Scabanel 🔳

— Caroline is probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and her kindness and intelligence are just as extraordinary. You really have to meet her to believe it.

Art does not need permission. Correct. But - Recognition does. You can make whatever you want. But you cannot make the market care. The market reads signals to assign value: who collects you, how many followers you have, who puts their reputation behind your work, previous prices, trading volume, etc. Those signals shape what gets called “quality” - and what attracts liquidity. Everyone hates gatekeeping until the right person opens a door for them personally. The irony of Ossen’s post is that they’re rallying people against gatekeepers while holding gatekeeping power themselves. If Ossen sweeps your collection, that endorsement can shift how the market sees your work overnight. So while it may feel cathartic to find a common enemy in “gatekeepers” like 6529, Cozomo, and - dare I say - Ossen's favourite collecting platform SuperRare, where the house eats 15% of all primary sales Those platforms charge those fees for that exact reason: the promise is access, visibility, and the credibility of their endorsement. Whether they deliver enough to justify those fees is the only real argument here. But trying to make a common enemy of them is potentially the biggest waste of time for everyone in the nft art space. So what do you do as an artist? IMO, you shouldn’t mistake gatekeepers for the entire explanation of why your work hasn’t succeeded. It’s a tough pill to swallow: but how you’ve played the game may have more to do with your market results than you want to admit. The market isn’t judging your art and your story in isolation. It’s judging the signals around them. And that is where you should focus if you really want to make it as an artists in cypto. tut™

Artists’ reactions to Ossen: If Ossen doesn’t buy their art: “Just another whale using his buying power to get attention. He’ll probably go back to extracting value from people at some point.” If Ossen buys their art: “Everyone needs to appreciate what Ossen is doing. He’s supporting artists, challenging old conventions, bringing fresh perspectives to the space, and redefining what art collecting can look like.” Funny how the narrative changes depending on whether you benefit from it.

Normies, builders community. Come build with us.

Sometimes I’m really not sure if I belong here in Web3. There are people here who seem to have an endless supply of money—I don’t. There are many artists whose work I would love to collect, but I simply can’t. And because of that, I’m unable to make any kind of impact here. 1/2