Written by: 0x21BlockBeats

Get up, wash up, dress neatly, put on headphones and go out, buy coffee, turn on the computer, write music reviews while listening to songs, and go to "Black Bubble Radio" as a guest at night.

Like almost all of us, Bored Ape (BAYC) #4593's day begins.

On December 17, 2021, an article titled "Nike, Adidas, Curry and Me" was published on the Chinese official account of the trend media Complex, and the author's name was: BAYC#4593. This image that exists in the virtual world officially appeared in the eyes of everyone as an editor. Because of his hip-hop background and familiarity with music and trendy content, he became the first boring ape to find a job.

As the world's most famous fashion media, Complex has 5.57 million fans on YouTube and 10 million fans on Instagram. In the hottest column called SNEAKER SHOPPING, they can invite all the stars you can name to participate in the production of the program. As for Complex Chinese, which will be launched in 2021, they can hire one of the most popular NFT projects BAYC as a media editor.

A few months ago, if a virtual ape was mentioned to join the trend media, most people might be confused, and it might even sound like a joke. But now Wang Jinyi (Steven), the president of the trend media Complex Chinese, told Rhythm: "BAYC#4593 is the most meaningful employee that Complex Chinese will hire in 2021."

From culture to collectibles

A few months before BAYC#4593 "Joining", the wave of NFT has swept every corner of the world. Avatars, digital identities, metaverses, these words seem to have entered everyone's consciousness unstoppably. Just like 37 years ago, Michael Jordan wore the black and red Air Jordan 1 Bred for the first time in the game, which made the sneaker trend culture begin, and the times are changing and reincarnating. Today, Curry bought a virtual ape for $180,000, Nike acquired the encrypted trendy brand RTFKT, and Adidas also launched the Into The Metaverse series in conjunction with BAYC, gmoney and Punk Comic.

People who discussed "air cushion" and "flying wire" began to change their avatars to discuss "retineye" and "monkey". Collectors of physical star cards installed electronic picture frames in their homes, playing NBA Top Shot over and over again. COLLECTORS OF BE@RBRIC TOYS WILL LOVE THESE GIANT BEARS TO "PUT" INTO THEIR MOBILE PHONES. One piece of news after another has met several times, which also seems to indicate that the birth of NFT cannot be separated from the trend culture.

"NBA players or top sports brands and artists can enter the NFT field, which is enough to show that these trends are unstoppable and objective." Steven said.

Steven also has many collector friends who have entered the field of digital art, and NFT can help them identify, track provenance and protect intellectual property. Even though many people think that NFT has destroyed sneaker culture or collection culture, in Steven's view, the fact is the opposite, and NFT has brought them great help. He believes: "As an emerging culture, NFT is very similar to sneaker culture in some respects. They are all phenomenal creativity."

From collectibles to social capital

The creativity that Steven talked about is not only the creativity and design itself, but also the cultural phenomenon derived from the times behind it. The era of Web2.0 has allowed people to shift the "Showing Off" position from offline gatherings to mobile devices. Whether it is sneakers or NFTs, social capital has become the core driving force.

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Complex Chinese has aimed at young people all over China since its inception, focusing on all topics related to young people. Regarding the value of NFT, Steven understands this way: "NFT is considered by many people to be a collectible, but it is definitely a person's social capital. The NFT owned by a person means his taste, his views on trends, and of course his Wealth, status and channels. In these respects, NFT and sneaker culture are very similar.”

At the same time, Steven also believes that for the expression of taste and status, avatar NFT is a very suitable form, and it is also a practice that is gradually becoming mainstream. But NFT can show much more than that.

From social capital to digital identity

In the real world, sports cars, trendy toys, and limited edition sneakers represent youth, fashion and taste. Commodities with price tags can easily help you find like-minded partners, but limited fashion toys cannot represent all personal preferences of a person. In the same virtual world, people hold parties on the virtual land, use avatars to represent themselves, and can freely enter and exit their favorite communities. But the avatar is not the only criterion in the virtual world. Events and narratives are a necessary process from social capital to digital identity.

"It can be any form of digital IP, for example, a piece of music, a video, a meme expression pack or even a story. We have countless ways to share with our friends and express ourselves." Steven added.

When you buy a valuable NFT avatar on the chain, you have your own social capital, and when you use your social capital to extend your ENS domain name, articles on Mirror, and collectibles on OpenSea . All the data on the chain constitutes your own digital identity. So when Rhythm BlockBeats mentioned why Complex Chinese did not choose to "buy" a BAYC ape, but "hire" an ape, Steven replied:

"We never "buy" talents. We always believe that creativity cannot be bought. We have been trying to find creative people or things. All we can do is participate in them and help them display their talents."

In his view, BAYC, Crypto Punks and many NFTs are phenomenal cultural achievements, and their most important role is to successfully stimulate creativity on a global scale. And Complex Chinese has been trying to walk in the forefront of culture and find the next new trend.

People often regard NFT and metaverse as products of the future, and think that if they hold on tightly, they will not miss the future. In fact, a boring ape who has found a job is not part of the Metaverse.

Just like Shaan Puri talked about his understanding of the metaverse on Twitter, he believes that the metaverse or virtual world is not a place, but a period of time. When the value of digital life exceeds that of physical life, a significant part of life becomes digital. Jobs moved from factories to online meetings, neighborhood friends became followers on the Internet, and children's games changed from soccer to basketball to online games. At present, 50% of people's attention is on their mobile phones. If one day this value increases to 90%, then it will be the beginning of the metaverse, and virtual life will be more important than real life. People don't care what you look like in the real world, but how you tell the story in the virtual network.

Virtuality and reality have never been two parallel worlds. The phenomenal creativity caused by NFT brings digital identities into reality. Like BAYC#4593, he's not just a million dollar avatar, he has a hip hop background, a unique way of speaking, loves trends and is good at writing, which is the real reason for this boring ape to get a job.