The Emmy Built on ETH: Emily Yang aka pplpleasr on the Future of Storytelling

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Andreessen Horowitz

Distributed Computing, Blockchain, Art, Innovation, Web 3, Technology, Culture, Internet, Public Goods, Business, Decentralization, Open Source, Creator Economy, Music, Gaming, Cypherpunk, Visual Arts, Crypto, Arts, Web 3.0, Entertainment, Computing, Computer Science, Blockchains, Entrepreneurship, Ownership, Web3, Cryptography

4.4 • 66 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Emily Yang, aka pplpleasr, joins us to talk about her evolution from artist to Emmy-winning storyteller and the vision behind Shibuya’s “permissionless creativity” model. She shares how White Rabbit became the first crypto-native project to win an Emmy, and how crypto-enabled community participation can open new possibilities for funding, building, and co-creating original IP. We also discuss interactive storytelling, the tension between audience input and artistic vision, and the inspirations that shape Emily’s creative world.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the first crypto project to ever win an Emmy.
0:02.8	Wyatt Rabbit, when we first released it, it was an animated web series, but we also built
0:08.9	an sort of innovative, interactive mechanic, choose your own adventure kind of model, where
0:14.5	to do so, you would have to purchase an NFT at the time.
0:17.3	The main character's name, Me, or I I was literally voted on via snapshot by our community.
0:22.6	Crypto is obviously really good for efficient capital formation. Oftentimes it can extend beyond
0:27.3	just financial instruments. Shibuya is really about trying to create a platform that enables
0:32.0	permissionless creativity. Quite frankly, White Rabbit wouldn't have existed without this technology.
0:44.3	Emily, so we met four years ago. I had reached out asking if you would want to illustrate the cover of Fortune Magazine.
0:49.3	I was working in Fortune Magazine at the time, working on a big package about crypto and defy.
0:59.5	That cover definitely changed my life. And I think that it was just sort of symbolic at the time because it really captured a very specific cultural moment, which was so meaningful to everybody
1:05.4	who was in the crypto space. And so everybody looks back at it quite fondly. You know, I actually
1:10.7	don't even have a physical
1:12.0	version anymore. Well, you're into the digital stuff, right? So actually, I don't even have a
1:16.0	digital version either, but it's okay. It lives in my heart and on other people's walls. That definitely,
1:22.1	I think, kick started my career into bringing a lot more eyeballs within the crypto space onto my work, which I'm deeply
1:28.6	grateful for. So thank you for that collaboration. Since then, I've been just kind of following my
1:34.5	gut and my heart about what feels true to me in terms of both myself as an artist, but also an
1:39.7	entrepreneur and trying to just combine any sort of new technology with my values and also my creative
1:46.5	pursuits. Since then, obviously, I've started Shibuya. Shibuya is really about trying to
1:51.5	create a platform that enables permissionless creativity, as I like to say, because crypto is obviously
1:58.0	really good for efficient capital formation. Oftentimes it can extend beyond just financial instruments, but also for work that could be culturally defining.
	...

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