The Pierre T. Lambert Podcast Transcripts: Ted Chin – Selling Your Art via NFTs, The Future Of Photography, and Pursuing Passion at All Cost (#55)

Please enjoy this transcript of my interview with Ted Chin.

Ted Chin is a digital artist who work can be described as a fantasy world with a touch of surrealism, sometimes with spirits of nature. He has been working within digital production, producing work for countless clients across the globe. His most recent accomplishment is the Adobe Photoshop 2021 splash screen cover artist.

Ted sold his first NFT in March 2021, and it was a massive success for him. He's pumped to be here and share with us everything he's learned how it can apply to us, how it can translate to the photography world and he'll also tell us a little bit about the story, how this past seven years of working hard paid off on that specific day when he released his art in the digital space.

Transcripts may contain a few typos. With some episodes lasting 2+ hours, it can be difficult to catch minor errors. Enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Clever, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Ted Chin on Selling Your Art via NFTs, The Future Of Photography, and Pursuing Passion at all cost – The Pierre T. Lambert Podcast

Pierre Lambert owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of The Pierre T. Lambert Podcast, with all rights reserved, as well as his right of publicity.

This interview was transcribed by Descript.com.

Pierre Lambert: Good morning podcast and welcome Pierre T. Lambert’s show. Today, we're talking about a very hot topic. We're talking about non-fungible tokens, a.k.a NFTs. Why should you care? How is it going to transform the world of art sports, media collectibles, and maybe a lot more and how can you get involved? What should you know about it, and for that, we have a very special guest, his name is Ted Chin. Ted is a digital artist that just sold his first NFT, and it was a massive success for him. He's pumped to be here and share with us everything he's learned how it can apply to us, how it can translate to the photography world and he'll also tell us a little bit about the story, how this past seven years of working hard paid off on that specific day when he released his art in the digital space. It's going to be very interesting. I'm so pumped, Ted is open and he's sharing with us. Ted's originally from Taiwan, then moved to the US and went deep into Photoshop, Artwar composes all that and his art is stunning. You can find it on Instagram at Ted's little dream. We'll give you in the show notes, more information, but with no further ado, if you're curious about that space, if you don't know what I'm talking about, please listen to that episode and make sure you subscribe to the podcast because we're going to dive a little deeper in the future also, so without further ado, let's welcome tat to the podcast. Welcome to the podcast, Ted.

Ted Chin: Hey, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me here.

Pierre Lambert: Ted, I'm so excited to have you because Aaron talked to me about you, I haven't talked to him in a while. I met him at Adobe max and I feel that I've seen your work several times over the years at different moments. I've always loved the art you're creating. For me, it's very fantastic, and it just transports me to a different world, which is awesome. Every time you get that feeling from art, you're like, yes, I want to jump into a hot topic right now, Ted. What happened this week? I feel like you've had a crazy week.

Ted Chin: Yeah, it's been a pretty surreal week for me. Well, probably everyone who has seen the title would say, that's what we're here for. Right? So, Monday I had the opportunity to drop my first release NFT, non-fungible tokens, crypto art with the nifty gateway, and after Monday it has been pretty crazy and then a lot of networking, talking, and then you notice being everywhere. Right? So that's what has happened to me this week so far.

Pierre Lambert: Did you expect it? How long have you been working on it?

Ted Chin: For my first release, I use some of my old work because this has something I've never done before and it's fresh for the NFT community and also I think it was a great way to introduce my artwork to people who never see me before, so I took this as a whole new opportunity to introduce myself to a new crowd so I picked out my favorite piece and then put it together and then to release that, but the whole preparation to find, picking which I will use, what kind of collection I want to put together and then the sole purpose of why I create art. That took about two to three weeks just to figure out every detail. Like how do I present myself in the best way to people who have never seen my dream before?

Pierre Lambert: That's so important. I feel we could go so many directions right now. I want to start with the most important for anyone that is listening, that has no idea what NFTs are. Do you want to give us a  quick spiel on what we are talking about? What is everyone talking about?

Ted Chin: I can put it in the shortest explanation from my understanding because honestly, I understand blockchains and cryptocurrency and all that, but from my perspective and the artists and who are new to this non-fungible token, which short stand for NFT. It's just a token that's related to Ethereum blockchains, which is E T H, the cryptocurrency. It's a token that has DISTO assets that are connected to that blockchain formation and so in an easier way you can think about is collectible, traceable, and digital, like Pokemon cards or scorecards. That people buy ours,, or buy those cards and trade it so this just puts everything into a digital format and it's called NFT for now, or crypto art. That's what they use.

Pierre Lambert: That makes sense. If I understand it correctly, what you're saying is that you can basically buy deeds for an art piece and it's living in the digital world, but you're owning that piece through that NFT.

Ted Chin: For example, if you buy a print from me you bought an NFT from me, and how do you prove that JPEG or the digital SM music or whatever that's on there, is actually from me so that's where the NFT token come in, and then to show the authenticity and then like the chasing of that like this was indeed created by me, released on this day and it's my thing is digital signature instead of like physically signing and that's why I make it so valuable compared to any other file that you can copy and paste and track for that.

Pierre Lambert: Yes. I'm going to speak to anyone who doesn't understand anything we're talking about. I'm going to try to translate it to what exists right now. If you're buying a piece of art, you're having that piece of art. Usually, there might be a certificate of authenticity and a serial number. If it's a series of that piece. Now, the difference with NFT is there isn't that much difference, except that it's digital and that's the big advantage you can trace it forever, so you can trace it from the moment it leaves the artist and goes to someone else. Then, if it's resold, you can still trace it and the beautiful part for, especially because right now we're going to dig into the artist section of how it can be used, you can, as an artist, if I understand correct me, Ted, you can get a royalty on every sale that's going to happen in the future, which is something that did not exist in the real world. Once your art is out there, anyone can resell it and make their profit or make their sale, you won’t see any dime for it.

Ted Chin: Yeah, that is actually correct so on my release with the nifty gateway, Ashley Pooty, around 10%, the artwork so every time anyone who bought or trade or do anything with the art that was on there the NFT art, I get a 10% amount of the money that they sold it for which everyone who bought it also knows that, so in a way you can put in that this is a very great way to support the artists that you believe in, right? There are so many, as you mentioned earlier, right? In a physical world, once you sell that print, that is gone forever. You never know who owned it, the middle of a transition or any history or story in between, and the artist, once they sold that. That's it, they will never get a cut or anything after that, so the cool thing about this digital art crypto thing is that every time anyone does secondhand marketing, the artist, the creator will get a cut from it.

Pierre Lambert: A lot of people ask in that sense, they're like, well, I can see the image. What's the difference between seeing the image and someone saying that you own the image. Would you have something to say to people who are confused about that?

Ted Chin: Yes, so a lot of my friends, my housemate and people that know was asking me that and people in the clubs have also mentioned that like, why would I want to buy something that I can just copy and drag it from the internet, or just look at it for free. Right? Well, the cool thing is, for example, for some famous painting or, my huge inspirations, like Rene Magritte, or Dali for surrealism artists so if I can own a piece of that original, I would want to have it because that's something very special than that but in the other way, I would say, because when you buy those, you're actually supporting the artists and the creator behind that and that is very important because, before these digital artists or a lot of artists who are having trouble getting their work appreciated, they just created for free and share our internet for people to view, and hopefully they will find a client who commissioned them or hire them to do some commercial job, but still that comes to marketing and negotiating and the contract, we still get little offer from that sometime so from doing this NFT, you're directly cutting up the middlemen in some other way, and then make more profit to directly support the artists, so for example, I actually looking for NFT this past few day and I bought few and then in my mind, I know like this money will help some of the artists who struggle and some things to show my support and then just figure out different way but one cool thing about NFT community or this whole NFT crypto art movement is all about artists supporting artists and the company to support an HR that our collector coming to buy stuff and trade, benefit artists and then the artists who make some great sales when it mentioned it, or like they would tweet about other artists or like so-and-so on to get more attention with that for now.

Pierre Lambert: Which is beautiful to see, and I'm sure the way it's used and it will obviously evolve and there will be a point where bigger players or whatever will get in the way, or try to interfere, I would say, but right now to me, at least from my point of view, it feels very still organic and beautiful and that sense, and I'm just so pumped to see some artists. I kind of see it, they don't say it, but you can see that they're not making a lot from their art. Their art is awesome, you love to consume it on Instagram, but beyond that, just the process of going to a gallery or printing or setting up a print shop or whatever, all that actually takes a lot of time effort and it's not always rewarded the right way and also, how do you price yourself at the end of the day? People don't know how much it was sold for, you can tell numbers, but it's, I don't know. I felt like it was a very opaque game and it is becoming very transparent.

Ted Chin: Yes. I have been talking to you, if you are my friend before, even before this whole NFT and I know a lot of them are passionate about making digital art, but at the same time, they have daytime jobs. They have to do to pay the bills and sometimes me, some of them are on different jobs, which is very exciting when you can do work with your friend on fun projects, but most of the time I say, we're all like pretty struggling, and there's no way to break through it at the time and then we didn't know what to do and, when NFT arrived, this whole new thing happened, it's very exciting for me and then to share that knowledge with them from one of it and from pricing yourself, that I believe that will be probably won't the question we always ask, right? Like how much should I sell this for? How much should I charge this for? The cool thing about NFT is that you can set a price that you think is reasonable and once you have a buyer come see it or collect it, they can either choose to buy a straight from the price you give, or they can bid on it and if there are multiple buyers bidding on your artwork, there's a higher chance for the price keep going up, so that would be super beneficial for the artist.

Pierre Lambert: Guys, we're going to dig more into Ted's process, but Ted, can we rewind a little bit, maybe a lot and go back to Taiwan for a little bit?

Ted Chin: Go ahead to Taiwan?

Pierre Lambert: Yeah. Where in Taiwan are you from? It's one of my favorite countries.

Ted Chin: Wow. That's a part I barely get to talk about on social media. That's exciting because I've been in the state for almost 15 years and a lot of times do miss home a lot so I'm Ted and I'm born and raised in Taiwan till I was 15 and then I came to the state for high school and then college and after I graduate, I just went to stay here and I'm working, but, Taiwan, I say sometimes this, I have the food and beer, I left Taiwan was when I was like 15, so that's middle school, high school. I barely get to explore the country. I've been traveling with my parents before and my brother, but not in detail, going to where I wanted, doing what I want to do, or hike around and doing that. I didn't get to do or experience any of those, like much so now I really like miss that and just like curious, I wonder what my hometown looks like because, some of my friends as a photographer, they used to travel a lot before, and then they go to Taiwan take this cool photo and I was, wait, that's in Taiwan? I didn't know that,  if my hometown lived that pretty? My country? That is so freaking awesome.

Pierre Lambert: What part is that? Taipei? where are you from in Taiwan?

Ted Chin: Yeah, I live in Taipei. I'm from Taipei, I don't know exactly the place where I grew up, but, Taipei is so pretty with the food and everything. It's like, wow.

Pierre Lambert: Yes. Taiwan is high on my list because there is a tiny and you'd be surprised there's a tiny windsurfer community on the east coast, southeast coast and I randomly met them and spent over three, four years. Every time I would spend one month there and build some pretty big projects, coding and stuff while I was there, like windsurfing in the morning and the afternoon and every time in between working and so I would go there just to get in my zone and do the things and have some balance, so Taiwan is high on that list of a cool place to explore and the people are nice, friendly yet a little bit, have humor and not too dry, not that dry politeness and I just find it's a cool balance to, to explore. For me, it's like the perfect mix between Chinese culture and Japanese culture but taking the best of both.

Ted Chin: Yes. It's like a mix of an area that has both evolved, and then, hopefully peacefully delivered in that area cause I haven't been back for so long, so I'm not sure how it is right now, but I'm pretty sure it was friendly and then it's just a place to enjoy like our cultures and food and then those cultures around the earth, right?

Pierre Lambert: Yes. You have such great food in Taiwan if anyone is a foodie.

Ted Chin: Now, I'm getting hungry. Now when we talk about some chicken katsu, the deep-fried food, get some Boba. Maybe, I should get some Boba today, but I need to work out.

Pierre Lambert: Yes. There you go. That's true. Well, so that influenced you until you were 15, then you moved to the states. How did you get into your art? What drove you to it?

Ted Chin: So, it sounds like one of those interviews, right? “When I was a kid I always” But it is true when I was a kid…

Pierre Lambert: I mean, when you are a kid, that's the purest form of expression.

Ted Chin: Growing up in a Asian family, my parents definitely do want to, what was the way to say it, figure out what I'm into as a kid, so they took me to try a variety of different things like, playing music instrument, or singing in the choir, or do all kinds of different things, but what I think what my mom found out was that I was actually really into drawing, that's something really fun, so she started took me to after class, after school, I'll go to this place where there's a watercolor teacher will teach, all the kids paint and do different things, and from there I would just of start picking out like my interesting art and then also I'm really big fan of like cartoons and manga, that's what I grow with, just like going on an adventure with heroes and hearing this different journey, that's always something that excites me and from there, I'm conscious, I always say, I want to be an artist when I grow up, that'd be something really cool, and then, in high school I took an art class and then start to explore my interest in it, so when it comes to college, I always wanted to be a businessman, like my dad and my brother, but in like high school, when I got involved more with the art, that's when I started thinking, do I really want to study business, or I should probably just give a chance and take my faith leap into art. Luckily my parents are supportive so they made me choose that route and try it on the college and so in college, that's when I fully went to explore mode, I took like my art major, and took all the traditional art classes, like painting, sculpturing, graphic design, typography and then, I took my first photoshop class and my first photography class there too, and while I was exploring it and I was like, okay, I probably should start thinking what I want to do after graduating from college but what I was into at a time was I want to be an animator, cause I thought I was like, oh, filmmaking animator and the manga, digital, all this related to get it so I think studio animation and it is where it is. I love Pixar. I love Disney DreamWorks and all of this so, that's something I wanted to do, but anyway long story short, after that, I went to grad school and then for two years of 3D animation boot camp, and all that, but when I graduated, I realized, 3D animation is not really for me, it was really difficult and hard.

Pierre Lambert: I heard that it's a lot of coding. I mean, coding in the sense that it is a lot more.

Ted Chin: It's involving a lot of different things, but for what I was learning in that grad school, they taught me everything, so at the same time, I couldn't pick which one I'm more focused on, and that was hard for me to make a choice and also a lack of experience and then that comes to the whole other story of how I start, doing Photoshop art and then the reason why, and then all that, so I don't know if we need to talk about that today because today is more about like NFT art and everything but, if you want, I can talk about that too.

Pierre Lambert: Tell us, everyone's interested. It's not just about where you are today, where you are today, it also comes from your whole experience so far, so I feel it's very important, especially because your art is very specific. I find that you have, I mean, personally, when I look at it, it's very balanced in the images and I find it peaceful in a way, so I'd love to know when you have so many options, how did you decide? What made you go there?

Ted Chin: All right. Let's go with that, so this is going to be like a pretty fun journey or, there's definitely some funny story here and there, but anyway, when I graduated from college and move on to grad school, the school got me so busy with homework and works I need to do and study, so I was busy with it and then at the same time I realized, I didn't have any free time to do my art, something I enjoy doing, any kind of creation, and I also really miss back in college, there's this studio space that I always go in and hang out with my friends and just create our day, and then as I get at the studio, where you just going and going, and then there's always someone working on some project. You can talk to them, they exchange your knowledge or just inspire each other, or just have fun, a piece of the party all the way to 2:00 AM. I miss those so I was like, I don't have the studio here. There's no pre-making sorography are, I can borrow, I didn't know what to do so I would say, I should figure out, what will be interesting so, at the same time, that was when the Instagram community was started growing so it's like, okay, I'll pick out my old camera, there's a Canon, the baseline ELD, I forgot what was it, and then my lens and, my iPhone, just walk around and take a photo and hang out so during that time, as a grad student, you don't have a lot of budgets to enjoy life, to go out drinking. I was like, you're so broke that you have to focus on homework and schoolwork, you can't do anything. You can't even travel so, I always like to go to free events and party with my friends whenever we see in San Francisco, so we'll always do all like, Hey, any art gallery opening tonight, any funny event this weekend that we can go to learn about the artists, get to know their work, also there are free drinks and food, so it's like a win-win situation for us, so one day I was looking for an event to go to and my friend, he messaged me, he said, check out this guy's work, Eric Alan's is a Swedish photographer based in San Francisco so check out his work, he's going to do a talk here for an event, we should go and I'll say, yeah, this dude's working like so cool and then free drinks and food, let's go Friday night, so I got there and when I got in, I started to notice things a little bit different. I'll say, wait, why am I at a school and there are so many chairs here, like what is going on? Iit turned out. It was like a three to four hours speech and workshops. It was like talking to the student there and then I got stuck in the front row that couldn't go anywhere, so I just sit there, hungry and I said, there's no, I guess there's no party tonight, but, it was cool because I get to learn a lot about him and he's a process of making our work and then how he thinks and talking about Photoshop. That's when the first time I saw a photo manipulation and a very high-end style and from there I was looking at the actual inspiration. I was saying, all this work is doing, I think I can try too, because I know Photoshop and photography, I think this is something I can do for fun for myself. I just had fun because I can't travel anywhere. Right? After that I go back to school and then talk to my friend and he's taught me some Photoshop skills and then, I just start creating from there, so test little during the project is about like me couldn't travel anywhere so that I'm using my part of the imagination and visiting places and hang out with mythical creatures, that's an extended version of it, and then there's the all of this wonderful fantasy, surreal dream going on and from there, I also get to come, they work like, and all the Swedish photographer, Eric Johansson, if I pronounce it right, he's also one of the teachers or a speakers at Adobe max few years ago so Erin probably knows him too and then like from there, I get to like diving into this whole Photoshop, photo collage world and then different digital art in there and, I just been doing that for like the past seven years, I think.

Pierre Lambert: Wow. That's amazing.

Ted Chin: Yes, so I accidentally jumped out of my Photoshop career by going to parties in that, in a way you can sa that.

Pierre Lambert: That's beautiful, how the universe acts to this, put you there in the front row and that is the defining moment.

Ted Chin: Yes. What do you want to do for life? I don't know and then jumps out at rending career for you.

Pierre Lambert: Yeah. I love that about life. It's something I love whenever we can remember, or be aware of those tiny moments that changed so much. It's just beautiful. That's cool. How did you start getting interested or at least curious about the crypto world and all that?

Ted Chin: Yes, so that comes to another story, about three or four years ago, there was a cryptocurrency gallery event in San Francisco and I think it was in the palace of fine arts, that plays barely, usually doesn't open, but they rented out that space for this event and at a time to say, put the frenzied art. I want to see what the future is about. I have no idea what's going on in their next petition, but again, it's a free van hanging out with friends. Why not? The food was amazing. The drink is as good but, anyway, so I walk in and, I remember walking around and then there are people showing, this is when AR and VR, argument reality and virtual reality are still pretty fresh, might just get out and people are talking about, oh, the future up there so there was this virtual reality gallery, argument reality gallery, you put this goggles on and you walk around this space. There's nothing on the wall, but you walk around and then the glasses you're wearing have our interact with, that so was like that's so cool and then, I remember seeing this guy, we're just talking, what do you think about future of gathering style? For example, our stuff, what he was doing, they were putting crypto blockchain formation onto your pictures and you will sell that on the internet and then the people will buy it and then keep passing on. We'll always have all the information on there. That's what we're trying to do and at a time, I was thinking, this guy is crazy. They buy it? At the time,. I remember thinking, wow, he's kind of crazy, doesn't make any sense to me, but I'm willing to learn so I talk with him and then he explained the whole thing to me so I remember grabbing his business card, but I have no idea what put it so I was like, just in case in the future, maybe this work, I have someone to talk to but, I lost his business. I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in my room. It wasn't meant to be but that's when the concept was first introduced to me. I was talking to my other friend, sometime this week and then, I told her, do you remember that we were there and she said, oh my God, that's true. That's when we first got to introduce NFT, but we both have no idea what it was so back in December when people dropped his first NFT, I remember seeing him talking about his stories and IGTV, trying to explain what NFT is and how it works. I make the connection, but I didn't fully understand what is it going to be, but I was like, well, I've followed people's work for so long, and then if he said, this is going to change the future of this so, I'm just going to sign up for free, because I have nothing to lose. There'll be something interesting to track, so, that weekend I saw that the news release, he made 3.5 billion during the weekend with his artwork and stuff. I was thinking,I want it and I don't know what it is, but I'm willing to explore and learn because then maybe this can benefit all the artists around me, so I went on this to get where, I filed my application, record little low-quality iPhone introduction videos like, hi, my name's Ted. This is my little dream and then the concept of having stuff and then just hope and that's how I got onto it, a few weeks later they reached back out and says, Hey, you know, like we want to work with you, so for a lot of people asking me, how do you get a nifty gateway? Cause that's like one of the major platforms right now, so busy so I told him I got very lucky cause I applied in December and that's a very early stage, I don't have the gallery that represents me for my work or anything. I do work with my friend’s agency, creative west, but at the time. I applied for it. I want to see if this, this is going to work, so that's how it got into it.

Pierre Lambert: Thousands of requests almost every day.

Ted Chin: I think if you try to get on there, it might have your way for like a year. I don't know. It's a long way. Some people are exaggerating maybe, or maybe not. I didn't ask them too much about it.

Pierre Lambert: That's true. That's very interesting. I love how you're introduced to a concept and it came out to life three years later. The interesting part, I will say ,is that I had a similar experience with you for Ethereum back in 2000, I would say 16 or 17 when I was in New York and I was in the startup scene. I had my business and stuff and I was trying to grow so I was connecting a lot with the community and people were wondering we're trying to explain Ethereum. They were also pushing a lot that smart contract idea that you would be able, and they were usually put it that way. Not through art, they were putting it through insurance or owning a house or whatever. They're like, all this paperwork so those contracts that you have physically, and then you need to send, he's like, well, basically they're going to live on the blockchain. Everyone's going to kind of own a version of it. That is going to be the same and the beauty is that no one can ever fake it because everyone owns it so we can always check if it's the right version and, the good thing is that it's linked to you forever, and it's very trackable. You can't lose the contract, you don't have to go see a notary. It's the whole network that validates that this contract is valid and that it's being applied and it say, okay, I guess we'll see that in insurances, and then for a few years later, you're saying, oh shoot, the art board took it over so I'm like, this is beautiful to see how it has worked out. You're early on Nifty gateway. What was the process? Because I think that's one of the questions I'm getting lately, because I asked people if they knew what it was. Now, they're asking me stuff. I said, well, I don't know. I'm researching guys, what was your process of minting? So minting, for anyone listening is the process of, uh, basically creating that unique NFT that, I mean, unique or creating that NFT and deciding how many versions on or if it's open and yeah, you're forging basically. It's like forging this work, but you're creating your art on the blockchain. How was the process for you? Did you understand what it was going to be? Did you do it yourself? Tell us everything.

Ted Chin: The first time I looked at it, I was thinking, what the heck does minting mean?  How does it work? And then after digging into it a little bit, I learned that when you create the tokens on the Ethereum network, it's going charge you a fee, which is called gas fee, and then once you created it, and that's why I called it minted me, so you're minting slash creating this token for your digital assets and so a cool thing about nifty gateway is that they actually take care of that whole process for you, all you have to do is just send them the work and then write the descriptions. And then, from there they would take care of everything for you so that's what I love about it, however, for other platforms, I believe like foundation and then, super rare rebel open sea, there's a gas fee they charge, but this fee doesn't pay to the platform. It pays to the people who run these theories in a network, the blockchain because they have all these servers that are running and minting the coins for you so the fee is direct to them, so when the service is really busy, it charges more and when it's not so busy, the price change so if you want to save some money, you just have to be patient and decide when to mint and create your tokens, and then, for nifty, I think people just buy it straight, you can connect to your credit card or your digital wallet, but most of the platform is using Ethereum through your cryptocurrency digital wallet. All the topics we have to go over like, what is a digital wallet? What is this? Why are there so many different versions?

Pierre Lambert: I tried to explain to Aaron, and so when we met Aaron NACE and he signed up for Mira mask.

Ted Chin: Yeah, shout out to Aaron. I learned most of my Photoshop skills from his YouTube class. It's free and I learned a lot from him. So I appreciate that, it's crazy.

Pierre Lambert: He has to create some of his work. I said, dude, you inspired the whole generation with your first day.

Ted Chin: For me, he was the one that taught me most of the skills, even without knowing I exist, and I followed the idea, and I was like, this is so cool. It's almost like I watched you growing up, you were the inspiration, it was almost like that, but in the short term, we can explain that digital wallet, it's just somewhere you keep your coins, your Bitcoin currency, cryptocurrency and then there is this trading platform where is directly connected to your bank, so you can put cash into this platform and then trade to any kind of digital currency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or dash coins or any kind of coins. And from there…

Pierre Lambert: Sorry, I'm just going to add something. If you can't envision it, guys like going to a currency exchange, you know, all those Western Union things, you go with a check from your employer or any kind of money and they give you cash in return. Here, the difference is you go with cash or your credit card and they give you cryptocurrencies and exchange.

Ted Chin: From there you send this currency, cryptocurrency that you just bought to your digital wallet and there's many different ways to secure your wallet, that's a whole different thing. I don't understand or know of it yet. I mean, I do understand that, my friends tell me about this, a different way of security. You can put it like a cold storage. Let's not talk about it right now, but, from there you send your currency, the cryptocurrency to your wallet so now you have a digital wallet with tokens and there are multiple wallets. You can condition that around and then you can use that cryptocurrency coin to buy art, and then that gets into your wallet, so does that, what is going on with all these multiple wallets and platforms? Why can't everything be in one place, right?

Pierre Lambert: Yes. I feel that, since it's still a little early, it's not that early, but it's early enough where it's not streamlined fully. It's not just go to that website, put your debit card or credit card, and boom, you got it. Now it's more, it might be two, three steps in between, so we're not there yet. Probably things will get easier over the years when there's more and more and everyone figures stuff out but, this is so for anyone, instead of buying with your dollars or your euros, you're buying with a cryptocurrency art, and let's do a whole spiel and those platforms, so I kinda had a question around that then, based on your understanding those platforms, let's say nifty or the foundation app. SuperRare. Do they take any fee for the creator? How does it work? That's a question I got a lot. What's the difference between up and see, for example, in Nifty Gateway and who takes what to whom?

Ted Chin: I would say it's almost like going to a different gallery and having your art in there, and then what kind of buyer you are attracting? What kind of buyer and collector do they offer to you? For example, if I am correct because I could remember it wrong. Maybe, I know Nifty Gateway is select artists curated, foundation is artists in by artists and makers place,  it's like curated too, but, you can suggest, but all this, you can file an application to apply for it and then they will review it, but most of the fastest way, that's how they do things and then open sea is open for everyone, I'm not sure about super rare and rare bull, so there's that oldest platform and then there's still more upcoming new platform from there, and then the good thing about those selective gallery or platform is when you got into there and then when you present your first release, which is called drop, they will hype you up, maybe showcase your work on there and show on the explore page so you can actually catch some buyers, or if you have audience-based already who want to support you, they we'll take care of that for you but the downside is, as you say, it's so hard to get in, everybody's trying to hop out there and showcase their work, and for open sea is any one can upload their work on there and then just to show there, there's no waiting process, if you really want to, if you really need to sell some of your work and then get some cash to help out yourself with your life situation, that's a good place to go, but the downside is that there are so many art on there, so I don't know, or I'm not so familiar with collector will see a work and all that, but there are a lot of place to promote your work. I would suggest using Twitter and discord, that's where most of the NFT community is very active, on there so you can tweet any artists or any collector and then like have a chance for them to see your work and then they're like go a bit and collect the art.

Pierre Lambert: Interesting. Yeah, I think a lot of people haven't realized yet ,it's a question that people were expressing, that's cool. I'm an artist, but I don't necessarily have the buyers' audience, does it mean that if I put it there, I'm going to get buyers and I think from what I get from what you're saying is that it will depend on the platform, just like any given gallery, we will have different audiences and you can try to promote it on your own, just like if you self published a book in a way but depending on your situation, you're probably going to have to figure out if you need someone to help you push the art, or if you're big enough, like a Logan Paul to draw Pokemon card with your face on it and sell that. How do you decide on pricing? How did you decide on your first collection? I'm super curious.

Ted Chin: For me, nifty have a team and then a person that will help you with that in such like how much they think your price should be and then, how you should sell it but you can change it as an artist, you can demand higher or lower, however you want it but for me, I decided to take their advice because this is my first time to the Nifty space, so it's definitely better to trust someone who is an expert in this areas and also it was  my first time showing my work to people so, I want them to enjoy my artwork and I want to make it affordable so, they're here because they want the art or if they want to flip it, I don't know, either way. I'm happy that they're here, so, Nifty was the person that like set the price for me and everything, but for other platforms, I do know that they suggest you keep a floor, which means that you don't want that, make your art too low value because what happened is that you're selling these stuff. Limited edition, or one out of one time, and so if you only sell one out of one of your works, that means that's one out of a one-time original. You don't want to put too low and then you can sell an additional 10 or additional 20 but the minting fee, it cost a little bit more, but I think you can just capture it as a one out of 10 or one of 20, for people to buy or you can make an open edition, so there's like a lot of different ways to do it.

Pierre Lambert: What did you do? I mean, I kind of know that, but did you have a step number?

Ted Chin: My first collection, I was going to go between three to five, so I decided to with number five, five different variety of kind of artwork and then, I make one, the perfect Milky way, it's like a whale spirit, have the galaxy Milky way come out into the sky. That's one of my favorite pieces. I make that one out of one kind for auctions so people can bid on it, I think that's worth it, and then I make two other ones as a limited edition, which is, 10 out of 10, so there's two of it. It's a cat's adventure, and then, unexpected guests. It's like an octopus knocking on your door under the water in this and then other ones. It's just a cat wandering around the city, so I liked those too. It sounds like, okay, these are all my babies. How do I decide about this? I think there's two that will be worth it to make it the limited edition and then for the last two open editions, this is where I have trouble deciding, should I make my more popular ones until the limited edition or more to the open edition, because, if it's more popular, I was thinking that maybe more people want to collect it, so I was having trouble deciding, but at the end of the day, I'm just going to put it this way because I bet five are all equally pretty strong, so I couldn't really decide, so I just put in there and hope it will work, so for my open edition, I have an elephant swimming in the sky, it's called the sweet dream, and then the other one is the little red riding hood with like a wolf and then a girl in the red dress in that frame but originally I was going to put the Wolf and the cat as like a limited edition and then the octopus and then the elephant is open edition, but I mix it up by accident, but it turned out pretty well so I was like, okay, that's that? Yes. I made a mistake and I was like, well, I guess this will work.

Pierre Lambert: Oh, my goodness. I love the story. It's beautiful, speaking of the Wolf, do you have any, do you know Hayao Miyazaki?.

Ted Chin: Yes, of course. Growing up in Asia, you must almost know..

Pierre Lambert: You mentioned Anime and stuff, so part of the wolf reminds me a little bit of the, I don't know how you say, a wolf woman, but the female wolf that is in princess Mononoke, I just remember she sleeps a lot sometimes. I don't know why those images are very strong in my mind and what an inspiration this guy is. It's so poetic every single one of its Anime is incredible.

Ted Chin: Yes, so definitely that the stereo gives way growing up, that's like having influence in my world. You can probably see a lot of tracing that is inspired by that so if you know, you can tell.

Pierre Lambert: Yes and I feel that that's, that makes me even more attracted to your work because it's that beautiful blend between all those inspirations that you've had throughout your life and that you create uniquely. It's so cool. Let's see something that's fairly interesting and I'm curious. Well, first of all, I think people are curious, how did the drop go? Because we didn't even talk about it.

Ted Chin: The drop, I was so nervous that week, cause you to know, like most of the Nifty space you see is more focused on 3D digital art motion, motion graphic, animation, so that put me to a spot that I was nervous saying, okay, all my stuff is still and not moving, is this going to work? Should I hire someone to animate it or should I bring one of my other friends who can do crazy animation, share the profit, but the timeframe was so short, so I didn't have time to reach out,  and they want to work with me. They got a thing, it's gonna work. I would just say I want you to test out of the water, if my strop is not going to do well, then I'll know. Then I got to fix it to make it, to animate it so to attract more audience, but if it's going to do well that test the water, I would say, okay, then everybody else, who want the upload still image, we'll have a chance, because after it is more about art than what it is, like trending and popping. That's just from my take of that, so, the whole week, I was really nervous, had anxiety, I didn't break down though, but I was just nervous and until the night before he dropped, I couldn't sleep. I said,  I'm going to sleep at 10 and I'm going to wake up at six in the morning. I'm going to bring the best of me to have this great day and go ahead. I only slept for two hours that night and I would do that up. I was like, oh my God. I felt so tired. There were so many things going on, I was so sleepy, my whole heartbeat was fast the whole day and just said, what's going on, but a lot of my friends were being very helpful during this time. They were like telling me, you're going to do fine. You're always going to be okay. It's going to be great, you shouldn't be worried about it, you're in care, you're with us, so they helped me out last and shout out to all of that, and then when the drop happened, when, the sales going, and I see like how many people buy it and my mind was shocked, very appreciative, thanks for all the collective buyers who believe in my art, like seven years of work finally pay off, in that day, I was talking with my other friend too. She's also digital artist, she had her drop recently, and then on her Twitter, she mentioned, or Instagram, she mentioned that, as a digital artist, we didn't get the appreciation we deserve, and then for the longest time, I've been trying to apply it to a traditional gallery and I remember I always get a rejection on this and said, oh, sorry, we don't display digital art like this, this is good art, we don't, we don't need it here though and then all tha, and I applied to so many different galleries and then got so many rejections, and for me growing up, I was thinking, well, if I want to be an artist like I should probably have my work displayed in there. Right. So a lot of times I feel like, I couldn't call myself artists and all that, that just a personal mind block, like a stupid mindset I've put on myself, so when I got into few gallery display, like winding Hong Kong, that was my first one and the other one was actual more like photography. That was a side-by-side a natural one, so it wasn't a digital composite for what I do, so I resonated with the polls should talk about this is where finally the older digital artists break into this space and compete, or be part of, our movement, being appreciated by each other and then supporting each other on the NFT movement.I don't know if coin movement is too crazy, but I think it is  the cool thing, what we're doing right now. Sorry. Go ahead.

Pierre Lambert: No, go ahead.

Ted Chin: I was just about to wrap up that part too, so for me getting on there, I just got lost in my thoughts of finally making it to this nifty space. I have a chance to show my art, so when the drop happened, when I saw the result, I was just screaming and jumping. I think my friend recorded my reaction on FaceTime, which I don't know what to say at that moment, but it was pretty funny. So, I was screaming, yelling, and then all my friends, my housemate would say, what is going on, and then my two other friends would say, wait what is it that fee, but I wanted to call them because they'd been there since day one, so I want to share this moment with you guys that even though you don't know what's going on so, when the whole thing happened, five minutes, I was still in shock, even till right now, you know? So just like, did this just happen? Does that mean,  I can take care of my parents for a little bit and then focus on making more arts and collaboration and am I at the spot? I'm comfortable to start to help all the other artists too, finally reaching there and then they being approved by this, so that's how I feel at that moment and my social posts, I can feel that,I think that's what most of the digital artists are feeling about it right now.

Pierre Lambert: I'm so happy for so many of you. I can't express it. I'm just so pumped. You have no clue because I have artist friends, whether they're painters or they do digital art and it's a tough game out there. It's a tough world. You mentioned being rejected by galleries, trying to find galleries that want to the ones that might want, you don't have buyers or not the right buyers, et cetera, and now finally finding that, that gateway for people who enjoy.

Ted Chin:  I do feel a little bit lucky sometimes because I do have a certain amount of social media followers on Instagram but, I do try my very best in art, ust produce cool art every other days a week, just trying to share my work on there and then to tell the world that, I got this skills, I got something to say,, I'm going to showcase my art and make you guys enjoy it. I wasn't really thinking too much, a part of me is always thinking that if someone would appreciate it and support me, that would be great. If not at this, I can make them just enjoy art because no matter what, I'm always going to do art. I think most artists, no matter what happened, we just really want to be passionate about creating art, so for me, that definitely got me noticed by some different brands and market like Photoshop work, have my photos on their splash screen,this year for the 2021 versions. The Flamingo cloud one. That's my work on photoshop Open it.

Pierre Lambert: I'm opening it right now.

Ted Chin: I feel super lucky. A lot of people didn't notice that.

Pierre Lambert: I know. it's written small. Sorry, Photoshop.

Ted Chin: I should have put up my Instagram and helped me out but my worst thing, so that helped a lot establish my work there but at the same time, I do feel that artists who didn't have enough time or energy to spread their work on social media. It's  a struggle, and also social media has driven so many artists crazy because of how fast this digital world's pace is and it's almost impossible to make great art every single day, unless you've been doing it for so long and then you got the skills and patience to do that. It's almost really hard to do that and maintain a very high quality. You are almost trying to produce, you please other people, but then you forget to focus on your stuff and make it better so,I had to battle with that and streak out a perfect balance and always remind me, you're doing this for you but you could try posting more every other week, but at the same time, I know that I can always produce the best work, and then I do feel bad. It's something I've made that is not really great, and I just put it on there, but at the same time, finally the conclusion. This is just social media and then this is my sketchbook, like I'm having fun. I want to have fun. I want people to have fun, look at my work too, so  when I overcome that part and then with our blog, sometimes I say, I'm just enjoying posting whatever I want and still want to make it cool and then collab with my artist friend, give feedback from there, because at the end of the day, like I want to improve myself to be better and be able to share.

Pierre Lambert: Do you feel like this is just the beginning of this NFT adventure? How'd you feel about it? 

Ted Chin: Definitely right now is at the beginning of it and everybody's super excited. Everybody got this energy to pop in. I was just in the club house room. Listen to Steve Aoki talking about his release and then he was talking about his journey as an artist, and then pandemic giving some time to explore his interest and the stuff you like to do, so he's actually really passionate about the stuff you do and then creating so I was said, wow, this is like really interesting. I never know by sight or that part about him because I always did hear his music. I say, that's cool and then talking about the cake hitting someone was a cool meme. That's a cool thing, but I never get to know about the past behind that, so that was a really cool experience. At the beginning of this movement, and then right now everybody is trying their best to support each other and retweet it. Some new artists would come into the space and try to see if they can buy and support it, or just share the news, you can see on Twitter almost every day, there's people just re-tweeting other artist's work and then sharing the news and then hopefully someone will buy it. There's also this few collectors on there, a crypto AAA. I think he mentioned that he owns it. He's only been in NFT space for two weeks, but he's literally buying everybody's outward, trapping crazy money to support all those artists, so that's like something really crazy to see. I'm super grateful, so yeah, there's a lot of things going on, and at same time, every industry is trying to figure out a different way to make NFT work, blow out the musician, selling the rights to his song to the top 33 bidder. Is it called bidder.? I think people, auctions. The highest steady three persons bid we'll get the, some to each other and I think I just saw like Tori Lance on Instagram that he was the first rapper to do the NFT art. Sorry, the music. Well, which is part of the art, but he has a soundtrack to that, and then maybe 350,000 profit right away. It was sold out, so knowing that this has gotta be a secondhand market and going on, they can take my percentage and stuff, and so on means that, that just doesn't stop at the first marketing. 

Pierre Lambert: Have you seen any of your pieces been flipped already? Are you aware of it? How does it work?

Ted Chin: Yes, so on nifty, they send me email every time there's a transaction going on and then my limited edition are actually flipping more, for example, it was sold for 750 so $150 for the 10 out of 10, but bought one for $9,000, so from there I actually take a 10, 12 percent from that. So I'm very thankful for that.

Pierre Lambert: Which is more than the original price. 

Ted Chin: Exactly, so every time someone buys something or sells something, I give that percentage as an artist, soI underestimate the power of secondhand marketing and what's going on,, even with open edition.  They're like $500, maybe 600 or whatever, but I was still get that $80 or $60 from that when someone's selling stuff and buying stuff, so that's a whole complete different market for me, I don't know if I should dive too deep in that, because at the end of the day, I always remind myself, I go back and make your work, that's why you're here for, you're not here to market everything, you're here to make cool art and collaborate and help all the artists. This whole week, that's what my head is processing.

Pierre Lambert: Which is okay. There is a time where you have to put on your business hat and there is a time where you have to put on your creator hat and you have to swap them, for a week you got to do business this week.

Ted Chin: I know exactly..

Pierre Lambert: See you in two months or  in a month and you go back to creating and it's beautiful knowing that once you're done with that, it has a dividend being paid off over time, which I think is going to completely change the game for many. In my opinion, just to give an idea to people. Are you comfortable if I just showed that? I mean, people can Google it, but I just want to give a little bit of an overview of the product.

Ted Chin: You can share the data because it's already over the internet.

Pierre Lambert: Yeah. So, there were two 10 limited additions that I saw for 750 each, so you can do the math, 750 times two, and then the birth of the Milky way bid, if I'm correct ,up to 20, what was it? 

Ted Chin: $27,000 in hot 100. It was crazy.

Pierre Lambert: What's that been like? What is happening here?

Ted Chin: I say, I keep going. Thank you.

Pierre Lambert: I know it's so flattering and then we have the two open additions, you had, let's round it to like 500 additions of each that were minted, so you do 500 times two. Five hundreds, because that was the price, and you get an idea and, I'm not sharing that because I think the numbers are cool. I just shared that because I think the opportunity and what it allows you, as you mentioned and how it pays off all those years. It was so difficult, you know? I know it's just so cool.

Ted Chin: I was starving and hardworking. I believe every art is out there and everyone who sit up on the field is the same way. I have to create every day, but at the same time, you have to try to pay the bills and everything, or just really burning yourself, and then just hope for the best, so when this opportunity happened, I think it just opened up the whole new world for everyone to give them another shot. Why not? We're already burning and doing what we love as well. I tried multiple different ways to seek a new opportunity.

Pierre Lambert: I don't know if it were me, it would free me up creatively. I don't have to think about the algorithms or whatever. There's finally a market where I can sell my art and there is. Let's just go back to the root of it, which is just creating and thinking about it. Who do you think those buyers are, by the way? Please go ahead.

Ted Chen: For the buyers, I do believe they are people who believe in this movement, people who have been believing in cryptocurrency since like 2015 or 2014, these people, the leader, the pioneer, who has always had faith in this, and then also our collector who just enjoy art and who also wants to help artists, and then there's definitely people who also see opportunity to make profit from this, but the coolest thing is that I love those people because every time they flip, the artists get a support. I find that a win-win situation for everybody, there is no losing to it, so whatever you invest, that's on your own risk and turn, I'm not giving you anything.People are telling the artist and creator, and most people are telling you that you should always buy art that resonate with you that speaks with you, you're buying because you actually love it, and if you want to flip it later om, that's your own business and stuff, but however you do, it will always be supporting the creator, which is super awesome, so that's fun that.

Pierre T. Lambert: What is cool about this space is that for you, Ted, even if tomorrow, the open editions, someone sold it for only a hundred dollars, I'm just taking that round number, you're still getting $10, so it doesn't matter if your art goes up all day, when it's being resold. It does it, but it doesn't, in a way you're still getting something out of it. You're still getting those royalties.

Ted Chin: Yeah. And if everything goes well until the day I die that I can still collect those works here.Right?

Pierre Lambert: Yes, and then you just give your wallet to someone else.

Ted Chin: Or I can buy more.

Pierre Lambert: IRS might be like, wait.

Ted Chin: Or I can just collect and buy more other artists' work, a way to help them, right now. I’m waiting until the funds being able to move around, that I can start putting stuff in my digital wallet that I'm probably going to start collecting my friends works first to help them out or any core individual artists out there that need some help but I still need to be financially responsible for myself and the future self, s I can go on a crazy shopping spree. My lifestyle is very simple. I spent about a hundred to $150 on groceries and they lasted me three to four weeks. I cook at home all the time and honestly, I'm not going to get a Lamborghini or anything. I'm still walking and taking ubers. I'll be financially responsible so I can actually focus on making art and then don't have to worry about others for maybe a year or two, so just focus on making cool art because at the end of the day, we are just enjoying creating, so hopefully this will run longer and then we'll sit in a good spot and comfortable.

Pierre Lambert: Yeah. That's the thing. If you've created art while living with the belt very tight on your belly, it's a French expression that I tried to translate. That sounds horrible, but if you're being very frugal and you are happy to live that lifestyle creating and that you were excited about creating, although it was challenging and all that, I feel like even if you have those opportunity come and also whether it goes up and down that creation will be something that will always be with you.It's not that a trader job and on wall street that you took, because it just pays off a lot of money, but accurately you don't want to do it. It doesn't matter how much I get paid in my life. I'm still going to do that.

Ted Chin: Yeah. Yes,  pretty much. I was talking with some friends, it doesn't matter, if the NFT didn't happen this week, it didn't happen at all. I'm still going to be doing what I do. We're always going to still be creating and making art at the end of the day.

Pierre Lambert: Yes, which is fascinating and cool. I'm just saying, it doesn't matter what I do. I'm still going and playing with my camera whenever I feel like it and whenever it's good, so I think that is the best form of creative expression is when you're not  driven by just a monetary aspect of the platform and I see it as a great way also, wait, tell me what are the most interesting projects you've seen recently and have you seen any photographer? just photographer, no digital transformation in terms of composites or whatever, have you seen some photography go around because I have not yet really seen anything.

Ted Chin: For interesting projects, there are so many different things I see on the internet every day, at the moment it was hard for me to track them, but I do know that a lot of artists are starting collaborating and then brainstorming and then coming up with cool ideas, and it's fantastic seeing things are happening, but I can't really name a particular project is, right now because there's so many things going on, on my mind I was just sit there, maybe I can find something to send to you after. If I find anything.

Pierre Lambert: Even if you have good artists that are going to drop something, feel free to share your friends.

Ted Chin: For photography, I do remember seeing one photographer have a time lapse,  that was one of the platforms, I forgot which photographer it was, but friends are actually putting their stuff on to see if it will work, they're pretty well-known photographers and videographers too, so hopefully it will work out.They're actually is a photographer, but it was more like collaboration, so it's not like a pure photo. There's like some duty options in there.

Pierre Lambert: Is that J.N.Silva. Thank you, ex.

Ted Chin: Yes, so that’s  a 3D movement into photography. I don't know if  I can categorize that as photography, but it is really cool way, because then you can see how digital artists and photographers can break that they almost don't meet, but they can break that world and then work together to produce something amazing, so that's that, but I think he Dave Krugman, he did photo collaboration with this 3D artists that turned his time-lapse to a cyberpunk city, which is super cool, and I'm on also two other platform, which is foundation and maker's place, so I was talking to my friend about collaboration ideas, but I think I'm going to invite one of them to the space because that other one wasn't available, but, he will be able to task out the photography part on the foundation there to see how well he's going to perform, but I think it's going to be like working for circus. Our other friend, she also put one of her paintings on there yesterday and then one of the other artists.  art. I think I keep portraying that name, but he just put one of his drawings there and I think it would just sell for a 150 if they're in coins or maybe it was $200,000 one on one edition. He's a very inspirational artist. I love his work and a lot of my friends like his work too, so he's  one of the painting makers out there. Now this is moving as a traditional artist or digital painter, that could work.

Pierre Lambert: Here's the question? 1, 2, 3, sometimes the software needs to reboot 50 questions pop in my mind at the same time, when we're talking about photography, I feel like a lot of photographer I talked to about so far, they're afraid that photography does not have a place because it's not animated because it's not moving because it's not digital, so for you, is that a valid concern?

Ted Chin: I understand where their concern comes from, and I have the same concern too, when I was doing my drop but at the same time, I think we have to think about shifting our perspective, this is so new to everyone, even the people who has been here for so long, they don't really know exactly the direction of NFT is going and how it could be used our life. like Steve Aoki’s room and Jake Paul, was talking about the kids growing up in this generation is always looking at their phone and using everything digitally so the way they think is going to be very different than how we think, because we grow up differently, so they will probably have more possibility of ideas how NFT, will be used in their life compared to most of us who are more used to physical life. However, I was chatting with my friend yesterday, we thought we come out with this million dollar idea, but I'm pretty sure someone else is probably making it already, but I was thinking, imagine an NFT social media app on your phone, and there you can just use it to follow creators and then  their stuff, and then you can bid on it or exchange, there'll be a wallet that you can carry around your phone, and then you can transfer, collect and sell right away. When you meet someone you can present on your phone or in a VR space or art argument, reality space projecting that together. Sau, Hey, check out this NFT and everybody can pull out their phone, receive and project something together, interact with it that way, or just be able to buy your favorite NFT from your artists for a quick $5 edition to help them out, say, Hey, I like your art, and let me buy something real quick tab on your phone, see this site, done deal.

Pierre Lambert: That makes sense. I can see how that would be a real helpful way 

Ted Chin: Make sure you put that part on the pocket, just in case, when that happened, we saw that, we were talking about that.  I will talk about it, so smell the marketing of NFT direction, but that was one of the things we were talking about, so I told my friend, Hey, uh, what was happening? That he should probably make a prototype for his portfolio because that'd be something really interesting how he will be using, and then in the one of the music rooms, um, I think Blau was in there and they would just turn it by, imagine you were like performing on the stage. People who are watching can just scan the QR code, the first a hundred people get this special token that could be rewarded for private party performers or like signed prints or digital music next release or whatsoever, so that's where the music part is, that's the way they do stuff. That is involved. There's different kinds of things, maybe, especially I have tea for free drinks and tokens, everything is just digitized, then you don't have to like, carry it. Remember, when you go to the party, you have to pay the bills at the front door and then they give you something like free ticket. You have to hang, hold it there and now you lost it. You say, I lost my free drinks, but now it's just everything, a little full or hands is tab on it because you can just claim your tokens and you know, like nobody have to worry about this anymore.

Pierre Lambert: Yes.

Ted Chin: It’s a whole wide picture out there. it's just so many options.it's so crazy, but at the same time, I can only focus on so much.

Pierre Lambert: I know. You said you've been involved in clubhouse and clubhouses, it's so time consuming.

Ted Chin: I know it's crazy how much energy people have there. I was really surprised at the same time. I was talking with my friend this whole week. After Monday, I would say, I want to be there. I want to talk to people, connect with artists and do cool stuff, and then I have this fear of missing out, not meeting quarters and won't be on Twitter, Discord, stay active in front of the buyers, but at the same time, this started burning me and then, I'm feeling tired everyday, and when I wake up, there's so many stuff, stop, I need to do, I'm excited for it, but I can only do so much, and then I'll say, okay just go back and do your art and just relax. This is like only for a few days, things like this happened, right? Like the future.

Pierre Lambert: Celebrate, disappear, br the artist no one knows how to reach out to that. Drop something every six months.

Ted Chin: I could go right back again.

Pierre Lambert: Everyone's saying, oh my God, he's going to zip here for another six months.

Ted Chin:   He’s going to disappear, like a full new creator. Who brings you the dream?

Pierre Lambert: Yes, so cool. How do you see yourself evolve, right now? there is something to the photography a little bit. 

Ted Chin: Photography. I think that the market is opened up. I see a lot of more different kinds of diverse artists jumping in, which is great, because we want people to use and get used to the system, I think we're still waiting for some of the big-name that's already in the photography community to start their first NFT collaboration or just NFT release to show the world that, hey, we can do this too. We can be part of this movement, maybe there's a lot of people doing it already. I don't follow much, which is great. I haven't seen any big, crazy name, like Chris Picard or a solo track or something, or these crazy things, so I don't know how specific it's going to be and then you're going to also include portrait artists and then product art is, and then photography artists that want to be part of the digital movement too. I do think the market is going to open up. There's going to be more diversity, different things people can buy, and most of the NFT are expensive. Of course, I understand that this is one kind of limited edition on the, this will be created, so if you do believe in artists and can help, that's a great investment to help them but I do believe that later on the price of NFT will be more affordable or there will be added that's more budget-friendly to people who just have $20 or $60 to buy and support the artists of what traditional artists been doing, releasing prints, no car postcard, anything that's something more affordable to reach, a wider audience than compared to right now, super exclusive and very rare because eventually I think it would be like everybody can afford it and buy and help out, help each other out, so that's a whole different direction that people are seeing and gassing or like collecting data from there.

Pierre Lambert: Yes. I'm so curious because I think it's going to change a lot. That's why I was asking you a little bit about the buyer, like who is the buyer because these prices are high. Let's be real. I mean, you and me, we would look at that maybe before you drop, you'd say, that's deep, how am I going to justify that?

Ted Chin: Right. I think, back to ground zero, art is very subjective, so if you think it's worth it for you and it's a good investment, and you have the ability and comfortable, and once you help the artists out, you can buy it, but if you don't have the budget for it, but you want to help the artists that you can share. Somebody who’s rich will help you to help them. Sharing is always important for artists because we want to expose our work to more people and stuff, so sharing is also a way to help them out and like it and engage with the artists, but if you don't have any of those, I would advise you to be wise when you invest into NFT. There are people who believe some of the names dropped in addition are rare. They can flip that, but that's people who are more comfortable doing marketing and stock investing and all of that, which I'm not so special at, and as we talked before, I didn't know what NFT worlds' collector was, so when I was releasing my still image, I was really worried about it, but turned out, I think right now is a stage that, we are just helping each other out with artists and then collectors want to help out too, and then they want to change this whole NFT world, so I think we're at the point that everyone's open-minded to explore and then to buy and collect and then we will see from here, so at this moment today, as we talking, that's how I feel about it, very supportive community, everyone helping each other and seeking for the next stage, but tomorrow, maybe the week after that could change the whole thing. Right? A week before, I didn't know I was going to do a big drop with nifty, and then a week later, on Friday hanging out with a lot of people, making all this new connection. I didn't know that was going to happen, so, for a collector, what kind of collector was there, so this is almost like when we build our social media, what kind of audience we want, so just stay true to yourself, your art style and your work, then you'll attract those buyers from it, there's no purpose of changing your art to please more collector. I mean, of course, that's a different way to do it. You can choose that route, there's no problem with that, but, at the end of the day, you will feel happier staying true to yourself, right?

Pierre Lambert: It's better to do something you enjoy getting paid less and being happy.

Ted Chin: That’s why we're cutting that part out right now. We're just telling you that you can be happy doing what you want and get paid for all the people who appreciate and want to support you.

Pierre Lambert: Yeah. That's a big piece, and I feel that there was a lot of crypto money where people didn't know what to do with it. In the sense, it’s not that, I don't know what to do with my millions of Eve. It's more like, I might be one of those tech guys. I actually don't care about putting a frame, but I've been into neon cuts for my whole life and sending it as jokes to my friends, and I actually bought Bitcoins in 2008 and Ethereum in 2013, and now they're saying, well, let's go support them.

Ted Chin: There's that, and also I was in another room talking yesterday or two days ago with Bella Kotak and Tetrick, I don't know if you are familiar with their work, Aaron knows them too. They are photographers who fly portraits.

Pierre Lambert: You said, Bella and Patrick?

Ted Chin: Yeah. Patrick? I don't know. Let’s see if II can see how to spell her name,  B E L L A K O T A K.

Pierre Lambert: Bella Kotak.

Ted Chin: Yeah. There you go. How to butcher your friend's name 1 0 1, present to you by Ted Chin.

Pierre Lambert: It's the Instagram tag, we have a problem with. Let's make you feel better.

Ted Chin: Her and her husband, I believe they are married. They are partners. They're the best thing ever because she shoots, he shoots, he also does retouching and they're both amazing artists. A great team. They invited me to be their guest on one of the photography community talks that were about photography in the future and about NFT, so we went over a lot of topics, a lot of things, and then we talk about how to have a healthy mindset in this world. Don't expect too much, don't expect that you're going to make a million dollars or $10,000 on your first release. Do invest wisely. Don't expect it, but believe in yourself that it is going to do well, but you have to have a healthy mindset, you can dream and then push to your goal, but don't jump at that whole thing because it's going to be the classic Greek mythology, with the wax queen, you fly too close to the sun and I don't know if that's correct.

Pierre Lambert: Yeah, it's a great metaphor there, and I'll add another one which is this saying, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Ted Chin: Kind of staying to that mindset, in the middle, the balance. I don't know if it would be called graze but that balance of mindset, stay calm, be the regular self, and then just a, you know, as you say, hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and then pick out what kind of work you want to establish, what kind of buyer you want to attract, what kind of people you want to show, imagine you're presenting your work for the first time to this group of people, how do you show them, what kind of work you do and who you are in the most visual pleasant pleasure with, how do you get them to understand you without saying anything, and then I think that's, what's very important. 

Pierre Lambert: That's awesome. I love it. Ted, Thank you so much for all the tips. I want to be your time. We could go on for hours.

Ted Chin: We could go on for 10 hours and stop it and then there'll be a clubhouse.Do you have any other specific questions that you want to ask? before we wrap it up, something I have to answer?

Pierre Lambert: Yes. think honestly, and that's what I'm doing right now. I'm just educating myself on the space. I'm trying to understand how it is, how I can fit in. I have ideas that I think are really cool. I don't necessarily want to talk about them publicly yet because I have no clue if they're possible, so even technically speaking about how it's being built. I think the most questions I asked people in my circles, like what are your questions? I want to understand, because I did a ton of research, but a lot of people see it without any knowledge whatsoever. They just see that Bitcoin is up and Ethereum is up and difference is told by some, and now they're seeing everyone's talking about the NFTs and what are we talking about, so  I was trying to bring some clarity to people around it and also share you as an artist. I don't really care that you did the NTF or not. It just put me on my radar again, because I told you I've seen your stuff before, and I don't even know how I saw, by the way, that you did the NFT job. I have no clue. I just remember one thing leading to another, and I might have been browsing around. 

Ted Chin: I'm just everywhere. Walking around in the background, casually passing by. 

Pierre Lambert: It's awesome to actually share that and most of them wanted to share your story around it because, as an artist, like, what does it mean for you? How did you get there? I think it's inspiring for a lot of people and it's gonna help a lot of people educate themselves on that question and most importantly, what I wanted to make sure that everyone gets away with, and this is what I'm working on right now. It's like trying to understand, not just because everyone's dropping stuff, they don't have FOMO about it. try to understand yourself as an artist and the brand you want to showcase, because this is almost like launching your first exhibition, so you want to have something solid that you’re believing in and that you enjoy, not just like whatever. What place do you think, I think we mentioned a bunch, but I was just thinking if we should direct people to one place or another look into things, or look into artists or what's being made, so we mentioned the foundation. the app, we mentioned nifty gateway.com, would you have other sites that people should check out if they're trying to run around.

Ted Chin: Let’s see. SuperRare.co, and makersplace.com and then rariboe, R A R I B L E.com. If you type in the NFT platform, this will pop up and also open sea, but do also remember that every time you try to do mint, which is creating an empty token, there is a gas fee to work to the servers, not to the platform, but the servers, and that number changes depending on how busy it is, the day, the time.

Pierre Lambert: Just to get an idea to people, sorry, I'm interrupting you. Gas fee, again, we're repeating here, but this is how much the network needs resources and gets rewarded for going through with your transaction. All those people compete. It's not people, all those computers that are on the network are actually going to help create that token, So it's as if you had minions forging, and you're giving them a piece of a coin for doing it, so the more people, the more it's going to be expensive, it's like the highway, when it's gets slow when there are too many cars on the highway. Now, for every transaction, when you use the blockchain, you have to pay those gas fees. Fun story, I  was looking at crypto kitties just for fun, because it's a cheap thing that you can buy, if you want to just understand how to buy something with Ethereum and the transaction was like maybe 20 kittie, and the transaction fee, which is the gas price, it has nothing to do with the platform. It doesn't go anywhere. It's completely decentralized, just go to every machine that helped finalize that transaction. It was around $27. It cost me $27 to buy something for $20 just to give an idea. 

Ted Chin: There's a first guest fee, and then I think there's another fee falling after that for create, I forgot what it was, also when you put your stuff out there people buy straight or put a bid on it. if it buys straight and the buyer pays the fee for you, but if you put it onto an auction and somebody bids it, then the creator has to pay the second fee when they bought it. What else do they need to know? Let's see.I do hear, there's people trying to cancel bid or like turn to low blow. I don't know. There's a whole different kind of scam thing going on, so just be careful. it does cause a little bit much to minting your addition, so make sure you are playing the whole thing wisely before you create your first one because you don't want your art stuck there and it can’t be able to sell to anyone

Pierre Lambert: That's the one question that I didn't mention, it was actually Toby, I think you know, Tobi Shinobi and he was asking, should I, can I mint something today, or should I wait until I know exactly which one is the first one I want to mint. Does it have an impact or is it just when you're going to list it, that it has an impact? Meaning, let's say, just for fun, although it's going to cost you money, can you mint 10 things just to see how it works, and then your first piece that's publicly released is independent of the first one.

Ted Chin: Yeah. I would say do that. It's like a teaser, if you can do it, you can do it for fun as a teaser and then hype it before something you drop a huge collection and stuff. You also want to attract people to come to do it, so I would suggest I put one, two something on there if you could show it to them

Pierre Lambert: Do you have to list them? Because I feel that people were talking about the value of it being the first.

Ted Chin: I don't know from a different perspective, because my first one, I knew it was going to have a lot of people watching me, but if your first one, you're not so sure, you can always do a test, but still be like a strong piece, maybe not your top three, but your top 10 or your top 15 they'll work as an introduction to you, like a trailer to a good movie, but, that could be a whole different kind of debating and how people want to like talk about it. I don't have enough knowledge of that yet, so maybe in these few days, I would test it out, dropping something on foundation or in the maker's place to see if it's going to work and maybe no one's going to buy or bid on it.

Pierre Lambert: I'm curious and we'll try to add some resources in the link.

Ted Chin: If you do that, if you do want to put something for fun, make sure you do put the floor cap on it, make sure all your stuff is above going to be above that price because you don't want that piece particularly to track your range down.

Pierre Lambert: I'm going to try to turn that question in a way that everyone can understand because I am confused about it. If I connect to the open sea or rariboe and I'm creating a piece now. I'm minting it. Is it automatically listed to my account publicly or can it be private like no one knows I mint this stuff?

Ted Chin:  I am not so sure about that, but I do see some people put it on their website, but it's not available to buy. You can make an offer or ask the artists, but they just keep on there and then tell you how much this price is reserved, but it's not open for bid or buy, so you can see it, but you can do anything with it.

Pierre Lambert: Got it. Interesting. There's a lot of technical stuff that I think a lot. 

Ted Chin:  I know, this is a whole new platform. Every platform has a different rule and how they do things and different kinds of buyer creators, audiences there. It's pretty crazy. 

Pierre Lambert: The last question, did the platform take fees?

Ted Chin: Yes. Every platform takes different fees, nifty do have a fee on it, I don't know if I can say it. I think I say it somewhere else, but now I don't know if it's against saying it,  but they do take a fee.

Pierre Lambert: Maybe a range, 10 to 50%.

Ted Chin: Yes, they do. It's between 10 to 20 something, but it's between that. It's very different. And then the secondary market has a second fee too, but that's negotiable. 

Pierre Lambert: That's public guys, by the way, you just take any of the pieces, you look for the token for those, and you go to ETH scan, ETH scan, ether scanner, I can’t remember the website and you can see the transaction and how that contract was built and you should be able to see those addresses and who benefits from it. A lot of details already on some pieces back in when it was.

Ted Chin: Yeah, made you take a feed, but at the same time, I think part of those feed goes to your minted feed, because they didn't charge you when you create, and then they create such a huge amount of peace tokens in five minutes, so they crashed the same multiple times when mine was lunch, which I was kind of upset about it, but it was still good, because a lot of people come in to buy, but at the same time, I know they have set out, as I say, is it good or bad way, I don't know, but it was a great success for me and my journey so far, so I appreciate everything that has happened this week.

Pierre Lambert: Ted, I want to be mindful, where should people find you?

Ted Chin:  I'm active on Instagram and you can find most of my social media at Ted's little dream, there's no.com. Sorry, I don't know why I just say .com. That's a website, but Ted's little dream is tagged there. You can find me on Twitter,  Facebook, Instagram, and Discord. There's a different number on there and then most of the social media are the type that you can find me, but I'm active on Instagram, getting into Twitter because that's where most of the community is, and then, if you are interested, you can also find each of these platforms, it has their discourse servers that you can join in there. You can find all the buyers and creators, you can talk with them, gain knowledge, check out secondhand marketing, and everything you can find there.

Pierre Lambert: Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much, Ted. I think we should do around two in a few weeks slash months whenever things either settle. 

Ted Chin: One week later, I lost everything. I disappeared. NFTmarket crash. Nothing worked out. This is all a scam, it was crazy.

Pierre Lambert: Exactly. It's like, oh my God.COVID was a joke.

Ted Chin: I know, what is going on the whole NFT and CoVid is related.

Pierre Lambert: That's awesome. It's great talking to you and once more, I’m super happy for you. And I'm just super pumped for that opportunity you had an interest in. I’m happy for you, man. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, everyone. Have a beautiful day and we'll talk to you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening before you go. Would you like to receive once a week, a free short email with my top five inspirations photos with settings gear?

I've loved that. And what I've been watching, reading, or listening to that inspired my work in my life lately. If you wanted to just go to dot com for such top-five and you will be in every week, you will receive that short email to set you off on the good five for the weekend and inspire you now with that being said, have an amazing day. I'll talk to you in the next episode.  Bye.

The Pierre T. Lambert Podcast is where Pierre interviews the best creatives in the world to share their tips and stories. Enjoy & spread the word to your friends about this podcast! Pierre T. Lambert is a travel & adventure photographer & YouTuber followed by over 1,000,000 people. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.