Viewpoint: The rise of IreneDAO and the Indonesian guy's NFT is essentially about the gaze of power

Author: Duan Yutong
The rise of Indonesian guy and Instagram influencer Irenezhao's NFT has become a hot topic in the crypto space recently. Many KOLs, media, and even Irenezhao herself claim that this is an innovative way driven by grassroots creation, utilizing NFTs to provide a channel for creators to monetize their work. However, the popularity of IreneDAO and the Indonesian guy is not due to "creation" itself, but rather stems from the gaze of power.
During the first wave of the NFT Summer last year, the first to gain fame were avatar NFTs like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) avatar NFTs. The former gained massive popularity among many celebrities due to its trendy and hardcore pixel style, while the latter is known for its exquisite design and nihilistic expressions. Importantly, both are limited in quantity and diverse in expression, making it easy for holders to showcase their personalities. The reasons for their popularity are not hard to understand; as BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes pointed out, the essence of avatar NFTs lies in the display of social status—there are only 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs globally, and owning one grants you entry into this limited club, making your wealth and status self-evident.

This insight can be further expanded. Hu Yilin, an associate professor in the Department of History of Science at Tsinghua University, pointed out that what matters is not the image itself, but "power." According to his analysis, "power" is often mentioned alongside "wealth," both of which are objects of people's pursuit, and the two can often be converted into each other, but they are not entirely equivalent: in modern market economies and monetary systems, wealth can be homogenously measured and thus interchangeable (Fungible), for example, 100 yuan from Zhang San and 100 yuan from Li Si are completely equivalent and can be exchanged, but "power" is non-fungible; even if the director of the transportation bureau and the director of the drug supervision bureau are both directors, in terms of the scale of power, they can be said to be "equally powerful," but the power they possess is non-interchangeable, meaning that the "position" itself is unique.
Looking at the selfies of the Indonesian guy and Irenezhao's NFTs through this lens, the reasons for their popularity become clear.
Although Irenezhao promotes her NFT series as a "global grassroots movement" and "serving the people," its essence is a marketing-driven act of "self-objectification" (turning the person into an object of manipulation or commodification): most of Irenezhao's NFTs feature her in revealing outfits and exquisite makeup, with each photo bearing the words "IreneDAO TRIBE PASS," and aside from some slogan-like meme text, there is little additional information.
On the Indonesian guy's side, according to a Vice interview, this 22-year-old university student Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali from Central Java, Indonesia, has been taking selfies every day since he started college five years ago, originally hoping to create a record for himself as a keepsake by graduation. After encountering the blockchain and NFT craze, he changed his mind. Among his nearly a thousand selfies, most of the images are very simple—dark skin, thin cheeks, monotonous backgrounds, and he often just wears a T-shirt for the photos, which can be seen as a "loser" image for those in high positions of wealth and power.
People want to buy Irenezhao's NFTs because it is glorious to join the "beauty" "club," seemingly allowing them to "own" something related to "sex"; people buy the Indonesian guy's selfies because "higher-status individuals" achieve a sense of superiority over typical lower-class individuals through the act of "purchasing" (of course, there is a small portion of the audience that may have other reasons). This is evident from the fact that most of Irenezhao's audience is male, and thus, after her NFTs gained popularity, some even photoshopped Irenezhao's censored nude photos and listed them on Opensea, with the current floor price at 0.069 ETH.
In fact, NFTs certainly have value for creators to monetize, and they are naturally suited for this purpose. However, technology itself is neutral—no technology is born with beneficial social utility; its value comes from how it is used. Unlike Irenezhao or the Indonesian guy simply monetizing selfies as NFTs, many crypto projects are exploring the use of NFTs as tools for dividing creative rights, which is a promising prospect, as true "creators" will benefit from it, and many controversies surrounding "fan creations" may also be resolved.
Returning to the IreneDAO incident itself, NFTs are not merely about "performance display" and making money. Irenezhao herself is a marketing officer for a lending protocol on Polkadot, and she is also building her own "social collectibles" platform. Behind her self-image sacrifice lies a strong marketing purpose and marketing skills.
The selfies of IreneDAO and the Indonesian guy certainly have "value," as each NFT represents the gaze of the powerful towards the lower status. But is that the value you want to advocate? Value is also neutral; its "goodness" or "badness" depends solely on how you create it.