Brooklyn’s Spot in Crypto History Began Behind This Tagged Up Door in Bushwick
A look at where crypto began in Brooklyn and where it’s going
Across the borough, it’s equally about levelling up the collective consciousness as it is about crypto
There’s a door in Brooklyn that’s a web3 time capsule. Framed by brick and graffiti, partly covered in frayed stickers, “luxury for all” is scrawled in faded marker. This door is said to be the best historical record of Brooklyn’s early Ethereum community. Behind this door a revolution was brewing.
About six years ago, ConsenSys moved in, born out of the need to populate Ethereum with applications, infrastructure, tools and builders. It was the brainchild of Joseph Lubin, an Ethereum co-founder and early proponent of how decentralized, peer-to-peer systems can change commerce, finance and the general Internet experience. A critical mass soon formed and the largest and most-successful Ethereum developer studio became the center of gravity for web3 before that was even a term.
New York has long been the financial capital of the world, a pivotal fact for crypto’s growth, as many traditional finance folks were crossing the East River to see what all the fuss was about.
“In the early days of ConsenSys, we’d invite anyone that was curious about Ethereum,” said Amanda Cassatt, the firm’s former chief marketing officer. “They’d arrive off the subway from Manhattan, often wearing full business suits, disoriented and staring at all the graffiti-covered buildings. If they were lost, they were probably looking for the door.”
The Bushwick neighborhood became a metaphor for the future of finance. It wasn’t glossy glass. It was tagged up and mysterious. “Manhattanites had entered the realm of hackers,” Cassatt said.
Creative capital moved into the neighborhood and in time, as the market swung from bear to bull, the turnover of employees led to a sprawl of new blockchain-based startups that spanned the triangle of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint.
While ConsenSys put Brooklyn on the web3 map, it grew too fast and had to shrink their staff. Eventually, ConsenSys struck a deal with JPMorgan to buy the bank’s Quorum unit. But the roots were established and attention on the neighborhood continued.
“I call it the ConsenSys effect. We still had our homies and so we never left the hood,” said Evin McMullen, also ex-ConsenSys. During her four years at the firm she worked on decentralized identity solutions as the co-founder and lead for Serto and was head of the ConsenSys Entertainment unit that introduced music and Hollywood to the blockchain.
More: DeCent People Podcast With Ethereum Co-Founder Joe Lubin on the Merge
McMullen now focuses on how to prove identity in the decentralized and peer-to-peer expanse of the metaverse with her company Disco. She joked about bugging one her best friends, David Hoffman of Bankless podcast fame, to move to Williamsburg. “I finally convinced him and he’s since become the king of crypto in Brooklyn,” she said. “He confirmed recently that Williamsburg is like a crypto conference 24/7.”
According to McMullen, it feels a bit like university, where everyone lives close to each other in the same neighborhoods. Whether it’s an intimate loft dinner, sunset drinks on a rooftop, a summer backyard party, a warehouse rave or a nacho crawl, community is at the core. In Williamsburg, it’s equally about levelling up the collective consciousness as it is about crypto.
“Techno-optimists” as McMullen puts it. “It’s more philosophical and cultural than it is financial.”
Walk down Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg’s main thoroughfare, and you’ll see “Buy Eth” spray painted on the sidewalk, NFT project stickers wrapped around street poles and dudes in Uniswap hats.
Williamsburg’s web3 prevalence is echoed online, with viral tweets highlighting the Petrie dish of artists, hipsters, crypto folks and San Francisco transplants in the neighborhood and surrounds. The collective joke is half of the U.S. crypto industry is based out of Williamsburg’s WeWork.
“When you have artists who are in such close proximity to the people working on the technology themselves, it’s able to be demystified and made friendly in a way that might be off-putting to galleries in Chelsea,” McMullen said. “Williamsburg is an accidental incubator for emerging technology.”
Jay Kurahashi-Sofue, VP of Marketing at Ava Labs, has lived and worked in Williamsburg since 2016. Ava Labs (Avalanche) also calls Brooklyn home.
“Every time I go to a crypto conference, everyone loves the same music – minimal techno bass. I know this is no accident. We’re all the same types of people. Williamsburg feels like the East Village 10 years ago but with tech, too,” Kurahashi-Sofue said.
New York has a massive Burning Man sound camps scene, like Mayan Warrior and Robot Heart. The all-night events they throw are about collective liberation and an awakening of spirit, but it’s about more than just throwing an elaborate party.
“Blockchain technology promises to give power back to individuals, not entities,” Kurahashi-Sofue said. “If you want to create this new culture, you have to eat, breathe, sleep and devour it. We should be celebrating that there’s this kind of blurred lines between personal and professional now.”
With Manhattan’s energy and Williamsburg’s edge, a feeling of possibility permeates the streets.
The NFT Wall at Grand and Roebling
Cassatt, who has gone onto co-found the web3 marketing firm Serotonin also attributes the recent surge in web3 interest to the explosion of NFTs.
“We’re building a technology and cultural movement,” she said. “The community includes a lot more media, entertainment and creative folks, as opposed to pure technologists. Covid was also a catalyst. Williamsburg was a spot of brightness when Manhattan was shut down. We could safely congregate in parks and outdoor spaces, which was a stark contrast to the vibe in the city. This reinforced the spirit of the neighborhood and web3 overall.”
The enthusiasm for NFTs in Williamsburg is best seen on the corner of Grand and Roebling where the NFT Wall brought the digital files to life. Loro Masnah, a graffiti artist, wanted to see what would happen when he linked his work to the NFT community and technology.
He had a realization: If he made a collection of profile-picture graffiti in the street it could become a powerful tool to showcase his art based on his blockchain activity.
As luck would have it, he found the perfect wall and a landlord who was fed up with constant graffiti. The caveat? Masnah could create a professional mural of his own choice, so long as it included the landlord’s sports jersey. Dave Sorger, the landlord, used to play for the Yankees.
The wall, much like the ConsenSys door, has taken on a mythology of its own. Masnah minted the bricks and gave the public the opportunity to buy them, depending on budget and drawing size.
“Each purchaser of a brick NFT had the chance to have their most cherished NFT painted on the wall,” Masnah said. “Cryptopainter, an OG ape, bought two, and soon everyone wanted to get up on the wall. One guy even got his CitiBike stolen trying to figure out how to buy the brick on the spot.”
Masnah has since created a metaverse where people can join from anywhere in the world, but the real graffiti continues to serve as a web3 centerpiece in Williamsburg.
The NFT wall created a conversation starter for the neighborhood. “That’s graffiti’s secret weapon – bringing IRL more visibility that’s forgotten in the digital world we live in,” Masnah added.
Just around the corner from the NFT Wall is Lion’s Milk. After NFT NYC, owner and Bored Ape NFT holder Izer Saporta decided to turn the wall of his coffee shop into a digital gallery. “We’re the world’s first café displaying NFTs,” according to Saporta.
The displays rotate every 30 to 40 seconds, showcasing hundreds of artists, including his own collection, Caffeinated Lions. “It functions just like a loyalty program with coffee discounts. I also display their avatar when they come in which is always fun,” Saporta said.
From the street, Lion’s Milk looks like any other Brooklyn neighborhood coffee shop with the requisite fire escape, exposed brick, hipsters, laptops and alt music. The vibe and the conversations are the web3 giveaway.
When asked if his customer base had changed since the NFTs, he smiled. In the outdoor dining booth behind us a guy could be overheard talking about “Ethereum” and “crypto.”
Web3 pops up even in unlikely places in Williamsburg. Closer to the water’s edge, the neighborhood’s gentrification is more visible. But the luxury Williamsburg Hotel is doing its best to offer diverse events that seek to give back to the community.
Rifka Buls, the hotel’s director of partnerships and cultural events, hosts dinners, fireside chats and mixers as well as formal panels. The hotel is also the headquarters of Crypto Mondays Brooklyn.
Inside the WiIliamsburg Hotel
Buls is a bit of a walking web3 billboard who perfectly encapsulates the friendliness of the space. As she showed me around the event rooms with their sweeping Manhattan views she kept saying, “You have to speak to this person. And this person.”
But beyond the tech talk, the market sentiment, the acronyms and the hype is a community working to make the world a better, more inclusive place. This spirit is the connective fiber of crypto Williamsburg. It is a scene because of the artists, musicians, rebels, outliers, technologists, optimists, philosophers and dreamers who call this neighborhood home.
Every revolution leaves behind markers and mementos. The ConsenSys door represents an inflection point. An opening to a new world, a symbol of liberation, a defining time for humanity.
Crypto Brooklyn is history in the making.