being able to expose young people to those opportunities and know that those opportunities are available to them that is very very important for them to be able to know powerful stuff i mean everyone who's watching stem is incredibly important for your kids whether they're in elementary school middle school this is something you have to really get them on um i actually dropped a link in the chat for all of uh the major stem schools in new york city so if you guys are new york city locals um please feel free to take a look at that list it's super informative and now we're going to kind of shift our discussion a little bit more towards nft's now we've got about 40 minutes left to talk with you guys so i want to start with another question um what is an nft and ryan if you could bring us in that'd be great and nft is a non-fungible token um you just want to think of it as a like a new form of currency basically um um i i first heard about nfts about about a year ago um and and all the news i was hearing about it was pretty negative um i i well i i heard a small percentage of it was was pretty good and then but the majority of it was negative so i i stayed away from it for a long time um and it's just recently i started to get into it probably uh i'd say maybe three months ago so i'm still in the in the form of uh of i'm learning the game as i'm going um but i'm noticing that that it's there's a there's a there's actually an increase in uh in um in uh the the this entire market in the the whole the whole movement of of developing and creating nfts there are a lot of people who just haven't caught on to it yet coming from the the creative group meaning the guys of the 80s and 90s um who were super creative and loved uh the old the old technology um it's hard for them to try and transition over um it's taking uh and i talk to a lot of people there's still some people right now just they just don't get it and they just they're still thinking it's just a jpeg it's just a jpeg it's way more than that you know you just have to think beyond um the old the old way of how we used to think back in 2005 2010 you know we you know things are changing and it's time you know this is i'm specifically speaking to the creative minds out there who are talented and they just still don't get it um so i'm to try to dumb it down just put all that aside and jump into it trust me on this because it's the the market's going up like this right now and you don't want to miss it um and it's still early enough in the game where people can still learn about it um there's tons of um information online you can research you can do a lot of stuff you can um there's there's a lot of forums out there where people are talking about this so you just you that's your actual school you can literally go there and learn how to how to develop these things and how to get get into this um i right before i came on this call i just left a meeting about nfts so it's it's constantly coming it's and it's not going anywhere things are changing technology is changing and it's time that people who are slow to get on board they need to get on board pretty soon facts um i mean coming from someone who was uh tutored and mentored by uh mr ryan benjamin over here dude is like the ultimate hustler he knows he sees waves before they even come i mean he's always got his surfboard he's ready to you know be on to the next thing and i think that's really what um you know you need as an artist as a creator and even as a person in this world you got to understand like what's the next thing how do i evolve in my industry how do i evolve as a person all of that stuff and you know nfts is something that is very evolutionary i want to read something real quick as i looked up the definition for an nft it says a unique digital asset that cannot be replaced copied or substituted so it's something that is not something that you could screenshot and through the blockchain there's verified ownership there's all these very interesting things um i'm going to post another question to anyone who wants to jump in um a why do nfts have value is the first question and then actually we could just start with that why do nfts have value well well you partly uh answer that question just with the idea of uniqueness and with uniqueness you have uh things uh such as uh scarcity so um we're talking marketplaces so i'm i'm a long time uh card and uh comic collector so um so i ryan you're you're my hero in that in in in in in a lot of ways um just being involved in the development of a lot of these uh different you know comic uh characters growing up and also um that marketplace you know comments have been around for a very long time that marketplace has established itself as one where uh you have different levels of scarcity so to answer your question um that scarcity part plays a it it's very um it plays a very strong part when you have a marketplace and you have buyers and sellers and if i have a specific uh comic book right um that comic book you know may have come in a very short print and um and the story is great and the uh you know the character is great and people are going to want to demand that so in the same way with nfps you're starting to see the same things start to form um where you have these um digital uh digital characters digital assets that are being created now um a lot of the nfc do not have a story right and that's the opportunity right now where you know if you start bringing in uh characters uh that are already tied to a story line it it it just offers up a tremendous opportunity um for both the buyer and the seller so um just not to ramble on too much scarcity is absolutely um something that uh helps to drive markets uh up high thank you oh real quick i was just going to say gentlemen um we're just going to quickly do this now um if you're not talking just mute because i think we're getting some reception or some echo throughout but if anybody wants to jump in and whoever's not talking will mute and then you can unmute when you're ready to talk okay i i wanted to say that um i'm sorry is you do you want to get this in the scene go ahead i was going to say something really quick so um i i know a mecca he's uh he's he's not even uh speaking to to to the level of what what makes this so so unique um and it's actually you know revolutionary and game changing right uh when we talk about nft you know we talk about you we talk about a jpeg a film or whatever the case may be and of course it exists on a blockchain but the one main thing that makes it so so unique is the smart contract that's attached to it right there's a smart contract that's attached to this and because of that and that rarity and then um the opportunities there's a number of opportunities for royalties that goes along with that that allows you not to be able to screenshot something and uh show the level of authenticity um with that because you know there is what we call a smart contract so i know uh you wanted to say something but i just wanted him to just kind of just speak about the smart contract aspect of it which which um adds to the scarcity and rarity of these nfcs now yeah i'm both of you guys you know the mecca and the seed you guys really bring up some good points you know let's see this i'm glad you brought up the whole contract thing because that that's a real important thing and that's really critical for um both uh the artists and and the person actually for both the artists because previously like if you if you had a piece of artwork right you the artist would sell it right and let's say the artist sells it for like ten thousand he's like wow you know i made some good money i sold my artwork for ten thousand you're feeling good you know that collector he's holding on to it for five ten years and then five ten years later he sells that piece of artwork for a hundred thousand dollars right um now in the current form in the physical world the artist you know has you can't can't piggyback off that hundred thousand dollars right he got his ten thousand dollars that's it but what naseed is talking about is that now the artist because of a built-in contract with that digital asset he could get ten percent of that um hundred thousand dollars so now he's got another ten thousand dollars added to the additional ten thousand and that keeps going on so like if a third person buys it for a million dollars now he's he's got the possibility of making a hundred thousand dollars so um it adds uh some a great source of revenue for um for the artist and the the best part about the contracts is there's no middleman right the blockchain is the middle man there's no one taking the percentage of his feet you know there's no one saying okay you know you just got a hundred thousand dollars and we're going to take a percentage of that you osc you know me so um it goes straight to the hardest and the other the other point um that i i really like what um america was saying was um the uniqueness of these nfts um the one thing that i i see a lot is like people say um yeah you know you gotta get on the bandwagon start creating these nfts and um the mentality is almost like hey um create it and they will come right that's the opposite of what's gonna happen right um what's important is right you have the uniqueness right but you also have to have the the community behind it right you have to have um i think uh scott who was but kind of touched on it like you have to have um like we as creators we we have these characters that we create these stories that we create and then we have readers in the fan base right if you don't have that fan base um it's going to be difficult to really do anything with those nfts because you can't come out it's very rare to come out of the blue and just produce some artwork even if it's the most beautiful artwork um you don't have a story behind it you don't have something that people can relate to and connect to and and right off the bat stall and start selling these nfts and so i think that's one of the misconceptions another thing i want to add too is that um the thing about nfts too is right right now i i the reason why i think why people have a hard uh time um realizing its value is because tech um right now um i might i might be uh i guess i might offend a few nft fans but right now the way it is right now it's not practical right for the the common person right you know it's in this it's not really connected to their world right now right um but what i think you see now the way nfts are being used um is going to evolve in in two three years and people are going to think of some really creative ways of actually using nfts that people can relate to and understand and say oh now i get it right because the way it is now like you know when people say i was just a gift it's just a jpeg you know i don't blame them because that's everybody's initial reaction right um but the key point is that the the reason why it's important to start now is because if you start early you'll understand the evolution of where we're going and you'll understand the potential a lot more as opposed if you just started um if you start like two or three years from now and say you know what i'll just wait until all this stuff is sorted out and it becomes easier for me to understand if you if you start now you'll understand the infrastructure you'll understand the community um you'll actually be in there from the beginning and you'll participate and just by participating and doing stuff in the nft world um you'll get that early start and you'll be able to understand where you need to go as a creator how how you're going to use nft and possibly even come up with some creative idea that nobody else has and and participate in that world it's a great point newton thank you guys thank you so much for that um i definitely think you touched on how some of nfts and just the the overall space has something some elitist energy going on i think you know it's been very exclusive to uh groups of folks that have a lot more money than most but i do think that there's easier ways to get in in terms of whether you're creating your own entities or even starting out with you know someone who's maybe unknown and their narrative or their who's getting ready to build their story um i'd like to talk a little bit about the blockchain and blockchain services like ethereum solana and polygons so i'd love you know ryan if you could take us into what is the blockchain and then tell us a little bit about these platforms that are technically the blockchain um like i said before um i'm still i'm only like about three months into this into learning this entire sequence sequence and how how this and how uh the system runs and works um primarily where where my heart and soul function it functions around art and and entertainment and the the the background development side of this thing here um whenever i'm building something i typically surround myself with a team of people who know about this stuff way better than than i do so i i always look at myself as just a piece in this puzzle that builds this giant picture of this machine that we're trying to build so what the smart things that i do is i hire people or i or i have people that i work with that understand that entire system way better than i do um but from from what i what i understand um there there is a difference between uh so you know uh solana and uh ethereum and ethereum 2.0 and all these the these different uh block changes out there some of them function uh slightly different and they're they're targeted towards a different type of people who have the capital for certain things so there are people who can who can afford fifty thousand dollars you know to drop fitting 50 grand on one and there's some people who can only afford 40 bucks or you know a hundred dollars you know so you have to research these these platforms a little bit more just to see which one do you want you want to you want to get involved with um um and in time you know as as you're researching and you're growing and you're understanding the the the system you know you you're the the opportunity will will will be there for you to grow and and uh development and become like a stronger player in this system but the the only thing i can really i can truly say um because i like to like dummy things down a little bit because i i know how artists think um um a lot of artists they don't typically think um as a businessman they they think as oh i'm an artist and i just want to draw just drop me a paycheck and i'm just going to draw whatever i need to draw um uh get out of that that mindset um this technology is moving fast the industry is moving it's moving fast and if you don't get on board at some point or you don't put aside that old old way of thinking and get on board and truly understand the technology that that that that that that's coming up five months six months a year from now you're gonna get left behind so this is the only warning i'm gonna give to a lot of artists out there who's actually listening and the creative people out there who who who just don't get it yet um um you have to put that aside put it aside and get involved agreed thank you ryan um yeah i'm definitely one of those people that is learning consistently about what nfts are and how to utilize them in my own creative um industry now i i would love to um again we were talking about the blockchain ethereum solana polygon some of these more well-known ones um whether if either dedrin or a mecca could jump in i'd love to get more information or just more insights as to about the blockchain itself if you wanted to start and then i i can follow oh absolutely i mean i think the idea of of the blockchain just in a general sense of course is to think of it as a as a relationship the same way that we think with a smart contract as a space that is a uh you know is a as an agreement between yourself as the owner and and the particular piece of data or information or or media that you have a that you have some type of connection with it throughout its movement so we think of a blockchain or a particular crypto that may be the uh maybe the maybe the build on that blockchain as a way that things transmit and transfer and build value and scarcity then i think you can kind of look at it as you're able to select which neighborhood that you and your work exist on whether that's you know on a bitcoin or whether it's on ethereum and again the way that right now as you as was said a bit earlier it might be out of reach for things today but again right now we're we're really at the very beginning of this and the same things that are applying right now you know didn't apply a year ago and they want to fly a year from now so i think the idea of being at least studious to the the changes and if we can make a parallel i think right now we're dealing in plasma tvs right so we remember when plasma televisions came out they were eight to ten thousand dollars they were absolutely not within the thing that people that had the old rabbit ear televisions were but at the same time you knew that technology put something out that you wanted that was going to be the marketplace eventually it just had to matriculate from a technology standpoint to you the same way of cell phones the same way of satellite television things like that the idea is that crypto in this blockchain situation is is still in its infancy but we can always see when things are going to make this dynamic shift so looking and understanding blockchain not that you have to be a blockchain engineer but you do have to understand from an artist from a collaborator or from an employee or ideally as an entrepreneur how the blockchain impacts what you're doing so if that's not just in the sense of a monetary standpoint but you have to think of where that data is going to move you know if you're in finance if you're in education or if you're in comic books the same way that your digital version of your comic moves is the same way that you'll build your relationship with your potential customers and fans on this blockchain so of course looking at specific of how we're working on stem and comics or the way that we're talking about nfts and comics thinking of it just not only as a visual picture but as a relationship that you're building long term from yourself as a person but more importantly as a business that's going to continue a systemic relationship with everything that your product and your ideas touch so if nothing else out of this understanding blockchain is understanding your intellectual property and understanding your intrinsic value of your ideas and your and your economic worth so again that's the part that you really want to employ to people to again you don't have to be an engineer to be in engineering you absolutely don't have to be a blockchain specialist to understand how this technology and this change is going to impact you long-term yeah yeah no he's absolutely right and um just in terms of that ip um from a participation standpoint on the ethereum blockchain it's fair to say roughly close to 80 percent of all nft transactions or are occurring over the ethereum blockchain uh so so that's pretty much uh equivalent to like an ecom like uh amazon right so so remember this is just a marketplace um the blockchain's the middleman right so the blockchain is basically tackling um your publishing um it's doing your bookkeeping with the ledger that it that it holds uh the smart contract automatically you know does everything for you so um just just just with with the big just with the understanding that the ethereum blockchain you know four out of five transactions are happening there you also have solana uh you have uh matic right on the polygon uh blockchain um you have all of these different other marketplaces some larger some smaller the largest marketplace actively right now in the mainstream would be open c but but then you have uh like a super rare that that uh carries a lot of these up um more [Music] um higher valued nfps um so i'm sure folks have uh by now heard of the crypto pumps and heard of um like board eight yacht club um a real good source that i i've gone to and leaned on over the past year is called cryptoslam dot io that's www dot crypto slam all one word dot io and i found that to be a good source of being able to begin to understand the marketplace understand the nft projects that are out there understand the um the underlying blockchains you know that are supported under there and you know we haven't even gotten into all of what you know um can begin to go down because you got blockchain gaming that's literally around the corner you have uh you know we're talking nfts now but it it's gonna really evolve into so much more thank you rebecca i mean that kind of um yeah go right ahead newton yeah i just wanted to add something so um i know when i first started the the um the most important thing for me to learn as i started um learning about you know nfts and cryptocurrency is that the bloc everything starts at the blockchain so um anytime you hear anything about cryptocurrency and um nfts or whatever every the blockchain is what um is the foundation for everything springs off that you know um bitcoin came from the blockchain um so in fact that was the first uh cryptocurrency right that took advantage of the blockchain and so what um what helps what helps uh what would help people understand too is like you can have different blockchains right so um the crypto bitcoin runs off one blockchain right and that's a cryptocurrency right and now you have um ethereum right and that's that's its own blockchain so you could think of it like separate blockchains right like literally change right so um and then you have ethereum and offer ethereum blockchains you have um you can have all these they they have all these different nfts and the thing about the ethereum like naseed said is that um ethereum you're able to build contracts right as opposed to like the the um uh blockchain for bitcoin right that doesn't have built-in contracts right so all these blockchains have different properties right um now the problem is currently these blockchains are separate right like um now you have they have instruments to be able to convert or have um like for example you can exchange a bitcoin for like ethereum right because different currencies right um but those those it's really complicated and there's no real smooth way to do it but i believe um uh systems like polygon they're starting to do that where now one of the important things that they need to do is really be able to combine these blockchains right because it makes no sense like right now it's not really easy to exchange one currency for another um and what's currently also happening is like gaming systems right they're using these their own blockchains for their own nfts right so like for example you'll have um a blockchain off one of those blancos um blanco's block party right and you have all these nft assets right you're like wow this is cool i have these nfts but you know that blockchain to talk to um now that blockchain needs to talk to maybe needs to talk to some other blockchains that might develop right now there's no easy way to do that so um currently that's that's the like the next level of where um this blockchain technology needs to go where you have all these um different blockchains talking to each other so um i think once that happens it's just going to start it's just going to explode because the possibilities are going to be endless um and yeah so that's that's what i wanted to add about blockchain technology thank you uh thank you gentlemen for clarifying and giving us more information about what blockchain is now i want to get into well amica kind of you know bled into my next question with what he was saying earlier about the platforms in order to buy and sell nfts the two platforms that are the biggest at the moment that i've researched are open c and sonar i know there are plenty more but if you guys could talk about um the open seat let's i guess we could just focus on openc as a platform if you guys can talk about that and really anyone can jump in yeah so so the past year for me um yeah i've made a lot of purchases on openc uh openc primarily has three uh blockchains uh that they use um they're using the ethereum blockchain right which we already talked about before four out of five uh nft transactions are happening there uh polygon is on there and there's an additional sidechain that i don't want to misquote um but but a majority of uh activity um in terms of the smart contract openc has their own smart contract that they provide to um to anybody to anyone who wants to start their collection there so um what what you'll you'll come to find once you start wanting to create your own nft you you have to you're now trying to engage the blockchain and the technology so um if you're trying to um you know let's say get involved in in the amazon marketplaces of nft you're going to go to ethereum so now you can you can actually customize and create your own smart contract and it's very possible to where you you learn um a coding language called solidity and uh through solidity you can actually create your own smart contract uh what what happens now is you can go to an open c you don't have to know any programming you simply just need to have your your your nft excuse me your your digital ass your digital asset wallet and then and then load that digital asset onto the openc platform uh openc has a smart contract where you will automatically get a 10 royalty and uh open c also takes a small fee for for every transaction um but yeah that's that's pretty much it and it's really one of those things you have to try it like you really have to experience it i can explain it all day but until you actually go in there um you know there's some free nfts out there but but you want to begin to to really just jump on an open sea and interact with the uh technology thank you mecca um yeah go ahead and see real quick because uh um i've known mecca for you know 20 plus years and he's been on this whole journey with me as uh looking to develop the comic book series but he's been pouring into me all of this stuff about the blockchain and nfts and how to be able to develop your series so he's become become this little expert this consultant of how we're going to be able to take our digital assets so anyone who's out there who's a creator who has intellectual properties being able to transform that into a medium you know where it can exist on a blockchain and then uh understanding that there are different platforms there are different uh uh ways to go about you know establishing your community as newton was talking about and being able to you know further your brand but the the thing for creators um that i'm so excited about you know especially as we talk about snow we talk about nfts we talk about the blockchain is that you know the level of entry when we talk about entering level entry is is sold by nuke right now you know if you had a hundred dollars you had two hundred dollars you had twenty dollars you could enter into this space you know without having to have big big money but at the end you know depending on how you frame and uh develop your uh what do we call it again um not the bible but your uh smart contract how you how you develop your road map you know you can actually you actually uh you know um means you know within your your particular project you know because of that and that is something that uh we you know as creators we as a people can you know have access to because one of the barriers we've always had was lack of access we weren't invited to the table right this table we can be all at the table and get a piece of the pie you know especially while it's still in this infancy now once it becomes a full uh full-grown baby eating on its own you know it's gonna be a little harder for you to be able to get involved at the levels that you can get involved now so we you know we encourage you to you know learn as much about nfts uh the blockchain and all of those different things that you know all of the panelists are talking about this uh this afternoon because you know your your accessibility to this is all about you just wanting to be involved you know it's no money barrier it's none of those things that that are you know hindering you it's all about information and being able to apply that information agree thank you miss um gentlemen we got about eight minutes left so i'm gonna kind of quickly just go over a couple of different notes that i have that i would like everybody to know about um in terms of getting involved with an nft you have to have a digital wallet one place to actually get your digital wallet is metamask.io that's n-e-t-a-m-a-s-k-i-o
um essentially thinking thinking about a digital wallet like you would anything else like let's say a cash app or a paypal you could load your own personal money onto this wallet which will allow you to you know get access to the blockchain and actually buy entities or sell i want to quickly say that there's a lot of concern environmentally about the minting of nfts and how much energy it takes and when you are buying and selling nfts there's something called gas fees gas fees and transaction fees are something that range anywhere depending on the platform and what the market looks like so it's also very um something to kind of factor in while you're making your decision um there's a whole section on twitter called crypto twitter that has tons of folks that are talking about nfts and rarity i think a lot of this has to do with your knowledge or or what you've researched and what's potentially going to be the next big thing just like the board yet yacht club when people first started no one was really talking a whole lot about it but you know there was side talk that was going on that people really knew the industry on crypto twitter so definitely a place to kind of uh you know keep your eyes on um there's some sites that you might want to take a look at for nft's analytics for nfts one is rarity.tools another is rarity ranks and the other one is dune analytics so some stuff to kind of get into again we can talk about entities for days i want to take the next six minutes to kind of just you know have each and every one of you guys talk about what your next projects are and how you're going to be involving entities in those next projects and again we've got about six minutes so we'll be mindful of the time and that's how we'll close it out afterwards yeah hey i could start can you guys hear me yeah okay yeah so um i was gonna save this for a little bit later but you know i guess this is a good platform to announce this now so um currently uh i'm working with um a partner of mine um ernest and he's he's uh got us linked up with uh blanco's block party and next month we're going to do a drop an ft drop for one of our upcoming comic book characters called keisha demon either for black history month so if um you guys aren't familiar with blanco's block party it's uh it's online game multiplayer and they um all the characters and the access assets to the characters are actually um nfts you can build on those you can you can sell those nfts and and um it's a really great platform check it out if you have it right now it's in early access so you can just sign up and start um exploring the world and like i said we're going to have a quiche demon either drop for the history of for black history month so look out for that blancos is the same system that uh nipsey hussle's company the marathon clothing company uh did a drop uh date sometime in november so you know they've been like really hot in terms of the the different drops that they've been having and basically if you're not familiar with the idea of a drop it's just basically introducing um a collection of nfts to people and and they buy it so look out for that that keisha demon either uh blanco's block party drop happening next month in february solid brian jump in and tell us what you got planned with um nfts for your your um your business where can i start uh like i said i i just just recently got got into this about a couple months ago and i'm already on my third nft um and i i just got off a meeting right before this call with another one which i'm working with um uh brandon vera um with on on this one here um uh also um the the one of the nfts uh that i'm working with um it involves stan lee um um we've we actually uh announced it and um there was some heat some some people already talking about you know hey you're you know you're you're stepping on stan's grave um um there were comments made about us but we'll we can talk about all that later at another time um but uh but right but so i'm working i'm currently working on that one and um there's another one i'm working on right now which is my own ip called spark uh and i'm going to launch that one in a month so and the well there's another one i just finished another nft just finished we're getting ready to launch it january 20th so so that one is uh it's was with a company called uh wild and west so so that one's coming out really soon um and there's also um there's another one another sport one i can't really talk too much about that one but it does involve uh uh nfl players in in in the likes of those um also um there's uh that's it as far as like the nfcs i i can talk about but there's about a hundred other projects i could talk about too but i'm just i'll keep it short for now okay gentlemen we've got about 60 seconds to wrap so if you want to do dedrin real quick and a c then a mecca but again we've got about 60 seconds thank you so much well for me i have a project that is based off of youth and space called armatus we're looking at showing inclusion in space and stem technology and using the blockchain and nft along with augmented reality to make an nft on educational uh advances and basically what is the more that you play our game and read the comics that we have an nft reward system that connects schools and communities thank you so much pbs news yeah now you're good now uh so pbs media studios is actually partnering with uh mechanical um with a number of our ips uh you know for uh our book launch for jason jason the rules that grew from the concrete uh which is uh we're looking to launch in excuse me march uh march we we actually gonna have a teaser in february uh with that and then um you know we also wanna do some uh we're gonna have a uh nft uh animation project that's gonna be coming down the line so look forward to that uh you know with pbs media studios yeah yeah and and i'm also uh yeah so this is definitely uh the part time uh but i don't know my bandwidth is starting to get a little stretched out now i'm also advisor i'm advising on a couple of different projects um one that's out there ties to the uh ncaa um and actually uh the nil right so name image and likeness uh it's called a metaverse land and it's um at this point right now it's uh ten collegiate um basketball players that are now growing their ip through nfts and having up having a created creating a marketplace and a profit share with buyers and holders of the nfts very interesting um so thank you gentlemen this has been absolutely incredible um uh this basically concludes today's program for the schomburg black comic books festival on the panel on stem and nfts thank you so much everyone for joining us um if you missed any other of these exciting programs today you can come back to shamcom.org and re-watch them they're all going to be available please join us tomorrow saturday january 15th for the last day of black comic book festival thank you guys so much it's been an absolute pleasure and again anybody who's watching this feel free to reach out to us um offline we'd be happy to talk to you about our creative endeavors our projects and nfts in stem i hope everyone has a great day peace i'm wolf from kippo and the age of wonder beast i have a scorpion staff when when i use it to fight my enemies it knocks them out [Music] from oren high school host club you
2022-01-14