This was supposed to be different.

Outsiders often label cryptocurrency-maxis as cult followers. An easy dismissive tactic, but relatively true. Not because of the fanboy mentality but rather the ethos of what it represents.

Cryptocurrency was supposed to redistribute wealth, while web3 was supposed to be more democratic, equitable, and transparent. It was supposed to be shaped by the ideals of thinkers and socially responsible people focused on the good of everyone; a community.

The word “community” has become one of the most overused words on crypto Twitter (crypto-X?). Adopted by individuals and large projects alike to virtue signal to idealists that they too want to build a better future. The dilution of the word over the past two years has translated this word into what most are looking for: customers.

Bitcoin was a revolution. A literal revolt against the banking industry that bankrupted so many individuals because of corporate greed and capitalistic endeavors. But now, the core beliefs that drew in many in the beginning are being swapped out for traditional business ideals and a lot of web2 groupthink.

The More Things Change

It’s always a slow descent into the depths. Small concessions and insignificant decisions eventually accumulate to a point where the original thread becomes lost and founders are left explaining to their customers (not the community) why they made the decisions they did. But, they find that most would agree.

It makes good business sense.

It adds value.

It ensures the financial health of our company.

In reality, these PFP NFT projects are not companies. They’re run by people who had an idea and were in the right spot at the right time. Now the need to learn how to operate like a business, answer questions about marketing strategy, strategic partnering, and, most important aspect of all, how to turn a profit.

Let’s be honest, it’s why most of us came to web3 in the first place. We saw people becoming overnight millionaires and thought it would be so easy. Now we’re here, some of us, trying to build something we imagined and it’s becoming harder and harder every day. In times like these many of these “companies” and “communities” are at their most vulnerable.

Who will save us from our over-hyped demise? The corporations with their wealth and business acumen will save us from the death spiral they tell us we’re all in. Only they can save us, and they’re willing to if we only accept their help.

We can scale your project and take you and your team to the next level!

The goal has always been mainstream adoption, but at what cost are we trying to achieve it?

Now That NFTs Are Dead…

I have a longer story about my experience pitching to venture capital firms, but this one part is relevant now. Many of them pointed out that no one is making money on royalties on NFTs. They know the power balance has shifted back in their favor. They have money, people like me (and probably you too) need access to it.

It’s bad out there. People are desperate. The generational wealth has already exited and been taken from the liquidity that many of us provided. They know this and we should have known this. Some of us did. Some of us anticipated it so well that we thought the hype was overblown when Bored Apes originally minted that we avoided it entirely.

I’m not bitter, I swear!

Recently OpenSea began its own web3 publication feature called Currents. This week’s feature focuses on two recent partnerships between mainstream brands and NFT projects.

The footwear companies Crocs and Reebok partnered with the projects Doodles and VeeFriends. Partnerships like these will help foster mainstream adoption and return value to the community, supposedly.

Reebok’s partnership features the VeeFriend Aspiring Alpaca on a nylon shoe which holders will be able to purchase for $90. Crocs will be introducing wearables (“jibbitz”) based on the Doodles PFPs. Notice these are not giveaways or rewards for loyalty by the community. These are targeted sales and advertisements to a customer base.

Awareness and mass adoption are key to the success of the entire ecosystem. While these strategic partnerships help build that real-world use case, it comes at a cost. The corporate world begins to spread its tendrils into web3 and infiltrate communities that were built on ideals that contradict the establishment.

What about those other projects struggling to survive though? Where do they turn? When they see these headlines will they adapt and develop a similar strategy?

See how the snowball begins to build momentum?

Play to Earn

My best friend says, “All I ever wanted to do was sell out,” and I’m no different.

I’m not condemning accepting money. I’m not telling anyone to not do what’s needed to help grow whatever your project may be. I don’t even disagree with Doodles and Veefriends’ business strategy. I think most of my anarchist, punk friends would disagree and have some choice words for my desire to make money. But, there’s a reason I am living in the suburbs and not still going to poorly attended shows in sweaty basements in the city to see a band no one will ever hear about: I want a seat at the table.

I know that to change things for the better I need to be in the room with people who make decisions.

But it’s a balance. A balance between your ideals and your financial situation. I’ll play the game, and use their buzzwords, knowing full well my end game is to build something that restructures their worldview. I’ll be tested, I’m sure, but I hope I pass because I took the time to reflect before it happened.

People with money are not looking to invest in small projects at the bottom, cryptocurrency is already at the bottom in their eyes. They build top-down, with trickle-down economics, focusing on their firm’s profit margins and revenue rather than equity and revenue sharing.

They’re looking into creating their own Layer 2 solutions or proprietary chains that can only be used with their product. They saw the control begin to slip their grasp and into the hands of the masses. Now they know there is an opportunity to gain traction in a market they never believed in because the ethos contradicts capitalist ideals.

They’re infiltrating the broader web3 community with their business experience, cost-cutting tactics, morally-bankrupt mindsets, and bottom-line worshipping to a space many of us came to in the hopes of beginning anew. They’ve learned our buzzwords and are eager to find new synergies with you and me.

The old African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” sums up the ethos of web3.

But who you go far with matters.

That’s why it’s important to reach out to other communities that are here already here and still focusing on building better systems that revolve around equity and not looking to create exit liquidity for early investors, or projects looking outward hoping to bring their community of customers to corporate entities.

At the end of the line who do you want to cash out with? People who built this space the right way or institutional investors who saw an opportunity when the market was down?

I know my answer.

Figure out yours while there’s still time.

META COLLECT is a next-generation, NFT-focused company exploring the metaverse.

From our humble beginnings in 2019 as a community-driven crypto publication named Cryptowriter, our company began exploring non-fungible tokens as a way to incentivize and reward engagement. It wasn't long before our NFTs became the star attraction, driving demand for future innovations and the need for our company to expand. On our journey, we've been lucky enough to have received the support of a first-rate community and attracted some of the highest-quality artists and developers in the space. We've spent the developing a diverse fleet of uniquely awesome NFT products. With an eye on the horizon, we're ready to take the next step in our evolution and rebrand to META COLLECT.

Why META?

We are already living in the metaverse. Think about it, how many hours do you spend communicating, working and playing through digital devices? The metaverse isn’t a singular place; it’s a combination of evolving digital technologies that create our digital reality. 

META COLLECT plans to position itself at the forefront of the coming blockchain-enabled metaverse revolution.

Logo Inspiration

The META Collect logo can be viewed as a power switch and a keyhole or portal into your digital reality. The light blue to dark purple colour palette creates an inviting yet mysterious world of wonder waiting to be explored.

Our Brands

Below you’ll find some background information on each of our NFT products. 

Finney is a chain agnostic NFT Comic Book Superhero on a mission to understand blockchain technology. His first visit into the world of crypto and NFTs was on the WAX and EOS blockchains, becoming the first generative project on both chains in March of 2021. Since then, he’s launched a trading card pack sale on WAX and a 10K generative drop on Ethereum.

View Finney’s website.

The Crunks comprises 10K 8bit generative lunatics who like to party on the Terra blockchain. After their initial success of selling out in 20hrs, they’ve been working closely with their community to begin producing a comic book series. Word on the street is they will be working with influencers to host parties in a city near you.

View The Crunks website.

MongsNFT is an Ethereum-based PFP (profile picture) project based on a meme coin created by US congressman Brad Sherman. After selling out in 16 minutes, the project looks to be drivers of the #crypto4good movement.

View Mongs website.

UNDRGRND is an NFT art brand focused on exposing underappreciated artists in the NFT space. Currently consisting of an NFT publication, UNDRGRND will soon launch the first permanent physical NFT art gallery in Australia and its own cross-chain NFT marketplace.

View UNDRGRND publication.

COLLECT Token

The COLLECT token is currently under development and will soon launch as an ERC-20 on the Ethereum blockchain. This utility/governance token will be rewarded to those holding Ethereum-based Finneys and Mongs. A cross-chain rewards platform is also under development that will allow for projects outside of Ethereum to join in the fun.

Unified Discord Server

We’ve launched a new META COLLECT Discord server to unite our various communities. We have huge plans for the year ahead and look forward to working with our community to increase the adoption of our brands and drive value back to our loyal collectors. Be sure to join us… WAGMI

Visit our combined META COLLECT Discord Server

Visit the new META COLLECT Website

One writer, Elle Griffin, used NFTs to fund the first chapters of one of her novels. I had a chance to catch up with her as part of my research into the creator economy and my own possible migration to NFTs. 

Read our interview below. In it, she shares how she used NFTs to raise money and awareness for her work. Also catch her on Twitter @novelleist and check out her newsletter, The Novelleist.

Can you introduce yourself?

I'm Elle Griffin and I write novels and a newsletter called The Novelleist. 

How'd you get the idea to publish your book as an NFT?

After I finished my first novel, I spent an inordinate amount of time researching how to publish it. What I found is that traditional publishing isn't really working for authors. Of the 2.6 million books published in 2020, only 268 sold more than 100,000 copies and the vast majority (96 percent) sold less than 1,000 copies.

But if most books have only 1,000 fans, then charging $10 every three years when a new book comes out isn't the right way to monetize them. A better way might be to charge those fans $10/month to subscribe to an author, earning readers behind-the-scenes access to their favorite writers, while earning authors a $100,000/year salary in the process.

I tested that hypothesis first by debuting my gothic novel via Substack, funding it with monthly and annual subscriptions from my readers—and netted about $3,000 from 50 subscribers. Then I decided to see if there was a play in web3, so I crowdfunded a novel using cryptocurrency—and I netted $2,000 (or about 0.5 ETH) from my first three investors.

Can you walk us through the process?

I launched The Totally True Story of Scott Paul—a fictional biography that takes place at the intersection of Mormonism and the Metaverse—using the platform Mirror. I launched it as a crowdfund, publishing the prologue for a taste of what the book would be about, and saying that I would write one new chapter for every 0.25 ETH raised. 

The first day, someone contributed 0.25 ETH and purchased the first chapter as an NFT. I wrote Chapter One, published it the next week, and minted it as an NFT, airdropping that NFT to the backer who purchased it. After reading the first chapter, a second backer purchased Chapter Two so I wrote that, published it the next week, minted it as an NFT, and airdropped it to that backer. 

Since then, I have received two smaller investments of 0.01 ETH, but I haven't yet reached the 0.75 threshold needed to write the third chapter. I'll keep writing chapters as they get funded, and if the entire book gets funded, I will mint the finished manuscript as an NFT via Mirror and sell it at auction, with each backer earning proceeds relative to their proportional share.

How's the experience been so far?

The process has been really enlightening. My intention was to try to understand whether there might be an opportunity for writers to fund their work using cryptocurrency, but I didn't really understand how NFTs or tokens would work until I was creating them. 

Now I get that the tokens function kind of like a stock share in that the number you have compared with the total number that exists dictates what percentage of something you own. Right now I have four backers, two with 250 $COTT, one with nine $COTT, and one with five. That means two people own 48 percent of the book and two people own 1 percent. If another person buys an NFT for 0.25 ETH and 250 $COTT, then each person will own a smaller percentage of the book, and those numbers will change.

For example, you can see the shares of ownership in this picture.

Because backers own a percentage of the project, it's in their best interest for it to be successful, because then the value of their tokens go up. So far my backers have promoted the project, shared it on social media, and tried to entice new backers—unfortunately right as we were starting to drum up interest for Chapter Three, gas prices (which are just transaction fees) sky rocketed, making it much more expensive to invest in my project. Suddenly people were having to pay a $100 fee to invest $200, which doesn't really makes sense. Still, gas prices vary day-by-day and even minute-by-minute, so we'll see what happens!

What was it like to set up a crypto wallet for the first time?

Setting up a wallet wasn't difficult. I just went to the Coinbase website and followed the instructions, then downloaded the Coinbase app to my phone and did the same thing. The more tricky thing was connecting my wallet to my Mirror account—I was getting some kind of error message at first—but I just cleared my cache and eventually I was able to complete the process. 

How does publishing your book as NFTs compare with publishing it the normal way? 

If I publish a novel the traditional way, a publishing house owns the rights to my book and they can do whatever they like with it (including turn it into a movie or let it go out of print). They get to keep 60% of the earnings, my agent keeps 15% of the earnings, and I get to keep the remaining 15% of the earnings. The publishing house takes care of distribution so the hope is that they do a good job and my book makes enough money to make up for all that.

In the web3 world, instead of a publishing house owning my book, individual people do, and I get to retain a percentage of that ownership (I chose to retain 20% ownership in my book). I would be responsible for distribution, or my backers could help me, but ultimately we are responsible for the book's success—whether that's as a physical book, an ebook, or just a book published serially on Mirror (as mine is). 

As far as finding readers—both options are a gamble. As I mentioned, publishing with a Big Five publishing house is no guarantee that a book will sell more than 1,000 copies. Similarly, publishing an NFT novel is no guarantee people will read it on the internet. At the end of the day, it's still up to the author to market themselves and find readers. Personally, I share all my work with my newsletter subscribers! 

Do you ever worry about the value of your crypto going down a lot?

No, but that's because I am only investing in crypto what I am prepared to lose! The bulk of my savings are still in index funds and my crypto accounts are just for fun (and to explore what's possible for artists!). But I do want to have enough to earn upside—though cryptocurrencies are volatile right now, I think they will stabilize once they become so mainstream that we're using them to shop at Whole Foods. Until then, it's a good time to get in on it all!

I sometimes get questions from readers wanting to create their own NFTs. What advice could you give them?

I'm not sure how it works in the art world, but in the writing world, Mirror is pretty much the only platform that does it—and Mirror makes the whole thing very easy. When I was about to publish my first chapter, all I did was click the “mint as NFT” button and enter the wallet address of my backer. It was as easy as sending someone money via Venmo!

Mark Helfman publishes the Crypto is Easy newsletter. He is also the author of three books and a top bitcoin writer on Medium and Hacker Noon. Learn more about him in his bio.

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• @mkhelfman

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What is Warsaken?

Warsaken is a game-first NFT project that the team started building years ago. This means Warsaken was engineered well before NFTs exploded onto the scene, and was done so with the gameplay experience in mind. 

It was only after the gameplay was optimized that it became apparent NFTs would dramatically enhance and compliment the user experience. This gameplay-first philosophy has influenced everything the Warsaken team has done on their project, and will propel the project forward by keeping the play-to-earn tokenomics healthy (see ‘Play To Earn’ below for further details).

This extensively play-tested game is well and truly ready for market and features 268 different cards in the first set - ‘Genesis of Conflict’ - each with different mechanics, resulting in endless exciting options for strategic deck-building.

Initially, Warsaken NFTs will come in 11 rarities, and pack sales will launch on 15 December 2021, with the physical card game close behind in 2022.

Play To Earn

You can earn XP and Warsaken Loot by holding NFTs from Warsaken and their Allies (collaborating NFT projects). You can also earn XP by playing and winning games, starting in March.

While you can play using the Warsaken NFTs you own, you can also play using the Warsaken Ultimate Subscription which allows you to play the game with any of the standard or common cards. Playing with cards you own however, will give you more XP than playing with cards from the Ultimate Subscription

A major goal of the Warsaken Team, from the very day they first began planning their NFT strategy, was to create a system in which everyone can play, and nobody is excluded. This explains why they will also be offering a subscription service - it’s pre-planning in case their NFTs become too rare to build decks, or if someone isn't interested in buying packs or hitting the secondary market to collect cards, the Warsaken Ultimate Subscription will allow any user to play with the entire set of common cards, and even earn XP through gameplay at a monthly charge that is less than the cost of a Warsaken card pack.

The Warsaken Loot Store will have a variety of items to spend earned Loot on. These include Loot Packs (which will contain some of their rarest NFTs), raffle tickets, in-game effects, Warsaken Unlimited Subscriptions, and more.

Play Modes

There are three play-modes already developed and currently being built for digital play. These are;

• Warsaken,

• Warsaken Blitz, and;

• Cabal mode. 

Warsaken Blitz will be out in March and the full game will follow 6-8 months later. 

The Cabal mode is single player, with increasing difficulty at each level.

Gameplay Basics

These are the basic elements of Warsaken gameplay:

To begin the game you must hold the following cards;  

• 1x Leader,

• 4x Territories, and;

• a total of 60x cards in your arsenal (deck). 

The goal is to take out the opponent’s Leader, but you can’t attack a Leader until;

1. all 4x territories are eliminated, or;

2. the opponent’s Morale is down to zero, or;

3. the opponent has no more cards in their deck. 

A game takes about 30 minutes and is conducted via the Warsaken website.

Warsaken Blitz is built on the same basic rules, but rather than using the mechanics on each card, you match cards, and the card type determines the results. Blitz games last about 10 minutes.

Play modes work the same for digital and physical play.

The Warsaken Lore

Warsaken has an extensive lore that players can enjoy while discovering the Warsaken Universe.

In addition, there is an Amazon Alexa ‘Skill’ (the Amazon equivalent of an App) called ‘Volkov’s Escape’. This is a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ story that the user can interact with using voice commands. If you have an Alexa at home you should give it a whirl.

Each of the 14 Leaders has an enticing biography and backstory (you can access these at your leisure here).

Warsaken has also recently collaborated with NFT Story Cards to tell the story of a mission executed by one of their Leaders. This is particularly cool as the tale recounted is based on a true story.

It will be worth keeping an eye on this space as the team has a lot planned here in the future.

Wen drop?

The initial pack sale is December 15th at 3pm PST at Warsaken.cards. 

Packs will be sold for $WAX only (no fiat). Contents and prices can be found here. 

Monthly pack sales and Loot Pack sales (available only for Loot) will start in February. 

Meanwhile, Warsaken also does loads of giveaways on their Discord server every day, and as a result you can find Black Camo NFTs and other Warsaken Promo cards on the Atomic Hub secondary market now.

How staking?

Staking of Warsaken NFTs will go live a few days after the ability to open packs goes live (I’m told this will be on or before 22 December 2021). In addition to their own cards, Warsaken currently has 18 ‘Allied’ collections that will also yield XP.

While the date at which staking will go live is still unconfirmed (I’m told it will be on or before 5 January 2021 for Warsaken assets, and approximately 45 days later for Allied assets), it’s been communicated to the community that you’ll need to have at least one ‘Premium’ Warsaken NFT in your wallet to earn XP for Allied collections (every pack will contain at least one Premium NFT).

Staking weights will be up to each individual Allied Project and may significantly vary from project to project, but the pro tip to gain maximum XP with your Warsaken assets is to ensure you upgrade your Warsaken NFTs using the “1st Wave Upgrade Cards”, if you are lucky enough to have acquired one.

Each eligible NFT, whether from the Warsaken collection or an Allied project, will earn XP, and total XP earned by each player will determine their Rank. You can see a table of XP and Rank here.

As mentioned, to earn XP you will need at least one Premium Warsaken NFT, which can be found in any pack. 

From there, you will choose one of 14 Leaders to pledge loyalty to, with each of these Leaders giving you a bonus of some kind (i.e. extra XP for Intel NFTs, or multipliers for Ninjas, etc.).

The rewards of staking – ‘Loot’ – will be claimable daily, however any unclaimed Loot will not roll over to the next day.

Users will be pleased to know that their NFTs will not leave their wallets. Rather, the Warsaken system will scan the wallets of anyone who has ‘pledged’ a Premium NFT, and award XP for any eligible NFT that has been in the applicable wallet for at least 24 hours.

The Cryptowriter Connection

Writer was chosen as one of the winners of the Allies of Warsaken tournament which happily means that Writer NFTs will be eligible to earn XP.

And since Writer finished in 1st place, by a huge margin, Writer NFTs will have the largest relative pool. This means that Writer NFTs will be eligible for XP under the same mechanics as Warsaken NFTs (though Warsaken assets will earn more XP in general.)

Again, (and sorry for repeating this), It’s important to note that a premium Warsaken NFT will be required in order to earn XP for Ally NFTs.

The amount of XP earned per asset will depend on the levels set by each Allied collection.

Each Ally will receive a pool and will slot their NFTs into Ranks from 1 to 5, with Rank 5 receiving 600x the staking value of Rank 1.

The Warsaken team is finalizing details regarding Allied staking and will be working with Allied collections to finalize arrangements in the coming weeks.

Copyright - Warsaken is the copyright of 2021 Eclectic Nerds™.  All rights are reserved. Characters' distinctive likeness, art, and all trademarks including the names and logos of Eclectic Nerds™ and Warsaken® are property of Eclectic Nerds LLC.

Comment & Earn!

Share your thoughts and opinions on the topics covered within this blog in the comments below for your chance to win yourself an NFT. Click here for more information on our engagement rewards.

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One of the first NFTs we ever launched was the Cryptowriter Membership Card.

The concept was simple:

1. Identify and reward our most-valued community members with the Cryptowriter Membership Card.

2. Airdrop dope NFTs and original artwork from the Behind the Pixel feature to those holding the card.

3. Membership cardholders would in turn help promote the artists behind the artwork as well as our brand.

This quickly proved to be a winning formula. Membership Cards increased in value, artists felt the love from the community, and thanks to the incentive structure, the Writer brand grew substantially.

Evolve or die

While many in our community (including us), cherish the Cryptowriter Membership card, it became increasingly obvious that the card could be so much more, especially if we built and attached it to a powerful new brand. Enter UNDRGRND.

If you haven’t heard, we recently launched a new NFT art brand and publication called UNDRGRND. You can read the story behind UNDRGRND HERE.

UNDRGRND is focused on shining a spotlight on awesome and often undiscovered NFT artists, as well as creating high-level content surrounding the NFT art space. Tied to the brand is the UNDRGND Card, which similar to the Cryptowriter Membership Card, will receive airdrops of original artwork from the artists we feature. You can read more about the UNDRGRND Card HERE.

Just burn it!

Everyone who currently holds the Cryptowriter Membership Card on EOS and WAX, has the option to burn the card to automatically receive their shiny new UNDRGRND Card. We realize for some this might be difficult. Burning is optional, but all future airdrops will go to the UNDRGRND Card.

How to burn

If you have any experience burning FinneyCoins you know the drill.

1. Login to AtomicHub

2. Go to your inventory

3. Find the Cryptowriter Membership Card

4. Select the “More” option.

5. Click “Burn”

6. Approve and then sign the transaction.

Comment & Earn!

Share your thoughts and opinions on the topics covered within this blog in the comments below for your chance to win yourself an NFT. Click here for more information on our engagement rewards.

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NFT prizes have been sent!

Pleb Raffle Winners

1. rhvqy.wam - Cryptowriter Vol. 1 Cover, Gold Checkerboard, Mint 1/10

2. 5jmrg.wam - Hippe Finney - Mint 8/9

3. 3nquk.wam - Finney Vol. 1 Promo - Mint 9/100

4. hviau.wam - Gold BTCminer - Mint 20/20

5. msmqw.wam - Red Dragon Complete - Mint 4/23

6. doctorpooner - Complete Platinum Character Airdrop Set

OG Raffle Winners

1. iy1bi.wam - Cryptowriter Vol. 1 Cover Laser - Mint 1/1

2. w.1ra.wam - Caveman Finney - Mint 1/3

3. jollewaxacc1 - Finney Vol. 1 Promo - Mint 1/100

4. radcryptoguy - Gold BTCminer - Mint 2/17

5. sanyika.gm - Red Dragon Complete - Mint 3/23

6. w.1ra.wam - Complete Gold Character Airdrop Set

Comment & Earn!

Share your thoughts and opinions on the topics covered within this blog in the comments below for your chance to win yourself an NFT. Click here for more information on our engagement rewards.

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• The Uplift World team put into action a brilliant vision. They dream where few dare.

• EOSIO’s Delegated Proof of Stake opens doors to so very much.

• Metaverse developers have been waiting for fast, immutable mircro-transactions.

Individuals will never truly value a virtual world in which they have no stake. Small P2P transactions make a metaverse feel more real. Experience this for yourself at Shippletopia.

The Uplift World’s Endless Potential

The Uplift World takes Satoshi’s vision to a new level. Like CryptoFinney, the Uplift team relentlessly pursues innovation. Is it any wonder why Sean Ballent and Jimmy D are such a pair on the Edge of Obscurity (and invading other podcasts)?

The Internet of Money is about much more than the social chatter of fly-by-night trends. It’s about action!

Out from the fog, comes a team glistening in the early morning dew. Bullshipples is a world within the gracious Chick’n Ka’ah server. This legendary Minecraft server traces its origins back to before The Uplift World. The Bullshipples team finds leadership in the ‘eighth’ member of the CK7 (Chick’n Ka’ah’s founders).

The Bullshipples Story:

What NFTs, Crypto, and the Metaverse Is Meant to Be

Shipple token didn’t start on the WAX blockchain. In fact, those within the EOS community still have until October 1 to fill out the airdrop form.

Bullshipples, Inc. was born out of a small group of blockchain agnostic innovators. It is:

the first company incorporated on the blockchain

Guiding Bullshipples mission are principles in service of others and fostering a productive cross-chain community. Strong online relationships enable Shippletopians to extend their desire to do real-world good. And as always, Bullshipples is about having fun. 

Happening Now

There are five constructs supporting the community:

• Shipple Token- a cross-chain cryptocurrency

• Bullshipples Inc.- the company guiding development

• Shippletopia World- 1000x1000 property in Chik’n Ka’ah within the Uplift metaverse

• Shippletopia NFT Collection- presently concentrated on the WAX blockchain

• Shipple Fund for Charity- localized, non-profit initiatives

Shipple Token started as a joke on EOS. Sustained by memes and onboarding crypto users, the token began to blossum from a small act of charity.

Bullshipples Inc. was formed out of a daring dream to incorporate on blockchain. The first, and certainly not the last, Bullshipples Inc. is an illustration of skope for digital ownership applications and individual liberties.

Shippletopia World is what you see in the images. It’s in its own right a world onto its own, living, and independently (server) managed, on Uplift.

The Shippletopia NFT Collection finds inspirations in memes, but it’s much more than that today. NFTs are already slated for gamifying Uplfit activities as well as charitable causes.

The Shipple Fund for Charity is as much responsible for the success of the community as anything else. It was a simple and surprising act of kindness that still moves the community to do good even unto this day.

Visiting Shippletopia

I had the chance to chat with Marty Bullshipple. He took me on a private tour and had this to say regarding Bullshipples primary purpose:

…accessible to all communities because we believe all communities may want to participate in gamified generosity

Both modest and boastful, new visitors will find mind-opening experiences throughout Shippletopia. Designed to draw players into a game(s) within a game, Shippletopia reminds us of how creative we can be. 

The Tour: Players are immersed in action from the start.

Racers compete for a variety of prizes. Win NFTs and more by racing alone or at an event.

It’s a world whose leadership was essentially born in the metaverse.

Shared audiences stand out as the model for future online concerts. The communities and networking that artists spend so long developing now grow stronger together.

• Join adventure quests and themed treasure hunts.

• Win or earn NFTs in a myriad of ways.

• Find Easter eggs and unlock new levels.

Whether you’re the player, a spectator or creator, there's sure to always be something to do.

Stay Tuned…

(I know… an outdated expression. Please excuse the trip back to the 80s- there was a functioning DeLorean after all)

Grand opening season kicks off once Shippletopia completes its move to AWS. Expect to join in the fun within a few weeks- planning for mid-late October.

Ready Yourself... 
...for weeks long events unlike anything before seen in Uplift.

Join the team’s telegram channel for the latest on Shippletopia.

View the video on The Chick'in Ka'Ah Kindness NFT for a brief history.

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After Ethereum the NFT crowd moved to Solana. Lots of Solana NFT Projects have picked upstream. The Cardano CNFTs are doing pretty well too. Recently Fantom launched its new marketplace called Artion. What about Polkadot? What's happening there? It is not that Polkadot is sitting idle and watching competition to go ahead.

They are not, however, Polkadot is slow as it is an extremely complex architecture. Currently, the focus is on onboarding Parachains in Kusama, and then, eventually in Polkadot. Polkadot will only hope that a parachain will come up with advanced NFT capabilities for its ecosystem. Polkadot itself, being a relay chain does not have that capability. So which projects can bring in that capability?

The most hyped one in Efinity. However, Efinity somehow does not have a Polkadot background, They are not participating in Kusama parachain auctions and are also not involved with the earlier community. There is an interesting project called RMRK, which was recently launched. They have created the NFT protocol for Kusama and are actively involved in developing Kusama’s NFT strategy. Their first NFTs, the Kanaria birds have been hugely successful. Each bird has slots that they can be equipped with, making them dynamic NFTs. However, RMRK is in Statemine. They will onboard to a major Polkadot NFT Project soon. This project is called Unique Network.

Unique Network created the first official homage for Cryptopunks. These punks are called Substrapunks. Interestingly, the substrapunks are the first in the substrate, which is the technology behind both Polkadot and Kusama. This means that they are the first NFTs in Polkadot! They are highly underrated. That’s because Unique Network has not yet launched as a parachain in Kusama.

But in the next Parachain Phase they will launch and that's when the craze will kick in.

So what is Unique Network?

Unique Network is a blockchain, a parachain on which you can build NFT dapps, marketplaces, minting solutions, games, launchpads, etc. It can be seen as the foundation for Polkadot NFT Standards. It is also Ethereum Virtual Machine Compatible. In the long run, it will also bridge with other chains.

So what are the advantages that Unique Network brings in?

Freemium Model: In Ethereum each user has to pay gas fees for each transaction in a game. In Unique the developers can bear that cost, give discounts and make their games freemium. Unique reduces the barriers to entry.

Advanced Ownership: Using RMRK Unique NFTs can be empowered by adding functionalities in the NFT Slots. You can rent, delegate your NFTs.

NFT to NFT Interaction: NFTs can interact with other NFTs and that impacts the properties of the linked assets.

I am not sure if there is a single NFT dedicated blockchain which can do all these. Plus Unique has a partnership with the very popular gaming launchpad called Seedify. Any games launching on Seedify will be supported by Unique Network on various launches. That is a wild list of games pipeline!

Do you know that Unique Network has 5 Web 3 grants?

Yes. They are the second in the entire Substrate Ecosystem, only next to Astar. They have been working in the ecosystem for a long time and are extremely well networked. They are Polkadot Ambassador since 2019 and along with RMRK, is also a part of the Kusama NFT Strategy. They won 2 awards in Kusama’s Hackathon in 2020, called the Hackusama.

Investors

The investors are the whos and who of the gaming industry. It is supported by Animoca Brands, Outlier Ventures, DFG, Long Hash, Master Ventures to name a few. This is also proof that the product interests the VCs.

Marketplace:

Unique’s marketplace is currently live.

It has listed only Substrapunks and their Second NFTs, Chelobricks. Do you know that if you hold an unlisted Substrapunk and Chelobrick in a single wallet, you will get 50% of the platform’s revenue quarterly!

UNQ and Quartz

Quartz is Unique’s token in Kusama and UNQ will be the token in Polkadot. Both have a 1Bn supply. You can get Quartz by participating in their upcoming Kusama crowd loan (Phase 3). Also, a Public sale for UNQ will happen soon.

Watch out for this project!

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EdenOnEOS represents a turning point, not just for the EOS mainnet, but blockchain as a whole. Once upon a time, Bitcoin was mined in homes throughout the world on even the weakest computers. Today’s necessity for dedicated mining hardware causes the blockchain community to lose focus of the spirit behind a movement that use to empower individuals.

Unyielding Power

NFTs provide empowerment in unyielding fashion. Like owning your own crypto keys, NFTs provide individuals with profound opportunities. Ingenious applications are already finding use cases for memberships and access. Who knows what the future holds, especially with the advent of EdenOnEOS and decentralized democracy.

Functional

NFTs need to be useful to have any real impact. The modern NFT is:

• Easily transferable

• Uplifts communities and engagement

• Low cost to own and create

A bit amusing to say ‘modern’ NFT, but if you’ve completed a transaction on both Ethereum and WAX, then you know what I mean. Incorporating fee-less, on-chain transactions is like night and day. 

An Independent Field in Crypto

What Ethereum maximalists fail to comprehend is how different cryptocurrencies are from NFTs. While a 10 minute transaction that transfers the ownership of thousands of dollars worth of crypto might suffice for a particular instance, it doesn’t for NFTs. Well, at least not for most. 

The Science Behind Going Viral

Some NFTs, like a fine piece of art, may do well on the old Ethereum. Transactions meant for widespread dissemination, like music singles, need speed to go viral. 

Transactions speeds are correlated to sharing. NFTs on WAX and other EOSIO chains support this. It’s a dynamic that will grow more apparent over time as NFT applications evolve.

What does the future of NFTs have to do with EdenOnEOS? 

Consider the community forming around EdenOnEOS. How effective would it be if signing membership NFTs for an election were as erratic to predict (time-stamp wise) and as costly as Ethereum?

If you believe in the right to own digital assets then you must be concerned with the capacity to act on such value. Ownership is about more than transferring rights. Permission, access, and creative dissemination all flow from whomever maintains possession.

Possession and Asset Ownership

In many regards, conventional, real-world ownership agreements fail in online environments. Being in possession of a title differs from being listed as its owner. Possession affords one the capacity to act.

When ownership extends to the digital space, the signing rights (permissions) must also be considered. The promise to return an asset has become an acceptable operational constraint of Internet business. It’s how administrators deal with the inconvenience of multiple, inopportune digital signatures. This also remains a pitfall of the modern economic system.

Digital permissions can be misconstrued. They of course can also be abused and even outright stolen. Possession is all that matters in digital environments where tracking is all but impossible. 

NFTs Unapologetically Empower Owners

Establishing an ecosystem where digital assets are secured on blockchain alleviates these concerns. Much more than this, a blockchain-permissioned economy transforms what’s believed to be possible. Thus, power finds rest in the individuals that actually own an asset. 

As more people realize the immense potential of blockchain and NFTs, real world opportunities will begin to manifest. NFT adoption must progress along side cascading innovation. It’s a truth at the heart of visionaries who believe blockchain will lead a transformation far beyond what the Internet did for the world.

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Who would have guessed it, Snoop Dogg: the NFT collector and a holder of one of Ethereum’s so-called “Blue Chip” NFTs!

This development is exciting and unexpected.

It is a pleasant surprise that Snoop does believe in new technology, and is embracing it.

On September 20, the millionaire rapper told his 19 million followers that he was the face behind the anonymous Twitter personality, Cozomo de’ Medici, who joined Twitter in August 2021. The sole purpose of Cozomo (Snoop) is to “share tales and insights from the wild world of NFTs.”

Diving deeper, it becomes evident that Cozomo has a $17 million collection worth of several NFTs as per his OpenSea profile. Forming a part of Snoop’s enviable unique NFT collection include nine CryptoPunks and a PEPELISA. One of these pixelated CryptoPunks “JPEGs” on Ethereum is valued at around $4.6 million at spot rates. There are several Spaghetti Snoops and several “Drop it Like It’s Hot” waveform collectibles, just in case you might be wondering.

What’s special about Snoop—or the person acting on behalf of the rapper—is the deep understanding of the NFT and Ethereum culture. Since activating his Twitter account over the past few weeks, he has been tweeting consistently and keeping all vibes around NFTs. For example, on September 3, he revealed his first lucky purchase of what critics say is a “useless” JPEG went for $2 million. In his assessment, the scoop was undervalued and would have instead cost him $4 million.

While acknowledging that he is new to NFTs, the rapper makes it public that his family has been art patrons for many years. During that time, he explains, they have one commanding philosophy when collecting art: “Best Painters, Best Paintings.”

Still, without getting carried away, Cozomo is in the NFT space to flip and one day make a fortune. Over the years, Snoop hopes his collection will command more than $100 million, adding to his already impressive net worth. If things turn for the worse, he says, and his money goes down the drain, it would humiliate him.

There is no doubt the crypto and NFT market works mysteriously with the connection between ERC-20 and ERC-721—and its variant standard—tokens, haphazard. In the past few months, amid the expansion and contraction of crypto prices, NFTs have held firm, even outperforming leading cryptocurrencies whenever prices stand.

Notably, CryptoPunks are outrageously expensive and available for a ballpark of $1.2 million. Those who got in earlier, willingly accepting the free airdrop from Larva Labs, are laughing all the way to the bank. However, those who dumped them on receipt are crying in their showers for missed opportunities. As mentioned earlier, Snoop owns nine CryptoPunks, each retailing for hundreds—and sometimes millions of dollars. He admits that before his purchase, each of those apes was selling for a few thousand ETH before sellers doubled their offers moments after buying them.

The flip-flopping correlation may be hints of market exuberance, with some traders even using the hysteria around NFT “artificial” adoption as a signal for peaks. Indeed, looking back at CryptoKitties and the clog, ETH went on to tank from $1.4k to $80. However, time has changed, and Ethereum is more robust with a well-developed ecosystem—DeFi—that may offer support if NFT caves in. Critics say ETH prices are over-priced, and the dump is on. Conversely, optimists are looking at Ethereum from many angles, and their crystal ball says ETH will reach $10k in the long-term.

Talk of ultrasound money and the migration to a more effective system with Proof-of-Stake and scaling would boost ETH. At present, there is no doubt that the rise of NFT is playing a big part in making ETH a store of value. Of all the coins destroyed, more than half are tied to OpenSea—and these NFTs.

The awareness coming along with Snoop joining the NFT train could see more celebrities being part of the bandwagon. That’s not to say Snoop is the first and already waist-deep in money. Mark Cuban, KSI, and others are already proud owners of NFTs.

“The Internet of Money shouldn’t cost $0.05 per transaction. It’s kind of absurd.”

Those were the comments of Vitalik Buterin back in 2014 when Bitcoin, fueled by the ICO hysteria, was literally sinking under its own weight.

Funny enough, Buterin has addressed the same tweet and isn’t budging. The co-founder is reiterating his stance, maintaining that transacting should be cheaper than centralized systems.

It is understandable.

Fees may take years to drop since sophisticated systems take even longer to build and refine. Ethereum and Bitcoin are examples where developers are critics’ lenses, pressuring them. The problem is, they are human, and they can cave in and rollout Band-Aid solutions.

Fast forward four years later, and Ethereum is back on the pan. Quite literally, Ethereum, his beloved project, is sinking under the weight of its success. Talk ICOs, DeFi, and now NFTs—the wave keeps changing with the next innovation likely to cause more trouble than the former if history guides.

For now, the talk revolves around NFTs and how they will change the world. Of course, top dollar sales of some collections are already changing the lives of several creative—from Beeples to Larva Labs and many others. And you could be next. All you need is to put your skill to work, and perhaps maybe someone will be interested, pay big money on your scribbling—you just never know.

What we do know for sure is that the majority of ETH burnt is from OpenSea’s activities. Statistics reveal that over 6.6k ETH of the 46.09kETH burned is from NFTs minted on-chain traced back to the marketplace. This is more than twice those generated from simple transfers and thrice from Uniswap v2 swaps.

It begs the question: what the heck is happening at OpenSea to “stress” Ethereum this much?

Well, they say numbers don’t lie.

In the last month alone, the number of users rose 89 percent to over 261k. This spike saw the number of transactions rise 57 percent to 2.41 million, forcing volumes to over $3.2 billion—or just over 1.1 million ETH. This movement was a 140 percent expansion in month-to-date alone.

You might be asking yourself, how does OpenSea manage all this traffic? In fact, the NFT marketplace is a unicorn, employing 37 people tasked with handling 98 percent of all NFT trading volumes. Efficiency is the word. Still, they are getting overwhelmed and are looking to hire more software engineers and designers.

How is this possible?

OpenSea has managed to stay ahead of the game, dwarfing competitors by quite literally maintaining an open-door policy as a marketplace. They aren’t discriminating against artists based on their skills, connections, or other irrelevant “links.”

Doing so keeps “nifties” flowing through their pipe works and all that while charging fees, growing their revenue, and cementing their base as the leader in Ethereum’s on-demand NFT marketplace where expectedly, competition is cut-throat.

The NFT marketplace charges three types of fees—some of which were recently introduced. If you are new and looking to mint an NFT, you won’t escape the One-Time fee—for registering and initializing the account, linking your MetaMask—or any other wallet you might be using—with OpenSea. Call it the Hand Cheque fee. The other fee is for the token or contract approval if the item you want to list wasn’t minted on OpenSea but through a custom contract. In this case, therefore, you will have to pay a one-time approval fee authorizing the transaction.

Jumping over the first hurdle, one will also have to pay a recurring fee in ETH. When the artist, for example, accepts an offer, transfer the item to another user, buy an NFT, cancel a listed NFT or bid, convert wETH to ETH or vice versa, freeze metadata, or bridge/transfer ETH to/from Polygon.

The only time OpenSea spares a user who’s already plugged in and paid the “One-Time Fee” is whenever they say, create a new collection, mint a new NFT, list a new NFT as a fixed price or an auction, or when reducing the price of a listed NFT. That said, this is only applicable to ERC-721 pieces.

Minting NFTs via OpenSea is registered in Ethereum—and that means “work” compensated by ETH. Gas has to be paid as deterrence against spam—otherwise, it would be worse. Depending on the complexity of the smart contract and the state of Gas, a user can pay more or less.

New users drawn by the hype might not factor in Gas fees only to encounter trouble when plugged in. To have a good time, new users should track the state of the network and Gas fees—and even whether the marketplace has adopted layer-2 or Sidechains—of which OpenSea is now active in Polygon.

10K generative and unique CryptoFinneys will be dropped on the Ethereum blockchain on Saturday, September 25th at 12:00 PM (UTC).

The cost to mint will be .06 ETH + GAS with a limit of 10 Finney’s per transaction. There will be no presale/whitelist so plan accordingly.

The mint location will be mint.finney.world

100 CryptoFinney’s will be pre-minted and used strictly for promotional purposes.

All CryptoFinney artwork is created by living legend and former Warner Bros game artist, Jon Trafford. CryptoFinney on ETH will feature 200+ unique attributes, 5 custom-themed Finneys, and 2 levels of upgrades.

Following the launch at a time TBA, CryptoFinney upgrade mechanics will be activated. Burn any combination of 3 Finneys and receive a BareMetal Finney. Burn any 2 BareMetals Finneys and receive an animated UnicornFinney.

Looking forward we are extremely excited to continue to build community, utility and the Finney brand. Some of the utility you can expect to see for CryptoFinney on Ethereum…

• Upgrades / burn mechanism

• Claim drops

• Dynamic backgrounds

• Access to physical books & merch

• Exclusive Discord channels

• Finney DAO voting

• 16 bit platform game (long term goal)

Finney is blockchain agnostic and we see the future of NFTs and crypto as a multi-chain world. We also see Finney as a comic-book hero born out of the NFT space, and will open up control of his brand and story over time to the community.

Join his community now on Discord

Read his story Finney Vol. 1 - Immutable Journey

In a newsfeed of bold colorful animals a pencil-lead creation has hit the Twitter space. Hand drawn, gender unknown, human-esque cuties, artist Tori Batt likes to call Dorkis. 

In their first 11 days since launch they have already seen support from Chris Wahl, jimmy.eth and have even been minted by rapper Ja Rule. Though they are STILL minting on their website!  

Dorkis are odd and innocent creations by New Zealand artist Tori Batt that will transport you back to a simple time of childhood creating. Each of Tori's creations require her to draw out and color each unique feature individually, then scan them, randomize and computer generate the traits that make up each Dorkis.

“My drawings are much too silly to be this appreciated!” says Tori, as each new member pours into the Dorkis discord server, through joint love of her creations. 

An artist who felt her drawings and paper sketches would never see success in the digitalized NFT space, is humbled to have a community find joy in these whimsical drawings. Especially when fans and their children draw derivatives of her silly creatures!

Randomizer, smart contract developer, and former aircraft engineer Frank Poncelet has over 20 years of experience in software development, and accepted the task of developing a unique smart contract for the project. Himself an active digital artist in the NFT community and aware of the current NFT marketplace.

Frank says his favorite part of this experience is how the Dorkis “come to life”. 

Founder @FCCview speaks about the unique burning mechanism he has implemented with the 10k avatar launch of @WeAreDorkis. A mechanism created to hopefully help curb a sales trend he has seen in other project launches.

After helping build communities for several NFT projects he notices consumer behaviors. Some collectors who look to turn profit quick, will buy mass quantities of a project, and sell many of the less rare NFTs, at a loss. 

To curb that, Dorkis is the first to offer a burn and rebate mechanism; a phase they like to call "community curation". 

Order of Events as follows: 

Sale : Dorkis minted on website, revealed on website. 

Burn : If 100% are sold, for 24 hours, the smart contract will allow a BURN & REBATE for an 80% return and to curate rarity.

Meta Data Release : After the burn period collectors will finally get to see the Metadata of the Dorkis. Finally telling them how rare their Dorki is, following the curation.

Graveyard : Sending the Dorkis to something the community likes to call the “Graveyard Collection”.

If the sellout does not happen however, the remaining Dorkis will be burned, and the burn/rebate mechanic won't be activated. 

The journey was long, from prototype to final product. This included many redo’s from Tori, and for Frank and FCCview to run over 100k Dorkis through the generator to pick the best traits.

By the presale launch August 31st, the smart contract was tested over 20 times on the test network to ensure the burn mechanism and traits would work dynamically together during curation.

September 5th, We Are Dorkis launched through their website for 0.07 ETH each. 

The project has a 100/wallet limit, 10/transaction, and has focused on organic growth from the community and opting to not pay influencers at the beginning stage. 

The community roadmap is a beautiful piece of art in itself with an approximate 6 month timeline.

It includes Dorki companions by Tori, a Halloween resurrection event for burned Dorkis, early holder offers, such as Dorki merchandise, and a very exciting D&D Dorki community they will foster. As well as a Liquidity Pool with nft20.io. Also, a 35% community fund. 

The funds will be handled in a multi signature wallet with Gnosis-safe.io with community decisions being handled through Snapshot.org allowing the funds to be delegated by the community for proposed IP projects and group acquisitions and other endeavors. 

Great detail went into the interactive website and roadmap to enable ease of mobile minting. The experience is visually appealing, reminiscent of a time when websites were enjoyable to visit…maybe around 2004 when everyone wanted to drop it like it’s hot.

Dorkis are still minting through their website: 

www.wearedorkis.com

Minting will CLOSE: Sunday September 19th  10:00pm GMT

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Why!!??? 

The launch of Finney on Ethereum is much bigger than just Finney himself. Our team has secretly been working on something… 

Innovating off the success of ArtBlocks, we’re launching a generative art platform, called GenDrops. If you haven’t heard of ArtBlocks it’s a generative art platform on Ethereum which allows artists to utilize its tech stack without having to hire a dev to develop the code. It has generated $900M USD in trading volume since its inception and has zero market competition.

GenDrops will take the concept of ArtBlocks and open it up to the masses, while also adding a host of new innovative features.

• Curated and Open GenDrops contracts.

• Pre-sale card for curated projects. (UNDRGRND card)

• Multi-project collab drops.

• Blend/dynamic backgrounds.

• Upgrade/burn mechanisms.

• ProjectID system similar to templates on AtomicAssets.

• Multi-contract system.

• All optimized for gas efficiency.

We think it is important for Finney to be the first project launched on the GenDrops contracts and we need an extra week to develop the multi-contract features and thoroughly test them. Having Finney run on GenDrops will open him up to a world of future possibilities while also remaining gas efficient.

Along with GenDrops, we’ve also been working on a new publication focused solely on NFTs called UNDRGRND. The publication will be accompanied by an NFT card giving holders early access to curated GenDrops (including Finney), and the potential of future discounts and increased batch purchase limits. The UNDRGRND publication will be live within the next few days, with the card following soon thereafter.

We really appreciate everyone’s support and patience, our community has been amazing and we can not wait to show you all what we’ve been working on!

I love my job. As a crypto writer I get to hang out with artists and writers all day. I'm living the dream. Especially when I get to meet one of the first crypto artists on the planet. Ask any artist in the NFT community the first crypto artist they ever heard of. Nine out of 10 will say Robness Cyberpop.

Before NFTs were minted on the Ethereum blockchain, Robness was part of a crypto community making memes on a very early open source project called Rare Pepes on the peer to peer CounterParty platform, utilizing the Bitcoin blockchain. This allowed users to create and issue their own tokens. In September 2016, the first User/Artist trading cards were issued. This was arguably when the global underground crypto art movement was born.

Eight months before the Ethereum world took the idea and created CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties, the early Pepes were created. They started as a joke and were purposely horrible. Robness designed a number of Rare Pepe cards in Series 1 to 3 including NEON PEPE and is the proud owner of a limited edition analogue book (The Rarest Book published by Eleonora Brizi, a physical kind of NFT Bible) cataloguing all 1774 digital Rare Pepe cards created across 36 series. Many Counterparty wallets have been lost over the years reducing the circulation of cards making them rarer. Yesterday, 5 years after it was created, the first Rare Pepe Nakamoto Card sold for 147 ETH ($502,97054).

BANNED ARTIST

Fast forward to 2019 and the SuperRare digital art platform. Frustrated by platforms favoring whale collectors rather than supporting artists, Robness created a piece to push the boundaries of the crypto art establishment, a trash can GIF, 64 GALLON TOTER.

Utilizing a photo from the Home Depot website, the PhotoMosh app added cool glitch effects. The ethos behind the piece was comparable to French artist Marcel Duchamp who, a century earlier, had introduced the idea that anything can be art by taking a ceramic urinal and calling it Fountain. Afraid of being sued for copyright, SuperRare took the decision to remove 64 GALLON TOTER from the platform. As the first piece ever to be removed from a collection, the piece became all the more significant.

Never concerned about his art being copied, Robness champions the ethos that crypto art is open source and should be moving away from copyright laws. He welcomes artists to remix his work at will.

After being banned from SuperRare, Robness worked harder and was inspired to make art that was reactionary to the art on the platform. The incident spawned a series of simplistic Trash GIFs, produced in record time. This created the first crypto art movement and encouraged a freedom of expression, sparking thousands of trash cans made in tribute. He jokes, “If you don’t make it in under 5 minutes, it’s not a Trash GIF. So I was having fun with it. It was like punk rock, you know, I can make a song in under five minutes. It’s the same kind of concept.” 64 GALLON TOTER won the People's Choice Award at the 2020 NFT Awards and is currently for sale on OpenSea at 30,900 ETH ($109,560,894.00).

MORE CONTROVERSY

When the Rarible marketplace launched with its RARI governance token, Robness immediately understood the opportunities to earn tokens from buying and selling art and gamification of the friendly rivalry to be the top selling artist each week. As a collector, I remember complaints in the governance forum calling for Robness to be banned from the site. Without hesitation, I jumped into the chat and defended him saying, “As the bad boy of crypto art he sometimes bends the rules and whatever he’s done, the crypto art community needs more free thinkers and rule breakers like Robness.” 

A big fan of collaborations, Robness met Max Osiris when he first bought Max’s art. They became great friends and went on to shake things up in the new decentralized world of crypto art.

But I have a confession to make… A few days after I defended Robness I heard that he and Max had been wash-trading. This is the practice of buying each other’s art and selling it back again to artificially inflate popularity rankings.

I consider myself a champion of fairness. In the UK we form an orderly queue and wait patiently for our turn. Rule breakers are not tolerated. Maybe it’s because of Robness’ impressive crypto art credentials, but I find his rebellious antics really cool. The Rarible stunt is classic Robness. Rather than wash-trading in a sneaky fraudulent way (that other artists do), Robness and Max openly passed NFTs back and forward between their named wallets so that they would be caught.

The first Robness piece I collected was part of a series dedicated to the aesthetic art of Japanese neon advertising signage. The piece is dedicated to women, entrusted with the safety and continuance of the human race. Whilst many crypto artists still choose to create artwork that is square, Robness’ work is not constrained in shape or dimensions.

ᴛ트ⱤⱤᐱ𝜤п ⲟⱤᏟΉ트ಽᴛⱤᐱᴛ𝜤ⲟп (Movement 02) is part of a pre-pandemic Fine Art Signature series of landscapes created in Day-Glo colors. One of the great powers of abstract art is that artist and collector can see the art differently. In this case the contours of the landscape could equally be interpreted as a woman lying on a couch with her arm across her body and her hand between her thighs.

The next piece in my collection was part of an abstract offshoot series focused on the sexual side of crypto. In more of a fine art/pulp/voyeur style combination, SNAP! was released on Rarible with a tweet that simply read, “'THAT’S THE BEST ASS I’VE EVER DRAWN.”  

Tweets are always in BLOCK CAPITALS which is normally associated with shouting. These belie his fun, friendly nature. In another experiment in social media theatre, he changed his Twitter account for a week to tweet from the perspective of a sassy woman, 'Digital Art Bitch' and was blown away by the positive response from followers.  

Having sold hundreds of artworks worldwide, his style is constantly changing and morphs at will. Experimenting with different blockchains, he started using Hic Et Nunc minting his work under a secret name. Teaser tweets were sent around the time the anonymous pieces dropped on the site using a masked Zorro GIF.  Over 50 collectors own a Robness piece but don't know it for sure.

BURNING A CRYPTO PUNK

Most recently he famously burned CryptoPunk #2317. The act is visualized in an incinerator burn video using PhotoMosh to leave a permanent burn mark.

Robness has mixed thoughts on the trend for avatar profile picture (PFP) projects. Some are very well done with a strong community behind them. These may be a bubble but they're also here to stay. He predicts a big crash of the PFP market before they go silent for a while. Having already been here 5 years, he reassures us, "We're still early and these projects will be part of history so people should be OK if they just HODL."

VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Growing up, he was influenced by the crossover between art and music. He loves Andy Warhol’s iconic Banana immortalized on a Velvet Underground album cover. A talent for music runs in the family and when he can take a break from creating art and song writing 24x7, he loves to play guitar and DJ in the Venice neighborhood of L.A. As a visionary he sees the future of NFTs, art and the music industry converging to provide a full audio visual experience. He even built a monument to the Statue of Liberty in Decentraland with DJ decks inside.  

He likens the crypto art movement to the movie The Artist which chronicles the move from silent movies to 'talkies' where the old actors didn’t have the skills to make the transition. The ability to adapt to a new art form and medium will be key.

There are 2 questions regularly debated in the blockchain space:

1. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

2. Who invented crypto art?

We may never find definitive answers, but one thing is for sure. Crypto art is probably the most important movement in the history of art and iconic artist Robness played a significant role in starting the NFT revolution.

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You may remember a world record setting NFT sale occurred in March: Beeple sold a college of his work for $69m in a Christie’s auction - a first in many ways. The media was alight for several days, excitedly calling the top of a bubble that seemed too manic to be real.

You may have heard of a recent mind-blowing move by Visa to buy a cryptopunk for $150,000; causing an instant repricing of Larva Labs’ NFT project. It now takes $400,000 to buy a cryptopunk avatar photo, up from $30,000 in March.

However, even those on NFT Twitter 24/7 may have missed the legendary $70,000,000 sale of generative AI portraits this last weekend. As of 2pm on labor day, I can’t find a single article written about this on crypto or mainstream media.

Here’s a crypto-native article on the most expensive NFTs ever sold: Decrypt Media

CNN ran an article today called “Remember NFTs? They're back, big time” with no mention of this sale!

So how is an art project with a marketcap in the $150m range flying so under the radar?

It appears that Pak is truly challenging what gives art value. By being an anonymous creator, in addition to being entirely cryptonative, Pak is challenging the status quo at the intersection of design, value, and art.

Without anyone catering to traditional media, this means that no one is publishing press releases to advertise these things to a mainstream audience. This is a performance happening exclusively for those involved, making it that much more meaningful and exclusive for those that understand.

It’s also hard to explain why people are buying millions of dollars worth of “blank pages”.

At introduction, a LOSTPOETS page was .32 ETH, with those buying the most pages being rewarded with x of 1024 “origin poets”. Over the weekend, the price of a page has doubled, with 8 million in ETH volume exchanging hands on opensea, setting a record for secondary market interest.

In a week, each page will allow you to mint a “poet,” an AI-generated portrait designed by Pak. Pak rewarded those who are participating in his cryptocurrency ecosystem, $ASH, with some free pages.

Earlier this year, Pak held a record sale with NiftyGateway and Sotheby’s, raising $13,000,000 in an auction and cube sale. The first day, the cost of a cube was $500, $1000 the second and $1500 the third. After sales on the first day closed, it was announced that cubes can be burned for Ash, the new token of Pak’s NFT ecosystem.

A cube today is worth around $15,000.

A cube burned on day 1 of the burn.art experiment is now worth ~$20,000 worth of $ASH as well as having been airdropped lostpoets pages worth ~$14,000.

Anyone who bought one cube and burned it is holding approximately $30,000 of value for “investing,” in Pak.

Using Twitter as a stage, Pak has created an ecosystem worth a couple hundred million dollars out of nothing. He is consistently redefining how value is perceived and created. As an anonymous creator driven to design simplicity, Pak is thinking at a scale larger than any designer before him. Bringing a cryptonative perspective to some of the most visually stimulating pieces of art available in the NFT space, Pak uses the opportunity to gamify value in the most interesting game theory experiment being played in our world today.

LostPoets is a project driving speculation beyond price speculation. It’s a game and a collectible. Getting just one page would be a smart way to participate in the fun value game that Pak has created.

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The Lore Of The Drop Bears

In the Australian outback lies a town named after the Indigenous word for Koala, Nah Nah Goon (it is also the residents favourite beverage). Living on the outskirts of the town's main strip, these Aussie battlers numb their daily struggles with alcohol and pharmaceuticals. Their most recent struggle? A chlamydia epidemic sweeping through the community like wildfire.

Despite their alcoholism, drug habits and sexually transmitted infection epidemics, these bogan bears have developed a unique governance that allows each and every one of their worthless opinions to be heard. These degenerates - often reeking of Winnie Reds, burnt eucalyptus leaves and treated pine from the new estate - band together around a bonfire, the immense blaze surrounded by a ring of rancid curb side couches. Many of the bears will attend these events fresh from a few glass BBQs and voice their opinion while taking turns playing the Gatorade Saxophone.

- Ernie

There is, every now and then, a rare Drop Bear who aims higher than the branches they once called home. Among these shameless individuals you will meet the self-proclaimed community leader of Willows Caravan Park - Ernie. Many consider Ernie a raging success, and are even more impressed since they've never seen him sober. His hoarding has gotten out of control to the point his pregnant missus is always yelling at him to ‘clean up his shit’ and threatening to call the local council. Ernie has two best mates - Marty D Bear and Koala Kev - that always have his back even if it’s to help Ernie do BnE’s to steal (from the wealthier end of town) other koalas gum leaves in the dead of night.

- Marty D. Bear

Marty D. Bear had one of the most depressing stories which matched equally with his morbidly depressed soul. Lightning struck the scraggly gum-tree they called home, disintegrating it before their eyes. His mother had to abandon him in the boot of a discarded KE70 Corolla to save him from the vicious thunderstorm. Unfortunately Marty D. Bear's mother never returned and the image of her depositing him into that KE70 Corolla became his last memory of her, or any member of his family. Compelled to cherish the rusted out shitbox forever, Marty crafted axles out of logs and pushed it everywhere with him, often only a few meters a day, until one fateful day he found himself his own dystopia within Willows Caravan Park.

- Koala Kev

Koala Kev, the boisterous larrikin who loves metaphorically and literally shitting on his friends and fellow community members. A prankster, a troll and all-around terrible bear from the outside looking in. Kev’s perverted nature and over sex drive led him to have way too many kids for any single drop bear (and enough chlamydia to eradicate the entire species). One of the most unique bears, not for his personality but for the sheer fact he is the only ginger koala to have ever existed. Potentially a driving factor behind his mass reproduction.

Not Just Any Old Drop

Last weekend, there was a drop on Ethereum. A generative avatar art project, founded and executed by a small kabaal of Cryptowriter OG’s.

The drop sold out in 17 hours, and at the time of writing there has already been 186 ETH-worth of their NFTs traded on the secondary market. That’s more than $2M USD in primary sales and approaching $1M in secondary sales, in less than a week.

This isn’t a rags to riches story, but it is the story of a series of bold moves, artistic excellence and a case study in community building.

DropBears NFT is popping off, and it’s only just the beginning.

The Infamous: His Redness

Rhys Kent is just a regular guy from the eastern coast of New South Wales. A regular guy who was clued on to NFTs well before the rest of us.

I met him in the Cryptowriter Telegram channel way back in March of this year, and was initially bone-achingly jealous of both his dry Aussie wit, and the fact that he’d discovered Top Shot some 12 months earlier, and was boasting an impressive collection worth a stupid amount of money.

Kind hearted beneath a thin veneer of constant antagonism, Rhys showed me his true character early-on, helping me stumble through my own induction to NFTs, while never failing to lend me a hand with anything creative I was attempting in the digital realm.

It was quickly apparent to me that Rhys was the gold standard when it came to having his finger on the NFT pulse.

The Idiot Savant

Bulging Idiot was also a connection generated via the Cryptowriter universe. The third Behind The Pixel artist to be thrust under the spotlight by our talented art curator @NFTJoe, Bulging Idiot wasn’t like his predecessors, at all.

At the time of his drop, he joined the main Cryptowriter chat. He offered his perspectives, and commentary on his pieces. He interacted with the community, and increasingly began to feel at home. And he stuck around.

Bulging Idiot is not what you would call a regular guy. In to skating, hip hop, dope shoes, and anything you can alter your mental state with, Bulging Idiot is the very definition of a young self-made artist whose biggest believer was always himself, until he met NFTJoe.

An intensely private individual, Bulging Idiot hails from an unknown location on the continental United States. We don’t know where exactly, or even his real name. What we do know however, is that his art is lit AF, and that the cat (or bear) is now well and truly out of the bag.

A True NFT OG

Nat (rhymes with cat) is a true NFT OG. And by that, I don’t mean he discovered NFTs in October last year, a few months before the rest of us. I mean he discovered them years ago.

After making a small fortune on the Garbage Pale Kids Season 1 series on the WAX blockchain, Nat crossed passions and went all in on NBA Top Shot, filling his bags again, and adding to his increasingly fine appreciation for the world of NFTs.

Then Nat moved onto Ethereum NFTs. Recognizing the tell-tale signs that were brewing just at the right time, and then going on to snag himself a big piece of the now famous Bored Ape Yacht Club project, he transcended to the NFT legend he has become.

Real life best mates with both Rhys and Smiffy, his Co-Founders, Nat is responsible for single handedly dragging our boys into the NFT space. Without Nat, Rhys’d still be playing Tetris on his Nokia 5110, while Smiffy would still be experimenting with Minecraft blocks in the spare room at his parents place.

The Sultry Sounds Of Stealth Smiff

Smiffy, oh Smiffy.

Another Cryptowriter OG, many of us know Smiffy as the master architect and builder of Cryptowriter’s Shift City, in the Genesis Uplift Metaverse.

An intensely skilled individual, Smiffy took a single image from a promotional Cryptowriter card, and built a full blown cityscape, replete with internal furnishings, secret areas and neon billboards, all in the most immaculate of detail.

Another child of New South Wales, Smiffy bought a swathe of technical knowledge, and a keen eye for detail to the DropBear NFT team.

The Cryptowriter Connection

This rendition of the genesis of the DropBears project would not be complete without mentioning the role Cryptowriter played in laying the foundation of Willows Caravan Park, and it’s mostly degenerate residents.

Soon after the NBA Top Shot boom, Rhys somehow found himself in the Cryptowriter Telegram channel. Upon joining, he quickly ascertained that our small project was unlike any other he’d come across.

With a focus on community building, a steady flow of free NFTs, and a host of intriguing concepts like Finney, CryptoFinney, Behind The Pixel, and all the rest, Rhys knew instinctively that he’d found a winner in Cryptowriter.

So while Rhys continued to do the rounds, exploring any and all of the popular NFT projects available, he remained steadfast in his commitment to checking-in and hanging out with Cryptowriter crew on a daily basis.

It wasn’t long before Smiffy and Nat had been introduced to the Cryptowriter family, with Smiffy in particular jumping in the deep end and combining his love of city building with his passion for online spaces and his newfound interest in CryptoFinney lore.

This confluence of events was fateful. It introduced Bulging Idiot to Rhys, Smitty and Nat. And all of them to the Cryptowriter community.

It was amid this backdrop that generative art on Ethereum started to take off.

Generative Art, On Ethereum

Generative art is all the rage these days, particularly when it comes to avatar and profile picture collections. But what is generative art?

Algorithmic in nature, generative in the context of this article means artworks that are generated using computing technology, typically by way of a customized algorithm that generates unique outputs.

In the case of DropBears NFT, and a host of other top selling projects currently exploding in value on Ethereum, an artist or the project managers upload a custom-tailored artistic algorithm into a smart contract. Then, when a collector calls the mint function of this smart contract, the underlying algorithm is pinged in a unique way, which leads to a unique artwork output in the form of an NFT.

Enter stage left, the DropBears.

DropBears In Particular

Over the last nine months or so of collecting NFTs, it’s become apparent at least to me, that the ‘set design’ of a project, or a specific drop, is perhaps its most important facet.

To demonstrate my point by way of a simple example,  just look at Cryptopunks. It’s the scarcity of the assets, and the rarities associated with the various elements of the NFTs, that have helped build their allure, attract collectors, and add value to assets from that collection. I mean, the artist was no Bulging Idiot.

There are 10,000 Drop Bears, and 10,000 only. This is an important point immediately noted by every collector that has looked seriously at this project, or any like it. This limited supply guarantees scarcity, and gives investors and collectors alike confidence that they better grab one or more, before they are unavailable at affordable prices.

From there, our bohemian bears are constructed at random upon minting via the smart contract, with a total of nine dynamic components – eyes, glasses, fur, mouth/accessories, ears, shirts, hats/hair, the background, plus a random dynamic component ‘extra traits’ – the possibility of two bears looking alike is miniscule.

With each trait being generated randomly, you might wonder why their relative values are not equal. After all, isn’t each bear uniquely random?

The answer to this in no. As not all traits are created equally.

Without pouring over the fine detail, after all this is a monster article already, it’s easy to give you an idea of how this works:

Let’s say there are seven possible traits for ears, as there actually is in this case – ‘Gum Leaf’, ‘Diamond’, ‘Chain’, ‘Stretchers’, ‘Top Ear’, ‘Piercing’ and ‘No Trait’. The smart contract does not necessarily have to give each of these traits equal weighting, in terms of it being a likely outcome of the randomization process.

Therefore it follows that if you hit on a DropBear with Gum Leaf ears, of which there are only 50 out of 10,000, your DropBear becomes much rarer than one with ‘No Trait’ (this doesn’t mean that the DropBear has no ears, just that his ears don’t have any special traits), of which there are 7,000 out of the total 10,000 DropBears.

Multiply this affect over nine categories, and 10,000 unique pieces of art are generated, some with many traits, and some with virtually none. The laws of supply and demand then begin to operate, and bears with more and rarer traits quickly become more valued by the market.

Fussin’ On Our Furry Friends

Another important facet of the DropBears project are the team’s Australian origins, and the charitable giving that the project was designed to facilitate.

In recent days, I’m informed, the DropBear Team forwarded 10 ETH to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital – a significant donation that will support thousands of injured koala’s from rural New South Wales.

With the Australian Black Summer bushfires still fresh in our memories, this act of kindness and compassion cannot be overstated.

With more donations planned, things are looking up for Australia’s favorite fury marsupials.

We Got A Sheep Or Two, But Where’s The Kangaroo?

DropBears sold out. Now what?

History tells us that the launch of a generative art project is but one key milestone a team must hit for its work to become iconic. Selling out is great, but it doesn’t make your project legendary.

Luckily, the DropBears team are not NFT Noobs. They know how shit works, and their plans for our DropBears seem to be both numerous and deep.

With updateable backdrops/backgrounds announced this week, and a community competition where winning entries will be among the backgrounds available to DropBear holders, I can say with authority that we are literally at just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our DropBears.

Wen Cryptowriter Collab?

And now, for all the other Cryptowriter OGs, the most important question of all – wen Cryptowriter x DropBears Collab?

The answer my friends is soon. Maybe, very soon. After all, we already know that CryptoFinney is well on his way to Ethereum.

While nothing can be revealed at this moment, the most important thing I can suggest you do is join the Cryptowriter Discord here, and keep your eyes peeled for an imminent update. 

You might even want to leave a comment below, I heard a very strong rumor that they can be handsomely rewarded.

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In a continued effort to support the various communities within the NFT space comes another crosspost. This post originally appeared here.

Since the historic Christie’s and Beeple drop in March, the three letters N, F and T have morphed into one of the world’s most talked about acronyms. They carry with them a sense of mystery as well as an air of confidence for those in the know. Use the acronym boldly in conversation and you tell your friends, that yes indeed, you know exactly what an NFT is. But, let’s be honest, six months ago (or maybe more for a select few), had you even heard of the word fungible? At a guess, you might have thought it referred to some kind of mushroom, right? So, now that you know that an NFT is a non-fungible token, you feel comfortable to move the word into general parlance. Quick side note for anyone reading this who is still thinking about googling it, let me spare you the effort. If something is fungible, you can exchange it for something else. Commodities, common shares, options, and dollar bills are all examples of fungible goods. Assets like diamonds, land, or baseball cards are not fungible because each unit has unique qualities that add or subtract value. Enter the world of NFTs. Digital assets that are stored on blockchains and which are used to represent items such as artworks, photos, videos, audio, and other types of files. Many people all over the world are embracing the possibilities that NFTs bring to creative industries. They are a game changer for artists, freeing them from physical boundaries and geographical borders as well as protecting their intellectual property rights and bringing them life-long royalties. MORROW collective, the NFT curatorial platform that I co-founded in March 2021, exists to bring artworks with engaging narrative and substance to wider audiences, enabled by the crypto-world of NFTs.

But something else is happening with that little acronym that I, as a writer and a wordsmith, find interesting. Those three letters are taking on a life of their own. Firstly, they have become a word in their own right. An NFT; the noun, the object, the thing has separated itself from the clunky and rarely used phrase ‘non-fungible token’. And then, the word meandered its way casually through the range of grammatical definitions. I asked someone the other day, what his creative agency does and he replied: “We help our artists to NFT their works.” Hmm, my copyeditor spider senses pricked immediately. To NFT? Is that a verb, I hear? What once was noun is now a verb and this new presentation of the acronym refers to both things.

I started paying closer attention to my conversations as the days passed, and I found that this was not a one-off, many people have hijacked the acronym to use in their own ways. “I’m working on NFTing my latest collection,” an artist told me. NFTing? Is that a present participle or a gerund? I think the latter is more likely. A gerund is the –ing form of a verb that functions the same as a noun. I know that we are getting into the nitty gritty of English grammar and I’ll bet that most of you reading this feel the same way about gerund as you did about fungible. The point is, that this is fascinating for those interested in language and more broadly it speaks about something else: the mainstreaming of NFTs (spot the gerund). As the word becomes more and more commonplace and the public come to understand the revolutionary potential of NFTs, cryptocurrency and decentralisation, I believe that language will change with it. Perhaps the noun/verb will become an adjective/adverb. Can something be NFTy? Maybe there will be metamorphisation of other technical terms that we are yet to discover. One thing is for sure, the future of NFTs and crypto is exciting from whatever angle you approach it. And that leaves me with one last thing to say: To NFT or not to NFT, that is the question.

Anna Seaman, curator, MORROW collective

MORROW collective is an NFT curatorial platform founded in March 2021 by Claire Harris, Anna Seaman and Jen Stelco. MORROW collective builds the bridge between traditional art and crypto art by hosting virtual exhibitions of individually curated single edition NFT artworks and linking collectors to their physical counterparts. Comprising a team of professionals with deep experience in traditional contemporary art, cryptoart, curation, editorial, marketing, communications and technology, MORROW provides a premium service for existing galleries and artists. MORROW collective are owners of multiple gallery spaces across the most sought after and exclusive Metaverse platforms and collectors with an extensive portfolio including some of the world’s leading crypto artists.

https://morrow-collective.com/

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I have a huge ego.

Nothing feeds that ego more than feeling smarter than everyone. Part of the way I feel smarter is being ahead of the curve and instantly understanding things others need time to digest. When that doesn’t happen for me I’m depressed and angry. That has been my primary experience in the NFT space, frustration fueling depression.

Twitter is filled with success stories of artists quitting their jobs to do art full time and amateur collectors turning $1000 into $50,000 because they bought a PFPs (profile pictures/avatar art, e.g. Cryptopunks, BAYC) and flipped it.

It can be exhausting, waiting and watching, wondering if you’ve made a mistake. Letting the outside world tell you that this is just a bubble and that the hype is over. Between March and August that’s all I thought about; I was just too late. I’m going up against people that have been in crypto a lot longer and people that have made money and have money to spend. I got in far too late to make any money. I was making nothing on pieces I was buying and I was ready to just stop multiple times.

Then this past weekend I was reminded how early I am.

Window Still Life 066 by john karel

The Worst Kept Secret

I began hearing about Hic Et Nunc from artists on Twitter back in March and continued hearing about it from artists I was forming relationships with (@angietaylor and @kareneng). At the time I didn’t think much of it. I still figured I was late to the scene and learning about things far too late. I had a familiar feeling like a dork asking the cool kids where the party was at.

I cannot take credit for discovering @jjjjjohn on HEN. I’ll be the first to admit that I would have seen his work and scrolled right past it. Others smarter and more knowledgeable than I began buying all of his pieces months ago. I only discovered him because I was gifted one of his pieces from someone who’s opinion I trust (@michaeldifeo). By now, anyone who has been on HEN for more than a week knows the artist John Karel.

Karel is the top selling artist on HEN for his Window Still Life series. The one above in particular (Window Still Life 066) has a high mint of 3350. Last month I bought one. It wasn’t an investment but rather a purchase to brag to others in the future that yes, I owned not one but two John Karel window stills. At the time, I purchased this piece on July 21st for 1.5 XTZ which was about $2.40 USD at the time. A speculative purchase for sure but one that did not carry much risk. My mistake was not buying more.

For months I’ve been taking what little money I have and buying cheap art and building a collection. Usually a daily task of just digging, searching, finding hidden gems that I enjoyed (thank you @artbyjstelco for this idea).

Then, over the weekend, the site went down.

The Tipping Point

I did not know of Kevin Rose until this past weekend. However, 1.5 million followers of his already do and now they too were going to know of the secret NFT. I only heard of the podcast because of who retweeted him:

And just like that…

There was plenty of criticism thrown around all weekend. The site was spotty at best because of an influx of new users trying to buy up the new secret NFTs that were just leaked.

Criticism aside, and much of it valid, there was good that came out of the past weekend: the price in Tezos doubled, popular art that had stagnated saw rejuvenated sales, and overall art investments, in relatively unknown artists, of 0.5 XTZ were now being listed on the secondary market and selling for 10 XTZ.

Most importantly, I felt like one of the cool kids because I knew about something first.

Not Financial Advice

The best advice I can give anyone in this space is something I saw on Reddit awhile ago. What makes people smart is not their intelligence. Intelligent people tend to have a general curiosity about the world, surround themselves with others they believe are more intelligent than them and allow for the possibility that they know nothing for certain.

It’s not a matter of what you know but rather who you know; yourself and others.

That’s me. I have a crushing fear of being found out that I am not as smart as I present myself. So I am constantly reading, surrounding myself with intelligent people and ensuring I digest everything they have to offer.

In the case of NFTs I have surrounded myself with people who have studied art, know art and live in the art world. I look at what other artists collect and build from there. I am confident in the opinions of others and in this new space this strategy appears to be working.

My gut instinct about art is shit. But instinct about people, my judgement is spot on.

And it’s starting to pay off.

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3418

Finney’s AHA Moment

We all remember the moment we first grasped the gravity of what this blockchain revolution is all about and the impact it will have on the world around us. Well, Finney just experienced such a moment on his recent voyage to planet earth. The image you see above is Finney’s “AHA Moment” as he plugs into the mysterious Cryptowriter device for the first time.

The final chapter of Finney’s Immutable Journey is hidden by design, and can only be unlocked by completing the base ink and color sets of Finney Vol. 1. Once you have completed a set (track your progress here) and logged into our custom reader you’ll be able to view the hidden chapter. Not only that but by completing either set you will also qualify for the AHA Moment NFT airdrop! Shoutout to the team at FACINGS for developing the NFT reader.

Airdrop Rewards Schedule

During the launch and distribution of CryptoFinney 1.0, our community has become accustomed to receiving airdrops for collecting our NFTs. This won’t change with our first pack sale on WAX.

Stage 1 - August 31 - AHA Moment

Collect either of the following and hold them on the August 31st, snapshot cutoff time will be 11.00 pm UTC.

• Base Color 21 card set

• Base Ink 21 card set

SNAPSHOTS COMPLETE

AIRDROP COMPLETE

Stage 2 - September 14 - Lars Kommienezuspadt Cover Variant C

Collect any of the following and hold them on the September 14th snapshot, snapshot cutoff time will be 11.00 pm UTC.

SNAPSHOTS COMPLETE

AIRDROP COMPLETE

• Timelapse 21 card set

• Narrated Ink 21 card set

• Narrated Color 21 card set

• Platinum Frequency 21 card set

Stage 3 - September 28 - Jon Trafford Cover Variant D

Collect any of the following and hold them on the September 28th, snapshot cutoff time will be 11.00 pm UTC.

SNAPSHOTS COMPLETE

AIRDROP COMPLETE

• Gold Frequency 21 card set

• 1x Rhodium Frequency card

Stage 4a - September 29 - Pleb Raffle Ticket

Collect any of the following and hold them on the September 29th snapshot cutoff time will be 11.00 pm UTC.

SNAPSHOTS COMPLETE

STAND BY FOR AIRDROP IN THE NEXT 24-48HRS

• Base Color 21 card set = 1 ticket

• Base Ink 21 card set = 1 ticket

• Timelapse 21 card set = 2 tickets

• Narrated Ink 21 card set = 2 tickets

• Narrated Color 21 card set = 2 tickets

• Platinum Frequency 21 card set = 4 tickets

AIRDROP COMPLETE

Stage 4b - September 30 - OG Raffle Ticket

Collect any of the following and hold them on the September 30th snapshot cutoff time will be 11.00 pm UTC.

SNAPSHOTS COMPLETE

STAND BY FOR AIRDROP IN THE NEXT 24-48HRS

• Gold Frequency 21 card set = 2 ticket

• 1x Rhodium Frequency Card = 3 tickets

AIRDROP COMPLETE

Stage 5a - October 1 - OG NFT Raffle

Hold an OG Raffle Ticket on the 1st of October snapshot to go into the draw to win each of the following NFTs. The OG Raffle will be live-streamed on our YouTube Channel.

Stage 5b - October 1 - Pleb NFT Raffle

Hold a Pleb Raffle Ticket on the 1st of October snapshot to go into the draw to win each of the following NFTs. The Pleb Raffle will be live-streamed on our YouTube Channel.

Stage 6 - Collectors Edition Finney Vol. 1 Hardcover

Capped supply with their own NFT certificate of authenticity.

Collect any of the following and hold them on the September 30th snapshot cutoff time will be 11.00 pm UTC.

• Gold Frequency 21 card set

• 1x Rhodium Frequency card

SNAPSHOT COMPLETE