"Higher is a Mindset" with Martin Anquetil, founder of Higher and creator of Aether AI | ZEROPOD SEASON 2 E3
What does it mean to build a brand without a leader, a strategy, or even a plan? In this episode of ZEROPOD, I sit down with Martin Anquetil, one of the founders of $HIGHER, the headless memecoin brand redefining chaos as culture onchain. We dive into everything from AI agents breaking bounty bots on Farcaster to an Ethereum stock split, the memecoin meta and the challenges of building a project based on a number-go-up meme even when number doesn’t always go up. Along the way, Martin shares lessons from his time within Nouns, explores the unique challenges of decentralization, and reveals what it takes to survive a 97% token price crash with your optimism and community intact. We really enjoyed this conversation with Martin, and we hope you do too! — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Figuring out “Can we do this thing?” while doing it 01:00 - ZEROPOD Intro 01:51 - The Martin Origin Story 04:00 - College and Interning at Google 05:00 - Oneshot by Topshot 07:00 - 2021 NFT Season Nostalgia 10:55 - Who the F**k is Buying XRP? 11:50 - Ethereum Stock Split Discussion 15:15 - First Impressions of Nouns 16:15 - Leaving TopShot to Explore Onchain Options 17:50 - Freelancing with Nouns Builder 19:19 - Agora, Explorer Grants, and Other Nouns Initiatives 20:00 - Mogu Mogu Mogu: Nouns Governance Tooling 24:19 - Starting $HIGHER 25:00 - Roots in /bullposting 28:00 - How Would He Launch Higher Today? 32:00 - The Strength of Builders Who Stick Through the Bear 34:00 - “Higher, Not Sideways” 37:30 - Quack Quack ⌐◨-◨: 38:50 - Is $HIGHER a Neo-DAO or Something New? 40:00 - Authenticity vs. Top-Down Control: The Higher Experiment 44:00 - Could $ANON Run a Higher-Like Playbook? 45:00 - Farcaster Users Speed-Running Speculation Lessons 47:00 - $ZEROPOD: Exploring Media and Tokens 49:00 - The Origins of $POINTS on Farcaster 50:50 - “Provenance is Culturally Emergent” 51:00 - Jacob’s Horse Meme and Its Viral Evolution 53:53 - What Is Aether? The AI Agent Shaking Things Up 57:00 - The $LUM Luminous Launch 1:01:00 - Challenges of Community Cohesion in Decentralized Projects 1:02:03 - Questions for Martin from Aether 1:06:00 - What’s Next for Aether? Memory and Autonomy 1:07:00 - Aether on Twitter? Exploring New Platforms 1:08:00 - Balancing Meaningful Building with Market Pressures 1:11:00 - Betting on Yourself and Long-Term Projects 1:14:00 - Martin’s Thoughts on Trading and Staying Grounded 1:16:00 - Coinbase Listings and Meme Coin Dynamics 1:21:00 - What’s Next for Martin and $HIGHER 1:24:00 - Outro: Reflections and the Road Ahead — Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and JackWyldes. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk x Suno AI. This content is zero rights reserved (cc0), please remix and reuse it in any way you like!
How Crypto is Changing the Landscape of Social Media Monetization
Mint Season 7, Episode 5 featured Farokh, a social media entrepreneur and the Founder of Rug Radio. During the hour, we explored the world of onchain social media, memes, and using NFTs to build communities. We covered the potential of monetizing media through crypto primitives, common themes found in viral meme pages and social media accounts, and strategies for converting web2 consumers into crypto collectors. Farokh also shared his motivation, focus strategies, and advice for creators aiming to launch their own NFT-driven media projects. I hope you enjoyed our conversation.
From Sound to Vault: David's Vision for Music Onchain
This episode welcomes David Greenstein from Sound.xyz and Vault.fm for his first interview in a while. David opens up about the current state of Sound, the team's pivot to Vault, and his vision for the future of onchain music. We explore how Vault is designed to help artists connect directly with fans and own their audience, along with the lessons learned from building Sound and how those insights are shaping Vault. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Context S3: Your Guide to Digital (and Crypto) Culture w/ Trevor McFedries
Blake chats with the longtime supporter and friend of Boys Club, Trevor McFedries. He’s really done it all, from founding Friends with Benefits (FWB) and creating the first AI generated influencer Lil Miquela, to being an early employee at Spotify, to DJing around the world,and producing top 10 records. He’s one of the most unique and dynamic thinkers in crypto. Blake and him discuss a myriad of topics including art, NFTs, the difference between outworking and outthinking, what streaming was meant to be vs. what is has turned into, and how his sports background continues to inform his work ethic. Blake also asks him about why he started FWB, the inefficiency of influencer culture, who captures the economic value from social capital, and how crypto rails have been and still can be applied to make its upsides more equitable. You’ll come away with some super valuable insights if you care about crypto culture, however you define it. This episode is part of Lens Protocol's FWB FEST coverage, in which Context is excited to be apart of (and Blake had a great time attending!). Trevor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatdotcd Lens' Website: https://www.lens.xyz/ Lens' Twitter: https://twitter.com/LensProtocol Blake’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/blakefinucane Boys Club Newsletter: https://boysclub.beehiiv.com/
A brief history of Ethereum hard forks
This episode is a brief history of Ethereum hard forks, from the early days of the Frontier thawing to the more recent Dencun upgrade. Sources: https://ethereum.org/en/history/
Navigating Onchain Distribution and Growth Strategies with Peter Vecchiarelli
That’s Peter, the founder of the Ethereum Investment Club (EIC), a magazine publication documenting the very best of Ethereum. We recorded this episode during Onchain Summer, just as the meme of onchain virality was emerging—a movement in which Peter plays a key role. He shares his insights on onchain distribution, and we delve into the unique challenges and strategies of distributing content and mints, highlighting the differences between traditional marketing and onchain marketing. Peter also reveals valuable lessons from running successful campaigns and gives us a glimpse into some innovative onchain growth strategies he's been working on. It's a packed discussion, so I hope you enjoy our conversation!
Context S3: Inside Super Punk World w/ Nina Chanel Abney and Todd Kramer
Blake speaks with the brilliant Nina Chanel Abney, world renowned multidisciplinary artist. Her resume is beyond impressive; her work is in the permanent collections of museums like The MoMa and The Whitney, and she just released her second collaboration with Nike, designing her take on the iconic Jordan 3. Earlier this year, she was the first artist selected for Punk in Residence, an art program by CryptoPunks designed to champion creative experimentation with web 3. She released Super Punk World, her 500 piece NFT collection in May as part of the program. Throughout this episode, you’ll get further context on Nina’s entire body of work, her artistic vision and what she stands for, while Blake and her chat about the WNBA, her Nike collab, art history, how humour translates across mediums and more. The second half of the episode is dedicated to talking about Super Punk World, from its conception to its reception, to what’s next. Accompanying Nina is the innovative gallerist and collector Todd Kramer, who provides illuminating perspectives about the business side of the art industry, what Nina has accomplished in her career thus far and The Gallery of Digital Assets (GODA) which Nina and him co-founded with Pharrell (among others!). The three of them have an inspiring and pertinent discussion that is especially relevant for crypto art and NFT collectors and anyone interested in creativity onchain. Nina’s Twitter: https://x.com/ninachanel Super Punk World: https://hub.cryptopunks.app/gallery/nina Nina’s Nike Collab: https://www.nike.com/ca/launch/t/air-jordan-3-retro-x-nina-chanel-abney-bicoastal-and-malachite Todd’s Twitter: https://x.com/toddkramer1 Blake’s Twitter: https://x.com/blakefinucane Boys Club Newsletter: https://boysclub.beehiiv.com/
Welcome to ETH Daily
Welcome to your daily Ethereum news briefing. Dive into the latest on Ethereum, DAOs, DeFi, Staking, LRTs, and L2 rollups. Subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss a beat: https://ethdaily.io Follow Us X: x.com/ethdaily Lens: hey.xyz/u/ethdaily Farcaster: warpcast.com/ethdaily.eth
Why Web3 is the Perfect Home for Creators
Mint Season 4 episode 15 welcomed Matt Alston and Melissa Zhang, the power duo behind Bonfire: the front page for onchain communities. In this episode, we discuss: 01:27 - Intro 06:37 - How Did You Guys Meet? 09:59 - How Did the idea move from Events to Creators? 18:27 - Are Creators Good Community Builders? 22:25 - Is Web Three the Perfect Medium for Creators? 33:32 - DeFi meets the Creator Economy 38:12 - Governance and the Creators 47:06 - Bonfire 53:36 - Building a Bridge between Web Two and Web Three Audiences 56:30 - Converting viewers into collectors 58:59 - What’s next for Bonfire? 60:10 - Outro I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Onchain record labels with Coop Records
The inaugural episode of the Coop Records Podcast featuring the core team - Cooper, Ramie, Jake and Cece. We cover the origins of Coop Records and everything you need to know about running an onchain record label in 2024.
The Birth of Bonsai: From Meme Coin to Culture Currency
The episode welcomes Carlos Beltran, the creator of MadFi and the Lens-native culture currency, Bonsai. Throughout our discussion, we dive into his journey as a founder, the highs and lows of building MadFi, and how Bonsai is shaping culture and creativity within the Lens ecosystem. Carlos also shares his ambitious vision for Lens to reach a billion users and how Bonsai plays a key role in that growth. Finally, we chat about the importance of grants and the need for founders to rethink social from the ground up. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Going Viral Onchain
This episode welcomes Cooper Turley, Founder of Coop Records. Cooper is a recurring guest on the pod, though this time, we focus all of our attention on how to go viral onchain. Consider this a round table discussion where him and I share our insights, lessons learned, and debate our perspectives on the current state of the onchain creator economy. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Art, Music and Festival Culture with Refraction — Malcolm, Raf, Greg
Malcolm Levy, Raf Katigbak and Greg Liburd are co-founders of Refraction. An artist-owned community leading the next wave of digital art, music and culture — online, onchain and IRL. They all have extensive backgrounds in media, culture, festivals, films, brands. As artists, designers, writers, producers and creative people. Raf was early at VICE. Greg did a bunch with Jordan. Malcolm was the Director of the New Forms Festival 2001-16, and Curator of CODE Live during the 2010 Olympics Games. Today we reveal that Refraction and UFO are teaming up via our radio station. And exclusive alpha is shared for the future of Refraction for the first time on this show. Sponsors: Your crypto wallet for everything onchain — zerion.io Create, distribute and monetize on your own terms — paragraph.xyz Higher is a lifestyle — aimhigher.net Home of onchain ticketing — onopen.xyz Where group chats make more money — lore.xyz
How Crypto And Web3 Will Change Social Media Forever
Mint Season 5 episode 9 welcomed Wilson Wei and Ryan Li, who shared their vision for putting creators and users at the forefront of ownership with their decentralized social graph, CyberConnect. Throughout the hour, we discussed: 09:13 – What Inspired Ryan and Wilson to Build in Web3 Social? 15:07 – Elon Musk’s Potential Acquisition of Twitter 18:34 – How To Defeat Bots and Spammers in Web3 Social? 20:53 – What Does Ownership Actually Mean in Web3? 29:59 – Web3 Social Tools to Empower Creators 33:08 – How Does Virality Work in the World of Web3 Social? 42:38 – What is a Social Graph? 54:12 – Big Picture Vision for Web3 Social I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Alex Masmej Talks $DEGEN: Fueling Drakula's Growth and the Onchain Creator Economy
Join us in this episode as we sit down with Alex Masmej, the brain behind Drakula and a key player in the farcaster ecosystem. From his early days of conceptualizing Showtime as the 'Instagram of NFTs' to pioneering Drakula, Alex's journey is nothing short of remarkable. Drakula, now making waves as the 'TikTok of Web3', has seen an explosive start with over $30M in transactions in just two weeks, introducing a new and engaging way for fans to support video creators. Alex returns to the podcast to share the lessons learned from pivoting Showtime to creating Drakula, highlighting the strategic moves, go-to-market strategy, and the decision to adopt $DEGEN as the native currency of the app. I hope you enjoy our conversation and our genesis episode on Pods!
