OFP Does Miami: Highlights from DCentral & Art Basel
At the start of December, members of the Open Forest Protocol (OFP) team traveled to sunny Miami to represent OFP at some of the biggest crypto events in town.
First, OFP took the stage at DCentralcon, which is one of the biggest and trendiest crypto festivals of the year. Then, OFP participated in the Art Basel week — one of the most iconic art weeks in the world — working with NEAR Protocol to co-host an NFT event. Safe to say, over the course of just a few days we expanded OFP’s presence in one of the hottest crypto hubs in the US.
Keynote Speech at DCentral Miami
One of the main highlights from this trip was showcasing OFP to the broader crypto community outside of NEAR. A widely anticipated event, DCentral Miami featured keynote speakers, panels and workshops all dedicated to Decentralized Finance and NFTs. On the second day of this conference, we were granted the opportunity to present OFP at the Alpha Stage. Luke Schubert, OFP’s Product Lead, outlined our goal of using blockchain to revolutionize global forestation efforts, as a way to combat the larger issue of climate change.
Luke’s keynote can be watched here:
Presenting the OFP NFT artists at Art Basel
In addition to DCentral Miami, OFP made a splash at Art Basel. OFP co-hosted a NEAR Protocol-sponsored NFT event called, “Electrica Selvatica,” where the question on the value of NFTs and the future of art was posed. OFP represents a novel utilization of NFTs by representing forest projects on-chain via NFTs, answering the question of what use cases NFTs may provide beyond art. For this occasion, OFP invited two NFT artists from its network to inquire into the intersection between blockchain technology, art, and the environment: L. S. Dingo and Serste.
L. S. Dingo is an NFT artist embedded in the NEAR community, through which OFP knows him. His interactive installment, Garden of Elysium, examines the intersection of technology and nature through the means of a neo-environmentalistic VR experience. The VR experience ties meditative attunement with stability, on the one hand, and overactivity or inattentiveness with disintegration, on the other hand. As such, Garden of Elysium presents a new way to question the interrelation between the individual and their environment under the doctrine of holism.
Serste is both an OFP NFT artist and a forest operator on OFP, whose artistic works directly reflect her work on the earth. Serste’s Cosmogonia 2022 consists of two illustrations which represent an allegory of the renewed amazement of our species towards Nature. In essence, a reflection on the aggressive human control over Nature throughout history, Serste’s two landscapes tell of an absence of human beings, in a moment of our past or future when Nature is evoking a perfect place to embrace our existence.
Though a glimpse of the event is available in this video, a further chance to see these artists’ works in full will be coming in the new year — and that too in the metaverse! So don’t feel like you missed out.
Additionally, OFP’s Luke Schubert sat down with popular youtuber Busy Work Beats during this event to have a live AMA with his viewers.
Attending Art Basel itself was an extremely exciting step in expanding OFP’s reach beyond the technical and creating new pockets to grow our community. With that being said, make sure to be on the lookout for our upcoming NFT event early 2022!
OFP is Expanding
Climate change is a global problem, and OFP aims to be a home to forest projects everywhere in order to scale nature-based climate solutions. Today, the forest projects we are working with are mostly in Africa, Europe, and India. However, OFP has recently been getting interest from other parts of the world. Hence, we are actively hiring on-the-ground liaisons to onboard forest project operators around the globe. As a part of these ongoing efforts, OFP has onboarded a new forest project coordinator based in Miami, who will focus on projects in Florida, as well as the larger East Coast. Establishing OFP in this growing crypto and green tech hub is an exciting new development in the progress of expanding our network.
Additionally, OFP is currently hiring a Latin American Forest Project Coordinator to facilitate conversations with local government officials and forest projects. Contact joe@openforestprotocol.org or rado@openforestprotocol.org, if you are interested.
Looking Forward to 2022
OFP went out with a bang this year with some significant milestones in Miami. 2022 looks just as exciting as the last with more physical and virtual events awaiting us, as well as new hires, further product buildout, and finally, mainnet release!
If you want to stay up to date on OFP’s product development, events, and other news, be sure to sign up for our newsletter. If newsletters aren’t your thing, join our Telegram channel, follow us on Twitter, or join our Discord.
Happy holidays!
