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MetaSilk DAG - Deep Dive (V1.0)
This deep dive covers everything you need to know about MetaSilk and DAGs!
wickyy ☕
August 04, 2022
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MetaSilk DAG - Deep Dive (V 1.0)
In today's edition of Morning NFTea, we have a detailed breakdown of a very fascinating project - MetaSilk, which introduces the concept of a Decentralized Autonomous Gallery (DAG). You have properly heard of a DAO, but you'll want to stick around and see how this concept of community-driven decisions is about to revolutionize the art industry as we move into Web3.
As always, this breakdown aims to help people understand exactly how this project works, and the technology behind it.
To understand MetaSilk's vision, it helps to break down exactly what a DAG is. We previously explained this concept through a twitter thread, but we will also lay it out here.
DAG - Decentralized Autonomous Gallery
In simplest terms, A DAG is an artistic version of a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). DAO's have no central governing body, every member shares a common goal, and there are many stakeholders coming together to build a single unified vision.
Unlike your traditional top-down organization, DAGs / DAOs allow each member to hold power by way of voting rights. These rights are held together by the backbone of these organizations - smart contracts. Once smart contracts are live on the blockchain, no one can change the rules (unless the members vote for a change). If anyone tries to do something that's not covered by the rules and logic of the smart contract, it will fail.
So what makes a DAG? This is the combination of an art gallery and a DAO. Unlike a traditional DAO (where only collectors have voting rights), DAGs allow both collectors and artists to have voting rights. A traditional art gallery collects revenue from primary sales and all the decisions are made from the top of the organization. This means the collectors and artists have close to no power, and there are no royalties collected once the art is sold on the secondary market.
These characteristics are what make the model of a DAG so much more interesting than traditional art galleries. Since DAGs operate without a central governing body and are held on the blockchain via smart contracts, collectors and artists as a collective have all the power. Also, royalties from secondary sales are distributed amongst the three parties involved - artists, collectors, and the treasury, which was never possible before smart contracts.
The Team
MetaSilk was founded and self-funded by Derrek Hennessy, a technology leader with over a decade of experience building, selling, and managing startups from early stage pre-funding to hyper-growth with 600+ employees and multi-billion dollar valuations.
Derrek has a passion for collecting art and created MetaSilk to blend the power of Web3 and technology automation to provide a modern and refreshing new model to Art Galleries.
Aside from Derrek, the team is currently supported by a freelanced developer and a roster of 12 artists from all over the world.
MetaSilk - The Foundation
Now that we have a better understanding of the team and how DAGs operate, let's get into how MetaSilk is implementing this revolutionary new art model and how it got to where it's at today.
As soon as Derrek launched the MetaSilk brand, he instantly hit the road (or shall I say air) and traveled all over the world collecting physical art from top artists within their vertical. Derrek was able to partner with 12 world-class artists, which will act as the initial roster for their first collection - Connecting Cultures. These artists were able to supply Derrek with 18 pieces of art, of which 9 will be given away on Twitter throughout the coming months. All the art is now held in the United States, where it was all framed by a Certified Picture Framer that is recognized by the PPFA (Professional Picture Framers Association).
Upon Derrek's arrival back to the states, he went on to acquire land in the metaverse - primarily Fluxtopia, and the Otherside by YUGA Labs. These are two of the most sought-after Metaverse lands in today's day and age, which will act as a great support system for their digital art (which happens to already be VR & AR ready).
All of these initial components laid the foundation for MetaSilk, which is very important considering these are some of the last decisions that'll ever be made by Derrek. Once these physical pieces are listed for sale on the open marketplace, the DAG will be established and all decisions going forward will be made by collectors and artists.
Connecting Cultures
As mentioned, the first art collection MetaSilk will be releasing is named 'Connecting Cultures'. The vision lies in the name due to the art coming from a handful of different countries across the world. This collection will consist of 12 pieces (6 physical and 6 digital), which were all handcrafted through collaborations of 2 artists each. The physical pieces will be tokenized in form of NFTs, which will be the digital pieces. These NFTs will give the collectors fractionalized ownership in the physical art. Buying these NFTs also gives holders access to the DAG, which allows them to make decisions within the ecosystem.
Before we jump into the next section, I'd like to dive deeper into these so-called "decision-making powers" and break down what this actually entails. Since the collectors will control so much power within the DAG, they will have the ability to do just about anything. Collectors will be responsible for voting artists into and out of the roster, deciding what to do with the art, picking partnerships, etc. Yes, this means the collectors could literally burn the art if they wanted to. This is a fascinating concept, primarily because it is so different from your common day art gallery, but makes much more sense when considering the benefits to collectors and artists - the people actually running the show.
Capital Distribution
Another topic worth covering on this concept of DAG's is capital distribution. As you can see from the photo below, revenue will be split equally between 3 different parties. As mentioned earlier, each piece of art is a collaboration between two artists, which is why you'll see Artist 1 and Artist 2.
The Vision
The last topic we will be covering is the MetaSilk vision. Rather than telling their vision for them, I will let Derrek do the talking. This is a message that Derrek shared with us not too long ago, which gives you a good idea of his thoughts on MetaSilk:
The story I often find myself telling is the story of the Koi pond I had as a child. When I was about 13 years old my family moved into a house and in the backyard was a Koi pond with about 250 Koi. When we first moved in, the pond was so dirty you could not see a single fish!
That day I took it upon myself to clean the pond. I collected all the fish, drained the pond of all the water, and cleaned everything spotlessly. Once complete, I refilled the pond and introduced the Koi back to their home. It was perfect. The water was as clear as a crystal.
Fast forward 5 days and the water became even more dirty than when we first moved in!!! I had no idea why it became so dirty so quickly. That week my Uncle came over to visit and I showed him the pond (My Uncle has over 30+ years building some of the largest Aquatic systems).
He took one look at it... looked at me and said "You ruined the ecosystem". He then went on to explain that because I removed all the plants, scraped away all the algae, and changed the water that I have “unbalanced nature." My uncle then went on to fix the pond by balancing the water, adding plants, and adjusting the filters. In three days it was back to crystal clear!
What he explained to me was that with Mother Nature, everything has a purpose. It is the yin & yang of life. The koi, the algae, the water, the waterfall, the plants, and the snails all have purpose and all balance each other to become a self-sustaining ecosystem. The koi pond was so balanced that for the entire time we lived there we never fed the fish and they all grew!
Similar to the Koi Pond, MetaSilk aims to create balance in the art world with a DAG that is governed by the artists, the collectors, and MetaSilk. Over time adjustments will be made as needed but when executed correctly the result is a self-sustaining & growing ecosystem of the best artists and collectors in the world living harmoniously amongst each other.
We are simply taking a page out of the book of Mother Nature :)
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are a number of fascinating components behind the MetaSilk DAG.
Providing the collectors and artists with full governing power not only allows the ecosystem to curate its own vision of an art collection, but also makes the future much more exciting for the people who get to decide the DAGs direction. While a traditional art gallery already has their art lined up for the next however many years, MetaSilk will be constantly pivoting their collections off the decisions of their own community.
Aside from the decentralized structure, it's also important to remember the role secondary sales will be playing. These sales of the tokenized art will help fund the artists for future endeavors, while also pumping more cash back into the MetaSilk ecosystem to help fund more growth and acquire more art.
Last, the exposure this will give to unrecognized artists is truly unbelievable. Too many artists have immense skill that goes unseen due to the old ways that art galleries are run, so it's great to have an organization that is motivated as a whole to market and grow the project in a way that benefits all parties involved.
If you're interested in learning more about MetaSilk, I would highly recommend checking out their YouTube channel where they interview each of the talented artists on their Connecting Cultures roster. I have linked several resources below:
Thank you to anybody who has made it this far!