The year is 1998. Two young go-getters by the name of Sergey and Larry found some company (I forgot the name, you'll have to Google it) with the mantra of 'Don't Be Evil', which they hope to sell for the princely sum of $1 million by early 1999. At home in Ireland, despite the Good Friday peace agreement being signed earlier in the year, the town of Omagh is devastated by the deadliest terrorist atrocity of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Inspired by their talismanic captain, Zinedine Zidane, France hosts and wins its first FIFA World Cup. All the cool kids are talking about whether they prefer Blue or Red Pokey Men. The greatest sitcom of all time airs an underwhelming finale - not that there's anything WRONG with that. We all learned how to be Pretty Fly (For a White Guy), not even Brad Pitt could impress Shania Twain and Bill did NOT have sexual relations with THAT woman.
Amidst all this chaos, noise and confusion, a pre-adolescent in Dublin, Ireland, was making one of the most pivotal and life-changing decisions of his life. His FIRST album. Oh sure, he'd dabbled with the odd single here and there - The New Radicals one of the better selections, The Vengaboys a more perplexing one, particularly with the benefit of hindsight. Nevertheless, mishaps and missteps aside, he was now ready for that seminal moment in life - the purchase of his first full-length album. He'd heard the singles on the radio by now. He was sure in his conviction. He strode confidently into his local HMV, straight to the 'Chart-Topping Albums' section and carefully extracted a copy of Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby on cassette (Google it). He rushed home, opened the tape deck on the family hi-fi system and proceeded to blare out the haunting and atmospheric intro to 'Right Here, Right Now' - becoming instantly hooked. Granted, when track 3 - 'Fucking in Heaven' began obnoxiously and loudly repeating the song's title over and over, the volume had to be lowered considerably due to the presence of parents nearby. Nevertheless, the young lad's joy could not be diminished. This was his first album purchase and it was a bloody good one. In terms of firsts in his life, it is perhaps only eclipsed by the fact that his first concert had been Michael Jackson in Lansdowne Road in 1992 at the tender age of 5 - it pays to have parents who are music lovers.
Fast forward to 2021 and a lot has changed. Or has it? The more things change, the more they stay the same. Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shea have founded Stacks with the mantra of 'Can't Be Evil', hoping to usher in the user-owned internet. Ireland and Northern Ireland are back at loggerheads over Brexit. The most recent World Cup in 2018 was lifted by France. Kids and adults alike are catching Pokey Men on their smartphones. Curb Your Enthusiasm is essentially Seinfeld 2.0. I'm pretty sure Dexter Holland and Shania Twain are still lurking about somewhere and who knows WHO Bill may have had sexual relations with at this stage. All changed, changed utterly....
Amidst all this chaos, noise and confusion, Fatboy Slim is still going strong and is now making his first foray into the world of NFTs through the This is #1 project. You could say He’s Come A Long Way, Baby. This is #1 has created the first NFTs to be minted on Bitcoin - a huge development in the space. This has been made possible through the Stacks protocol which makes Bitcoin programmable and allows for such innovations on Bitcoin which were previously believed to be the domain of the Ethereum and Binance chains. Since its mainnet launch in January, Stacks has been gaining momentum and now has builders and developers starting to flesh out the ecosystem with exciting innovations and genuine use cases, not least in the area of NFTs.
Anonymous British artist Chemical X and Risidio are spearheading this first NFT auction on Bitcoin. Each NFT is a combination of visual and audio art with Fatboy Slim's piece entitled 'Why Try Harder?' (inspired by the famous album cover for You've Come A Long Way, Baby). In addition to Fatboy Slim, the project is featuring works by Cara Delevingne, Orbital and Dave Stewart. Each artist is auctioning off a unique NFT for the project with proceeds from the auction all going to a charity of the artist's choice. This project may even help to offset some of the recent Bitcoin environmental FUD as these are the most environmentally friendly NFTs with no new transactions or mining necessary to create them. This is certainly an exciting development in the NFT space - creations by major artists, built on an innovative new protocol, charitable sentiment and of course, powered by the soundest blockchain out there.
This is probably only the beginning for the This is #1 project, so watch this space.
