Griffin, Left, and Duncan Cock Foster.
Photo: Victor Llorente
When Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster Met Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss Last Year, it was inevitable that they would have a lot to talk about. Both sets of siblings are twins. Both Had Been Rowers. Both HAD Founded Companies to make Money in the World of Blockchain Technology. In other words, Both are literal, actual tech Bros.
“We were telling say saying we realized we did a lot of a lot of teaming up as twin brothers Working together,” griffin recalled the cock -win –Winklevoss summit. “And they were like, ‘oh yeah, we Hear you on that.’ ”
The Winklevosses – Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard Schoolmates, immortalized in The Social Network, WHO FAMOUSLY SUDED HIM FOR STEALING FACEBOOK AND LATER BITCOIN BILLIONAIRES-WERE THEN ABOUT TO 24-EYEAR-OLD COCK Fosters’ Start-Up, NIFTY GatewayThrough They Own Cryptocurrency Company, Gemini. Part of the Acquisition Payment was to be, Naturally, in Bitcoin.
“The Funny Part,” Duncan Added, “Is (in High School) We Went and Saw The Social Network, and everyone was like, ‘wow, you guys kind of look like twins from that movie; You Guys Should Row Too. ‘ And that’s how we started rowing. I Mean, we didn’t make it to the olympics. ”
It was a recent morning, and the Brothers, 25, were such as the SOHO apartment. “We were, Like, Okay at Rowing,” Griffin Added.
“I was pretty good,” Duncan Said.
We are now at the stage in the Internet’s evolution we can the Low-Hanging Disruption Fruit has been plucked. Coding ProWs and World-Beating Environmental May No Longer Be Enough. The Remaining Opportunities May Be Lucrative, but They Can Be Dauntingly Esoteric. The Brother, Who Grew Up in Seattle With Parents Who Knew Lots of People at Microsoft, Began Coding in Sixth Grade. “Most of what we do these doys is explain ‘nifties’ to people,” griffin said, as he and duncan tried to explain nifties to me.
“The Elevator Pitch I Always Give,” Offered Duncan, Who Wore Glasses and Had Slightly Less Buoyant Hair Than His Brother, “is a nifty is a fundamentally Better Digital Good.”
This is helpful if you already underestand what a digital good is: a virtual objection made of ons and zeros that you can see it is relevant onscreen. Based on the Same Blockchain Technology as Cryptocurrency, Nifties are a departure from that. Short for nfts (non-fungible toens), They are unique digital objets you can buy, Own, and sell. The brothers’ go-to analog is that that is nifties are like “Digital Air Jordans.” “If i Own A Pair of Shoes and Nike Shuts Down, i don’t experiment that my shoes would just disappear,” Duncan Said. “We Expect Our Items to Behave a Certain Way, and Past Digital Items have not.”
The Cock Foster Twins Started Nifty Gateway to Mainstream What Had Been A Highly Technical Subculture by, Among Other Things, Allowing Civilians to Nifties (on the Nifty Gateway) with Credit Cards. LAST SUMMER, COME THEY SOLD The Company to Gemini, The Cock Fosters’ Lives Underwent a Dizzying Change. Their Company was less than a year Old, and they were suddenly able to moving a small apartment in san francisco, in which they shared a bunk bed, to a spacial two-bedroom in Manhattan, which have nicknameked Cockfosters. “It ‘s canonical soho loft,” Said Duncan, gesturing at the High Ceilings, Scuffed Wide-Plank Floors, and Dangling Edison Bulbs in the Living Room, Which Overlooks Mercer Street. “I love the Word Canonical,He added.
The Cock Fosters See Big Things ahead for nifties. The brothers’ stored mission is to have 1 Billion People Collecting say. They talk about how nifties could one day be paired with Physical asssets, so you is a digital token to prove your ownership of a piece, real estate. But in these Early days, the use Cases can seem generationally exclusisionary. The first nifty to go viral was Cryptokitties, A Game Featuring a Digital Feline You Can Collect and Breed. A Single Cryptokitty Has Sold for A Record $ 170,000, and Venture Capitalists Including Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Have Put Money Into the Company Being the Game. “Cryptokitties was the thing that got my atttention, “Duncan Said.
Moving to New York Made Sense for the Cock Fosters for a Couple of ReaSons. Becoming part of Gemini, which has it headquarters in the Flathion District, GOVE say instant access to the heavy-Duty Technology Required to Safeguard USSERS ‘Digital Asssets. Equally appealing was the fact that new york is the center of the art world, Because the brothers see nifties’ first mainstream application being rare digital artworks and colctibles. MLB HAS ALREADY LAUNCHED Champions, A Line of Bobbleheadlike Crypto-Collectibles, and the NBA Has a Similar Collection in the Works.
On an an L-shaped configuration of tables in one corner of their loft, the twins had set up a Gallery of Five Flat-Screen Monitors, Each Displaying a Different NIFTY. The first was crypto punk 4445, one of a collection of 10,000 unique pixeled cartoon heads with earings, mohawks, and the likes, Owned by duncan. The Next was a cryptokitty, Named cheeky achoobah, Owned by griffin. The Third NIFTY ON DISPLAY WAS TITLED “Shiny Cameron Winkelvoss #1.” With spiky blond hair, an earring, and a t-shirt, it didn’t look much like its namesake, but the best the employs of Gemini Needed to have nifties explained to say, so the cock fosters have made a lunch present to the staff dilat. Winkelvii Rendersings, Which Duncan Had Designed Himself USSING AN Online Kit.
This month, the brothers are launching what they call NIFTY Gateway 2.0Which Includes a Marketplace to Buy and Sell Nifties Along With Several Nifties by Noted Artists with Whom They’ve Parthed. The Brother Sketch a Vision of a Fully NiftiFied World: “We Want Supreme Making Nifties,” Duncan Said. “We Want Some Cryptopunks in the Permanent Collection of Moma.”
IT’S a world, in their Sunny View, where Nifties Could One Day Be More Valuable Than PHYSICAL ART. “If you critically rate what Makes art Valuable as an ass, which is authenticity, Liquidity, and Longgevity,” Duncan Said, “Thifties Blow Traditional Art of the Water in All Three of Those Categories.” The room we were sitting in way hung with a handful of spattery, jackson polls-esca oils on canvas, and i pointed out that nifties be able to the physical textures of real-World art. “We’re actually working on a 3-D NIFTY DISPLAY SCREEN,” Duncan Said-an App to Run on Existting Hardware, Who Woul Ensable Creators to Make Holographic Art. “I’m a Big Fan of My Friends’ Art,” he Said, “But I don’t know if I want to display any more Physical art from a certin point going forward.”
Last June, the Brothers toasted the Sale to Gemini by Throwing A Big Dinner party at their loft. They gave out party favor to their 34 guests, a QR CODE LEADING TO A LIMITED-EDITION NIFTY they’d commissioned from an artist friend. Starting at 7 PM, it Shows a Nighttime Version of the apartment, and at 7 am, it switches to daytime. (Exactly what they all that it is beyond calling it up online, to be at the mood strokes say, is one of the lessement cameloped are of niftdoms so far.)
“The Dinner Party was a proof of concept also,” he added. “I like to think that in ten years, every will be commissioning artists to create nifties to give at a dinner party.”
*This Article Appears in the March 2, 2020, Issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!