Around the Block With Jefferson Nunn – Interview With Arvin Khamseh

Jefferson Nunn  0:02   

Live from crypto.news Global Headquarters. This is Around the Block with Jefferson Nunn and I’m here today with special guests Arvin Khamseh welcome to the show. 

Arvin Khamseh  0:13   

Thank you for having me. 

Jefferson Nunn  0:15   

So, we were just talking about the exciting world of NFTs. And recently NFT’s I think they hit their million customer I often see. So definitely demand is growing, popularity is growing. Tell me more. But first of all, what is an NFT. 

Arvin Khamseh  0:31   

So, it’s a non-fungible token. That’s what it stands for. And the best example I’ve found is that, like, if you think about a piece of art, a moment of time, it could be audio, it could be in a form of video, whatever that is. And it’s only one version of it. And that’s recorded in the blockchain. So that’s an NFT. And now a lot of artists, now they’re converting their whatever artwork they have now to digital artwork, and then now they can actually sell it, have a community behind it, and make actually a lot of a lot of money, where in past like they weren’t able to do them. 

Jefferson Nunn  1:09   

Very, very cool. All right, well, well, you’re in the NFTs Space, what are some of the more common or popular NFTs that you come across? 

Arvin Khamseh  1:20   

Yeah, so I mean, it’s so initially, I think it started as just PFPs were, so it’s just a profile pictures, essentially, there was a specific artwork, a lot of them were actually to these. And, you know, at the beginning, I actually like very popular projects right now. But back then, when we started, like, they were giving him away for free, and people didn’t know it has any equals any value, right. In fact, actually, I was on a podcast the other day, someone just sold a board ape for 10k. And which is, you know, for someone who doesn’t know, the value of board a, typically, you know, they’re in the 300k plus range. So, it’s just that the, the concept of the artwork, I think for, again, giving people context on this is all about the community about the utility, what actually goes on the story behind the project. So, I’ve seen all the way from the 2D artwork, to, you know, the most complex videos or like audio work, where there is a lot of utilities behind it.

So, for example, like I give you an example of utility, so one brand, they did marketing, they sold out as called San Vegas casino club, they, their messaging, the marketing messaging is, you can be the house, and the house always wins. Now, what they provide for the holders of their NFTs is that if you hold the NFT, you get a percentage of the profit of the casino, so 50% of the profit of the casino every month. So, this is a casino in the virtual lab, by the way, it doesn’t exist in in the physical world, but 50% of the profit of the casino every month is distributed amongst the holders of the NFT. As if you hold one, then you can get a monthly payment into your bank account, which is awesome. Although it would be a crypto wallet, but still pretty cool. And so, So that’s like an example. It’s actually very simple one, there are many other projects out there. They’re very complicated. Like there’s one specifically they were they had to send me three articles to understand. But the whole thing is to just like give you give your listeners some idea of like the extent of this, they basically created this NFT a character where you can use this character in a specific Metaverse in the like different virtual lands, essentially. And then once you done use it, first of all, you can actually train it.

So, this character becomes like a better character, like as far as the abilities. Let’s say someone, let’s say it’s like, let’s say soldier, for example, you can train that soldier in the individual world, and that soldier becomes a better social becomes like a general and that has a higher value than the previously bought soldier. Right? So, so you can do all of that. And then then later on, you can rent it, you can rent that character to other people in the virtual world. So, they can see you can build a source of income for yourself. Now, once you’re just at some point, maybe you’re just like done, you’re like, okay, I just want to cash out, you can actually burn the NFT take your money out of the NFT and all the money, I guess all the royalties from the trading that has happened before you also get a percentage of all of that when you burn it. So, like they’ve created a very complete It’s like, there’s like a token within an NFT, where like, you can burn it, and you can do stuff with it. So, it can get really complex. But it’s also like their artwork out there. They’re just like, here’s the art, we don’t have like much utilities. But like, if you guys excited about our artwork, and the story that we have as an artist, then you can get behind in this photo. 

Jefferson Nunn  5:21   

Yeah, I’m aware that the tractor pulling the Russian tank, Ukrainian tractor pulling the video that is up for sale on open sea as well. So even stuff like that is out there. So, I think it’s really representing an exciting new world for content creators, where we now have much more direct control over the intellectual property that’s being generated, as opposed to like, the Copyright Office, which has had all kinds of problems and things like that associated with that. So, this is putting the power of IP back into the hands of the Creator, would you say that person? That’s right, 

Arvin Khamseh  6:02   

100%. And I would also add to that, where I think we’re going in the direction of just verifying everything. So, like, let’s say you want to buy a Rolex watch, like AP watch, whatever that is, then there’s going to be NFT that comes with it. And if you don’t have it, then you don’t really own the real one. So, like Adidas, for example, they have their virtual clothing. And then people buy them, because they need to, like wear them in the virtual lab, right, which is like strange, but that’s what like, that’s the direction we go in. But then eventually, like you did the concept of like owning the right version of something versus a fake version, it’s just getting more just became more prominent. And then that’s true for say, owning physical real estate to like they’re going to like, there’s one company that trying to actually make it so that you have to have like be a holder of NFT to be a shareholder, like be a share to have a share of a physical property. And it’s trying to like fractionalize a physical property.

So, like every person has like a little bit of physical property. So, there’s like a lot of things going on with verification, and then on the side of the creative side of things, then being a fully Dachstein. So, for someone who’s listening, they don’t know what Dachstein meaning basically revealing their identity, I think that’s also a thing that’s going to happen for everyone. Right now, we still have a lot of brands that are somewhat, I guess, secretive with their identity. So, like, not many people know what, like who they are. But now we’re going that direction where like influencers. So, for example, influencers that I work with, none of them, except doing promotions for, for NFT brand that is not taxed.

So, I think we’re going that direction, but like, eventually, we’re, we’re all just gonna have everyone, all NFT brands been ducks, in fact, Opensea, we’re talking about they had the, they can give you guys a blue checkmark on your contract, they can give you a blue checkmark on your project. They have their own criteria, and so on and so forth. But think about the blue checkmark on Twitter, the blue checkmark on Instagram, all these things, they’re going to become very important for NFT projects, because then they need to be able to actually say, hey, we are the right one. Because a lot of other projects also claiming to be them and selling fake and if these two people are scamming them, so there’s that there’s also the NFT projects that the scamming people as well like this some celebrity just recently he will people claim the she ran away with like 1.5 million from people. And so, we are like, slowly but surely, we’re getting to that point where like we try to verify everything. 

Jefferson Nunn  8:59   

Yeah, I always like the I think it was Ronald Reagan that said it, you know, trust but verify. Right? Which is great. I mean, that’s it the good and the bad about the decentralized market. Now we have a way to verify, you know, if something’s really real, so along those lines, you know, with, you know, the verification and so forth. There’s this whole really harsh backlash coming from the gaming community coming from even Gabe Newell. And it a lot of their arguments don’t seem to make a lot of sense. They don’t hold out against what entities are really all about. If you could say one thing to that community, what would it be? 

Arvin Khamseh  9:51   

I mean, I think there’s also same thing with like, like betting like sports betting as well. There’s like, one problem logic is Zed. Ron or I can’t remember the name exactly. But there’s at least one project out there that they’re trying to, like, make sport betting digital as well. And people, people, I mean, it’s a new thing for them. And then it’s also like, oh, so then people like, okay, it’s the same thing with casinos as well. They’re like, well, okay, now you’re just trying to, like, get people into gambling when they weren’t doing it before that, like, that’s the pot like, that’s NFT’s fault. It’s like, no, that’s not it has nothing to do with NFT’s like that’s just people. Right? So, I think that’s that goes on with the same idea like that people are talking about sick, they blame NFTs for things that has nothing to do with NFTs.

So NFT is just like a vehicle. And then people make decisions sometimes with decisions has, and they have always done that. And they will for the rest of you know, our life. And so, I think if anything, and if what NFT is done, they’ve brought a lot of people together as a form of a community, I think we’re under, like when divided for because of health, because of politics, because of so many things going on. I mean, we have a war right now, right? So, there’s so many things going on. And people are so disconnected versus like, hey, this could be like a play to earn game. And then people just getting into this one community they have, like, they get on this show up on these, like, Ask Me Anything amas they show up on the community, like calls to get excited about something that’s happening with a project, and then they just so feel like connected with everyone else in the community. And then, you know, the owner of the project is typically also like, getting people from gaming studios too. So, like, it’s not like, they’re going to go away. Like, they’re, they have their own value.

But then the, the way that artists now they have, they can actually come in and just have their own operations outside the studios that they were some sometime parts of, I think that’s also really cool thing because now they have their own, like leadership, they don’t own authority, they can also dictate the price that they want to have for what they do, like they see value in their own self, or their own work. And so yeah, so I mean, I think a lot of things that people say in by NFTs is not really by NFT, it’s about people. And, yeah, I think, if desired, if anything is just helping the society helping artists. 

Jefferson Nunn  12:32   

Yeah, and to that end, I know, a lot of you know, the larger artists, they’ve been switching everything over to nonprofits, you know, because the whole for profit thing was just getting really ridiculous, actually, with the way labels were operating. And, you know, the copyright protection and all that. And so, they’re going with nonprofits and entities, really to try to get back to directly to creating content, and to have listeners participate in that process. 

Arvin Khamseh  13:04   

Yeah, and that’s the same thing for like musicians as well. Like I’ve heard, you know, some musicians like, used to be able to, like, only do and just become famous or like, have like hit tracks when they would be with these like, I guess labels, record labels were, and they’re not many of them. They’re only like a handful. And if they weren’t with them, then they were no one. But now, they have their own communities, they can do very what they want, like they could have millions in sales in six weeks, where in the past, they weren’t able to do that. So, I think if anything you just gives power to, to artists, to people who are creative in our society, and then it’s evolving in that direction. So, if anything is the coolest thing that’s happening. 

Jefferson Nunn  13:58   

So, it’s an exciting time, I think that we’re now living in with this. I’ve been to the web, basically web3, two that will change, you know, society even as we know it. So, what do you think is next for NFTs for you know, the audience? What’s next? 

Arvin Khamseh  14:18   

Yeah, so I think the biggest change is going to be how large companies are going to actually rollouts and NFTs. So, let’s say you want to go shopping at Walmart. Now you’re going to have to put your goggles on and then you know, do soon and also like seven things maybe you cannot buy from a physical store anymore. They only like hold it for physical. So, for the virtual stores, which is better for the companies because they don’t have to have the physical place, pay to rent, pay all sorts of expenses that come with it. And then I think with that, a lot of a lot of brands like you I guess maybe clothing brands, a lot of designer things, they they’re gonna have to own verification so you have to buy the NF T’s to be able to verify things. I think that’s gonna happen in the in the metaverse when it gets on leash, and it’s going in that direction. When like everyone knows about Metaverse, everyone knows about like different they say sandbox decentraland, so on and so forth.

We’re going to get to that point where everyone needs to have NFTs to be able to say, have a vehicle in the metaverse have clothing in the metaverse need to be able to like transport yourself need to be able to like fly all sorts of things that requires every person to have NFTs to be able to actually function in the metaverse and then I think so those are all like, the changes. And then the as far as like where we go as, as humans, I think we may get too excited about virtual worlds, so much so that we may not want the non-virtual world as much. You know, I mean, like, for example, dating apps, now they just created a version where like in the metaverse, you can just date someone meet someone without actually meeting them in person. So, I’m not really big fan of any of that. But I think we’re going that direction. I think a lot of people would be interested in that. Because it seems in time, you know, yeah, 

Jefferson Nunn  16:35   

Really like a Ready Player One moment.  

Arvin Khamseh  16:39   

What’s that? 

Jefferson Nunn  16:40   

The book and the movie. Ready Player One. 

Arvin Khamseh  16:43   

 Oh, yeah.  

Jefferson Nunn  16:45   

So, it’s really gonna be like that kind of environment were 

Arvin Khamseh  19:11   

Yeah, I mean, I think quite a look like it’s gonna go up, but don’t know when people are gonna listen to this. And I, I mean, I can say, I definitely believe in everything about I mean, I didn’t believe in cryptocurrencies back then when my friend was talking about it. Since then, obviously, I invested a lot in Cryptos in NFTs, and having a diverse portfolio. And I think that’s a really cool thing to do. Not a not a financial advice by any means, but that’s what I’m doing. And then, as far as, as far as like what people can do, I mean, they can think they can start thinking about if they have a business, they can start thinking about okay, how could NFTs be a vehicle for them to sell more of their products or services, or maybe add more value to their audience just by just holding that. And if the and or just creating communities around the product or service when in the past they didn’t have it.

So, I think that’s a really cool thing for people who hold a connection collection already. I think if they think about how like what direction we are all going, so for example, Metaverse is going to be a big thing. I think it just gives them good clues on what they need to focus on as far as just getting traction for the communities because that’s what people care about. And then for someone who’s just like, they don’t know about cryptos, and about NFTs, I think it’s a good time to get in and just understand it. I would say the first maybe 20, 30k I’m made trading NFTs. If you were to ask me, like what NFTs are, I didn’t even know. And so, so I think no, I’m not saying like people should just, you know, go make weird decisions without having to research any anything but at the same time, didn’t need to know everything because there’s so much to know. And so, obviously find a good mentor and you know, get in before it’s too late. 

Jefferson Nunn  21:17   

And if they wouldn’t get in touch with you or your company, what’s the best way to do so? 

Arvin Khamseh  21:22   

Your best way would be on Twitter on. I’m on Twitter at ArvinKNFT. So that’s spelled as ArvinkNFT. And then also my website is soldoutnfts.io so that’s for people who want to sell out to NFTs hence the name. And that’s soldoutnfts.io 

Jefferson Nunn  21:47   

Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show and perhaps in six months or a year we can follow up and see how things went right. So be exciting. 

Arvin Khamseh  21:57   

Sounds great.