REPLAY: Nifty Gateway's Duncan Cock Foster on all things NFT!

founder interview Apr 20, 2022

Duncan Cock Foster delivers BIG on all things NFT. You may know that NFT stands for non-fungible token but what is an NFT exactly? How does the NFT world work? And what does it mean for you as an artist?

If you missed it, you can always watch the replay. If you tuned in and you’re considering wading into the NFT pool, you may want to put the replay on REPEAT!

Duncan is co-founder, along with his identical twin brother Griffin, of Nifty Gateway, the largest marketplace for NFT digital art. He describes Nifty Gateway as “an all-in-one platform that makes it easy to buy, sell and store digital art and collectibles.”

A year after creating Nifty Gateway, the twins sold it to by Gemini, a cryptocurrency platform founded by another well-known pair of twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Nifty Gateway’s mission is to make NFTs easier to access or as Duncan puts it, “our mission is to make Nifty Gateway drops as fun and equitable as possible.”

When he led our recent webinar Everything Creatives Need to Know About NFTs, people listened intently, took notes and asked lots of questions because Duncan knows the world of nifties! He and his bro were in the nifty game long before most people ever even heard of Cryptokitties and artist Beeple’s $69 million sale at Christie’s.

And Nifty Gateway is in the game for the long haul, so buckle up as Duncan guides you into the shallow end of the NFT pool at the start of this replay. By the end, you may be ready to swan dive deep into nifties. From sharing his fave artists to addressing some of the environmental concerns (hint: he says that’s been blown out of proportion), Duncan goes ALL IN!

Check out the REPLAY here:

Here are a few highlights from Duncan’s webinar.

On Nifty Gateway’s mission and entrepreneurial journey.

The Cock Foster identical twins were told they resembled the Winklevoss identical twins of The Social Network fame. It was after watching that movie that the pair decided to take up rowing in high school. Duncan and his brother love art and visiting museums and art galleries and they LOVE and collect nifties themselves.

They both left their corporate jobs to launch Nifty Gateway, a gateway for acquiring and selling digital art. Nifty Gateway set out to make the user experience easier, recognizing that NFTs would never go mainstream if people had to invest too much time and energy into accessing and acquiring them.

Fast forward a few years and the Cock Foster twins met and sold their company to the Winklevoss twins, with whom they now work closely. They still run the company they co-founded with the simple goal of making NFTs accessible to everyone.

Nifty Gateway teams up with top artists, such as Michael Kagan, and brands to create collections of limited editions, high quality NFTs, available exclusively on their platform.

Duncan and his brother are on a quest: We will not rest until 1 billion people are collecting NFTs.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?

We’re still early in the NFT infrastructure. It’s hard for people to wrap their minds around NFTs because it’s a digital collectible that you own but that can also be downloaded by others. The difference is that you have a certificate of authenticity, which is basically like provenance in the physical art world. Something to keep in mind is that even if there are copies of artwork, it doesn’t lessen the worth of the original. Take Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. How many posters exist of The Starry Night but that doesn’t diminish the value of the original, which is owned by the MoMA, right?

What are some misconceptions about NFTs?

That NFTs sort of came out of nowhere when in reality they’ve been around for years but they’ve just entered the mainstream consciousness more recently. Also, that NFTs have to be purchased with cryptocurrency. Collectors and artists can buy and sell NFTs on Nifty Gateway with debit and credit cards. There are also a lot of misconceptions about the environmental impact. But many artists who are getting into nifties are concerned about the environment. If the whole NFT ecosystem went away, the environmental impact would be minimal.

What advice do you have for people who want to look into NFTs?

Do some research before diving in. Spend some time immersed in NFT culture to better understand it. For collectors, buy art you love just as you would buy art to hang on your wall. People need to understand that there’s risk involved; don’t buy art thinking you’re going to flip it and make a lot of money.

What does the future NFT market hold?

It can be a difficult medium for artists but with talent and determination, I believe that long-term, artists and other creatives will be able to make their living from NFTs. No one knows for sure what the future holds but NFTs are a game-changer. Our goal is for Nifty Gateway to be the Uber of the art world by expanding the art market. We’ll likely see growth in both NFT culture and NFT technology. Nifty Gateway has grown incredibly quickly, honestly far faster than we could have predicted when we launched Nifty Gateway 2.0. The entire NFT space has taken off like a rocket ship. I believe NFTs will be bigger than the traditional art market.

Find out what other HOT NFT tips Duncan had to offer! It’s all right here in the REPLAY of the webinar.