Thread by @jposhaughnessy

1/ Our team at @InfiniteL88ps wanted to experiment with the NFT marketplace in order to get a better understanding of how it worked and see if the online auction pace was similar to what we see offline.

We commissioned the artist @cernicageanina to produce the artwork 👇🏻

2/ Our hypothesis was that an NFT that "unlocked" a benefit would be more highly valued than one that didn't, so we included the opportunity to either co-host an @InfiniteL88ps with me or choose a guest.

As far as the behaviour of the auction, we found it *did* mimic that of

3/ auctions conducted IRL. The price stayed pretty stable until the last half hour, when @vtslkshk watched as the price screamed higher, with the winning bidder @dineshraju paying WETH 9.0 or approximately $36,543.78 $USD at the time of the sale.

4/ I learned later that Dinesh had bought the NFT with the goal of "paying it forward" and selecting as a guest an extraordinary person who was flying mostly under the radar.

His choice of @FiSurgi was brilliant--fellow FinTwiter's know him as a successful Robotic Surgeon who

5/ exemplifies what I think is the best path to learning about investing--never be afraid to say "I don't know" followed closely by "But I'm going to find out."

Dr. David Rhoiney's story is beyond inspirational--he went from a homeless kid caring for his brother to graduate

6/ from the United States Naval Academy, and also competing in two sports as an NCAA athlete.

His mission is simple, but critical--he says "I want others from similar backgrounds like me, to make it as well" and we can't wait to record his @InfiniteL88ps episode and bring

7/ his full story to our listeners.

But our second goal was to donate the money raised to a charity, and since our team is international, we thought it would be a good way to introduce our mostly U.S. audience to other parts of the world and their needs. Our colleague

8/ @viziandrei, who hails from Romania, was the first up to select a charity.

After a lot of research, he selected “Ambulanta pentru Monumente” or “The Monuments’ Ambulance,” an NGO created in 2016 to receive our donation.

Most of us associate Transylvania with Dracula

9/ but it's much more than that--The region is brimming with unique cultures and traditions; ancient villages;
medieval towns; timeless castles; fortified churches; virgin forests; and imposing mountains.

Sadly, the country was under Communist rule from 1947-1989, a system

10/ which Vizi says was "based on the supremacy of a hostile ideology that rejected beauty, culture,
traditions, and religion" one result of which was that there are now over 600 historical monuments in Romania in an advanced state of decay or pre-collapse.

11/ The goal of Ambulanta pentru Monumente is to act efficiently for the preservation of the immovable
heritage of Romania.

They boast many successful interventions and achievements and are highly transparent about how they spend the funds they receive.

12/ I'm delighted with Vizi's choice of this charity.

I didn't conceive this NFT experiment as an example of "paying it forward," but that is what has emerged from every aspect of it--we wanted to transparently learn in public about NFTs and their potential, but to my mind,

13/ we learned a much greater lesson:

None of this would be possible without all of the new tools that were used to make it happen. This is one of the huge benefits I see from The Great Reshuffle--while the tools themselves are incredibly cool, it's what they ALLOW us to do

14/ and achieve in the REAL world that is the great potential engine here--this whole project would have been impossible just a few short years ago.

While the Internet has many problems, one of the great benefits it offers is to remove the barriers of space, time, geography

15/ and background that previously limited associations, friendships and employment opportunities to a much more narrow set of options, mostly formed by where you lived, worked or worshiped.

Now, those have all fallen away. Each of my colleagues at @InfiniteL88ps earned their

16/ spot on the team by "proof of work" that they were brave enough to put online.

It didn't matter where they went to school; what their family background was or who they knew or what outside institution had certified them to be--it was their talents openly demonstrated over

17/ time on a platform where all could see their accomplishments, their misses, and their growth as people actively learning more and more each day.

I marvel at the synchronicities this new world unlocks:

👉🏻Our ability to learn in real time how the NFT ecosystem functioned;

18/
👉🏻The ability to include benefits the buyer could unlock to shine the light on an extraordinary individual whose determination and perseverance afforded him the opportunity to help many other people's lives proactively;
👉🏻The ability of our team's donation to a charity few

19/ had heard of prior to @viziandrei's research at a time that we later learned they were stuck on trying to raise the amount we donated to finalize all of their projects in Brasov.
👉🏻And finally, the ability to make connections that just a short while in the past would have

20/ virtually impossible but also, importantly, almost inconceivable.

I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet all but one of my teammates at @InfiniteL88ps which led to a much improved podcast, nor, I doubt, would I have met @dineshraju and learned of his passion for

21/ building software to help the underdog triumph.

And while Twitter did let me get to know @FiSurgi, it was this "virtuous flywheel" of events that will let him tell his amazing story to a much broader group and hopefully inspire people who are currently in circumstances

22/ similar to those he overcame that they can do it too.

From a simple curiosity about a new artform, we were able to learn so much more from so many different parts of the globe, all of which might have been hidden to us in a prior time.

23/ What's more, it's allowed people who would have met each other in the past to join forces and create and innovate at an almost unimaginable level.

Don Tapscott said "All one needs is a computer, a network connection, and a bright spark of initiative and creativity

24/ to join the economy." That creates an exponential opportunity for people from every background and walk of life to find their place and connect with others.

But the real revolution as I see it is something Howard Bloom said:

25/ "It is not the amount of knowledge that makes a brain. It is not even the distribution of knowledge. It is the interconnectedness."

We're creating a Global brain that can take us further, faster, than any other time in history. The opportunities are endless--grab them!