Designer Bianca Beers on How NFTs Helped Her Find Financial Freedom — and You Can Too

POPSUGAR Australia is dedicating the month of October to featuring the next generation of inspired thinkers and courageous individuals who are building and manifesting a brighter future — because the next gen is unstoppable. We will deliver personal essays from young Australians who are making a name for themselves, as well as inspiring thought pieces and interviews with rising talent in the Web3 space throughout the month. Find all of our pieces here.

Bianca Beers is an Australian artist-designer-content creator. Or, in her words, she makes stuff she thinks is pretty and cool, and crosses her fingers in the hope others do too. Among the stuff she makes are NFTs, non-fungible tokens.

For the uninitiated, they refer to cryptographic assets on a blockchain, each with its own unique IDs and metadata. Non-fungible means they’re always one-of-a-kind, while bitcoin is fungible, meaning they’re always the same. Buying NFTs gives you usage (and bragging) rights and lets you support artists you like. Also, like with any other art asset, they might go up in value.

“The NFT community is so connected, forward-thinking and eye-opening,” Beers tells POPSUGAR Australia.

“I would recommend anyone with an interest, get into it. It’s also a sick gateway for learning about investing, which is an amazing way to start the journey to financial freedom — something I think women, in particular, should be paying attention to. Often, we’re caretakers and it’s good to know your money is out there working for you.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BIANCA BEERS (@biancabeers)

Beers first began drawing at age three, but stopped when her moody teen years rolled in. Then, when she was 22, her partner at the time found her old sketchbook and encouraged her to study design at TAFE, which she did. Once she finished, she created a website, got an ABN and started designing. At first, she started creating art for her friends and clients in her spare time, while working retail, but in 2018, she went full-time designing.

“I started doing NFTs in March 2021, pretty much in response to non-stop emails and DMs from clients, friends and followers telling me to get into it,” she says.

“A friend already making them helped me create a crypto wallet and choose the right selling platform. Back then, I was super confused about it all and thought there was so much to it, but knowing what I do now, it’s actually such a simple process, anyone can do it on their own.”  

Beers says her own experience working with NFTs has been bloody great and that despite the fact they say only 9% of NFT creators are female, she’s found equal parts men and women in the space.

“The community is very open, very supportive and very connected, and I’ve honestly never felt marginalised or prejudiced against,” she says. “Maybe it’s because we’re all just a bunch of nerds. I enjoy it a lot.”

As for the future of NFTs and the metaverse in general, Beers says that while she won’t even pretend to have a clue given tech grows so exponentially, she does think NFTs will be everywhere — on social platforms, in all gaming, art, music and creative fields.

“We’ll be working and playing in the metaverse via VR, creating 3D avatars of ourselves and buying digital clothing for them, ‘meeting’ people in that space, like attending a digital art exhibit — all very Ready Player On,” she says.

Beers says when working, she has moments when imposter syndrome seeps in and she thinks about quitting. But that mostly, she reminds herself that as long as she’s happy, moving and motivated, she’s already won.

“For me, being unstoppable is not letting the imposter syndrome, the haters or the patriarchy win,” she says. “It’s showing up daily for yourself and others, maintaining your mental and physical health, sharing your gift and tapping into who you truly are and expressing it from the heart.”