OFF THE CHAIN – Issue #1: Luxa

Intro: What is Off the Chain?

K: Hey Luxa-san! How are you? I have this idea for a ZeroTrust community project that Veritya has already approved - a regular interview zine/feature called “Off the Chain” where I interview various members of the community in a casual way, about our hobbies and creative projects [and passions]. Would you be willing to be the first interview? 🤗

Luxa: Wow, this sounds like a great idea! …. It sounds like a refreshing way to bring those who don’t know the crypto jargon into the heart of the community - and a great way to get to know each other and lighten the vibe while we are waiting for our green candles!!! 💚 I’m up for this! 🤑💖❤️🥳

K: Awesome! I was thinking written format, like a little zine, if that’s okay with you - so we can illustrate it with some of your art :)) Each interview will have its own aesthetic based on the person featured.

Luxa: I wasn’t sure what a zine was, so I overlooked it at first… just googled them - they’re epic! I love them!

K: I’ll come up with a first question, and you can answer at your leisure. We’ll go back and forth and edit later however you like. We’ll just take excerpts from our chat here and I’ll edit it into a Q&A.

So whenever you’re ready….

1. How did you get into making art?

Luxa: I realised there was a story I wanted to help tell/bring to life. Most people don’t like to read, but they love to be entertained and as they say, a picture tells a thousand words! So with a little persistence, some AI tools, and a good sprinkle of imagination… voilà. ✨

2. Have you made any non-AI art? Analog art haha

Luxa: Yes of course! Watercolors. I’m a wild food teacher, I draw a lot of plants. Plant teacher is a passion and something I used to do a lot more of when I was travelling. It’s now a growing business, awaiting revival in the spring!

This year has been all about familly and crypto! 🤣 I did Fyona Campbell's 'Ring of the Wild Food Year' – it’s an unaccredited course. I started learning about how to recognise and use wild food with her when I was 14. She is a really beautiful woman, she is a true Elder... rare these days.

K: Woooow you were a cool teen lol!

Luxa: Thanks... I wasn't cool in school, I was definitely the weird one. I have an Epic Dad, he always encouraged me to do things outside my comfort zone xx

K: Awwww ❤️ I love an Epic Dad.

3. What inspired you to create the first meme collection?

Luxa: I hope I convey my excitement and passion... This is about the age-old battle between good and evil - the fight for freedom and illumination of deception. 🛡🤑🌟💎😠🗡😈👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 warior cry.

Back in the early days, when I first came across V’s early articles on Medium, I was struck by how sharp and ahead of the curve she was. Everything she wrote lined up uncannily with what was unfolding around Richard Heart in those tense pre-court-case days. She was ahead of the game!

I was an early subscriber to the PulseChain Nexus when it came out (after V was banned on Medium!).

I was super impressed by the idea of the Trustless Index - a scoreboard rating the blockchain son how decentralised they are. How perfect.

When V started to talk more about Zero, I felt inspired to send over some of the visual concepts I had in mind for her. She struck me as a new uprising heroine pushing back against the establishment trying to regulate cryptocurrencies.

What really inspired me was imagining our ecosystem itself as a living story - Richard Heart as the king, Zero as his sentinel, and the phenomenal Liberty-san 🗽 - not to mention the 555 Guardians and many other PulseChain team mates (who I would love to bring to life in the painterly anime style).

💙🤑🧠 The amazing thing is that this isn’t imaginary. The villains aren’t fantasy; they’re compromised blockchains propped up by the mainstream and funded by the suits. 💰

Richard has already played his part by educating the public and laying out the truth, but now it’s our time to carry that forward and remind people what crypto was always meant to be -something V outlines beautifully in her articles on the PulseChain Nexus.

For me it was LibertySwap that brought the anime theme to life, and I’ve loved that style since I was a kid. It showed me how PulseChain, with all its narratives, symbolism, and diferent layers, could come alive through art. Honestly, I’d love to see this whole story one day as an anime series. It would be addictive and shatter paradigms!

K: Your responses are so moving; I really feel we are kindred spirits :))

● How did you come across V’s Medium? Why was she banned?

● Did any of your first visual concepts you sent to V end up in your first Meme Vault collection? If so, which ones?

● What inspired your visual concepts for Zero? Any particular movies, books, or historical figures? What was your process for coming up with that first iconic meme collection?

● “This isn’t imaginary. The villains aren’t fantasy.” How did you first realize this about crypto? Was there a particular news event?

Luxa: Hi K 🦋

I also feel we are kindred spirits! I’m looking forward to meeting you at a 555 gathering… or some epic event one day!

😎I’ve been [redacted].… but I’ll find time in-between to give you my answers. Take care and have a beautiful day 🤑❤️😊

K: Ok - best wishes for [redacted]! We shall meet at the PulseChain Peg Party :)) Have a great weekend! I’m obsessed with the NFTs btw ❤️ They’re so, so, so good. I love every little detailand variation - super iconic.

This will make publishing your interview even more fun for everyone, because you’re the artist behind the original ZeroTrust meme collection and the NFTs! So cool.

Luxa: Thanks K… I absolutely love how you’ve displayed them. The gallery is pure fire!! The website looks incredible 🥹🔥🤝👍👌😄

4. How did you come across V’s Medium? Why was she banned?

Luxa: I discovered Veritya’s Medium page back in early 2024. I was on X at the time, on an old account, and came across her work. She struck me as a voice of rare clarity and wit.

She was tackling some raw and dificult topics, specifically those around the transgender movement, which were particularly charged at the time. Her writing felt courageous and deeply relevant; the kind of commentary our era really needs.

I recently confirmed with V that her Medium account was oficially banned on the auspicious date of 23/08/23! That No. 238… it’s interesting how time circles and aligns moments in ways that feel anything but random. 🌟 ∞

5. Did any of your first visual concepts you sent to V end up in your first Meme Vault collection? If so,which ones?

Luxa: Yes, this was the first image I sent to V. There were a few drafts before hand that didn’t quite hit the mark.

The image concept was to portray Zero and Liberty pouring over a holographic Trustless Index, with the old world falling behind them.

I wanted to capture these two (basically deities of PulseChain), traversing the cyberpunk landscape and investigating the façade behind most so-called decentralised blockchains.

Here’s an image of them both taking a break, chilling and drinking coconuts at their pit stop!

I liked the idea that the energetic quality of DeFi could be represented by a holographic bluelight. There’s an image of Zero nurturing that light, as though rekindling a smothered flame…one that’s been hindered by centralised protocols… that have buried the true spirit of what crypto was born to be!

5. What inspired your visual concepts for Zero? Any particular movies, books, or historical figures? What was your process for coming up with that first iconic meme collection?

Luxa: Yes, absolutely, there were plenty. To name a few…

I love the imagery of the old world crumbling, and in its place rising something new… which is PulseChain, of course, a true blueprint for decentralisation.

Zero is an epic hero. For her sleek attire, I was inspired by Cat woman and Kara Zor-El, better known as Supergirl, Superman’s cousin. (She’s that darker, alternate version from ‘The Flash’). Powerful, noble, and caught between worlds. Similarly, Zero traverses the shadows behind each blockchain, gathering intel for the Trustless Index.

Then there’s the Bifröst from Norse mythology, the rainbow bridge connecting Earth to Asgard, the realm of the gods. LibertySwap’s bridge represents a portal for other blockchains to cross into PulseChain.

I believe that in the Bible, the sword represents truth. I love that symbolism and also loved thefilm ‘The Sword in the Stone’ as a kid! Zero draws her sword from a stone whose ore bleeds redfrom the iron within it… That red ore spills out through the corrupted blockchains and she galvanises it. Forged is an instrument of truth, sharp enough to cut through the deception in the world. (And her heart is true enough to wield it ❤️🔥)

And of course, the Round Table from Arthurian legend inspired the 555 Guardians meeting place: a revered circle formed by those who gather for a higher purpose and to protect Satoshi’s vision of crypto… like a Cypherpunk version of the Templars!

I also like to imagine us meeting within a fallen citadel on the outskirts of Hexico… as our numbers grow and the rebellion rises! This imagery came from dystopian films/books where rebels meet in secrecy… united by their mission and shared principles. 🤝🔥

One brilliant book that shaped the royal-court theme was Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Ma as, one of my favourite authors growing up. Zero is Richard Heart’s sentinel, standing guard over the new order being built and pledging unwavering allegiance to the trustless cause.

I guess the process began with bringing to life Zero, Liberty, Gerardo, and of course, Richard Heart. It was important to bring Gerardo to life because he’s the Dev bringing the Trustless Index to life.

I enjoyed transforming his pixelated PFP on X into a painterly anime style. His office became their intelligence centre, a kind of command station in outer space. Where intel and new missions for Zero are received before she goes forth to investigate, so to speak.

For a lot of the memes, especially the ones with an educational message woven into them, Iactually trained my ChatGPT using V’s articles on the PulseChain Nexus. They helped me shape the language and craft some really epic prompts for AI generation.

This next idea was inspired by former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras. Around that time, I’d been listening to her on the Diary of a CEO podcast. Her life advice and stories really stayed with me. This one was inspired by her story about standing guard outside the Oval Ofice, when the President told her no one was to enter.

Evy talks a lot about having a neutrality mindset, where you don’t have high highs or low lows. It’s essentially the ability to stay steady, rational, and composed no matter what’s happening around you.

That kind of self mastery is vital for a character like Zerø, but it’s also been really important to me personally. Staying at level Ø means not falling too deep into the negatives, or too high into the positives. Spiritually speaking, to be Zero is to be balanced.

Because in being nothing, you somehow become everything.. Hehehe this chart depicts my rambles perfectly!

6. “This isn’t imaginary. The villains aren’t fantasy.”How did you first realize this about crypto? Was there a particular news event?

Luxa: To be honest, I don’t really watch the news so I’m quite naive to what’s happening out there. What comes to mind is the best advice I ever received for understanding crypto, it came from someone who simply told me to go and read the Bitcoin Whitepaper.

Once you understand why it was written and the true purpose of Bitcoin, everything else in thisspace starts to make sense.

👀 Bonus question - what’s your favourite Zero meme? ❤

Luxa: To me, Zero is like a lighthouse to the rest of the world. This one is a metaphor for what the ad engine will serve as: calling in all the crypto bros out there who still believe in what crypto was really meant to be; the ones willing to invest in the code itself and cast their vote for freedom with every transaction they make… guiding them toward LibertySwap, across the bridge, and home into PulseChain.

Interview: @sailorpulsechan (K)Guest: Luxa ✴ @zero_cast_

Art & Concepts: Luxa

Project: ZeroTrust / PulseChain Nexus

Series: Off the Chain – Issue #1