Typewriter To NFT: 💻
How My Dad’s Creativity Reached A New Audience After More Than 50 Years
The constantly evolving landscape that is online content creation.
My dad was a writer. A journalist, in fact. And he loved to philosophize on paper. Even long after he developed Alzheimer's, he continued to write -albeit in a more scattered way.
A prolific writer and journalist. He penned millions of words throughout his lifetime, before beginning his battle with Alzheimer's in 2012. Philosophy was one of his favorite subjects, and he recorded thought-provoking written works on now old, yellowing typed pages. He would type the date in the top left-hand corner, some of the oldest I've found are dated 1966 when he was only 21 years old.
Dad was always writing, or reading.
I still remember the smell of the liquid whiteout and the sound of the typewriter as he worked on his latest article or story. He was a gifted wordsmith, and I always looked up to him.
The thought of my dad losing the ability to continue to share his gift weighed heavily on my heart.
The idea of a book compiling some of his work has always been something that I wanted to do. The main problem was the concern that my dad wouldn’t want this. He may not want all of his words out in the public view. After all, he carefully wrote and edited his words for publication. He was passionate about his work as well as his value. He wanted to be paid for his work, and he expected to be paid fairly. Would he appreciate me publishing less than perfect prose that he never intended to share? His disease won’t allow him to tell me now.
I advocate for him, and I use this as my guiding light because I convinced myself that everything I do creatively is either for or about my father. My intentions are only to pay homage to his memories and my recollections of him.
From typewriter to NFT
Recently, I've begun migrating some of my writing from other platforms over to decentralized, or "web3" platforms in an effort to keep up to date with the constantly evolving landscape that is online content creation.
When I first had the idea of compiling some of my dad's written work, at first, it was with the thought that it could be published as a book. With my newfound self education in web3 stacks, I've begun to reconsider traditional publishing routes. Opting instead for proposed longevity for the future, that is a decentralized – web3 option.
This could be using a platform like mirror.xyz, where each article or book chapter can be minted as an NFT. Another option that already exists is sharing short form stories, articles, and poetry on a decentralized social media platform like Desofy, built on the DeSo (Decentralized Social) blockchain, again with the ability to mint these works as NFT's.
Both of the platforms above can reward creativity with cryptocurrency. It's a way for his work to reach a new audience and be appreciated in a whole new way.
I'll continue to explore finding ways to share his creativity with the world. It's truly remarkable what can be done with NFT's and I can't wait to see what other creative uses people come up with in the future.
NFTs have been getting a lot of attention lately as more and more people are beginning to realize their potential. One of the great things about NFTs is that they can be used to represent just about anything. This includes works of art, music, videos, and even tweets. The possibilities now seem endless.
My dad was always an early adopter and loved technology. I think he would have been so curious about web3, and monetization of his work through, NFTs, and social tokens that have the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with the internet. I'm excited to see how these technologies evolve over the coming years. Not only that, but I like to think that he would too.
I miss him, he’s still here, but Alzheimer’s is a long goodbye.
It's been a slow process, but I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to share his work with a new audience, and in a way that he could have never imagined.
I'd love to have you join me, and keep up with my technology transition to web3 and what I learn along the way.
I'm excited to see how NFTs, and web3 stacks evolve, and how content creators will be able to benefit.
What are your thoughts on NFTs?
Have you begun looking into a decentralized web3 footprint for your creative work?
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