BlockTalks x APENFT AMA Transcript!
We recently hosted an AMA with APENFT, on November 16th at 12PM UTC. Many of you might have participated or many of not. But we make sure no one missed out from the knowledge shared by Sydeny Xiong, Chief Art Director at APENFT So here we are up with the AMA transcript, for those who missed the live session, this blog post will be a saver & feeder of knowledge for them.
Introduction Questions Asked By Team BlockTalks!
Q1. Many friends have heard of the APENFT Foundation, but there are also many new friends today. Can you briefly introduce the APENFT Foundation?
Ans — Officially registered in Singapore on March 29, 2021, APENFT is backed by the underlying technology of top-notch blockchains Ethereum and TRON with support from the world’s largest distributed storage system Bittorrent File System (BTFS) to deliver the mission of registering world-class artworks as NFTs on the blockchain.
Most of the APENFT team members are experts from the traditional art industry with experience in renowned art institutions, such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Our core members include professional engineers with blockchain and cryptography related experience from leading internet companies such as BAT. APENFT is a leading player in the NFT field both in terms of its team and technical capacity…
Q2. As a major event in the field of international art auctions at the end of 2021, can you tell us about Justin’s purchase of Alberto Giacometti’s famous sculpture “Le Nez”? By the way, would you please introduce other important collections of the APENFT Foundation.
Ans —The much-anticipated sales of The Macklowe Collection — one of the most important collections ever to appear on the art market — kicked off at Sotheby’s at 8:00 a.m. on November 16 (BST).
Each of the works presented at the auction is a consummate masterpiece of its category, attesting to the splendor of Western art of the last 80 years. The collection is estimated to be worth more than $600 million, the highest estimate ever in the auction history.
Featured on the cover of the catalog, Nose (Le Nez) by the venerated Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti came in the limelight, captivating buyers from all around the world.
On the morning of November 16, Justin Sun, founder of TRON, tweeted out an exciting announcement of his successful bid for the artwork for $78,396,000, which he said would be donated to APENFT Foundation. This two-hour auction is one of the historic highlights for both Justin and the foundation.
Alberto Giacometti is acknowledged as one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. The thin, gaunt bodies of his sculptures represent the vitality of human beings, and his clean lines highlight the figures in a distinctive way.
Artworks by Alberto Giacometti laid a foundation for the modern sculpture language and were embraced as powerful metaphors of the human condition in the wake of World War II.
He employs those figures as symbols of post-war trauma and worries of existence in Europe, and instills his deepest feelings of human and life and his reflection on loneliness and death into rough-textured bronze and plaster sculptures.
Le Nez was created in 1947. Among the only six versions of this art, five are now collected in world-famous museums including the Pompidou Center, Giacometti Foundation, and Fine Arts Museum Basel. Featuring both surrealism and African sculpture, Le Nez gives a rundown of the existentialist angst in Giacometti’s mind.
Distinguished by the decapitated head that hangs in the cage and the long piercing nose, this piece is one of his masterpieces that have the most considerable impact and exhibit the greatest strength. It also bears witness to the pinnacle of his achievements in the art world.
Since March, Justin Sun, an emerging art collector, has bought artworks by well-known artists like Picasso and Andy Warhol from world-famous auction houses including Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
The veteran NFT collector has also bought works by crypto artists Beeple, Pak, FEWOCiOUS, and Mitchell F. Chan. Besides, Art Dream Fund, jointly founded by APENFT Foundation and TRON in October, is dedicated to discovering, cultivating, and supporting NFT artists and artworks with great potential. Receiving an initial endowment of $100 million, this Fund will roll out its supporting plans regularly through open calls for artists.
Justin Sun aspires to give his full support to creators who want to power the NFT art ecosystem with their creative mindset, and thus bring about a paradigm shift in the creator economy.
Themed on “Second Life”, the first open call welcomes all artists regardless of how old they are, what they do, and where they are based. In this event, artists are expected to portray the unknown life and future in another universe through digital media for the purpose of promoting the integration of metaverse art and finance. Together with world-renowned artists, APENFT will curate online and offline exhibitions and other events. In addition, it will also display this masterpiece by Alberto Giacometti to the public in the future.
FEMME NUE COUCHÉE AU, Pablo Ruiz Picasso
OCEAN FRONT, ABUNBANCE (5 artworks) of Beeple
Cube of Pak
Digital Zones of Mitchel Chen
At present, the total value of the APENFT FOUNDATION’s collection has exceeded 100 million US dollars, and it has become the leading investment DAO in the entire …
Q3. Some days ago, in order to support rookies of digital artists, the APENFT Foundation launched the Art Dream Fund. How is the progress now?
Ans — Sydney Xiong, [21-Nov-2021 at 6:44:03 PM]:
As of today, “Second Life ‘’ themed call has received more than 100 works from worldwide talented digital artists and digital enthusiasts, covering a variety of digital art forms including images, music, video, and animation. Creators have shown great creativity and competency.
Thank you for all your submissions & Looking forward to seeing more excellent works. Selected artists will be featured in our upcoming APENFT Art Museum in Cryptovoxels and will have the opportunity to participate in the auction of APENFT’s marketplace launched next year.
Thanks for participation & Looking forward to seeing more!
Find more info here: Artdream.apenft.org
Q4. We learned that APENFT Foundation had invested in many prominent NFT projects, such as the popular horse-racing NFT on Binance. Could you please give a brief introduction to it?
Ans — Over the past six months, APENFT has invested in and incubated close to 20 NFT projects, having built a powerful presence in the NFT field. Going forward, we will continue to invest in premium NFT projects, launch killer products, and build our business through word of mouth.
WIN NFT HORSE, for example, is a play-to-earn horse-racing game incorporating NFT and DeFi. To offer users a wider range of choices, many other games are also in the pipeline.
In the meantime, we will invest in and incubate other quality blockchain-based game projects to work together on development and marketing, driving the growth of the whole ecosystem of blockchain-based games.
There are two major NFT projects, Tronbull and TronLoot, that APENFT Foundation develops and promotes independently. The highest maker order of Tronbull, the first-ever mascot NFT on TRON’s blockchain, has already surpassed $100K, and its price in the secondary market is still shooting up.
TronLoot is benchmarked against the Loot project on Ethereum. Compared with the exorbitantly high gas fee charged to mint Loot NFTs, TronLoot significantly cuts the gas fee to even zero. The trading price of TronLoot in the secondary market has hit a whopping 220 million NFT ($572), a premium rate of 1100% from the floor price in the primary market.
There are four major NFT projects (mainly collections) invested by APENFT Foundation, namely Tpunks, Tronmeebits, BAYC Tron, and TronCoolCats.
Today’s NFT collections are represented by Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Meebits, and CoolCats, while the four projects invested by APENFT Foundation are also representative NFT collections based on TRON.
In addition, APENFT Foundation invests in three NFT Marketplace projects, namely Starry Night NFT Foundation, StarryNift, and Kraftly, with another strategic partnership project, FansForever.
Other NFT projects invested by APENFT Foundation
Gala Games
Decentral Games
Q5. How is it going with the NFT trading platform of APENFT Foundation? When is the estimated launch date?
Ans — APENFT Foundation plans to roll out a platform dedicated to the sales and trade of NFTs at the end of this year.
Committed to the growth of art, digital art, and blockchain technology, APENFT Foundation will grow and expand the area where blockchain technology converges with art, and redouble its efforts in the most fundamentals of art digitalization, the gamut of NFT business (including but not limited to minting, authentication, trading, custody, and operation), and the application of NFT itself based on art. Along with the matured blockchain technology and a growing number of use cases, APENFT Fund will commit itself to incubating innovative projects with significant potential through investment and powering the digital art space. Besides, metaverse and GameFi remain the two strategic areas for the Fund, where we will gradually build more presence in.
Pre-signup for the NFT platform and NFT airdrops are coming soon. For those who’re interested, please feel free to join our community and follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates.
Q6. Lastly, could you tell us about the APENFT annual gathering?
Ans —The upcoming APENFT annual gathering will also be an academic forum and banquet, will offer a window to the many outstanding entries of art pieces we’ve received through the Art Dream Fund’s open call for artworks. We’re glad to take this opportunity to show everyone these works.
This forum event marks the Foundation’s efforts to uphold and explore the theory of art, and also our intention to support long-term art and academic research projects on NFT art and the metaverse.
We’ll also randomly select community users and followers of our platform who have been supporting us to participate in our offline event. Meanwhile, we’ll hold a physical display of our collections, making our platform and future goals known to more people.
We’re going to co-host a podcast on twitter with Decentral Games, discussing Game-fi, play-to-earn& metaverse.
Stay tuned for more info to be announced next week. …
Questions Asked by our BlockTalks Community Members during live Session to APENFT Team!!
Q1. APENFT was created to register world-class artworks as NFT on Blockchain. So, having these possibilities in your project, I would like to know how will the owners of these artworks generate revenue? What are the benefits you will receive by settling on APENFT?
Ans — APENFT was born with the mission to register world-class artworks as NFTs on blockchain. We aim to build a bridge between top-notch artists and blockchain, and to support the growth of native crypto NFT artists.
Like how blockchain democratizes finance like never before, APENFT, by turning top artists and art pieces into NFTs,
not only upgrades the way artworks are hosted, but also transforms them from being elite-exclusive items to something
that truly belongs to the people and mirrors their aspirations.
APENFT is the art for everyone.
