Sircone has made a name for himself in the Ravencoin community not just for his contributions as a developer and miner, but as an artist as well. His Cronenberg Gang collection is ranked #4 of “Top Sellers” on Ravenist. The Cronenberg Gang is part of a larger project and storyline, including a card game and 8 bit game. There will only be 36 Cronenbergs ever created, so with 35 Cronenbergs already minted, WagmiNFT reached out to learn more about the project and the artist himself. Sircrone has told us he has a lot more in store for the Ravencoin community, and the Cronenberg Gang is just the beginning.

wagmiNFT: First off, you go by the name Sircrone on Twitter, what is the meaning of your handle?

Sircrone: My art name for a long time was CRONE. When I made a twitter I wanted to feel important and be called “Sir” so I added Sir to CRONE and I became SIRCRONE. This is quite ironic really since “Sir” is a male “title” and Crone has more female attachments in the magic world, so grammatically it means “Mister Witch”. This ties in with my idea of no identity as it cancels itself out in “gender” nomenclature! So this is why my art name is “SIRCRONE”.

wagmiNFT: And what is the Croneberg Gang? What inspired it?

SIRCRONE#CRONENBERG18

Sircrone: When the “Rick and Morty” TV show came out I fell in love with the humor. I was addicted to the characters and the art. It felt like a 90s cartoon in the 2000s. In one episode there was a bit about “CRONENBERGS” and I was like yooooooo, That’s my name!! I also remember that CRONENBERG was a director in movies.

So the “CRONENBERG GANG” is like a multi-layered NFT art collection that intertwines my art style with some pop culture concepts.

Once the Cronenberg gang NFT collection is done, the tabletop battle game will get finalized and printed. I am hoping to have it ready by late fall 2022.

WagmiNFT: How did you end up in the Ravencoin community in the first place?

Sircrone: I heard about Bitcoin very early on but was afraid to get into or invest into it since I believed owning any would mean the FBI would come knocking on my door to ask questions LOL! Then years later I met a group of people and they told me that they were investing into BTC. At the time, Bitcoin was around $500. I was still unaware of what cryptocurrencies were capable of. This caused me to believe that buying digital money was perhaps a bad investment, and at $500 per Bitcoin was too expensive (since I was still ignorant of it’s potential). But I kept hearing about Bitcoin and kept learning.

I started learning about crypto, different coins and how to acquire them. I made a decision to start mining cryptocurrency.

At first all I had was my desktop with a very weak video card. I remember pool mining LTC and ETH and mining just .00005 gave me a feeling of freedom and control. However, I started learning about hashrate and GPUs on a deeper level and started thinking about building a rig. I was afraid to invest too much money at that time, so I opted to buy a “good” gpu. This was an NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti. This was a great gpu looking back. It offered me a very good hash rate and it wasn’t expensive.

I wanted to mine a low difficulty coin. At that time it was a toss up between DOGE, RVN (Ravencoin), PIRL and PHX(Phoenixcoin).

I mined several thousand PIRL. Then I went to PHX, which I quit quickly. Following that in early 2018, I saw RVN pop up and I remember reading how finding blocks daily for some was easy. I started throwing two 1050Ti at RVN. I was finding at least one or two blocks per week, and continued mining for about a year. Around 2019 I went through some struggles and sold my GPU. In mid 2020 I saw RVN getting more attention, and I remember saying to myself; ‘Man, I got all this RVN, I might as well try to get more’.

So, I finally took it seriously and built a complete GPU rig. I mined until late 2021 when I made the decision to focus on art and NFTS. I started researching the minting process on RVN since I was already invested in the coin. I learned how perfect Ravencoin was for asset management. My art was literally a few clicks away from becoming an NFT, and I didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars to make it happen.

wagmiNFT: Your Instagram & YouTube looks like you are an artist with incredible range. Tell us your backstory!

Sircrone: I sold my first painting when I was nine years old. In middle school I sold several more paintings and got a featured art section in a kid’s art magazine for my 3D art (I wanted to become an engineer at one point). I forgot the magazine name, but it was cool to see my art printed. I got into web design in my late teens and became a full-time lead project manager for a marketing company right after high school. During this time I strived for more experience. I took up photography and found success as an event photographer and fashion photographer. I was printed in several magazines and got a few globally published magazine covers and editorial prints as well. I had a submission into VOGUE magazine, it was accepted, but it never printed. I then out of necessity got into tattoo art. I became a tattoo artist and opened my own shop. I did that for a few years.

Through all of that, graffiti art was a constant passion, and I never stopped drawing. It took me some time, but I began to take my fine artistry, painting and graphic design to a more serious level. I couldn’t find my niche for a while, but I pressed forward. I never gave up.

I rarely sold any art, but that never swayed me. I just kept making art and putting it away. Then, in early 2022 I got into NFTs, and I guess the rest still needs to be written into history =)

wagmiNFT: Your identity is anonymous yet you give freely to the Ravencoin community. Tell us what anonymity means to you, & why you protect it.

Sircone: Anonymity to me means to be “Free” from “judgment” or “prejudice”. I don’t want to be judged by my appearance, my name, my voice or any other variables that may have some pre-programmed preconceived attachments of who I am or can be to someone by their subconscious.

Sircone: “Anonymity to me means to be ‘Free’ from ‘judgment’ or ‘prejudice’…I want to be nothing more than my actions and my words”.

I want to be nothing more than my actions and my words. I want my actions and words to be judged, rather than have my physical body be judged. To me someone’s character is the only thing that matters.

This is why I also love RVN (Ravencoin). RVN represents transparency without identity. It is PROOF without the self. Very philosophical and spiritual if you ask me.

wagmiNFT: What’s next for SirCrone?

Sircrone: I have been contemplating starting an NFT marketplace, but I don’t want to distance myself from making NFT art. I am at a crossroads I suppose. Nonetheless I will be part of the RVN community for a long time, no matter what role I will play. I will support RVN and it’s community members and artists the best I can.