September 11/2023

On Episode 8 (how fitting) of ZEROPOD, Toady Hawk and Cardno host the one and only Jack Butcher, founder of Visualize Value and the man behind the Checks and Opepen art projects.

We learn about Jack’s childhood in the UK, how he ended up Stateside, and all about his journey as an artist and a creative. We then delve into the ethos behind Checks and Opepen, the importance of CC0 + permissionless protocols for solving “The Cold Start Problem” for artists, and much, much more.

We hope you enjoy this one as much as we did, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE if you do!  

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Teaser: Jack’s advice to aspiring artists
1:12 - Intro
2:00 - The Jack Butcher Origin Story
3:00 - An impactful internship
5:12 - Civics Lesson
6:16 - Another internship
6:45 - New York New York
7:35 - The Welsh Connection
11:23 - Family Lore
11:55 - “Fixing it in post”
13:03 - The NYC Agency Grind
15:20 - Striking out on his own
19:05 - Visualize Value: The Business of Distillation
22:18- Jack’s Crypto Journey
25:20 - Foundation-al beginnings
28:01 - Double-posting to Ethereum
30:58 - The Modem Moment
32:24 - Ethereum as an art authentication machine
33:23 - “Provenance is Cumulative”
37:47 - In our post-cringe era?
39:00 - Checks Genesis
42:00 - Meaning is reduced to zero
43:17 - Let him cook
44:42 - Mutable vs Immutable Checks
47:47 - Invisible Blue Check
49:30 - The Persistence of Symbols
50:40 - Let’s talk Opepen
52:39 - The Power of the PFP as a Platform
58:45 - The Nouns AI Platform & Opepen AI
61:01 - NPA (Not PFP Advice)
64:00 - The Cold Start Problem for Artists
68:00 - Jack on Nouns
71:00 - Noggles as a Powerful Memetic Icon
73:00 - Jack on CC0
80:00 - “We’ll make art until there’s nothing left to make.”
80:50 - Community Questions: VV Training Bundle
82:00 - The Success Case for Opepen
84:45 - Physical Claim Opepen Set?
86:27 - What’s next for Jack?
90:19 - Have you read any good books lately?
94:00 - Alpha? Connecting the dots with Ethereum
97:00 - Crypto is for Collaboration 
100:00 - Jack’s advice for artists

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Podcast recorded and edited by Toady Hawk. Hosted by Toady Hawk and Cardno. Music by SuperTightWoody.

Zero Rights Reserved, remix any of our content as much as you like!

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