Who would have thought that the blockchain can be used to preserve cultural heritage in the best way? That much is apparent with the work that Quantum Temple is doing in this space. This innovative Web3 platform helps to preserve cultural heritage by bringing the art and culture of ancestral communities onto the blockchain. Joining the Edge on NFT team all the way from Bali, Indonesia is Linda Adami, who explains everything there is to know about Quantum Temple. Tune in and learn how this idea of taking cultural heritage to the blockchain might be our best chance to preserve the knowledge, traditions, and art forms of cultures around the world in perpetuity. Plus get the latest scoop on some of the hottest topics in the Web3 space right now as we hear about Vitalik Buterin’s NFT collection and Yuga Labs’ embrace of Bitcoin NFTs.
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Listen to the podcast here
Linda Adami Of Quantum Temple - The #Web3 Platform Preserving Cultural Heritage
This is Linda Adami of Quantum Temple, the Web3 platform that helps to preserve cultural heritage and connect with ancestral communities. I’m on the Edge of NFT, the show that helps you connect with a diversity of personalities and cultures in Web3.
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NFT-curious audiences, stay tuned for this episode to learn how Quantum Temple is bringing the art and culture of ancestral communities onto the blockchain.
How our guest’s prize possession is a special type of document that unlocks new worlds of experiences.
Also, how Yuga Labs continues to trailblaze within new forms of NFT and Web3 innovation.
Finally, NFT LA 2022 was a blast. It was also a blast-off in a giant plume of bright burning rocket fuel. Web3, NFTs, blockchain, decentralization, and a suite of immersive new tech developments have exploded onto the canvas of life. Outer Edge is the theme of 2023’s event dedicated to those of you building with us at the outer edges, making the future happen.
The community-centric gathering returns to LA from March 20th to the 23rd, 2023 to uplift creators and technologists through interactive experiences, a wide variety of discussions and presentations, and entertaining surprises that transport participants to the outer edge of what’s possible when we co-create a new paradigm, embracing the decentralized web, AI, extended reality, and more. To register to attend or learn how to co-create an experience on the Outer Edge, head over to OuterEdge.live. The event is being organized by the Edge of Company and the founders of the show. See you there.
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This episode features Linda Adami of Quantum Temple, a platform that enables equitable exchanges between conscious collectors and ancestral communities through Web3 technology. Linda is a passionate multicultural innovation and impact strategist with many years of experience in emerging markets across Central America, Southeast Asia, and the Gulf. After graduating with honors in Political Economy from King’s College London, she worked at the nexus of international development, research, and innovation at top-tier private and public institutions.
She has been working with the government of Dubai at the Dubai Future Foundation. She developed public strategies and a global community platform called Dubai Future Talks, which hosts pioneers, academics, and artists including Jeffrey Sachs, will.i.am, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bjarke Ingels, and Nick Bostrom. As CEO of Quantum Temple, Linda works around the globe with local communities, governments, and NGOs to preserve cultural heritage. The goal of Quantum Temple is to protect and share the knowledge, traditions, and art forms of cultures around the world in perpetuity through blockchain technology.
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Linda, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
For the audience, she has a fun background. I see some step farming going on. It reminds me of Peru. I don’t know if you even know the origin of that photo but that’s based in Peru or some Latin American country.
That’s based in Bali. It’s called Jatiluwih Rice Terrace. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage site back in 2012. Our project touched on that a little. If that’s interesting, we can talk about that.
I spent some time in Peru. My partner, Christine, works with indigenous communities in Peru. This will be interesting to cover. The first thing we can chat about is some history of Quantum Temple and how it came to be. What’s the origin story here?
Thank you for that. I spent the last few years working with the Dubai government. That’s when I got introduced to blockchain back in 2016 when we endeavored to place 100% of government services on-chain by 2020. That was achieved. The Dubai government runs most of its government service on a private blockchain, which then spearheads more Web3 and crypto initiatives such as the early crypto regulations. In 2022, the creation of the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority under which the Binance and Kraken of the world have taken a license.
I got introduced to blockchain and this potential early on. During the pandemic, I took some time off from my government job and ventured East to Indonesia. I’m currently speaking from Jakarta. I spend most of my time in Bali. Everyone knows this amazing island is the only Hindu island in the whole Indonesian archipelago. The economic driver for the island is tourism. Seventy percent of the total economy relies on tourism. We all remember what happened when COVID and the travel restrictions were put in place. Everyone was staying at home so there was a pretty dramatic impact on the ground.
I was very interested not just in the hospitality side and how they were reacting to this but more importantly, in all of the data sectors that are heavily relying on tourism for distribution, specifically the cultural heritage sector, which is a sector that we all have interacted in different ways, whether we go to a museum or when we travel. A lot of the reasons why we travel is to learn about new cultures. Think of communities of artisans, performing artists, or heritage site keepers. Some didn’t have any income. In Bali, most of them had to default back to farming for almost three years to provide for their livelihoods. This was not a problem that was specific to the island. It was happening all over the world.
I began to think more about the space and also learn that there were wider structural issues that were happening. Cultural tourism and the creative sector at large represent 40% of tourism, which was a $9 trillion industry before COVID. It’s also the second-largest employer in the developing world but it’s heavily underfunded. The value is very much concentrated by hospitality players. The United Nations World Tourism Organization or the UNWTO estimates for every $100 that is spent on a tour holiday, only $5 stays in that country when that country is a developing country.
We all think that when we travel, we’re positively contributing to the places we visit and the communities that are part of it but we are not aware of what’s happening with our purchase decisions and contributions. I began to think about what solutions are variable here. In March 2021, we remember Christie’s auction with the Beeple piece that was sold and then the wild adoption of NFTs by digital artists.
I thought that the cultural heritage sector would have also equally benefited from blockchain application and Web3 at large and began to think about how to do it. That was the genesis of Quantum Temple, which is currently building end-to-end Web3 infrastructure to power and preserve the cultural heritage space and unlock regenerative funding to communities that work in the sector. I’m happy to talk a little bit more about how it works and how we’re thinking about this but that’s the origin story.
That’s super fascinating. It’s one of the more pioneering social-impact projects we have heard about in the space. It sounds like what you’re doing is enabling equitable exchanges between these conscious collectors and traditional ancestral communities through Web3 technology, which is fascinating. Can you dive into that for our audiences in terms of what that means and how that intersection came to be?
We have built our native infrastructure. We are launching our own multi-chain native NFT marketplace. We currently support both Ethereum and Algorand. We’re going to onboard more Algorands later in 2023. We have built a specific infrastructure that is catered to heritage. Heritage is a little bit more nuanced than digital art at large. It was very important to protect the interest and especially the cultural heritage IP, which we can go into later to make sure that we have created a dedicated space and a safe environment to pilot this. As we all know, it is heavily unregulated. We wanted to create a safe space to bring this to market both for the communities that are involved and are the custodians of what is called traditional knowledge or cultural heritage IP. Also, for the donors and the collectors that are contributing.
We have built our native NFT marketplace. The key concept is about using blockchain for creating immutable records of heritage. As we know, because of sea level rise, conflicts, or failed financial incentive models, a lot of cultural heritages are at risk. Every year, we lose languages, knowledge of how to make artifacts, and so on. Creating an immutable record on-chain is the best way or the best technology to preserve heritage where that is decentralized and immutable.
That would enable collectors to be stewards of that and contributors to the preservation of this heritage. More importantly, once these cultural heritage assets are tokenized, we can provide royalty streams in perpetuity in a transparent fashion to the communities that are involved. What’s unique about Quantum Temple is that we have spent a lot of time and resources to provide true Web3 inclusion for the communities that are involved. As you will see and we will discuss, our cultural heritage NFTs collection is creating partnerships with local communities from many countries around the world.
Our first one is built in Indonesia. We have supported them in getting onboarded onto their first crypto wallet and understand how that works so that in the royal split mechanism of the smart contracts, the collector will have full transparency and visibility of how their contribution is going and trickling down to the communities that are involved. We’re using NFTs as a new way to enable transparent philanthropy and social impact but also this new way to connect and bond to the communities that are involved and have that transparency of how our contributions are impacting change on the ground.
It’s fascinating to see people working on this. As someone who has traveled to a place where you can interact with indigenous communities and purchase artifacts or their handcrafted things, it can be a bit of a conundrum to figure out, “Who is this person I’m buying from? Is this ethical? Is the price right?” Even if you go to a market, you purchase something from somebody. You could be like, “How much should I be spending on this? How much would a local spend on it? How much would somebody from another country?” Maybe it should be a different price to honor discrepancies in the economy and things like that. It’s a fascinating world.
There are problems on both sides for the communities on the ground.
Fascinating isn’t the appropriate word. It’s complicated and there are negative aspects. It’s not just fascinating.
There are issues and challenges on both sides. It’s always about trust. On the one hand, for the local communities, the inability to access global marketing distribution prevents them from realizing the true potential and the true value of the artworks or how to capitalize on their culture IP, especially in the case of artifacts. How many times have we seen a local community creating a piece of artwork that is sold for $100 and then gets sold for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in the New York, London, or Paris of the world in this big ethnic art fair and so on?
We all know that value creation is not being shared with the original creator. We are big proponents of royalties and sharing that value creation with the original creator, especially when it comes to traditional artifacts. It’s something that has a lot of potential. On the other hand, on your kids in the example that you gave, it’s about provenance and authenticity. There are so many issues with the quality of general artifacts. Also, the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage is a huge issue. It has been used even to fund terrorism that not everyone talks about. There are a lot of illicit artifacts that have been traded around the world and have not been properly tracked.
There are a lot of different use cases for blockchain being applied to the sector. We’re very interested in showcasing how this could be a new funding model, especially living tangible and intangible heritage. It’s providing new alternative income streams in a transparent and accountable way for all the communities that are practicing cultural heritage but we have many different ambitions. We see many different applications that can provide a lot of value.
I see you have won this Awake Tourism Challenge that the UN World Tourism Organization hosted. Congratulations on that. What a great honor. Can you tell us a little bit more about this and how being involved with that affects the vision of the company?
Thank you so much for that. The UNWTO, for anyone who doesn’t know, is the United Nations World Tourism Organization. There are many different innovation programs that United Nations is driving but UNWTO has been active in driving, especially responsible regenerative tourism. We’re very honored to be awarded the Awake Tourism Challenge for the category of Local Community Involvement. It’s a great sign also that a traditional institution recognized the role of Web3, specifically in this case like NFTs, in creating a positive impact. We’re happy about the award. There are many different programs that we’re going to be involved with that we will be happy to talk about.
It sounds like you’re getting the resources and support you need for success like $2 million in pre-seed funding, which you’re using to leverage Web3 for cultural heritage preservation. That’s amazing. $2 million still needs to be stretched pretty far to make a big impact. How are you going to use these funds for the next stage of the project?
Thank you for that. We have a big ambition. This is a very challenging problem to solve. It’s large and deep because it’s also a sensitive sector. There are communities involved. These are also many times vulnerable communities. There’s a lot of intentionality and purpose that needs to go into this.
It’s not about taking Eathan, me, and Jeff on a trip to Bali to talk about this. There are other things that you need to do to do with the money. I got it.
We spent the first year, especially 2022 understanding the use case. The origin story was in Indonesia but we ventured out into other countries, specifically in LatAm to understand how to best do this at scale in a way that can work in multiple geographies. We have been working also with the government of Peru and Panama, which will be the next collection we will release, and understanding both from the bottom up and the top down how to approach this. From the bottom up, first of all, we’re protecting the interests of the local communities involved, which are the custodian of cultural heritage IP.
Cultural heritage IP is insanely messy. Even the top-level institutions involved with UNESCO and the World Intellectual Property Organization have not been able to create a fully comprehensive global framework of how to protect this in a way that is globally recognized. Every country is different. We’re not going to get into any of that but all of this is to say that there are a lot of nuances.
That’s why even in our approach, we are creating more of a centralized pilot format to bring this somewhat in a safe way. From the bottom up, we spend a lot of time with the communities, understanding what their challenges are and how they also see this positively contributing and providing solutions to their use cases because cultural tourism is very vast. There are artisans, heritage sites, performing arts, and intangible heritage.
On the other hand, we’re working with the government institutions in those countries to also understand the boundaries of the law. For example, in Indonesia, we have been working alongside the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. In other countries, we have worked with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. It depends. Every country also is different. We’re understanding their side and their view on Web3, NFTs, and how to vertically integrate them into their sector.
The good news is that there’s a lot of excitement from the institution side or the government side, especially in Asia. We have all seen the metaverse strategy that we announced in Japan and also where I live in Dubai. In general, in the region, there have been a lot of support and initiatives that have been driven by the government leadership. In LatAm, there’s even more need for the application of the sector because cultural heritage is a sector that has been incredibly underfunded and under-digitized. It hasn’t benefited other digital transformations as other sectors have.
In LatAm, 51% of the population and certainly all of the communities that work in heritage are remote and completely underbanked. Sometimes they even lack basic energy infrastructure and therefore, digital connectivity. If we invest in Web3 inclusion, we can solve other macro challenges that are happening on the ground. This is not a small sector. This is one of the largest sectors and the second-largest employer in the developing world after agriculture. There’s a lot of value and impact that can be unlocked into putting the resources in place and creating the best system to enable the solutions.
It’s such a complicated world. We get to put a pretty face on anything like that but I’m sure it becomes quite stressful sometimes to navigate all the details. It’s great to have folks like your taking on the challenge. You have an NFT collection, Paths to Alangö. It’s inspired by the Balinese culture in Indonesia. Tell us about it. Is it launched yet? When will it launch? What should we know about it?
Paths to Alangö is our inaugural cultural heritage NFT collection, which is based in Bali, Indonesia. It’s already live on our website, so you can check it out at QuantumTemple.xyz. It’s an amazing collection because Alangö is an old Javanese word, which means transient beauty, perfection, and harmony. It’s a very complicated word but in English, it would be explained or translated as such. It showcased how the Balinese people through their philosophy, ceremonies, rituals, and relationships with themselves, people in their community, and nature are achieving this sense of harmony and balance.
It’s an amazing opportunity to learn more about Balinese heritage, which was the intention, and also provide a new way to transparently provide impact and resources to all of the communities involved. The collection includes eleven different NFTs. Only ten are for sale because one is representing an aspect of Balinese heritage, which is sacred, which we filled with the collaboration of the community that wanted to showcase. However, because it couldn’t be commercialized, we’re showing that we can use the blockchain to create immutable records of heritage while necessarily being also respectful of those aspects that cannot be commercialized.
This NFT collection was created in partnership with eleven different communities. We’re very proud that besides being a small initial pilot, we’re impacting more than 6,000 people. We have been onboarding those communities onto their first crypto wallet as well and starting the blockchain education and onboarding from their side, which is also exciting. We are launching that and the auction will run. We’re also doing a big launch event and live auction in Paris on March 21st, 2023 during Paris Blockchain Week. I recommend checking out our socials for all of the developments that will happen there.
What is their first wallet? Is it MetaMask on a smartphone? What happens to the folks’ first wallet in these communities? Does it vary?
Indonesia is a very interesting country. There has been so much excitement for Web3 and crypto adoption. It’s one of the fastest-growing countries for crypto adoption. Here in Indonesia, we are partnering with Pintu, which is a regulated custodial wallet that directly integrates with bank accounts. When it comes to working with communities in the sector, the thing that matters the most is easy on-ramps and off-ramps. That’s true in general for everyone else that is not a Web3 native and for the type of communities and users that we’re working with.
Pintu is amazing because it’s in Bahasa, which is the local language. It directly integrates with the bank accounts. The amazing thing is that when the auction would sell, you can already see on our website how the proceed distribution and the royalty distribution work. Their wallet address has been directly placed into the smart contract. It’s immutable and perpetual. As long as these assets continue to trade, they will become digital assets that can provide impact and resources directly on the ground to the communities that are involved.
That’s very exciting. I’m looking forward to following where all of this goes. I know there’s a big social media announcement. I would love to learn more about your roadmap and some partnerships and collaborations. Let’s kick it off with the new announcement.
It has been amazing here on the ground in Jakarta. We announced our MOU signing with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia. This was a very important milestone for us as a Web3 startup but more importantly for the sector as a whole because we believe we’re probably the first company in the space to have signed a collaboration of this kind with a formal institution as a Ministry of Tourism. Specifically here in Indonesia, it is the first time that the government has formally recognized a specific NFT project.
Regulation is in place when it comes to crypto but there’s no regulation when it comes to NFTs. This was a significant milestone also from their side in recognizing NFTs for this use case as a big value-add for the digital and creative economy. We’re going to be working together. The Paths to Alangö is our first pilot project. We’re super excited about bringing it to market and making it successful but there are going to be many more collaborations that are already in motion and are coming out of this MOU. We’re excited to announce those in the meantime.
Where does all this go from here? If you could wave your magic wand and paint the future, where would you like to be with Indonesia in 2 or 3 years?
We have different NFT initiatives that we are launching in 2023. The cultural heritage NFT collection of Paths to Alangö is the first pilot. It’s also one of the types of NFTs that we’re piloting.
What’s your long-term vision here as Josh asked?
We’re very interested in the notion of creating also digital twins for cultural landscapes and heritage sites and enabling this new form of digital tourism. Depending on your background, everyone can have access to this amazing experience. Not everyone can travel for different reasons. It could be economic reasons, health reasons, sometimes cultural reasons, or visa issues.
We’re fairly lucky in the West. We don’t think about this because we have strong passports. It’s so easy to get on a flight and go anywhere we want but it’s not the case for everyone. What if we could create a world that was accessible to everyone? Everyone could learn about new cultures and also provide a transparent framework to see how these immersive experiences can possibly contribute to the stakeholders involved. There’s a lot of potential there.
We are excited to bring some elements of that direction and vision later. I can’t announce that yet but we’re working with an amazing Web3 partner to start building that vision and our first Quantum Temple space. We’re building almost a world of worlds where you come to Quantum Temple. You can learn about all the things that we’re doing, and then suddenly, you’re going to be able to access all these subworlds that we are slowly exploring and learning together.
That’s interesting stuff. There’s an amazing partner that you can’t announce. In what way is it amazing? You don’t have to give away too much. Let’s have the final question here in this segment because we want to get onto Quick Hitters. I’m curious. What are other projects besides what you’re focused on that you’ve been following in the Web3 space that excites you?
I would say bias because I follow a lot of the things that are happening in ReFi. A lot of us that are more in the impact vertical follow this initiative. I’m generally intrigued by the different use cases that are coming to the market, specifically in ReFi, and how the technology is being used for the right purpose. In general, especially after the hopes of 2022, the whole space has been called to greater integrity and purpose. These use cases are very much needed to reestablish that trust in the ecosystem. There are a lot of projects in carbon, ocean reforestation, transparent philanthropy, or general inclusion. Web3 is still fairly male-dominated and skewed to certain regions of the world. We’re big fans of those that are trying to equalize it and make it more accessible for everyone.
Josh has been working very hard to make sure we have plenty of women represented at Outer Edge. We’re excited to be a part of that.
Well done.
We’re excited to have you on the program. Let’s move on to Edge Quick Hitters. This is going to be fun. These are fun and quick ways to get to know you a little bit better. There are ten quick questions. We’re looking for a short, single-word, or few-word response but feel free to expand if you get the urge. Are you ready?
Hopefully. I’m nervous about this.
It’s not going to be hard. You could make stuff up if you want. What’s the first thing you ever purchased in your life?
It has to be pasta or pizza because I’m Italian.
That’s a great answer. I was trying to figure out where you were from early. Folks can check up on her video and listen to her accent. I’m pretty good with accents. You could have been from any place. With all your travels, it’s got diluted. What’s the first thing you remember ever selling in your life?
It was a BlackBerry phone.
Do we still have BlackBerries? I invested in that company, and it went to crap. They let me down.
I couldn’t even remember the name. How memorable that was.
What is the most recent thing you purchased?
Dinner. It’s about the food. I’m Italian.
I hope it was a good one.
It was awesome. I’m in Indonesia so I’m experimenting with Indonesian food.
I want some food porn pictures at some point.
What was that thing we went to in Davos? There was all this Asian food. It was amazing.
It was pretty good but the cheese and sausage from the vending machine were also good there. What is the most recent thing you sold?
Crypto. I divested on some positions but not all for sure.
That’s the question. What did you sell?
I cannot.
You can’t say.
There’s no financial advice on this episode, Eathan. Come on.
That sounds good. Question number five, what is your most prized possession?
My passport.
I like that one. That’s a good one. We haven’t gotten that one. That’s a great answer. Number six, if you could buy anything in the world, digital, physical, service, or experience that is currently for sale, what would it be?
Teleportation.
You can’t buy that. I feel like you can teleport molecules these days if you want to do that.
That’s why we’re building the Quantum Temple.
We will take that. Should we accept that answer, Josh?
That works. We’re going toward the outer edge here. Why not? If you could pass on one of your personality traits to the next generation, what would it be?
Patience. I need one for also my present self.
On the flip side, if you could eliminate one of your personality traits from the next generation, what would it be?
Stubbornness. I’m also a Taurus.
That could be a tough one.
Sometimes it’s productive but it could be balanced more.
I get annoyed with stubborn people, “When are you going to give up?”
Stubborn people are the builders of the future so they don’t quit.
There’s no such thing as a stubborn person. It’s a personality trait that comes and goes. We’re fine. The next question is a relatively easy one. What did you do before joining us on the show?
I was on a pretty exciting call with the rest of the team, getting everything ready for launch and pushing everything forward for the big day on March 21st, 2023.
Final question, what are you going to do next after the show?
I hope I’m going to go to sleep. It’s midnight here, unfortunately.
The lights keep going off. If you stay still, it will be relatively easy to go to sleep.
We will see. I’m still working in the EST timezone but the light is helping.
Eathan, I have a bonus question.
Go for it.
Eathan and I both have done a lot of traveling. I’m particularly curious. What is your fondest travel memory that got you inspired to force the path that you’ve gone down since then?
It’s a good one. It’s a long one though.
Give it a shot.
When I was seventeen, I did one year of study abroad. I went to Honduras in Central America to San Pedro Sula, which is a pretty rough place for everyone that knows about it but it taught me a lot. It was an instrumental part of the future trajectory that manifested after that. I wouldn’t say it was the best but it was one of the most instrumental that determined everything else. I was very grateful for the opportunity.
Those early experiences make a big impression on us. That was Quick Hitters. You survived. You didn’t teleport to some other place to try to escape. We’re good there. We’re going to cover here the next segment. We have time for a couple of Hot Topics. What do you say, Josh?
Let’s do it.
We haven’t been able to do Hot Topics very much lately. We’re busy. The first one is Vitalik Buterin Has an NFT Collection? Quadratic Funding Drop Pulls in Millions. “The NFT collection, which celebrates Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin’s contributions to a popular Web3 funding model, was created by Metalabel in collaboration with the Web3 funding platform, Gitcoin. The open edition mint launched on March 1 but NFT traders may have missed the memo before when secondary sales suddenly ripped following the end of the initial sale period.” This happened. Josh, had you heard about this? What do you think?
I didn’t know about this but it’s super cool. Poor Vitalik. He has been brought into so many meme coin projects. People throw these things in their wallet that he has no knowledge or association with. It’s quite cool to see him get out there and do something on his own to move the industry forward. I’m excited to check out this collection.
How about you, Linda? What do you think? Is this something that you’re going to go grab or pay much attention to?
I’m fascinated with the intersection between NFTs, governance, and in this case, the funding of public goods. There’s potential. I’m not sure because Vitalik is more involved than everyone involved. This has been seen more as another amazing opportunity to come in and create value but I’m not sure how the intention was fully realized by the people that have pulled into it right away. We will see what the impact of this will be in the long-term but in general, there are potentials in Quadratic Funding and the intersection of Web3 and governance.
Is there anything else? Should we move on from that one? Do you want to cover another one, Josh?
Sure.
Let’s do a Yuga Labs one here, “Why Yuga Labs’ Embrace of Bitcoin NFTs Is a Big Deal.” We haven’t had too much time to talk about Bitcoin, NFTs, and Ordinals here. This is good, “It couldn’t be a more interesting time in Bitcoin. Yuga Labs, the $4 billion company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token series generated $16.5 million from its first NFT auction using the Ordinals protocol on Bitcoin.”
“These 288 NFTs, part of a collection called TwelveFold, created shockwaves through the crypto community. The company announced its plans to launch the project, a move that should not be understated.” It’s all over the place. I’m hearing about Ordinals. We were asked, you and me, Josh, on a Twitter space what we think about what’s going on there and how it might be a part of Outer Edge and things like that. Have you gotten Ordinal yet? I certainly don’t.
I have not had time. I’ve been so focused on the Outer Edge but I did go to an Ordinals meetup in ETHDenver. I learned a lot about this unique immutability component that has to do with inscriptions. One of the more interesting elements of the CoinDesk article is that the Ordinals project has tipped the number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses to an all-time high of $44 million, which is interesting.
We have seen in the past that Yuga is a beacon of future innovation for the industry. It’s hard to deny paying attention to anything that Yuga does and what breadcrumb trail may be created as a result of that. We will see other major players jump into this particularly nascent area. There are going to be some Bitcoin maximalists that aren’t as happy about what’s going on here but when we’re talking about immutability, it is very cool what’s possible with the Ordinals project.
I was listening to some podcasting earlier about folks who were earlier on board with Bitcoin, building the first ways to buy with cash and get involved in it. It’s fascinating to think of those times and think how small the community was and how ragtag all of these things were. You had to buy Bitcoin, wire money to another country, and pay wire fees and all this stuff to get a few Bitcoin. It’s worth a ton now but at the moment, it was around a lot of principles and people’s beliefs about the future. I’m sure not only did other people think they were crazy but there weren’t that many of them. It’s hard to maintain that level of commitment. It’s interesting to see more developing on top of Bitcoin, the staying power of Bitcoin, and so forth.
It’s more about leveraging each ecosystem’s value. They’re almost community-based. That’s why a lot of these projects are going multi-chain because collectors and holders have their assets on those protocols. They don’t want to divest maybe depending on what time they buy. Everything new and native is always going to have a so-called historic value but it’s more about different projects trying to tap into new community growth tactics. That is the underlying core of this initiative. It’s mostly that.
That did come up when Josh and I were talking about how the communities vary between the different types of NFTs and their personalities.
Each ecosystem has its adapter with its values and beliefs. It’s interesting to see how projects that started on one protocol are shifting around and trading more almost protocol-specific initiatives to tap into those new community segments that they might want to attract.
We had another Hot Topic on the agenda but let’s skip that. Let’s start to wrap up. I would love to go on to our next segment around shout-outs because you had some great folks to recognize there. Can you say who you might like to shout-out, Linda?
First off, I would love to shout out to all the participating community members from Bali that have given a great deal of trust in us bringing forth this project. We’re super grateful for the partnership and then also for the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia for making the first step into the future and enabling the space. We’re very grateful for the partnership and excited to see what we’re going to be working on together in 2023.
That’s great. Finally, before we wrap up completely, we want to make sure audiences know where to go to learn more about you and the projects you’re working on. Can you share that?
If you want to learn more about us, I’ll encourage you to check out our website at QuantumTemple.xyz and also follow us on Twitter @Quantum_Temple or Instagram. Our content is very much visual. We have amazing videos that showcase all the different cultures and traditions we’re exploring. Check out IG. We also launched our YouTube channel. You can check us out there.
Welcome to YouTube. It’s a fun and exciting place to be. We’re growing our YouTube presence. It has been quite a journey. It has been a great episode with you, Linda. I’ll walk us off here. We have reached the outer limit at the show. Thanks, everyone, for exploring with us. We’ve got space for more adventures on this starship, so invite your friends and recruit some cool strangers as well that will make this journey all so much better. How can you do that? Go to Spotify or iTunes, rate us, and say something awesome. Go to EdgeOfNFT.com to dive further down the rabbit hole. You can look us up on all major social platforms by typing EdgeOfNFT and start a fun conversation with us online. Lastly, be sure to tune in next time for more great NFT content. Thanks again for sharing this time with us.
Important Links
- Quantum Temple
- Yuga Labs
- OuterEdge.live
- Dubai Future Talks
- Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority
- United Nations World Tourism Organization
- Awake Tourism Challenge
- Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy
- Paths to Alangö
- Paris Blockchain Week
- Pintu
- Vitalik Buterin Has an NFT Collection? Quadratic Funding Drop Pulls in Millions
- Why Yuga Labs’ Embrace of Bitcoin NFTs Is a Big Deal
- Ordinals
- ETHDenver
- @Quantum_Temple - Twitter
- Instagram - Quantum Temple
- YouTube - Quantum Temple
- Spotify - Edge of NFT
- iTunes - Edge of NFT
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