Page One #39
Merge today. Congrats on doubling the size of your hidden folder.
As always thanks for reading, hmu on Twitter and come hang out in The One.
TLDR:
Art Gobblers is a decentralized art factory by Justin Roiland
ACK’s color study turns into max pain - literally
Catharsis creates continuity in chaos
Cats launches new website alongside Catcoin converter
Doodles return to Twitter to announce $54M raise
Grumpls revealed last Friday in surprise event
Gutter Cat Gang completes Gutter Juice DNA-2 sale
Killabears begin their stake at the Kilton Hotel
Lost Realms channels turn-based RPGs of old
Metropolis World welcomes Passport holders to Celeste
Spells introduces Interactive NFTs to the Loot universe
Tykes unite real estate professional and web3 professionals
News and Notes:
Cats launches new website alongside Catcoin converter
Cats has released the Catcoin converter on their new website, allowing holders to sell their Cat back to the DAO in exchange for 21 Catcoins. Catcoin is an ERC1155 token that displays the image of the Cat it was exchanged for. The DAO also passed their first proposal, instituting a daily Cat auction which is payable in either Catcoin or Ethereum, thus creating a system in which Cat IP is continuously returned to the DAO. This auction format required the team to create a new contract that allows users to bid with ERC1155 tokens, a novel concept which could open up a number of possibilities for future use.
Doodles return to Twitter to announce $54M raise
After drawing some criticism for going nearly two months without sending a tweet, Doodles took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to re-announce their $54M raise at a $700M valuation in a funding round led by Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six. The raise was first disclosed during NFT NYC two months ago, but Tuesday’s official announcement was the first time we heard the numbers. The announcement caused a surge in volume on Doodles, Dooplicators and Genesis Boxes.
Doodles will be hiring 18 new full time employees (including a social media manager). The raise puts the pastel profile pictures into position as one of the most well-financed projects in the space.
Grumpls revealed last Friday in surprise event
The story arc that started when Goblintown holders received a free burgers over three months ago has wrapped up (at least for the time being). After burning their burgers in exchange for grumpls, holders waited weeks until, on Friday, their grumpls revealed by surprise. The collection of pillow-shaped creatures features artwork from eight different artists (all linked in this tweet), providing the project a diverse array of styles while maintaining - to some extent - a continuity of subject. There are also 22 1/1 grumpls in the collection, each created by a different artist or community member - contributors include Andrew Wang, Jake the Degen, OSF and Steve Aoki.
Gutter Cat Gang completes Gutter Juice DNA-2 sale
The Gutter universe continues to grow with the release of the DNA-2 Gutter Juice. DNA-2 Juice is used to upgrade D1 Gutter Clones. Upgrading a Clone requires one DNA-2 and two Gutter Clones, one to upgrade and one to sacrifice, creating downward pressure on the Clone supply. The Clone machine will begin accepting DNA-2 Juice in October. GCG received some criticism for holding a Dutch auction from 0.9Ξ to 0.3Ξ, but the Juice did manage to sell out in about six hours.
Killabears begin their stake at the Kilton Hotel
In an entertaining spin on staking games, Killabears have opened the Kilton Hotel to holders with both a Killabear and Killabit. Those who complete their 30-day stay in the Kilton will be rewarded - although they don’t know how yet. Each day of the staking exhibition sees Killabears encounter a different narrative element, all of which is observable on the Kilton Cam on their website. While we’ve seen projects employ storytelling elements in a multitude of ways, the daily storytelling is rather unique and creates an engaging experiment for holders.
Recent Launches:
ACK’s color study turns into max pain - literally
The ever-eccentric Alpha Centauri Kid released an open edition of his color study last week, but minters were quickly thrown for a loop when the metadata was changed to display XCOPY’s MAX PAIN, which was released as an open edition earlier this year. While some may have been disappointed, the painful reveal was a great moment to observe - and, of course, ACK has plans. He is working with Manifold to create a burn-to-mint contract where holders can redeem max pain v2 for one of 10 color studies, exchanging their pain for a new color.
Catharsis creates continuity in chaos
The fifth collection from GM Studios, Catharis by Dario Lanza is “the first long-structure and evolutive art project on the blockchain.” In laymen’s terms, this means the generation algorithm changes and evolves as tokens are minted. Earlier tokens are less chaotic with smaller, timid strokes, while later tokens are wilder with strong, aggressive strokes. The “long-structure” comes from the relationship between tokens: strokes from token #968 flow directly into the strokes on token #969 and so on. This repeats in a 50-work structure, meaning token #917 flows directly into #968 or #866, etc. While it may not have seen the same amount of speculation as other GM collections, Catharis is an innovative collection that is built with an incredible flow.
Metropolis World welcomes Passport holders to Celeste
Armed with an extensive list of celebrity partners including Dillon Francis, yung gravy, gmoney, and Bored Elon, Metropolis World hopes to create a unique digital universe that will eventually serve as a gaming and metaverse hub. Their Passports collection, which minted last Thursday, entitles holders to a Genesis avatar and provides entry into a raffle for one of the 400 Genesis properties in Celeste, the first of six cities. Each passport belongs to one of the elemental cities - air, earth, fire, pixel, space or water. Details on the timeline are scarce, but the Genesis properties launch is next on the agenda.
Spells introduces Interactive NFTs to the Loot universe
Spells are, in typical Loot fashion, a simple picture of white text on a black background. Their smart contract, which uses ERC-5050, is the main asset. ERC-5050 enables Spells to interact with each other - in this case by casting Spells on other NFTs to mine $CAST. The project serves as a case study for on-chain interaction between tokens, potentially unlocking a wide range of possibilities for on-chain gaming. Read more about ERC-5050 here.
Tykes unite real estate professional and web3 professionals
Real estate investor, entrepreneur and YouTuber Ryan Pineda launched Tykes with the goal of connecting and educating real estate investors and professionals. The collection of child-like avatars launched a few weeks ago but has gained attention after popping up at the top of daily volume charts last week. Owning a Tyke gives holders benefits like access to exclusive start-up investments and real estate deals. They eventually plan to purchase houses across the world which Tyke holders can access using Tycoin, which will be generated from staking Tykes. Interesting, to say the least.
Upcoming Launches:
Art Gobblers is a decentralized art factory by Justin Roiland
Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland has teamed up with the big brains at Paradigm to create what could be one of the most interesting projects of the year. While they have been building background lore for months through various Twitter accounts like Ned Jeffers and have opened access to their Draw Tool, details surrounding exactly how the project works have started to surface just this week, coming mostly from Paradigm researcher Dave White (see above). Here’s my mediocre TLDR:
2,000 Gobblers will be minted for free at the start. Each Gobbler produces $GOO, which will be used to mint the remaining 8,000 Gobblers. Goo is produced at a variable rate determined by how much Goo a Gobbler has accumulated. This means that Goo supply will rise exponentially over time. To make this work, Paradigm created a new kind of smart contract they call the “variable rate gradual Dutch auctions,” or VRGDAs, which effectively raises the Goo cost of each Gobbler minted.
Goo is also used to produce blank pages. Pages are used to draw art. The art is then eaten by the Gobblers, where it lives on-chain in the “belly gallery” forever. There’s a lot going on here and Dave does a much better job explaining it in the thread above as well as this thread. Watch for more details in the coming weeks.
Lost Realms channels turn-based RPGs of old
Created by Tribe, a team of game developers hailing from Lucasarts, MachineZone, EA and more, Lost Realms is building an MMORPG that channels the nostalgia of childhood favorites like Pokemon and Chrono Trigger. Each NFT will be a playable in-game hero which will serve as the base character for a player’s team. Competing in battles and completing quests will yield powerful rewards while upgrading the statistics of each NFT. Details are still scarce and there’s no release date yet, but these notes from their first Town Hall have a bit more information.
NFT Market Overview:
As the Ethereum NFT market continues to find a way to print lower weekly volume bars, Solana NFTs have seen an incredible bounce over the past week or so. Undoubtably catalyzed by the y00ts mint, Solana NFT volume more than doubled last week and new mints reached an all-time high. y00ts drew many Ethereum natives to Solana for the first time, while the concurrent success of ABC and increased interest in Solana Name Service domains also contributed to the upward trend.
As I’ve previously talked about here, Ethereum traders have been trading at lower volumes per transaction for a number of months. While some may have seen the Solana NFT ecosystem as a less profitable option during the bull run, this may not be the case much longer. At the end of the day, most traders will follow the volume. If that means going across the Wormhole, that may be a fact ETH maxis have to accept.
Other Stuff Happened/ing
NFTs:
Clone X Forging SZN 1 ends at 3:30 PM today
CryptoPunks newsletter is funded via grant
Deadfellaz announces partnership with Wrangler Jeans
Pixel Vault have created their own marketplace
y00ts art reveal postponed until later in the month
General News:
Ford files NFT and metaverse trademarks
GameStop announces partnership with FTX
Lucky Trader mobile app went live last week
Starbucks details its upcoming NFT loyalty rewards program