Jokong and Rikong are the proud founders of Ape Gang, a PFP project started on May 4th, 2021, and minted in June 2021. Ape Gang has grown over the past year, and it’s now a decentralized global brand with an ecosystem fueled by its own $GANG utility token, with which one can breed and fuse NFTs. At present, there are almost 4000 owners. In addition, every Ape Gang NFT is unique and an entry ticket to a brand with a fantastic community and activities spanning from gaming, merchandise, a 3D metaverse, educational content, and more. Ape Gang jumped from metaverse and NFT creators to sponsors of a major NFT summit, the Non-fungible Conference, in Lisbon, Portugal, on April 4th and 5th, 2022. Hackernoon hopped at the chance of getting an exclusive interview with the two founders, Jokong and Rikong, who were kind enough to share with us Ape Gang’s latest news and initiatives, as well as insights on their background and their experience as NFC sponsors. About the Founders Jokong and Rikong started as IT students and coders, with Jokong stepping into teaching and Rokong focusing on his marketing agency. Both were involved in crypto long before but only in 2021 did they take their first stab into the NFT world. Noticing the growing trend of non-fungible tokens and taking advantage of their love for pixelized art, the co-founders started Ape Gang. First, a PFP project, pushed by the engaged community that wanted more of the project, Ape Gang scaled up and developed it into a metaverse. Ape Gang went from a two-person project to a nearly ten-person team with employees worldwide, from Dubai and Singapore to London and Los Angeles. What markets are NFTs impacting? The NFC sponsors consider that NFTs are going global, touching everything from sports and gaming to the publishing market and charity. For example, Ape Gang is collaborating with UNICEF, having donated 20 ETH to support the preservation and protection of the Amazon rainforest and continuing efforts to action NFTs to raise money for similar initiatives. Our guests also highlighted that NFTs are meant to be acknowledged as an art form beyond their practical usage, thus changing the current paradigm. On the other hand, the reason why many companies are still shying away from investing in NFTs is, from Rikong and Jokong’s point of view, taxes. According to their experience, trying to profit with crypto in France takes a massive toll on a company, with the government requiring significant taxes, which scares brands away. Yet, some big names are coming into play, such as NIKE, Gucci, Elixir, etc., using NFTs to connect physical items with metaverses. How can events such as NFC make a difference for businesses, artists, and the general public? Being a sponsor doesn’t mean you’re famous - that’s a point our guests made sure to make. In reality, Ape Gang is still in its early stages, still anonymous. That’s why summits like NFC are crucial to Jokong and Rikong, as it represents a chance to show up and show their faces, and it’s a significant social proof. The Non-fungible Conference is also particularly proliferous in network creation, allowing brands, artists, and other elements from the community to meet and learn about what each party does and how they can collaborate in the future. Plus, the NFC also helped many individuals showcase their collections and trade, meet investors, and get their names out there, which is also true for the NFC sponsors. In fact, during the NFC Summit, they met their collectors for the first time, coming from all around the world: LA, Virginia, London, Manchester, etc. However, one thing that separates our sponsors from the general community: is the time and money invested in the NFC. From making an appearance in podcasts such as NFT Morning, and risking their projects’ economic stability for an NFT summit, being a sponsor represented a considerable challenge for Ape Gang founders, requesting their time, dedication and resources. Nevertheless, it appears our guests wouldn’t back down from a challenge. On the contrary, they were genuinely pleased with the outcome, affluence, and opportunity to introduce their initiatives. Why should people get involved with NFTs? As NFTs expand, partaking in movies, theaters, emails, and profile pictures, Jokong and Rikong believe that people should jump to NFTs as soon as possible, just as they have done with crypto and blockchain. An early start will help get better acquainted with the ecosystem, take advantage of the many possibilities that come with NFTs, and make good things with them and evolve. Moreover, the technology behind NFTs may become significant to IP in the future, which is also another green flag for NFTs. Nonetheless, our guests underline the risks involved with NFTs and Web3, such as online scams and dangers, and the extra concern one must have to ensure their wallet is protected. As for profiting out of NFT, Jokong compares it to gambling: you bet on a project and can’t predict whether it will grow or fail. So, his advice it’s as follows: Most of the time, you're going to lose money. And if you're starting to chase money everywhere, you will lose more. So buy an NFT because you love it and you trust the project, and then you’ll draw less focus on getting more and more money, which will help you make better decisions. Lastly, if you, our reader, even wondered if NFTs will ever get the same prestige as classical art pieces, Ape Gang’s founders have an answer. In their opinion, the NFTs market is vast, with a lot of money involved, which means there’s room for growth and recognition of NFTs as actual pieces of art. And even though there’s a lot of fear around fakes and scams, the same could be said about famous paintings: you can screenshot an NFT the same way you can take a picture of a Picasso, and you can buy a fake NFT just like you can buy a replica of a painting. At the end of the day, with an NFT, you’ll have a certificate and the code behind it that proves one’s ownership over the NFT, and that’s why Non-fungible tokens can flip to the same status in the long-term as classical art. Ape Gang’s exclusive announcements After such an insightful interview, Ape Gang’s co-founders have also let us in on their latest and future releases: Ape Gang’s alpha test of Play and Earn has just been released; An entire ecosystem of exotic animals (Apes, Toucans, Jaguars) was inaugurated on April 15th; Apes can now also form gangs and fight each other to take control over the Ape City; There is a new version coming on mobile and Q2. These are only a few of the many new releases Ape Gang has to offer. 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