Foundation, a leading NFT art platform, known largely for its Web3-native tool and ecosystem Worlds, has just announced its latest update, Moments. This new tool, or rather an expansion that elevates the capabilities of Worlds, enables worldbuilders to spotlight specific themes, creators, live events, and more within their existing Worlds.
To further understand Moments, its inspirations, aspirations, and how it’s poised to benefit artists, curators, and collectors alike — we spoke directly with Foundation’s CEO and co-founder Kayvon Tehranian.
Empowering creation
“Worlds represents Foundation’s unique superpower,” said Tehranian, highlighting that “No one has baked curation into their protocol as a base layer concern.”
He explained that the platform has identified that creative work sells best in a curated context and that through Worlds, the Foundation community is enabled to build those contexts rooted in strong on-chain technology.
“Worlds unlocks decentralized curation.”
Kayvon Tehranian
“Foundation isn’t a monolithic, curatorial context with a singular voice, even though that’s how we initially started,” shared Kayvon, adding that instead, “We’ve been marching towards a vision of decentralized curation.” He outlined that through this approach, the platform ultimately ends up supporting a wide range of voices while at the same time benefiting from a shared infrastructure.
He added, “It enables Foundation to be an expansive platform in Web3, while still upholding community, context, and curation as key pillars of the experience.”
Longevity for artists
With the continued expansion of Worlds through updates like Moments, Foundation has shown that this ecosystem is one designed to provide longevity to artists, curators, and collectors alike.
However, Tehranian pointed out the underlying value of on-chain design, explaining that “Worlds are designed to be portable, ownable, Web3-native objects,” adding, “We wouldn’t want curators and worldbuilders to simply trust us — that’s not a web3-native approach to product design.”
Instead, he shared that “We’re designing Worlds to be an on-chain protocol. Anyone can build on top of it. Your world is yours, and if we ceased to exist, everything valuable about it would be on-chain and fully in your control.”
Putting it concisely, he shared that “Yes, we’re committed to Worlds. You can expect Worlds to grow even more powerful over time,” and that at the same time Foundation is “Committed to ensuring that Worlds is a protocol that doesn’t introduce platform risk for those building on top of it.”
Breakdown and Benefits
Taking a closer look at Worlds’ latest enhancement, Moments, three key aspects stand out: the ability to schedule, promote, and track performance.
Scheduling aspects enable worldbuilders to curate a Moment within their Dashboard by selecting items from
their inventory and setting a specific date and time for its unveiling.
Additionally, Moments allows useful promotion and performance tracking capabilities. Once a Moment is created it becomes an independent event that can be shared and added to calendars. As for performance tracking, worldbuilders can keep real-time tabs on sales and the overall pageviews a Moment has received.
Tehranian explained that these aspects benefit artists specifically by drawing greater attention to releases and, in turn, getting more eyes on their work. He added, “Artists thrive in Moments. The spotlight is on them and everyone’s paying attention!”
As for collectors, Moments acts as a signal that cuts through the clutter and noise that can often be found in Web3, whether that’s an onslaught of notifications from X, Discord, Telegram, etc. or the sheer volume of constant releases.
“Moments are clarifying. They create focus amidst the noise,” Tehranian shared, adding, “They’re scheduled at a specific moment in time, they’re represented by a single page, and you can add them to your calendar — these are the ingredients that allow collectors to pay attention with ease.”
It’s In The DNA
As for design, Foundation has shown itself to be very particular when it comes to how it crafts its user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), with Tehranian expressing an aspect that is encoded in the platform’s DNA.
Speaking on why this is, he shared, “You have to go back to our founding. The space was stark. It was designed for hardcore technologists, those interfacing with the technology at a base level. The UI was almost an obstacle in and of itself.”
He added that, at that time, it was better to simply use smart contracts directly and that the idea of creators and artists wanting to use “crypto” was an alien concept. “This was the context in which Foundation emerged,” he explained, adding “Our founding — and subsequent rise — marked the emergence of a new, cultural era in Web3, an era that massively expanded who was interested in the technology, and for what purpose.”
Tehranian explained that this didn’t happen by coincidence and that design was a key factor in it all, something he touched on in a blog post from early 2021, titled Crypto wants to be seen.
Through its design approach, Foundation has made the idea of Web3 art more accessible, inviting, and appealing, particularly for artists. “As we’ve grown the company, we’ve maintained a commitment to Design. we’ve encoded it into our DNA,” Tehranian expressed.
Forever Projects
In addition to Moments, Foundation has revealed another initiative, Forever Projects, that speaks to its origins as well as acts as a testament to its Worlds ecosystem and design-focused approach.
While an official rollout and greater detail around Forever Projects is expected Thursday, August 31, Foundation provided us with a bit of insight as to what the initiative entails.
Primarily, Forever Projects will act as a highly curated, in-house World, run by a dedicated team, designed to enable Foundation to engage with the broader community as a worldbuilder on equal footing with other curators in its ecosystem. While those new to the platform might not know, Foundation began with only 50 hand-selected artists at its launch in 2021, with curation playing a significant role in its early success.
However, as the space and platform grew, its positioning shifted as well — going from a tightly curated roster of artists to tens of thousands of artists in less than a year, ushering in the development of Worlds to harness decentralized community curation.
To understand the return of in-house creation at this specific point in time, we spoke with Jaysa Alvarez, Foundation’s Chief of Staff. She shared “We’ve always cared about art and curation, just as we’ve always cared about creating strong technology.”
“Our intention with Forever Projects is to make our dedication to this cultural work unambiguous.”
Jaysa Alvarez
She further explained “We’re in this interesting moment in history where technology is moving at an unprecedented pace and interest in Crypto/Web3 has cooled. However, just because the speculators are gone doesn’t mean that there aren’t ideas worth exploring in our space. If anything, it presents us with an opportunity to engage directly with a subculture of people who share the same passion for these ideas as we do and do so in a way that’s much more resonant.”
While details surrounding Forever Projects are still somewhat scarce, the initiative’s dedicated X page has revealed some of the design inspirations behind it, including names like Issey Miyake and Andy Warhol, which we asked Alvarez about.
“That mood board represents a confluence of transformative ideas and attitudes,” she said, explaining “Issey Miyake is iconic for his technology-driven designs and innovative use of materials, with his collections inhabiting the space between art, clothing, architecture, and technology,” while “Andy Warhol’s concepts revolutionized how we think about contemporary art and its role in our society.”
She exclaimed “Through Forever we want to highlight art and ideas that push boundaries and challenge conventional understanding, ” adding “We wholeheartedly believe that the values and beliefs at the fringes will usher in the values and beliefs of the next generation, and therefore find inspiration in people and art that have embraced this forward-thinking mindset even when it’s been countercultural.”
For more information on Forever Projects, keep an eye on Foundation’s official channels, with upcoming updates said to include a closer look at its first curated show Between Heaven and Earth, as well as details on participating artists.
