Gordon Gonner celebrates his 3rd year with The Amazing Health Wars and Bored Monkeys.

Bored Monkey founder Wiley Arono — also known as Gordon Goner online — struggled for a decade with an autoimmune disease before reviving the world's hottest NFT project three years ago this week.

Published by BAYC with celebrities like Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg, he came back down to Earth in January 2023 after being diagnosed with a heart attack.

Being in your mid-30s and being told that 50% of people pass within five years is hard to fathom. Aronow drew on his spirituality to help with the weight of his situation.

“To be honest, it's a very personal matter, but I was a Hindu for many years. I grew up near an ISKCON temple, which is like Krishna consciousness,” he says.

“I had this deep spiritual side that I didn't talk about very often. After that I became a Buddhist.

“When you're told you're going to die soon, you're thinking a lot about death. The hard part is facing that moment, it only happens once. Until you're told you're going to die, and most people do, you don't have to think about it.

“Facing death is on my mind a lot. I can't say I'm in a good place with him, but I'm better than I was when I first broke the news. It's a very deep, personal, strange spiritual journey that I think will be different for everyone.

But in a positive development, he said that although the healing was “not a straight line”, he responded well to the experimental new stem cell therapy.

Aronow facing his mortality may be due to November 2023 NFT trading if he turns on social media. Zombie bought cryptopunk for 600 ETH and NFTs from collectives like Cool Cats, Mocavers, Women's World, Doodles, Mibits, Chromy Squiggs and more.

Boring monkey start

Bored Ape Yacht Club celebrates its third anniversary this week, April 23, 2021.

NFT monkey paintings entered the global zeitgeist at an unprecedented rate. Even today, if you ask a regular person on the street what an NFT is, they're more likely to respond, “Bored monkey.”

From Steph Curry to Eminem, Jimmy Fallon to Elon Musk, Bored Monkeys have been celebrated by some of the world's biggest influencers. But it's always been framed as a counter-cultural and disrespectful brand aimed at a small community of crypto natives.

If you were to sell the monkey floor at 0.08 ETH (around $220) and collect all the airdrops and benefits that come with it, if you were to sell the floor price very close, you would see the investment increase to $1 million. In April 2022, it reached a maximum of 150 ETH.

The origin story of the Boring Monkey Yacht Club

Aronov's health battle forced him to withdraw from Yuga Labs, the company behind BAYC. Before Bored Monkey, he spent ten years fighting autoimmune disease.

“I was sick for about 10 years and I was in bed for most of it. I had to drop out my senior year to be sick. I was moving around the country, going to different doctors, trying to fix my autoimmune disease, which at the time was very serious. “I had a lot of intestinal inflammation that was extremely painful and I had really bad colitis, on top of two other conditions, so my life was over 10 years ago,” says Arono.

“I did nothing but read books, watch movies, play video games and meditate. It was nothing, just pure nothingness. But I miraculously recovered, leaving me in a position to give birth to Board Monkeys.

Although Aronov's health condition is not widely known for BAYC's existence, his origin story was central when his childhood friend Greg Solano – aka Garga – reached out about an idea.

“I found the right combination of medicine and lifestyle that worked best for me. Then, literally, a month later, I'm trying to figure out how to pay off my insane medical debt and incredible student loans. I'm $80,000 in the hole, and haven't had a job since I was 16 working in a retail store. “Greg would text me and go, ‘Let's do an NFT,'” Aronow says.

“I don't know if I shared what I said in response to that, but my response to the article was, ‘What is a fake NFT?' It was. This was the correct response. I immediately remembered what NFT was because I remembered Cryptopunk.

Aronov and Solano watched the creation and early formation of Hashmask, but disliked the community aspect of the Discord team trying to outwit each other.

“There was a little bit of a collective feel to it, and now we're ready to create the idea that will eventually become the Board Up Yacht Club.”

“The first idea was Crypto Girlfriends when the four of us brainstormed and posed the question, ‘What do all these crypto bros want and my answer was girlfriends.' [laughs]And it felt great to us – it didn't seem like it had much staying power.”

Aronow remembers receiving ozone IV treatments for his condition, colitis, in Knoxville, Tennessee, and having a great wave of creativity and consciousness, which would eventually give birth to the name and concept of the Bored Up Yacht Club.

“I was very anxious at night, and I couldn't sleep because of the treatments. I was up for about 24 hours, and I sent Greg this rambling essay about all the things I thought were cool. It's focused on two things, one of which is this place in Miami called Church Hill Pub, which was the most infamous punk club in Miami for 30 years and then CBGB's.

“The first utility idea centered around the idea of ​​the bathroom. What if you could drop pixels? What if buying this NFT gave you access to this club where you could drop pixels and contribute to a shared art experience?' And then we're good to the races.

I gave it a lot of different names, including Bored Up Yacht Club, and it just got up in the morning and went into this huge stream of consciousness, and anybody who's ever worked with me knows that's how I am. work. But when Greg read ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club,' he said, ‘That's the thing.' I knew it right away, and I just felt like kissing.

Early Magic and Experimentation of Monkeys

Bored Up Yacht Club's bottled magic can be demeaning, especially in its first year when the brand can do no wrong. Even those who were marginalized with no exposure to the BAYC ecosystem were appreciative of the creation of a cultural phenomenon.

It's hard to capture all the moments in the mania of BAYC's first year or so, but here's a trip down memory lane and a reminder of how important the project was when endless copycat projects tried to put out their own version.

BAYC Extraction / Roadmap 2.0 / Treasure Hunt / J1mmy.eth and Pranksy mint a lot of monkeys / after Elon's “apparently” tweet turned PFP into a bunch of bored monkeys for a while.

Bored Monkey Kennel Club Amazing Drop / Meebits v Monkeys vs Beeple Art / Monkeys Flipping Punks / The “Fight It Up” Mutants Saturday” Visual Tweet / Yacht Club / IP Rights Bored and Hungry, Tyrese Halliburton's shoes in the NBA and Snoop Dogg with Dr. Bombay ice cream.

Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Timbaland, Justin Bieber, Madonna, Josh Hart, LaMelo Ball / BAYC at Australian Open Tennis / Other Trailers / and many more too.

How the bored monkeys avoided making themselves von Dutch

BAYC hasn't been short of “oh shit” moments in its first 12 months, but Aronow remembers Paris Hilton on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon showing how much mainstream culture her monkey has captured. .

“I had no idea that pretty much every celebrity relationship with BAYC would happen beforehand. “Someone DMed me and Paris Hilton said she was bored on the Tonight Show talking her monkey ap, and they're showing it,” Aronow said.

“She had the one with the S&M hat, and I sat back, thinking, ‘I know where I got the inspiration for that dynamic. That's from the underground sex clubs in New York City,” he explains. “I was inspired by that dynamic. Does she know this? “

“I know she's a smart person, so I'm sure she is, but I remember thinking, ‘This is a little dangerous.'

But, on the one hand, he's worried about Bored Monkeys being taken advantage of by the mainstream, as he can't believe how successful it's become.

“After that happened, I called Greg like I was supposed to. I will never forget it. How can we not be von Dutch ourselves? I'm starting to worry that this shark is jumping.

“I said this project was meant for the crypto community. Right now it's as mainstream as you can get. Paris Hilton on the Tonight Show – don't get me wrong, I love Paris Hilton… I have a lot of respect for her.”

They talked and finally the only solution was to stay true no matter what. “If we can try and break it down a little bit or be a little respectful and stay crypto native,” he says.

But as the company grew and our ambitions grew, that eventually became too difficult. Staying crypto-native has become increasingly difficult. I think we're back on track now, but it took time to get there.

Aronov's creation as a Hot Wheels track

The magic of BAYC was that they felt like they were making things up on the fly, but behind the scenes, much of it was intentional. One of Aronow's most memorable tweets, which doubles as a mission statement, is the shout-out to “do what's expected.”

Aronov's innovation is eagerly awaited in an industry where it is often referred to as the oxygen of space. Behind the social media posts and casual banter with Solano is a deep curiosity about the creative process and writing.

After studying creative writing, Aronow was inspired by short story writers, who applied to BAYC, Bored Ape Kennel Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and more.

“I love creative process stuff; it's been a lot of fun for me. I love talking to other creators, writers and artists about their process,” says Aronow, who describes George Saunders as “perhaps the greatest living short story writer” and a source of personal inspiration.

“George wrote this essay about the school named Donald Barthelm and the essay is called The Perfect Gerbil. It blew my mind when I read it ten years ago because it explained how narrative works in a way that I could never have explored from Aristotle's Poems or the like. My stupid brain finally figured it out explaining it as a Hot Wheels track.

“George basically said he had these little gas stations that sped the car around the track, and it was your goal as a writer to put these Hot Wheels tracks at the right time for the reader to get through the story. For example, let's use a novel; you might have the best time ever on page 276, but your reader will be at 275.” What was the point if he stopped reading, right? That was the point, and timing was everything.

Aronov believes that narrative drives community, and in addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, “most types of crypto exist because of X and Twitter. I know this is a very unpopular thing to say, but they have a very dependent relationship.

“What works in social media is narrative. When people talk about community being the most important thing, I think that's a little bit reminiscent. I'm not saying community isn't important. Community is extremely important, but what comes before community? Community follows narrative. Narrative precedes. One begets the other.” If you have a strong narrative about something, the community will form around it.

Bored monkeys controversy and the damage to his health

They often say fame comes at a price, and for Aronow, the price is higher than most, whose nervous system feels like it's been shot by a handful of people dealing with autoimmune disease and heart attacks while battling internet trolls amid the vicious Buzzfeed doxing.

When Aronow was diagnosed with a heart attack, he posted “Setting the Record Straight” on Substack to address the “Nazi conspiracy” smear campaign that rocked him and his co-founders.

“I started getting sick and I hid it for a while. Now I'm starting to get really burned out. All the trolls and all the nastiness. The doxing, and the way all that gun went down; it was brutal, and there was a lot going on behind the scenes,” Arono says.

“A lot of people don't know about this. Two trolls, who I won't mention just because I like it, have tried to make our lives our personal hell in the most horrific ways. Maybe there will be more documentaries coming out about how ugly those people were.”

When I was diagnosed with a heart attack when I was told I had a 50% chance of dying within five years, I shut down my throbbing laptop.

“I have fulfilled all my promises – now I deserve peace for myself. Up until that point I had worked non-stop, and I mean non-stop. By the way, Greg, I didn't take a day off either. Greg took six hours off that second year to get married. I'm not kidding.”

An eternal optimist, Aronov shares that the latest treatment has had a positive effect on his heart failure.

“I did the experimental stem cell thing for my heart, which really helped. It slowed down the progression of the disease remarkably, but it completely stopped the drugs that allowed me to create Yuga for colitis in the first place.

“Now I'm back where I was. I've had a heart attack for 10 years and now it's stable again. But because of the stem cells, I am struggling this way now, which is very difficult.

“It's hard to appreciate all that we've been able to build and all that it's done for the ecosystem — the new people it's brought in when your nervous system is so pumped. I'm still, to this day, angry about it all.”

The future of Bored Up Yacht Club

Not one to wallow in his own troubles, Arono, who has ridden the rollercoaster of a lifetime with the Board Up Yacht Club, is hopeful the collection will see its time in the sun again.

“I think the Monkeys will always have some sort of cultural significance because of the spark they had in their first year. I think those moments come back again and again. All crypto follows their attention economy,” says Aronow.

I think one of the reasons is that we now have an extraordinary BAYC team led by Jeff Nicholas, Figgy and Greg. There are going to be a lot of weird moments next year, and I think a lot of them are going to bring a lot of attention to the scene as a whole, but specifically, Bored Monkeys. I think bored monkeys live forever.

After his health improves, Aronow sets his sights on returning to space.

“I'll get better eventually. In my heart, even though I can't completely fix colitis or heart failure, I feel like I'm going back to where I built it, and I think that's probably what everyone expects. A certain level. Maybe I'll create some kind of corner for myself. I've been forced to call it the basement, and it's like my little corner where I can do whatever I want and everyone leaves me alone.”

“I want to capture meta-narratives; I want to capture things that only a very small, idiosyncratic, extremely depraved group could do. That's the kind of shit that gets me going; it's the kind of shit that I get out of bed and say, ‘Yeah, let's do it.' I think so.

Rapid Fire Q&A with Gordon Goner

Favorite NFT in your wallet?

“Boring monkey number one. I know it's a boring answer, but that's it, absolutely.”

Favorite 1-in-1 art class?

“I didn't collect much from 1-1. I'll be completely done next year, and I have quite a few, thinking I'm just waiting for the right price time or a deal to come along.

Who are your top 3 followers on Twitter for NFTs?

1. NFT Nick – “I love Nick. I'd put him in the top three.”

2. CL207 – “Someone not that involved in the NFT space who doesn't know who I am and probably doesn't give a damn about me one way or the other. But I've always secretly loved him as a crypto guy. Probably my favorite Crypto Twitter personality of all time.

3. Lior – “I have a lot of respect for him, not only as a founder, but also as a member of the community, and I love his thoughts on things. He's an incredible person.”

Advice on how to survive NFTs and crypto in the long run?

“I think it's important not to follow every meta-narrative, right? I think it is important to think long term. To have an understanding of what metas to follow and what not to follow, and that only comes – unfortunately – from being around long enough. You have to burn enough time.

“Another thing I would say is that pride precedes crypto failure. Don't let hurries get the best of you because crypto always has a way of letting you down.

“I can't think of one person. In the year I can't think of a single person from 2017 who hasn't set themselves on fire for not showing humility and letting greed take over.

Would you do anything differently in the last three years of this wild ride?

“I would do a million things differently, but I didn't even know where to start. It doesn't sound like I'm full of regrets or anything, but on a day-to-day basis there are so many times I could have done it, but I did my best.

“I'm not just thinking about myself, I'm thinking about the owners. As I got sicker and had to step away from the organization and have to trust others along the way, that got harder, but everyone we trusted got better.

“I feel good about where we're headed now. I feel very filled with optimism and hope for the entire NFT ecosystem. I'm really excited about where everything is going. ”

“On a personal level, this was all a first for us. You learn by doing.”

What message do you want to convey to the bored monkey community?

“Monkeys together strong – I love you.”

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Greg Oxford

Greg Oakford is Head of Development and Partnerships at Upside DAO, Australia's leading crypto and web3 collaboration hub and investment fund. He is an avid NFT collector and founder of NFT Fest Australia. Prior to crypto, Greg was a marketing and sponsorship specialist in the sports industry working on professional events.

Follow the author @GregOakford