rth24.eth

Web1 was about the aggregation and consumption of information. Web2 was about the creation of it, where everyone got the chance to connect with one another, got the chance to create memories, connections, and a platform to channel their thoughts, their creativity, into a digital output, but always under the umbrella of someone else.

Web3 gives users the chance to have ownership of what we do on the internet. It’s an extremely summarized statement of everything that Web3 is capable of, but then again, there’s so much to explain of it too.

There are the earliest adopters who are part of building it, since years, because everything new takes years of time and efforts to develop, it takes time to get into the mainstream, and then it picks up speed.

Then there are those at the second and third stages, who start understanding it at a little later point in time and join the path. Finally, it hits the mainstream when everyone knows they are in it or have to be in it, to proceed further.

There’s so much in Web3, and so much elsewhere that connect somewhere or the other, and amount to one big picture. Whether it’s cryptocurrencies, or NFTs, or the Metaverse, Tokens, DAOs, VR, AR, so much is being developed and so much is either happening now or will happen at a much larger scale in the future.

While today’s post is not one to get into the depth of those things, it’s about an entry point, an early recognition of someone being a part of Web3, someone who believes in it, and that’s having a .eth domain.

Where you don’t have to keep creating accounts everywhere, where you don’t have to fill in your account details everywhere, where you don’t have to send email addresses and what not to people to send you something, there’s going to be a .eth domain for everyone.

Users, brands, organizations have one now or will have it sooner or later, and that applies to everyone. The technological aspect of it is such that it’s a no-brainer to not have one and going to be used by the majority of us in a few years, probably.

And as much use case as it has, right now, in the current time, it also is an icon of recognition of someone who is a part of/ a believer of Web3, and that says a lot when the community is still small, which ultimately makes it easier to connect.

I, personally, have been a spectator for a while, just trying to grasp what I’ve been seeing, and now trying to get in the space as well. There’s no better understanding of anything in this space than doing it practically… Thus, having a couple of NFTs myself, understanding the platform, the community approach, the usability, the impact of it.

Moreover, super glad to have a friend like Pratik Gandhi (let’s hope he wouldn’t mind me using his name here), who gave me this rather amazing surprise of gifting me this domain, in a way letting me have such a good headstart in the space. So if you’re reading this, thank you very much.

For everyone else, there’s never too early, never too late, there’s so much to learn, so much to understand in this space… It’s at such an early stage right now and has a great amount of bandwidth to grow and evolve. So instead of rushing into anything, start small, start learning, as I am.

My first-time experience of buying an NFT

There’s no denying that Web3, Crypto, Blockchain, and NFTs (to name a few) are the future we’re going to be a part of (and the glimpses of that reality are already being seen for a while now).

Those sectors and what’s being built have been quite intriguing to me, for a while now. Whilst I haven’t dabbled into any of it, I have been closely watching everything that has been happening, and trying to learn and understand it all.

Anyone who has some knowledge about the space knows how much it has skyrocketed in the last 12 months, especially the NFT space (there’s such a massive difference to what the space was in 2020 or even 2019).

While I missed out on a few projects, and a few that were just out of my reach, I definitely wanted to get into something that personally excited me (apart from just sorting out what’s authentic and what’s not), and something that was maybe different than the rest.

I’ve been a massive Matrix fan, and a Keanu Reeves fan, so when I heard an official NFT project is coming out based on that, it got me all juiced up and I knew it’s going to be my first foray into the NFT world.

Powered by Epic Games, and with Warner Bros officially into the picture, this project seemed bigger right from the start. A 100,000 avatar drop, with the user being given the option to choose the red pill vs the blue pill (at a later date), and henceforth the journey would begin. (a journey with missions that would unlock points, more NFTs, and of course, more has to be unveiled, with this being a multi-year experience project.)

30th November’21 was to be the minting date; with initially 25 avatars that could possibly be minted per user per day. 100,000 seemed like a big number, where the demand for it was questionable at first, and whether the project would be that big or not (something that wasn’t just on my mind, but on the minds of other community members too).

Jump to getting the wallet ready, with all the setup done and it’s the D-day. Around 10 to 20 thousand people on Discord, everyone wondering how the project is going to turn out.

Only did we know, that the before-scenario and the after-scenario were going to be totally different. As the time was getting nearer, more and more people started getting in the community chat. By the time users had to check-in for the queue, there were more than 60,000 people waiting to get in as well.

Now the thought of the moment was, if the first 4,000 people mint 25 avatars each, then the 100,000 drops are done there, and then, and the rest of us are saying goodbye. Just during those moments, I get my queue position at 27,885th place (a number I’ll remember for a long time because I ended up seeing it for a long, long time).

As people start buying, there’s such a server load with the number of people queueing up, that the whole process is apparently paused for a few hours (until they sort things out from their end). Amongst all of this, and as time passes by, their Discord has jumped up to 50,000+ users and the queue is up 100,000+ people. (let’s not forget that the total drop is 100,000 avatars).

People start getting frustrated and complain about the buy-in per person, and ultimately they reduce the per-person buy-in from 25 avatars each to 5. But, the queue is still on pause. They try to resume, but another issue pops up, and thus, put back on pause.

Being in India, this is a late-night for us here, so all of this is happening from 12 am – 1 am here. One tab has the queue on pause, another tab has discord open, and another tab has their Twitter Spaces live session going on. (there was a lot of excitement about the project)

The queue is still on pause, and even when it opens, let’s not forget, my queue position is 27,885 (the number stuck on my screen for hours now), so it was going to take a lot of time. Now, I’m just pondering what should I even do, at this time? Should I even stay awake?

So, it’s decided… The laptop’s on beside me, while I take quick naps in-between and keep checking the progress. I may have slept for 15 minutes, then immediately checked the progress, checked Discord for updates, and then back to a quick nap again, and that was what the whole night looked like for me.

I wake up around 6 am in the morning, to check that the queue is halfway there… Around 15 to 20 thousand people have minted their avatars, and after 7,000 more people (roughly), I’d be up for my turn. And while my position is 27,885, there are about 100,000 more people behind me waiting for their turn, with the last queue position updated at about 140,000th spot.

Now, as time passes by, seconds turn into minutes, and quickly two hours have passed, but I’m closer than ever, and there’s no time to take a breather.

Around 9.15 AM IST, my turn is up. While people complained a lot about the process all night long, regarding payment issues, transaction issues, and whilst all of that worried me, it took me a minute to complete my process, and there, the transaction was done.

My first (bought) NFT!

My first Matrix NFT!

It was supposed to take some time for the avatars to show up in my wallet, but the main part was done. I could finally get on with my day (something the others couldn’t say, as they still awaited their turn all day long).

That queue had crossed 200,000 people, and after a while, they had paused the process for the whole night (their time) to then resume the next day, and while that happened, eventually, it was all sold out.

Simultaneously, while I kept checking, my avatars had dropped.

probably nothing.

Now, the actual process begins.

To either take the red pill or the blue pill, on December 16.

And the missions they have planned after that.