My Tezos Journey — Part 1

Being born in the early 80s in India put me in this unique place in time where I got to experience the transition from an analog world into a digitally dependent one and observe how our lives changed as our connectivity grew. I still remember the feeling of excitement as the dial-up modem would splutter its beeps, and then drive into websites & forums. The GIF art from those days would remain embedded in my subconscious.

It was disappointing for the most part when social media became the primary focus of the internet in the Web 2.0 era, where art became content and the insatiable demand for hyper-connectivity and sharing every moment of our lives became the main show. There was a sense of anonymity and mystery in Web 1.0 and its culture which had completely flipped.

I discovered Web 3.0 in the midst of the pandemic. Cryptocurrency had always been present on the radar but never interesting enough to get involved in. Most use cases of the technology seemed finance related so it never really made it onto the list of cool things to do. NFTs were still quite a niche thing, but without holding crypto it wasn’t a viable thing to get into.

My first tryst with minting NFTs began on the India focused marketplace WazirX. It had started as a curated marketplace and a friend had reached out to me to showcase some of my work on their platform for their launch month. They were ready to cover the minting fees so there was no reason not to try it. This was around June 2021 when things were really heating up globally and Clubhouse had become the digital centre of the world. The juxtaposition of living in isolation while interacting with so many people over voice felt like we’d entered into a new future, way less dystopian than the pandemic.

It was on Clubhouse, that I heard the whispers about ‘hic et nunc’, which everyone described as this very strange and mysterious website for NFTs, which was validated the first time I visited hicetnunc.xyz (now teia.art).

I remember the feeling of landing on that website the first time and just scrolling for hours. The interface screamed Web 1.0, taking me back to my childhood on the Commodore 64 and 486 PCs. The art, well, it was just different in an inexplicable way. After months of being in the NFT space, exploring different platforms and chains, I finally started finding art that was genuinely inspiring, and that was surprisingly within reach to collect.

… to be continued.

About naan

The naan app is an easy & secure way to explore digital art on Tezos. Download now on iOS & Android!

Website: naanwallet.com

Twitter: twitter.com/naanwallet

Discord: discord.gg/wpcNRsBbxy