'Using Public Infrastructure to Handle Ownership Rights': Interview with Sillytuna

In decentralization, we trust, and in our community, we believe!

This interview is part of the #Decentralized-Internet writing contest! For those who are reading about it for the first time, HackerNoon has built a partnership with Everscale (Formely Free Ton) - a decentralized, community-powered blockchain movement for free internet! This is the last month to participate in the contest. You can see all #Decentralized-Internet stories here.

So without further ado, let’s start the interview.

Thank you for joining us! Please tell us about yourself.

I’m Sillytuna and I’ve been involved in the NFT space since 2014. I’m probably best known for selling the covid alien cryptopunk at Sothebys but I’ve actually been involved with crypto and NFT startups for many years.

Let's discuss centralized internet first. What is your opinion on the centralized internet? What are its pros/cons?

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with centralized products. They tend to be easy to use, run by known entities, and legally compliant. However, there are increasing issues of trust with our data, while digital property rights are heavily in favor of marketplaces rather than creators or users.

What does decentralization mean to you?

My primary area of interest is in the area of property rights. Decentralization allows us to use public infrastructure to handle ownership rights. That public infrastructure is run in a way that benefits its users due to the incentive layer as opposed to centralized infrastructure which is run by for-profit companies. They are not incentivized towards long-term innovation and user benefits, only in the short term.

How does decentralization change the internet?

Internet protocols are public infrastructure but internet apps and data are not. Decentralization changes that by adding another layer.

What is the best thing about decentralized internet?

Decentralization hands power back to users, whoever they may be.

Are you currently directly or indirectly working on the decentralized internet use case? We would love to know more about it.

Sploot is a 100% community-managed parody sports project. All funds belong to the community who then decide how to spend it. That a bunch of anonymous people can collectively and safely manage large amounts of money is something that only crypto allows.

The Sploot community includes writers, artists, musicians, marketers, designers, developers, and sports fans trying to make a new world of narrative-based parody sports by starting with the core assets - players, fans, and staff. Sploot has commissioned two games, one with an experienced game developer, and will issue NFTs and teams to be used across multiple games. All of this without a company, regular profit motive, and more or less done on a volunteer basis. We’re partnering with numerous other sports projects to make their NFT holders part of this too. Collaborations FTW!

Soulcast will provide 2d and 3d artists with a new way to issue content and for their collectors to personalize their digital gear - from skateboards and game characters to sculptures and PFPs. This gear can potentially be used across multiple applications in AR, VR, and virtual worlds.

I also work on multiple generative art projects and Clodhoppers, an 8 player stop-motion brawler.

What are the biggest challenges in the way of the decentralized web?

User experience, scaling, wallet security.

Do you have any apprehension or fear related to the decentralization of the internet?

It can be used for ill as well as good due to its permission-less nature.

How do you see the future of the decentralized internet?

I’m hopeful we’ll see a lot more centralized companies building on the back of decentralized infrastructure, giving the user more control.