S5 E6 | Exploring NFTs in Art History w/Blake Finucane

On this episode of Rehash, we speak with Blake Finucane, Chief Strategy Officer at Emergent Entertainment and host of the Context Podcast with Boys Club, about the history of cryptoart and NFTs, strategies for NFT projects to succeed long term, and the role of NFTs in shaping the future of gaming. Emergent Entertainment is a leading metaverse and blockchain game studio.

Blake is one of the earliest researchers of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). While most people started learning about NFTs in 2021, Blake has been studying NFTs since 2016, years before the ERC-721 token standard for NFTs was developed in early 2018.

As a result of her innovative research on NFTs, she received a Canadian research grant to study at University of British Columbia, where she wrote her master’s thesis on how blockchain technology and cryptocurrency can be applied to the art world. It was one of the first ever academic theses to be published on crypto art, and we get to hear firsthand about it from the author in this episode.

We also spend some time talking about web3 gaming and the role of NFTs in games. Blake is currently working on a game called Resurgence through her company, Emergent Entertainment, and she has some refreshing takes about how games should (or shouldn’t) structure their token models if they want to be successful.

Blake has a wealth of knowledge and is so in tune with the culture of the space. She’s taken active steps to strike a balance between work and wellness, and she shares her best advice for achieving a healthy work-life balance while working in web3.

 

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FOLLOW US

Rehash: https://twitter.com/rehashweb3

Diana: https://twitter.com/ddwchen

Blake: https://twitter.com/blakefinucane

Context Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/context-views-on-crypto-and-culture/id1688280011

Resurgence: https://twitter.com/ResurgenceGame

 

SPONSORS

Lens Protocol: https://lens.xyz

Lore: https://lore.xyz/rehash

 

LINKS

• Blake’s Master’s Thesis: https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0370991
• Boys Club: https://twitter.com/BoysClubWorld
• S4 E6 | Art You Can’t See w/Sarah Meyohas & Mitchell Chan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMhXUlgS0NM
• Bored Ape Yacht Club: https://twitter.com/BoredApeYC
• Pudgy Penguins: https://twitter.com/pudgypenguins
• Resurgence: https://twitter.com/ResurgenceGame
• Loot: https://www.lootproject.com/
• Context Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/7uIXnKpaN3TZ7WdkdyfwMu?si=975986c3ca864eb1

 

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

5:19 Living outside of the crypto bubble

7:34 Blake’s Master’s Thesis on NFTs

12:02 How AI has changed the NFT art world

19:47 How NFT projects have developed over time

22:01 The role of culture in shaping the NFT space

26:21 Where we should experiment with NFTs

32:22 Which aspects of web3 are attractive to gamers?

38:55 Questions from Twitter

48:10 Follow Blake

 

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.