Taking Auction Houses to the 21st Century With Portion CEO Jason Rosenstein

Jason is the CEO and founder of Portion, a 21st-century auction house for rare, high-end NFT art, music, and collectibles.

Portion connects artists and collectors through blockchain technology to easily sell, invest and own art and collectibles with verified authenticity and tracked provenance.

In this slogging ama, we chatted to Jason about his platform, his background, and the future of NFTs

This Slogging thread by Jack Boreham, Jason Rosenstein, Mónica Freitas, and Sara Pinto occurred in slogging's official #amas channel, and has been edited for readability.

Jack BorehamApr 19, 2022, 6:31 PM

Hi, great to have you with us! Can you tell us about your journey and background and how it led to founding Portion?

Jason RosensteinApr 19, 2022, 7:15 PM

Hi Jack Boreham! Thanks so much for having me today. I don’t like talking about myself too much but in the hopes that this information is useful I’ll do my best :).

Portion to me was a culmination of past projects, having been passionate about the crypto space since 2011. It is my third start-up, the last two both having done well and were of blockchain application.

Portion began as a way to verify and track the authenticity of physical art and collectibles but quickly transitioned to digital art in early 2017 when I became an anonymous digital artist creating Rare Pepes. They were just called crypto art back then before “nft” was standardized.

I am a developer and entrepreneur and have enjoyed the roller coaster ride of uncertainty, stress, and accomplishment in the start up world. Never giving up was key, and being persistent and passionate is what has paid off.

Jack BorehamApr 20, 2022, 12:42 PM

Awesome! So why did you create Portion? Did you see a gap in the market? As there are plenty of marketplaces out there

Mónica FreitasApr 20, 2022, 1:51 PM

Hi! What spiked your interest in NFTs?

Sara PintoApr 20, 2022, 4:38 PM

Hey, glad to have you here! Could you explain the $prt token and its utility?

Jason RosensteinApr 20, 2022, 4:44 PM

Jack Boreham There weren’t at the time. In 2016 we had “NFTs” on a mobile apps and web3 smart contract. Truly were the first to do it on Ethereum. But to your point, other prominent marketplaces filled the gap before we could. This was because we lacked funding and didn’t time the opportunity with precision.

Today we stand out by being an “auction house” rather than the marketplace. More of a high quality curated experience with rare collaborations of artists. Also a differentiator is the metaverse studio side, where we build out storefronts and experiences in Decentraland to coincide with any drop we have at the time.

Jason RosensteinApr 20, 2022, 4:46 PM

Mónica Freitas I got interested in NFTs in 2016 before we called them NFTs because it was the next wave of blockchain usecases.

My interested spiked when I began to make some of the early NFTs in the “rare Pepe” project. These were early NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Jason RosensteinApr 20, 2022, 4:52 PM

Sara Pinto good question

$prt provides:

Jack BorehamApr 20, 2022, 5:28 PM

Can you give us some examples of artists you've collaborated with to sell pieces of NFT art?

Jason RosensteinApr 20, 2022, 6:05 PM

Jack Boreham, some of my favorites were Tohi, 2chainz, wiz khalifa, apl (from black-eyed peas), Stevie Williams & Virgil Abloh. For most, we paired these guys with prominent nft artists who then collaborated together to make their pieces.

Jack BorehamApr 20, 2022, 6:31 PM

Interesting what were conversations like? are there any requirements for this kind of collaboration?

Jason RosensteinApr 21, 2022, 1:26 AM

The only requirement was really unique nft collabs that will never happen again. Rare, innovative, and groundbreaking are key. One of my favs was GucciGhost’s piece with 2chainz. Music, art, and tech were combined to make it happen: https://blog.portion.io/2-chainz-x-guccighost-celebrate-4-year-anniversary-of/amp/

Jack BorehamApr 21, 2022, 8:42 AM

fascinating! So what's next for Portion? Anything in development for your platform?

Mónica FreitasApr 21, 2022, 1:55 PM

That's awesome! There are already a lot of different uses for NFTs, and there are a few more being created using interoperability. What future use are you more excited about?

Jason RosensteinApr 21, 2022, 4:29 PM

Jack Boreham, thanks; we are focusing on developing out metaverse experience to coincide with auctions on the platform. There are some truly amazing brandsm, and artists we have partnered with that’ll be announced in the next month. The most major focus will be building out the $prt ecosystem with more utility.

Jason RosensteinApr 21, 2022, 4:31 PM

Mónica Freitas, I am most excited about how the metaverse begins playing a larger role in virtual “ownership”. As VR headset gear gets more popular and NFTs begin to represent more of our digital assets, there is a truly fascinating possible future where the metaverse closer and closer assimilates to feeling like regular reality. NFTs will play a crucial role.

Jack BorehamApr 21, 2022, 4:31 PM

Great! How will you go about building out your ecosystem with better utility?

Jason RosensteinApr 21, 2022, 4:33 PM

Many varieties and combinations. For instance, the community of token holders is most important. So we might partner with a well know artist and simply commission them and send free NFTs to everybody who owns $prt. We will open up staking so that $prt holders can receive a percentage of the platform revenue. Collectors will always be able to use $prt to purchase an artist’s work and have no fees

Mónica FreitasApr 21, 2022, 4:51 PM

What are your tips for someone trying to start creating NFTs?

Jason RosensteinApr 21, 2022, 6:58 PM

Mónica Freitas, it’s best to be authentic, to follow your passion, and make sure that value is created while ensuring the rightful ethics are utilized. There are more and more “cash grabs” in the nft space lately that ruins the true magic for everyone else.

Jack BorehamApr 22, 2022, 12:05 PM

On the topic of user-created NFTs. Any projects you’ve personally got your eye on?

Mónica FreitasApr 22, 2022, 2:07 PM

That's a great point! I've also read that there are a lot of scams starting involving NFTs. Are there any tips you might have for NFT buyers that want to support artists without falling into a scam? How to distinguish a legit NFT from a scam?

Jason RosensteinApr 25, 2022, 4:07 PM

Jack Boreham yes we’ve got some amazing pieces in here he photography nft collection being unveiled today. Check them out at http://portion.io

Jason RosensteinApr 25, 2022, 4:09 PM

Mónica Freitas unfortunately, there are some scams. It comes down to personal investigation and research. Check out the community, the social media pages, and the overall “vibe." If people tell you you’re going to make “money”, it’s usually a scam. Follow what feels right and buy an NFT for what it offers beyond any financial stipulations.

Jack BorehamApr 25, 2022, 7:34 PM

Thank you, ! It's been great having you here. Any closing remarks for our readers?

Jason RosensteinApr 26, 2022, 1:15 AM

Thanks so much for having me!! Closing remarks- stay authentic, follow ur passion and DYOR