The PFP Makes the Man

Vol #66 - January 21st, 2022

After months of watching mints, I finally put out the bat signal and bought an NFT to use as my profile picture. 

Every clique has their own lingo and code of arms. My profile picture (PFP) now says that I believe in crypto, and I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is. It feels like a crazy coincidence that I did it on the same day as Twitter launched their NFT verification service. 

One of the defining characteristics of successful investors is an ability to change and adapt. That includes strategy, tactics, and apparently outfits too. 

Investing is a hunt for alpha, and you best be dressed for the expedition. 

My very first day as an intern on the American Stock Exchange, I wore a blue striped Brooks Brothers shirt, and a tie borrowed from my father. Returning several years later after a stint trading upstairs (sometimes in flip flops), I had advanced up the corporate ladder enough to show off the suits I’d bought on a recent trip to Thailand. 

Now that I’m exploring and investing in the wild west of crypto, instead of wandering through pits and between rows of monitors, I’m poking around Discord channels, Telegram groups, and Twitter threads. That requires a new set of finery.

In the world of traditional finance, the best way to get access to information was to join an established firm and learn from the veterans. For the better part of the 20th century,  the investment banks with their uniformed regiments of Saville Row suits dominated the market place. Deals were made in clubby rooms and at college reunions where a signet ring was all but required.

Technology and culture shifted this. The new breed of hedge funds shed their silk for synthetic golf wear and began using satellites to count cars in retail parking lots. The cheese had moved, and a new skill set was required to find it.

Digital assets have pushed this boundary even further, and much faster. With a rapid explosion of opportunities, discovering where and how to capture this edge means exploring online communities that have cropped up seemingly overnight. Anyone with an internet connection can now move as much capital as all of Greenwich CT. 

When I first entered the chat rooms, everything about my screen name and default avatar screamed “TradFi boomer.” Polite questions and proper grammar weren’t going to help me here. If I wanted an explanation of how the voting escrowed token claims worked, I needed someone to believe I deserved it. 

While I’d always recognized all the PFPs that the in-crowd displayed, I couldn’t justify spending dozens of ETH (tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars) on a piece of digital art. I love art, but I’m old enough to still prefer it on my walls and with the texture from paint brushes. 

It really dawned on me when speaking to another convert from the TradFi space, and from behind his bull horned, gold chained, sunglassed avatar he said, “you really need to get better at Discord.”  Now I’m not just learning how to configure notifications, I’m making sure I’m wearing the right gear. 

The conspicuous consumption of NFTs shows that you are part of the group. You’ve elected to be part of a community of like minded people who share the same tastes. Individuals naturally gravitate and assist those who are most like them. 

On the trading floor, when you wanted to understand why someone was passing on an order that looked good, you were more likely to get an honest answer if you could also ruminate about the Bears miserable defense on Sunday. Alpha flows through trusted connections. 

No matter what market you’re operating in, it’s a collection of people. Regardless of how level the playing field gets, there’s always an edge in who you know. Getting the order, sealing the deal, or gleaning that extra nugget of technical insight is a relationship business, and first impressions matter. 

Soul Dogs #2287

“There are many like it, but this one is mine” - Rifleman's Creed

Soul Dogs is a collection of NFTs on the Solana Blockchain. While most of the major collections like Bored Apes Yacht Club or CryptoPunks are on Ethereum, Solana has also seen a growing number of NFT collections being minted there. I wanted a Solana NFT, because I’m partial to their infrastructure as a trader and market structure geek. 

Soul Dogs in particular speaks to me not only as a lover of canines, but their mission to support artists and “underdogs”. A cool feature of NFTs is that their smart contracts can perpetually reward creators on all future transactions. For Soul Dogs,  15% of royalties from secondary sales go towards supporting creators, artists, musicians, designers, and developers.

Whether it’s on Twitter, Discord, or Telegram, you can now find me poking around as this fine bow tied representation of man’s best friend.