Best of paragraph.xyz/@touchgrass on Kiwi News
@touchgrass on Paragraph · Most upvoted by Kiwi News readers
26 stories by @touchgrass on Paragraph have been shared on Kiwi News since 31 May 2024, with 55 upvotes and 1 comment in total. The latest was shared on 4 April 2025. They are listed below, most upvoted first.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- Tending a Forest
Protocols can serve as an artistic medium, and terra0's work is presented as the strongest example. Morphology Panel 02 (2020), which hangs in the Avara London HQ, appears to be a photograph of a verdant forest, but its frame depicts a smart contract flow chart for tending that forest. terra0 published its whitepaper in 2016 while students at the University of the Arts in Berlin, and its FlowerTokens (2018) became one of the most coveted projects among collectors during the 2021 NFT hype. Premna Daemon (2018), a bonsai, is described as having requested and paid for its own care.
- AI Memecoins and stickers, and why should one stick to stickers
Orb's latest update makes stickers the only way to "Like" posts, which is presented as a clever way to keep bots out, since bots cannot buy Jessy's or Mazemari's stickers. Users must buy sticker packs created by other users, and each pack's revenue after its buyer joins as a holder is distributed to other holders. The text also says AI bot comments are spreading on X, Lens and Warpcast, and that people both dislike and celebrate them. The rest is a weekly digest of Lens community highlights, including IDriss, Lenspet by Wagami Studios, and Sitio's stickers coming to Orb.
- In our IRL era
The Lens team reports that its first in-person gathering, held at afk Berlin and alongside ETHBerlin, featured talks by critical voices, artists, privacy advocates and builders. Quoted speakers included Jaya Klara Brekke, who called for deeper thinking about what social means today, and Billy Rennekamp, who argued that reputation is the last bastion of trust in collaboration. Sam Hart said memecoins have an ephemeral appeal and that emotional connection is built by speaking to morals and trust rather than through finance. The newsletter also highlights ETHBerlin hackathon projects, including zkTwitter and Proof of Gamerhood.
- World Computer Sculpture Garden
World Computer Sculpture Garden, an onchain art exhibition built as a smart contract, debuted on November 5th, with its initiator 0xfff and artists including 0xhaiku, Loucas Braconnier, Sarah Friend, Material Protocol Arts, Rhea Myers and Paul Seidler. The author presents it as a respite from the frantic memecoin and AI-agent atmosphere, and describes smart contract art as a native form whose constraints become part of the medium. The show has no end and evolves programmatically as users interact with it. Visitors can plant a flower on the Guestbook by sending 0.01 ETH to the show's contract address.
- Friends onchain, meeting offchain
The Family, Lens and Aave teams are gathering in Bangkok next week with a roundup of events where attendees can meet them, get merch, and hear their talks. Events named include the SheFi summit, where the teams will have tables and hand out rAAVE bracelets, and Devcon, where Lens and Aave will each have booths and Stani will present "Ethereum as a Force for Good" on the mainstage. The article also mentions a DeFi Renaissance Day takeover of Soho House Bangkok by Aave and friends, a rAAVE party with a cosmic noir theme, and a Lens and Family brunch on the last Devcon day, with rAAVE tickets offered first come, first served.
- A Different Perspective
This edition of the Touch Grass newsletter was co-written by freelance creator Dayana, who invited to contribute with the aim of adding fresh perspective to a newsletter usually curated by a single person. Dayana writes from Napoli about cutting her finger while making a sandwich and says that roaming the city taking photos for Orb Club has made her feel alive. She says she has let go of her earlier perfectionism and urges readers to capture moments with their lens, literal and digital. The edition also welcomes Moshicam to Lens and proposes a "Fallsome" autumn prompt for readers to share images, poems or artworks on the /touchgrass Orb club.
- Nuevo Orden Mundial
Tinyrainboot says Emilio, a collection of Argentinian Milady derivatives, showed them that worldbuilding and crypto can be done in Spanish, a language they had struggled to use for business. After finding it, they downloaded Phantom, bought SOL and Emilios, and joined Telegram. The weekly roundup then covers projects such as LCC (Lens Creators Club), a place to find opportunities in Lens and beyond, and the /butter orb club, which replaced the /butter warpcast channel.
- Aurabonding
Touch Grass is a weekly crypto newsletter that celebrates artists, reflects on the crypto community, and shares memes and links. This edition reports that Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France on the past Saturday, that Brazil is blocking access to X, and that Meta announced the shutdown of Spark AR, leaving 600k creators concerned about losing their social capital. The author also points to creator exhaustion, citing GRLKRASH, Leo Pastel and Jamee Cornelia, who asked for crypto to make sense for creators beyond the narratives. The edition also highlights the launch of Orb Club's /aurabonding by Stina, Cezar and Katherine.
- Do you think you can hurt my feelings? I’m not technical and I work in tech
The author, writing as a former worker in a highly curated polo world, argues that tech and crypto depend on a "soft touch" of culture, design and marketing that often goes unrecognized. They say the vibes, panels and content that draw people to web3 apps are the work of people behind the scenes, not just the technology. The newsletter describes itself as focused on surfacing the things that make complex tech worth building, and it links to a list of web3 social projects, art and writing, including Gremlin_bb's rAAVE video and Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler's Calculating Empires.
- We’re So Back
The Lens Holiday Hackathon has ended, with more than 50 projects submitted and judged by Lens super users and the team through onchain votes facilitated by Jokerace. The organizers describe the community as central to Lens, which is why power users were invited to judge, and say the winning projects were ambitious and solved problems judges experience. Makers Place, the NFT marketplace, is ceasing operations, while Phaver is transitioning into a DAO. Bonsai, whose agents and launchpad integrate with Orb, will also be present on the upcoming Lens network.
- What One Evening at the Rajadamnern Muay Thai Stadium Taught Me About SaaS Sales
A weekly onchain newsletter recaps a busy week in Bangkok, citing two product launches, Family and Lens testnet and Social Features, plus three side events including DeFi Renaissance Day and two Devcon booths. It notes that Daoleno built a Lens testnet explorer and a $GRASS faucet for developers. The digest also highlights Glitch Residency, where 50+ creatives live together for three weeks, marking its third consecutive year.
- Touching Sand
Dayana, a guest editor for the Touch Grass newsletter, shares travel diaries from two weeks in Los Angeles, where she is working on crypto PR and describes California as the finest of American ambition. The issue also includes a digest of community posts and an announcement that Orb has shipped a major update with Orb Jams, group chats within clubs that include WITA message previews and reactions and stickers. Orb says it will release a new sticker pack every 2 hours for 28 hours to celebrate.
- Running on a Potato
This newsletter opens with a line from a team brainstorming session, "The Lens Network will make web2 apps feel like they are running on a potato," which the writer says kept recurring and blocked their writing, and then turns to a roundup of Lens content. The roundup links to artwork, music and projects, including Didop, Mazemari, Guruguruhyena, Darkshadow, Patrician x Eamzfella, SSTM, Sirsu, Rae Isla and Chamaquito's "Leave a voicemail" project. It also includes a Dazed piece on post-real via Pierre Pauze, a guide to creating a club on Orb from Zenshortz, and Benoit's interviews with Latashá and a Man of Crypto.
- The California Dreaming to Market Meltdown Pipeline
A weekly crypto and onchain newsletter argues that crypto's only current mainstream adoption is that it follows stock and forex declines, as a market collapse at the end of a Fest weekend showed. It reports that a piece co-written by James on decentralized social for artists was published in both the print and digital editions of Spike Magazine. The roundup then recommends onchain art and creators, including /entrylevel, the Orb club run by Chris Martz and Chromuh with 300+ members, and Yeche Lange's gallery on floor 15 of a Financial District building.
- Roman Empire Redux
The author argues... no, stated directly: The writer argues that the Romans invented the first proto-NFTs, since Roman coins depicted contemporary events and offered distribution, value and a degree of immutability. Theo Goodman, a crypto artist who works at Nym, raised the idea at a Bitcoin Ordinals panel at The Art of Protocols in Basel. The post also cites a 1700s German satirical coin from the Dresden State Art Collections, B.XXXII, whose exact purpose is uncertain, as an example of novelty coins that functioned as early proto-NFTs. The piece also ends with a weekly digest of art and Lens-related projects.
- Recalibrating
The author recounts skipping part of ETHcc to visit Jana Euler's show at Wiels, saying it was sometimes fine to go to a museum, and then credits the team behind Lens and Aave for the week's strongest events, including afk, Open Finance Day and rAAVE. The rest of the post is a roundup of artists and projects on Lens, such as 0xUntitled's planned launch on Lens at afk and Nodle's plan to integrate its Click misinformation app into Lens as an Open Frame.
- Lens Mainnet is Here!
Lens has launched its mainnet on Lens Chain after a roughly 36-hour outage of its apps, with accounts and content migrated from a snapshot taken at launch. The update says every profile was moved to Lens V3, and app builds are rolling out over the weekend. Ready now are free Lens Accounts, Hey.xyz with Sign-in with Family, the Fountain writing platform, and $BONSAI bridging from Polygon, Base and zkSync. A livestream with Stani and guests from ZKsync and Avail is scheduled for Tuesday, April 8 at 11am ET.
- Onchain Fun
This edition of the Lens newsletter "Touch Grass" previews a coming migration to a new Lens chain, with more details promised in the coming weeks, and highlights onchain fun amid a recent crypto downturn. The author says Flaunch, a memecoin launchpad that went live last Friday alongside Uniswap v4, discussed the need for stress-free, positive-sum fun, and that Bonsai shipped Bonsai Launchpad v2 on Monday, which will also come to the new Lens. The rest of the piece is a list of podcasts, art, and NFT projects, including Kudzu, an NFT virus that can be passed between wallets and that one of its artists has added a burn mechanism for.
- Everything everywhere all at once
Mass crypto adoption has arrived, and builders should tell newcomers they can reclaim the internet and build a better financial system now, while attention and the regulatory environment are favorable. Joe Rogan's Spotify deal was worth $250 million, Alex Cooper's came in at $125 million, and $TRUMP's market cap hit $8 billion with the team holding 80% of the supply. The text also states that for every person making a fortune, thousands are losing money, mostly newcomers.
- How To Not Be Cringe This Holiday Season
This article is a promotional pitch from Lens inviting builders to a holiday hackathon. Lens offers generous prizes for winners, direct support from its team, and real-time validation from users. Verified Lens power users will vote through Jokerace to judge the submissions. The piece is written in a casual, humorous tone that frames the event as an alternative to holiday festivities for people who dislike the season.
- Expired to Tired Then Wired to Inspired
Asami (writing as "Her") argues that DeFi is winning and that its success, including Aave's momentum, justifies continued support for Lens, the creator platform she is curating. She cites a friend who used Aave to take out a loan for a house down payment, and says Aave's success took about a decade of building blockchain-based financial products and infrastructure. The post also notes that Discord was banned in Turkey, which it presents as an example of platforms being cut off by governments, and says Touch Grass will pause at times while the team focuses on building.
- All Ships Rise With The Tide
ALLSHIPS, a creators house in Brooklyn founded by Dave Krugman, has been hosting weekly events and planning a three-month artist-in-residence program whose works will be minted on Lens. The author's newsletter describes the house's events as bringing together people from many backgrounds, and it promotes an upcoming Saturday event called Mints & Music with sets by Fred Riko, Mimo, Miette Hope, Lila Bloom, Ollie Chanin and a curated DJ set from Bones. The roster of residency artists has not yet been revealed.
- Blue Friday
Blue Friday is a newsletter roundup of Lens and crypto-art community news, written by a Europe-based writer who says American political discourse on Twitter has dampened their mood. Galerie Yeche Lange announced a show with Miles Peyton, Sam Hains and Paul Levack opening next Friday in NYC. Edcon Social, hosted by Lens, Mask Network and Shinsei Galverse, takes place at HVEN Nakameguro on July 28 in Tokyo, and the ALLSHIPS house by Dave Krugman has been announced for the Lens Orb club. The writer also highlights Vitalik's post on the weaponization of crypto as a political instrument.
- Consciously Uncoupling
The author, a newsletter writer for a Lens-focused web3 community, uses this edition to highlight the Mifella artist collective, which makes AI-assisted, collaborative art and has been posting heavily on Lens. Mifella organized in response to Milady and first minted on Solana, and the writer says Mifella's Orb Club feed on Lens is now drawing significant attention, with Orb tips newly live for signaling favorite content. The edition also previews upcoming events in Brussels at ETHcc, including afk, rAAVE and Open Finance Day, and shares the winners of a writing contest about web3 platforms.
- ELIZA is no longer just an effect
Touch Grass, a crypto newsletter, uses its weekly issue to explore the ELIZA effect, the tendency to attribute understanding and empathy to artificial systems, and cites Aave's mascot Ronnie as an example. Alice Scope's exhibition and club AI Gods and Girlfriends on Orb features Arvida Byström, Sarah Friend, CROSSLUCID and Connie Bakshi. The newsletter also describes Barron Trump launching the DJT memecoin on Solana, which it says he promoted with Martin Shkreli and crypto influencer Ansem, and says Allegedly, his father was aware and supportive.
- Infinite Jest
The author, writing as a newsletter contributor, argues that online communities should set their own values and moderation rather than relying on corporate policies, and frames a recent wave of criticism of an artist over AI use as coordinated harassment by furries. The piece says Petravoice was targeted by critics claiming she was "copying" other artists, and it draws a parallel to earlier NFT-era attacks on artists, which it says were aimed at spreadsheets of artists' Twitter usernames. It also cites Apple's iPad ad and Klarna's CEO, who later deleted a statement about cutting advertising spend and jobs by 20% through generative AI. The rest of the newsletter is a list of recommended creators, events and projects.