"New Era Flag" NFT Action

Maybe during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, you have seen a T-shaped flag with a green background, and there is a small black dot in the T-shaped. It may be a special effect frame on a friend's head, a mask for a pedestrian on the road, or any corner of the Internet. This symbol has become a meme that swept the Taiwanese community in the summer of 2021. It vaguely represents Taiwan, whether you are What the hell is Taiwan?

I am the designer of "The National Flag of the New Era" (better known as the national flag of the crimp ball). It has been two months since the whole incident started on 7/31. Before and after I drew a picture and participated in a show. The fundraising case of Shi Weijie's death, designed and implemented a public welfare action, and made several NFTs. Articles are scattered on Facebook, Medium, and digital print media reports, and now I'm doing a subjective review at Matters.

I have arbitrarily summarized the whole line of art into modern art activism, and I will go to the main topic below.

How much value can a new flag create?

Chapter 1, the flag of the new era

A month ago, on July 31, the night I left the hospital, the Tokyo Olympics men's doubles gold medal match was being broadcast on TV. Judging from the ratings and Elda's data, there were nearly one million people in Taiwan at that time. Watch the game together. The Taiwanese team won by a crushing score difference. The last winning ball was over the line. The Chinese player challenged and failed. The final scene of the game fell on the judgment screen of the Hawkeye system. It was 8:55 in the evening.

"Taiwan, China, pressure, challenge, victory, Wow."

At that moment, I suddenly had a feeling of blessing to my soul, "This is it!" I immediately rushed to the computer, opened the drawing software, and drew this "Flag of the New Era". In time for the flag raising ceremony. Looking back, the physical time really slowed down. Fourteen minutes later, at 9:09 p.m., I posted "The National Flag of the New Era" on Facebook to catch up with the flag-raising ceremony, and soon "The New National Flag" became popular. .

The next story developed quickly. At 9:37 in the evening, Ringo (Kosuke Onishishima) added the word Taiwan based on my flag, created the first variant flag, and left a message under my post. Thanks to Ringo, for this near-perfect meme hint, community participants discover that they too can become meme creators. Over the next few hours, New Age Flag experienced a number of mutations that were mutating faster than COVID-19.

Thousands of shares, the sharing of former legislator Dr. Lin Jingyi created the second wave of large-scale diffusion, tens of thousands of shares, flag raising simulation picture, color number 198964, TaiwanIN label, head sticker special effects frame, souvenirs, and the community platform was temporarily blocked by badminton venues. of green to drown. I seem to see the flowing water banquet when I was a child. It is the first time that Taiwanese people have a celebration banquet in a virtual community. Perhaps Taiwan has been for a long time, and there is no common symbol without historical baggage. This work was even shared by Nie Yongzhen, and I can end with a smile.

So far, the story has come to the second chapter.

Chapter 2, Copyright Wolf Smoke

with collateral damage.

As far as I know, Hong Da was the first designer to publish a mockup of a national flag souvenir on Facebook, and it was so beautiful that even I wanted to buy it. Because it's so beautiful, HTC's picture became popular, and a bunch of netizens knocked bowls and waited to buy it. Hong Da even planned a charity fundraising plan with a group of people, which almost pushed the meaning of the entire new flag to a higher level.

But the whole plan went into flames unexpectedly and was stillborn.

This is the case. Hong Da tagged the athletes in the article asking for donation suggestions, and the athletes left a message without willingness to cooperate. At that moment, the wind direction suddenly changed, and a bunch of netizens and fake accounts from nowhere left messages sneering, "Come on again" and "Athletes smash the ball across from you", and a beautiful incident came to an end.

Hong Da runs fast, garment industry runs faster, they bravely step in the gray area of copyright,

Enjoy the topic bonus and become the last laughing player in the capital market. Such as map manufacturing, ALT, various mask manufacturers, etc., print a large number of products with related patterns. There are even manufacturers who buy Facebook ads to go down to my page, which is ironic. Then there is the appearance of the trademark cockroach, and someone has registered a similar design as a trademark. Various media began to discuss who owns the copyright of the new flag. Does this symbol belong to the players? nation? Olympic Committee? Hawkeye camera? Or artificial intelligence, would you tell Daido Moriyama, is the copyright of the wild dog you photographed owned by the Leica camera?

In those days, many kind-hearted legal friends asked me, do I want to sue?

Honestly, I don't care at all.

If I care, I will add a digital watermark to the picture from the beginning, perhaps the kind that cannot be observed by the naked eye, whoever steals the picture will be unlucky. But what's the point of doing so? You simply can't protect against people with a heart, especially for such a tersely concise notation.

"This is a common symbol shared by Taiwanese people at the same time." In an exclusive interview with Free News Network, I replied to this reporter.

In this anxious land, even a little bit of national passion will spark a prairie fire. The book Memes taught me that we are all hosts of memes and that no one can control the natural flow of memes.

Just on Wednesday (9/1), at the "Tokyo Olympic Heroes Triumph Party", President Tsai Ing-wen even presented the Linyang athlete's symbol derived from this "New National Flag" card. "Like it or not?" #TaiwanIN. I've enjoyed a meme bonus that exceeded my expectations.

How much household income is derived from "New National Flag" and how much economic flow is stimulated, I think it's great that the industry can make money. In addition, the things that make me feel warm are also beyond my expectations. We are really progressing.

If the industry can rely on "New Flags" to create liquidity (Liquidity), can I do it too?

At the end of the second chapter, you may wonder how a good national flag image could fall into such a field.

The good news is that many people actually implemented Hong Da's ideas, such as Howie Young's Taiwan-IN Polo shirt project and Wang Ciwan's badge project, both warm and brilliant.

Chapter 3, Building a Blockchain Public Welfare Perpetual Motion Motion

I also want to help.

Because of the previous ups and downs, as the creator of the new flag, I have a lot of meme bonuses in my hands, but the bonus points will expire one day, and I am in a hurry to convert the bonus points into cash (such as via Infringement lawsuit) is definitely breaking the bowl, and it is not elegant at all; can I seize the opportunity to direct the wind of the community to a place that needs more attention?

Digital problems require digital means, and the digital prescription that comes to my mind is NFT.

NFT, Non-Fungible Token, is mostly used to mint digital artworks in the blockchain world. You can first think of NFT as a certified digital artwork.

When an NFT is minted (Mint), it will be handed down to the world forever.

Everyone in the chain circle said that 2021 is the first year of NFT, digital artworks will blow out, and the total amount of blockchain auction platforms around the world has repeatedly broken new highs. My friend Zheyu is also heading up the wind in the way he creates generative art in New York. Because of the characteristics of NFT, many art forms that are difficult to exist in the real world are born on the blockchain.

NFTs can be more precious than diamonds.

Therefore, I cast "Flag of the New Era" into an NFT, which is limited to one edition and will never be republished.

Zhou Yicheng, a senior in Dadaocheng, said that the new national flag boom this time is a historical contingency. Therefore, in my digital original casting operation, the history in Taiwan's symbolic history was accidentally cast into eternity.

At the same time, I found that the creator's royalties (Royalty) of the NFT trading platform can be used in unlimited transactions, and the digital currency can be swiped. This setting made me have a delusional "if I donate every royalty, am I inventing some kind of perpetual donation machine?"

What a fascinating invention.

I call this vision Perpetual Charity.

Therefore, I carried out a small operation. After listing "The National Flag of the New Era" on the NFT trading platform AkaSwap, I found five friends who supported this work to carry out NFT trading together. After the six-hand transaction, the "New National Flag" The price came to 200 XTZ (approximately NT$22,000), creating a royalty of NT$7,556 in the middle. I will donate all to Digital Humane Society - a non-profit organization that uses telemedicine technology to promote health in remote areas. Finally, "New Flag" was repurchased by myself.

Thanks to the friends who are willing to support "New Flag" in the early stage, you have all been engraved in the NFT trading list. At the same time, I would like to thank Dr. Yang Siyi, the author of "The Road to Life", whose chapter on dedication inspired me.

The whole operation is called MemeForTaiwan.

(Note: XTZ is the currency unit used by the Tezos blockchain, and one is currently 160 Taiwan dollars.)

Chapter 4, Small Experiments Accidentally Reported, Taken from Digits, Used in Digits

After I donated about NT$7,000 of the royalties from sustainable public welfare, I received warm and friendly responses from several humanitarian associations. Although the amount was not large, they were very happy. In my opinion, "The National Flag of the New Era" was taken from and applied to the digital, so the "digital art" was donated to "digital medicine"; and the "New National Flag" originated from sports, promoting the health of silver hair, it is better. So far, the Digital Humane Society has partnered with more than 1,000 professionals in more than 100 locations to carry out health education operations.

Surprisingly, Lianhe Daily found out about my little experiment and was very interested. In addition to electronic news, it also made the whole thing appear in print newspapers (2021/8/29 Life Edition), very sorry, just Donate so little money, but also occupy everyone's attention.

Finally, I asked the Humane Society to sign the receipt "MemeForTaiwan" on the letterhead, and cast a copy of the receipt into a new NFT, which is MemeForTaiwan #000 . The whole operation came to an end.

Show the receipt and turn it into a work of art? Seems weird?

000, this work is a public welfare proof that everyone responded to the call of the "New Flag" and was born in the course of the action. This action is worthy of being cast and stared at. Broadly speaking, this is generative art with a lot of work.

After that, each transaction will continue to receive a 10% royalty donation, which is for sustainable public welfare, and I will continue to mint the MemeForTaiwan # series of NFTs.

Back to liquidity, manufacturers use the liquidity of "New Flag" to create wealth, and my liquidity creates joy.

In addition to the donation of more than NT$7,000 in this MemeForTaiwan campaign, the book value of "The New Flag" has reached NT$20,000. In addition, many unexpected gifts have been derived, such as warm associations, telemedicine discussions, surging reports, happy trading partners, etc. I think this is the power of social capital liquidity.

To sum up, in the whole operation, I used the expiring meme bonus to convert the digital art "New Flag" into public donations through digital currency. Among them, compound interest generates countless social capital.

It turned out that I was already a social capital millionaire.

Thanks to Dr. Bao's Podcast, which allowed me to repeatedly absorb blockchain-related knowledge during my commute to and from the hospital last year. I even had to listen to the good episodes more than three times, allowing me to truly step into the beautiful world of blockchain and NFT. .

Chapter 5, First Auction, Sustainable Public Welfare

How much value can a new flag create?

This is a new cultural capital created by everyone, the value should not belong to me, it belongs to the people who work hard on the land.

From the above action experiments, I am sure that the perpetual motion opportunity of sustainable public welfare will continue to operate, so I am relieved to let it go and let the free market mechanism churning, and continue to generate public donations.

From September 3 (9/3), I will launch the first auction of "New Flag". This time, not only 10% of the sustainable public welfare royalties, but also 100% of all the proceeds from this auction will be donated to <digital Humane Society> .

The auction will run for ten days, ending on Sunday, September 12 (9/12).

Returning to the original intention, I hope that the "New Flag" is a symbol that everyone can participate in together, so the original book value of 200 XTZ I will hang it there, starting from 1 XTZ (about NT $ 150), so that everyone can have it. Chance to get a digital original version of The New Age Flag.

Your bids are all proof of work, and I thank you forever.

The donations generated by this auction, the generated receipts will be born MemeForTaiwan #001.

After the auction, this "New Flag" born by accident will fly forever in the Metaverse.

This is a schematic diagram of the behavior I designed

I materialized the entire NFT action as a dynamic trace on a wall.

The red dot sticker comes from the traditional gallery exhibition, and the red dot sticker will be affixed next to the sold works.

However, NFT can be sold and purchased repeatedly on the same virtual wall. Since it has been purchased six times before, there are six stickers that have been affixed and torn off on the label of the work. The torn origin sticker was pasted on the donation voucher, which means that the royalties generated by these transactions have been turned into new works, announcing the entire operation. On the far right is the donation voucher piece for sale.

Action analysis:

I use the blockchain's token (token) transaction record to prove and generate the amount. These amounts are converted into legal currency (Fiat) and flow into the physical world (commonly known as meatspace, but strictly speaking, digital transactions in the legal currency world are not entities), The physical certificate (donation certificate) is generated, and the physical certificate becomes the non-fungible certificate (NFT) in the blockchain world. The certificate itself is the result of artistic activism. This result proves that I am the original designer and owner of "New Flag", and the data is marked on the metadata (Metadata).

Some people may ask, everyone can download "New Flag" directly from the Facebook of Soybean Puree, why would anyone want to buy it?

It's true that many people download it directly, but I don't mind, and I even welcome everyone to use it as much as possible. The more you use, the better. Why? Because my painting looks the best, no, because the more people use it, the more stable this symbol will be; the more people use it, it will be able to cross the barriers of ideology and time. This is Taiwan, which is fragile and irritable. need something.

So you have a warm and grateful coin in your collection.

Only this one is given to you by me. This gift is eternally certified by the blockchain.

What you have in your collection is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, the hot summer, on the badminton court, in front of the TV, on social platforms, souvenir masks, these crazy eternity marks.

Of course, there is also the sustainable public welfare that grows and thrives from tokens.

Maybe it will become a national flag one day.

That's where the value lies.

I like Tang Feng's poem very much: "The country of citizens is among the flowers."

Digital island nation, virtual community, new era national flag,

We are building our own unique culture, which should be recorded and flowed from now on.

I am fortunate to be a part of making history.

I can, and so can you.

The final chapter

The "New Era Flag" NFT public welfare action came to an end, and the charity auction finally donated NT$50,895.

(Fortunately, XTZ plummeted immediately after I donated it in Taiwan dollars. It seems that the god of cryptocurrencies is with us)

The picture is the NFT " MemeForTaiwan #001 " that I made to fulfill my promise. There are two editions, one edition will be given to the final winner, and the other edition will be kept by the MFT Taiwan Meme Public Welfare Committee. Although I don't know who you are, the address ends with Miss/Mr. LYz, thank you very much.

At the same time, thanks to all the friends who participated in the bidding!

Thank you Aran, Baobo, Xinjie, Zheyu

btw

I really like the MemeForTaiwan Logo I designed by myself (the upper right corner of the picture). The word MFT designed by Helvetica is actually an m stacked with two n, which means to imply that NFT can also be used for good deeds. In Taiwan, it is MFT, MemeForTaiwan.

Dear friends, if you have any ideas about public welfare casting, please tell me, I like to explore the boundless interdisciplinary boundaries!

Further reading:

1. Bean mash's post: New Age Flag https://www.facebook.com/mashbean/posts/10215705860278893
2. The completed version of the national flag evolution tree in the fortification of A series https://www.facebook.com/AditorWork/posts/1741105836084730
3. Howie Hong's Taiwan-IN polo shirt project https://www.facebook.com/howie.young.33/posts/4324908420885518
4. Wang Ciwan's badge concept materialization plan https://www.facebook.com/cihwan/posts/4801179033230948
5. Free Chase News 2021/8/3 "News 360" gold medal battle detonated the "New Flag" upsurge! The original creator revealed the motive behind it” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3-QbqLDbo4
6. United Daily News reported 2021/8/29 Slash doctors donated royalties to support telemedicine https://udn.com/news/story/7266/5706717
7. Physician Association Bar +1 "New Era Flag" original creator Soybean puree is very telemedicine https://udn.com/news/story/7266/5706685