A project by NFT artist and blockchain product designer, Dana J. Wright…

We find ourselves in this strange moment where art and commerce are converging. It’s completely new and the technology is only in its infancy. While it may be tempting to dismiss this as a trend, my sense is that it is in fact a continuation of the broader historical shift toward decentralization that started with the internet.

WAAVES.art is just a domain name. Like reddit.com or google.com. But what starts as a small online art gallery could someday evolve into a community or even a platform. Though I have no plans for that as of yet.

I do, however plan to make hundreds of WAAVES, each tokenized on one of many blockchains that support NFTs such as Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and Liquid. And hopefully have traders all over the world swapping, buying and appreciating the work.

The old gatekeepers of art and commerce have been routed. Or I should say, routed around. They’ve been controlling the market through auction houses. They’ve been controlling authentication through appraisers and galleries. And through their hierarchies of education, artist residencies and grant making they’ve been choking off creativity and stifling broad market participation for the better part of a century.

But those days are over.

The network is the next leviathan. It has already displaced centralized media, education, shopping, entertainment, and soon money. The blockchain provides the critical piece that was missing from the first generation of online networks. That is, a way to ascribe and exchange value programmatically without the need for a trusted intermediary.

The value of a thing is now solely up to individual creators and market participants. Those who recognize and appreciate this shift will benefit the most from it, much like the early influencers on instagram and youtube were able to ride the waves of growth on those platforms. It’s early days, but soon everyone will recognize the new paradigm of NFTs.

As a watercolor artist and technologist, this project is my contribution to the revolution.

Each WAAVE is minted by me, Dana J. Wright on one of several minting services that facilitate the process. For example, TOKYO 2021 was minted on the ERC721 standard. You can verify it here.

The network will soon occupy a power role once reserved for God and the state.

We are living through that transition.

Enjoy.

Dana J. Wright