Richelle Steyn
My Backstory
After 20 years in corporate IT, I made a hard-fork onto a road-less-travelled and started a personal journey to out-of-the-ordinary places. I was disillusioned with the life I was living and the work I was doing, and looking for work with a deeper purpose and meaning in an environment that was healthy, nourishing and that filled me with a sense of aliveness. That was 10 years ago.
Today, equipped with different values and geopolitical street-smarts, I feel I have a better sense of the emerging future. The younger generation has a very different social operating system, with less appetite for stress and sweat-shop type working conditions and work culture. More importantly, the existing “Game A”, “for profit” and “power-over” paradigms do not align with their values and needs.
The journey I started ten years ago has inspired me to create different models of business (socio-economic ecosystems) that offer new types of work opportunities, for a wider range of diverse human character, circumstances, values and needs to better serve our emerging future. South Africa has a unacceptably large youth unemployment problem. This is the real-world problem at the top of my priority list.
Cryptocurrency (De-Fi)
My first immersion in the world of Cryptocurrency was in early 2022 when I created a BTCPAY server and added Bitcoin as a payment option to my WordPress website. At the time, I was on a crypto trading course and dabbling with crypto arbitrage. Running a small business with an international audience is a major headache living and working in South Africa and I was exited about the potential of De-Fi to solve this problem.
Art Stoke
I stumbled upon NFT Art researching different forms of Crowdfunding as a way to finance new start-ups. The NFT Art ecosystem brings together technology (blockchain), finance (De-fi) and art. This confluence is a very vibrant, exciting and nourishing place. Even though I am not an artist I would love to create innovative new art ecosystems that better serves not only artists and collectors but everyone who works in this space.
This is an early write-up about Art Stoke giving some insight into the ideas and energy that birthed it.
At Art Stoke, we’re on a mission to ignite a new era in the art world, where creativity knows no bounds and ownership is truly democratized. We stand at the forefront of the Art and Web3 movement, ushering in visionary art frontiers that embrace the power of digital innovation.
Web3 isn’t just technology, it’s a revolution that empowers artists and collectors alike. We believe that art should be accessible to all, and Web3’s digital art ownership model is the gateway. Our purpose is to fuel this transformation, bridging the gap between creators and enthusiasts, and fostering a vibrant community where art thrives.
With every stroke of a digital brush and code, we’re reshaping the art landscape, bringing value and worth to creators and collectors in Southern Africa through Web3 digital ownership. Our commitment to realizing this vision drives us to inspire and enable authentic digital artworks, provide mentorship and opportunity for new, budding and established artists, and champion the ethos of inclusivity.
Join us as we embark on this exhilarating journey. Together, we’ll redefine art’s essence, making it truly ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.
Art Stoke Commons is an evolution on these themes and communicates the importance placed on new business-led socio-economic ecosystems to solve real-world problems and better serve our emerging future.