by ryangtanaka (tz1ZVzMVj6EjRoDNFMCguG7nGdqmD7aau9kS) on teia.art
In case you didn't already know, when you mint an artwork on TEIA, these works get automatically indexed on objkt.com, which can then be "swapped" (technical word for "put on the market") on their platform at the artist's discretion. objkt got their start by creating a wrapper around Hic et Nunc's (HEN) original contract (KT1RJ6PbjHpwc3M5rw5s2Nbmefwbuwbdxton, which TEIA has inherited and still manages) for sales and auctions.
These practices - while technically legal and following the logic of how the technology was intended to be used (open markets, open competition, open source) - became somewhat of a controversy. Why?
- Some people saw objkt leveraging HEN's contract (where it got its initial sales) as the company "stealing" HEN's work.
- The fact that TEIA has to cover for storage and IPFS pinning costs of minting means that the non-profit was in fact "subsidizing" a for-profit company. (This will be fixed with our v2 contract to be launched this summer, btw.)
These sentiments - while still operating within the rules of "fair play" (in a legal sense) - still left a bad taste in enough people's mouths that it sowed seeds of distrust and resentment among various parties, which have still yet to be addressed. (Private vs public enterprise, The West vs The Global South, Rich vs Poor, Successful vs Unsuccessful, etc.)
I've spent some time going between these various groups and I don't think that there were any malicious intentions involved anywhere - objkt.com using the term "objkt" (a term that Raphael Lima himself came up with) was intended more as a homage rather than an intent to "steal" - it's literally what they're selling and it makes sense from a marketing/branding standpoint. The storage issue between TEIA and objkt was more of an oversight of details if anything - kind of hard to pay attention to those few pennies when NFTs were flying off the shelves for thousands, after all.
These are probably the two biggest examples but there are little issues like these all over the place that have constantly adding misunderstandings and sowing mistrust among the Tezos community as a whole. Poor communication between parties tend to exaggerate these issues - mostly because there is nobody there to set the record straight...or even agree to disagree. As a core member, however, I know that both objkt and the foundation has made some attempts at bridge-building...I was in many of those calls and meetings myself. The fact that the foundation was willing to bestow a grant to TEIA despite the poor markets does say something, and the despite all of the problems the community still remains strong because there is still something there that is holding everyone together: the most oft repeated thing for those of us still here - it's the art, it's the people.
(Commercial Break)
A little plug for the 8 events we're putting on this summer, all over the world:
https://teia.art/wiki/tezos-foundation-grant-events
(Now Back to the Article!)
The reality is that assets on Tezos are one of the most "open" systems out there, and anyone can do almost anything with anything at any time. This is a good thing, especially because it preserves the values and ambitions that the crypto movement originally stood for, even now. But in this new world, the best practices and "acceptable behaviors" of such still hasn't been figured out yet, it was always bound to be messy. Other places have cut so many corners it's basically indistinguishable from what the banks are doing - but here we still have a core group of people who still believe in the concept of a world with transparency and accountability.
As someone who left other crypto projects to go all-in on Tezos, I can say with confidence: our problems here are nothing compared to what's going on out there on other chains. I've personally watched friends get drained of their life savings, others facing possible jail time, and a few who are literally on the run after getting tangled in sketchy schemes over the past few years. Here, mistakes were made during the hype and many of us are now broke - but nothing like the kinds of things that would keep people looking over their shoulder and unable to sleep - not even close.
But admittedly it's been pretty frustrating to watch because it's like watching two people who secretly love each other push each other away because they're too afraid to express their true feelings and it just comes out...wrong. Yeah, I know it's more complicated than that but the whole thing feels like a bad soap opera with bad dialog and has been running its seasons for too long for its own good. I think what everyone wants to see is them make out already and get it over with. 🙄 Wholesome? Yeah, that's what Tezos is known for, which is why it has attracted the types of people we have today. But even wholesome gets annoying when there is no progress in the storyline. It's time that changed, I think.
Why TEIA and objkt.com Need Each Other
There have been dozens, if not hundreds of NFT marketplaces on Tezos over the years, but there are only two still fully operational - TEIA and objkt.com. On one hand, the markets have been brutal lately and sales are down as a whole, the fact that it's these two that are left shouldn't be a surprise - the relationship between the two organizations resembles what works in the real world.
Having spent most of my life in Los Angeles - the heart of the U.S. media empire - I've watched the city cycle through its highest highs and its lowest lows (the latter being right now). But at its core, L.A. runs on a simple truth: the commercial machine needs a deep, restless talent pool to draw from, better known as the "underground" art scene. What the rest of the world sees is the polished surface - the big-budget films and prestige TV shows exported to every corner of the globe. Behind that glossy curtain, though, are the independent studios and gritty galleries, quietly staging the kind of experimental, risk-taking work that would never make it past a network pitch meeting.
Occasionally, a bold idea surfaces from one of these spaces. The artist gets scooped up, polished, and fast-tracked to fame; the idea gets polished for mass consumption; the checks clear; and everyone lives happily ever after! The classic Hollywood success story.
That's not what you heard how it happens? Well, yes - that story has grown less believable over time, mostly because Hollywood stopped seeing the underground scene as incubators but competition, turning hostile to innovation and creativity in itself. In recent years, American cities have become so unaffordable that they've chased their own talent pools out entirely. Not only did COVID completely shut down many of these venues permanently, rising costs have driven away the very artists, writers, and makers who once gave places like L.A. their creative pulse - and now the whole system is in decline. The U.S. is now quietly losing the cultural war to Asian and South American countries, with basically no means to catch up any time soon.
So what makes the Tezos art scene remarkable is it perfectly replicated the commercial/underground cultural dynamic that you see in the real world - but digitally and permanently - etched on the blockchain itself. The reason why the scene gained so much momentum to begin with was because it was filling a void that was not being met anywhere, both online and off.
A lot of other platforms arrogantly thought they could build a community from scratch (myself included) but they all failed and are no longer being maintained. What's left? The two places that are - and always were - interconnected with each other from the very beginning: HEN/TEIA and objkt.
The details of strengthening this model could fill a book - and plenty already have - but the gist is this: on Tezos, TEIA functions as the underground/indie scene, while objkt.com serves as the commercial pipeline, channeling work into museums, galleries, and media spaces where real money changes hands. On other chains, the model skews heavily toward one side or the other - pure speculation without culture, or culture without a viable market. Tezos is the only place where both coexist, interconnected in a way that feels direct, deliberate, and uniquely sustainable.
What Comes Next for Tezos? Are We Ready To Work Together?
Most blockchain projects are either over-commercialized with no foundation to pull from (why the quality of their artworks are terrible) and the occasional non-profits you see spring up are basically non-functional because they're run by Wall Street types rather than the artists themselves. TEIA's community is the closest thing to "artists guilds" and "artist development" practices that used to keep Hollywood alive (not unions, professional guilds - a distinction must be made here just in case) and has long kept the balance between the production and creative classes in check. I don't think people realize how close the ecosystem is getting there to "nailing" it - all the things money can't buy is already there, just waiting to be activated with a bit of a push in the right direction.
After COVID, I watched the venues I used to frequent close down one by one - each loss a small erasure of the city I knew. Eventually, I found my "home" on HEN/TEIA. It was all digital, of course, but the vibe was the same: that scrappy, anything-goes energy I'd grown up around. (Open-source is the underground scene of tech - even AI used to be underground, once.) I like to joke that I spent most of my life in Hollywood ignoring it - I never really cared about getting famous or obscenely rich (I know a few people who did, and it's overrated) - but I was perfectly content running things beneath the media radar. And most of the folks I know on TEIA are the same - they're just looking for sustainable "honest" work and authenticity in experimentation and expression.
Lately, though, both online and off, I've realized how fragile this whole apparatus is. It's easy to take things for granted when you only see the glitz and not the endless work happening underneath. That's actually a pretty good metaphor for why the NFT markets crashed: too much emphasis on the top, not enough on the foundation. It was bound to happen eventually and for folks that were actually paying attention, it was no surprise. NFTs could not sustain itself on novelty forever - and we're now heading into the next stage of its evolution, where we must find ways of using the technology for something that people can actually use.
We're pushing significant changes to TEIA - the site itself - designed to give the community a proper foundation for eventually achieving autonomy and self-sustainability. In a way, it's what Satoshi originally envisioned: a system that doesn't rely on intermediaries, that can stand on its own, that answers only to its participants. That spirit of decentralization migrated to Tezos - and into TEIA, in particular. But all parts are vital - all are important. An ecosystem is only as strong as its weakest link, after all.
Whether the industry has learned enough to pivot in that direction is another question entirely. Are there enough people out there who understand the value of building something lasting - not another fleeting memecoin or shallow PFP project? Time will tell. But for a lot of us out there - options are limited, especially since the "real world" ain't doing so great right now, either. We have to make this work - there is no other choice.