7 months ago
83
Classic collections from the 2020–2022 bull market
Three of the Most Visually Arresting NFT Collections
The target audience for DeGods was male, tapping into the “Crypto Bros” meta for the creation of its collection. They targeted a younger demographic, typified by the wild public events that the project would hold.
Please note this article is intended for informational purposes only. All views and opinions expressed are my own, and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research, and consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
The DeGods NFT collection was launched in October 2021 on the Solana blockchain. It was created by Frank DeGods (Rohun Vora) and DeLabs in 2021. Based in Los Angeles, California in the USA, DeLabs is described as a technology company that specialises in the development and distribution of innovative products and services. The DeGods collection were the first deflationary Solana NFTs.
When it comes to the success of any NFT project, its founder is one of the most important aspects.
Frank DeGods is widely regarded in the NFT space as one of the GOATs (greatest of all time). Frank DeGods is a pseudonym. The first name (Frank), was inspired by the founder’s love of American singer-songwriter Frank Ocean. The second name (DeGods), is taken from the name of his NFT collection. As previously mentioned, the collection creator’s real name is Rohun Vora. In an impressively brave move, Frank DeGods doxxed himself in a good morning post on X (Twitter) on 29th November 2022.
This revelation was prompted by media attempts to uncover his identity, leading Vora to disclose it himself. Following his announcement, other members of the DeGods community also revealed their identities. One notable figure included Dust Labs CEO Kevin DeGods, who identified himself as serial tech entrepreneur Kevin Henrikson.
Frank DeGods’ background and subsequent rise to fame exemplify the ideals of the American dream. His family were immigrants from India, and have been described by Frank as extremely hard working. This contributed in large part, to instilling in him the kind of work ethic that would later see him create one of the industry’s most respected NFT collections.
Frank DeGods would begins his journey towards the mantle of Web3 legend, by working in the film industry at the age of 15. This inspired his film studies at UCLA (The University of California, Los Angeles). Eventually Frank dropped out of his studies to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.
The goals of the project’s founders were as lofty as they were essential for their success. They wanted to create an NFT collection that was creative and innovative. They wanted to prioritise the project’s transparency to the NFT community. This contributed heavily to the Web3 community’s excitement and trust in the DeGods/y00ts collection. They wanted to build a strong and enduring brand. And they wanted to create a cult like community. The four pillars of any successful NFT project.
DeGods is a collection of 10,000 NFTs on the Solana blockchain. Each NFT was minted for a price of 3 Solana (SOL). Due to the hype, the entire collection sold out in just seven seconds. This was despite some technical issues during the launch.
The target audience for DeGods was male, tapping into the “Crypto Bros” meta for the creation of its collection. They targeted a younger demographic, typified by the wild public events that the project would hold. Some detractors referred to their community as “a sausage fest”, and their events were known for some of its participants engaging in “a shoey”. This was a practice that involved an individual drinking a beverage of choice from another person’s shoe. An overtly frat-boy ritual, and extremely effective in solidifying the bonds between its participants in an all-male Web3 space.
On a personal note, with the post-feminist gynocentric world we currently find ourselves in, and being a man myself, I applaud any service or project that attempts to create a space where “boys can be boys”. Men have been forgotten by modern society.
This is something that can be observed through popular culture, and the lack of support systems for men. The former exemplified by cartoons like Family Guy, or the latter, exemplified by the mental health system in many countries. This is particularly sad when you consider, the biggest cause of death in the United Kingdom for men under 50 is suicide.
Anyway, I digress.
…Back to Web3.
It should be noted that while DeGods was designed to specifically target the Crypto Bros demographic, DeLabs’ subsequent project y00ts was created to appeal to a wider audience.
One of the most important attributes of the DeGods/y00ts ecosystem is their intense attention to detail. This is very apparent when you look at the artwork of either the DeGods or y00ts NFTs.
When DeGods was first launched they had a motto:
“Fuck the paper hands, or in this market people who fail to hold long term investments”. — Frank DeGods
They had what they called, “a Paper Hand Bitch Tax” (PHBT) of 33.3%. This tax was applied to any holder that sold their DeGods NFT for lower than the floor price.
The funds collected through the Paper Hand Bitch Tax were designed to be placed in the DeGods Treasury. The idea was for the funds to be allocated for the community’s greater good, such as the continued development of the project, as well as other initiatives.
This Bitch Tax went viral. Post mint, NFT holders began adding “33.3%” to their usernames. Despite the notoriety of the tax, its attempt to prevent people from selling their NFTs too early failed. In this regard, the DeGods collection would follow in the footsteps of previous collection creators whose NFT collections had suffered the same fate.
However, DeGods did have an elaborate looking roadmap that captured the imagination of their community. DeLabs created a DeGods DAO (DeDAO) and eventually purchased a Big3 basketball team called Killer 3s for $625,000.
Big3 is a 3-on-3 basketball league founded by Rapper Ice Cube, and American Talent Manger Jeff Kwatinetz. It is a twelve-team league with players including former NBA and international basketball stars.
The acronym DAO stands for decentralized autonomous organisation.
“DAOs are member-owned communities without centralized leadership.” — Wikipedia
At one point their website made the claim that the only country without a DeGods holder was North Korea.
Owning a DeGods NFT enabled holders the ability to purchase a “tube” and generate another NFT known as a y00ts.
The collection began under the name “Duppies”. It was intended as an expansion of the DeGods ecosystem. Unfortunately, the DeGods’ X (Twitter) account was breached on in July 2022. The team decided to rebrand the collection to “y00ts,” and introduced new concepts and project branding.
The y00ts NFT collection released in September 2022, was based around a yeti style character. It is a collection of 15,000 NFTs, launched on the Solana blockchain. With the success of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s collection (BAYC), it was important for DeLabs to create a new character that wasn’t a bear, or an ape for obvious reasons. In the end they decided on a yeti for their avatar.
Similar to BAYC, the y00ts collection attracted the interest of several celebrities. This included people like NBA legend Allen Iverson, Canadian comedian Howie Mandel, and former English football international Wayne Rooney.
Purchasing a tube to generate a y00t from a DeGods NFT was a bit of a gamble. The cost of the tube vs the floor price of the average y00ts NFT, meant that you were not always guaranteed to mint an NFT that was worth more than the floor price of the collection. Because of this, uptake from holders to generate y00ts from their DeGods NFT was slow.
The perfectionist attitude of DeLabs meant that originally when the y00ts collection had been designed and ready for mint, at the last moment the team decided to abort, and completely redesign the NFTs. They weren’t interested in dropping a mediocre series of NFTs. They wanted their new collection to be the best it could possibly be.
This created a lot of backlash within the crypto community. Despite this, DeLabs stuck to their guns and improved the design of the y00ts collection. I think we can all agree that the results were worth the wait. They decided on having slightly muted backgrounds and fur for their NFTs, mixed with vibrant colours for the other attributes.
Interestingly, some collectors have rated y00ts as one of the most aesthetically pleasing NFT collections to have ever been made. This is testament to the time, effort and expertise that the DeLabs team poured into the NFTs.
At the time the NFT community was slightly ambivalent about the design of the y00ts collection. They claimed that they were more interested in the project’s road map. However, Frank DeGods doubled down on his commitment to the importance of the aesthetic of the project. In hindsight, this proved to be the right decision to make, and highlights Frank DeGods’ vision and leadership to produce one of the most innovative NFT collections of all time.
Starting on March 2022, DeadGods was a DeGods NFT upgrade. According to DeLabs, this allowed holders to buy a “fine art” version of their existing DeGods NFT. They were a mutated form of a DeGods NFT, and were also released on the Solana blockchain. Holders could pay 1,000 $DUST (the community’s utility token) to obtain the new upgraded version of their NFTs. This avatar metamorphosis was called transcending. The DeadGods NFT had the same rarity as its DeGods counterpart, but had their attributes re-illustrated.
If users were staking their DeGods NFTs, they had the ability to be able to transcend their DeGods NFTs on the staking site without unstaking them. Both DeGods and DeadGods NFTs were switchable at any time. Each NFT switch between the two cost 1000 $DUST. Each DeadGods NFT could mint 15 $DUST tokens per day.
As the team added the DeadGods NFTs to the metadata of collector’s original NFTs, they are considered the same and can’t be separately sold. This meant that the introduction of DeadGods didn’t inflate the collection’s supply, while also adding to its value.
At this point in the collection’s lifecycle, it was a much needed boost to the moral of its holders. During this time, this decision grabbed the attention of many people outside the DeGods community. The DeadGods artistic upgrade impressed many in the DeGods community. The new NFTs looked like an undead and decrepit version of their original counterparts.
Exiled DeGods
The Exiled DeGods are a collection of 2,500 NFTs that were minted in September 2021 as part of the DeGods presale. Unfortunately, there was an issue with the collection’s metadata. DeLabs decided to remint and airdrop 1 for 1 versions of the presale NFTs to its holders. As a result, the Exiled DeGods NFTs were not tradable.
This made the originally minted presale NFTs not part of the ‘official’ DeGods collection, which rendered these “duplicates” technically worthless. Exiled DeGods are now considered by holders to be 1st Edition Error DeGods NFTs. They can’t be bridged to Ethereum, and are left on the Solana blockchain.
One Exiled DeGods NFT could be burned per day. A random Exiled DeGods would be selected for burning, and the submitter would get 333 $DUST tokens.
In January 2022, DeGods completely removed their Paper Hand Bitch Tax, and introduced the $DUST token to the world. Shortly after the token was created, the team relaunched the DeGods collection with the aforementioned DeadGods upgrade.
What is Dust Labs?
Dust Labs are a technology company located in Santa Monica, California in the USA. In the “about” section of their LinkedIn page, they describe themselves as:
Frank DeGods is a founder, and is currently listed as the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of the company. Kevin Henrikson, who uses the pseudonym Kevin DeGods, is also a Dust Labs founder, and company CEO (Chief Executive Officer).
What is $DUST?
$DUST is the DeGods community token created to develop the ecosystem by driving utility. It’s a token on the Solana blockchain, with a starting supply of zero. DeLabs capped the token supply at 33,300,000. The only way to mint $DUST tokens, is to either stake a DeGods/DeadGods NFT, or as mentioned above, burn an Exiled DeGods NFT.
Staked DeGods/DeadGods NFTs, earn their holder 2.5/7.5 $DUST respectively per day.
The leading utility of the $Dust token is to transform your DeGods into a DeadGods, but holders can also use it to take part in:
- Raffles
- Auctions
- Mint future collections
The DeLabs team also proposed that their DeDAO will actively seek to integrate utility for $DUST into other significant projects in the Solana ecosystem.
In the autumn of 2024 DeGods signalled a radical change to its tokenomics. The project decided to bid farewell to its $DUST token, as well as the associated y00ts collection. Instead they pivoted to a new token called $DEGOD, embracing the emerging ERC-404 meta. This transition marked a significant moment in the evolution of blockchain collectibles.
What is $DEGOD?
Any holders of any asset in the DeGods ecosystem now has the opportunity to either swap or burn their assets for the new $DEGOD token. The exchange for the new token was as-follows for holders of the ecosystems different assets:
- DeGods NFT: holders can swap their NFT for 550,000 $DEGOD
- y00ts NFT: holders can burn their NFT for 120,000 $DEGOD
- $DUST token: holders can burn their token for 36 $DEGOD
As well as increasing the inherent value of the $DEGOD token, the dynamics of the token had the effect of increasing the value of the ecosystem’s NFT holders, by making the NFTs rarer. This actively makes all existing assets in the DeGods ecosystem more valuable, at least in theory. However, linking the price of DeGods NFTs directly to this new token is a significant risk. This is in large part, because of the volatility of the $DEGOD token.
One great quality of the burn/swap mechanic, is that it allowed each DeGods NFT to become a more liquid asset. This is because the NFT could be bought or sold for a set amount of tokens at any time.
It should be noted that every burned y00ts NFT, provided the same amount of $DEGOD tokens as a DeGods/DeadGods NFT. This was completely independent of the y00ts NFT’s rarity.
Part of Frank DeGods’ genius was his ability to look for feedback on his collections, both from fans of the NFTs, and its detractors. He would then implement solutions to those problems. Keeping his ego in check, Frank prioritised producing one of the best NFT collections in the Web3 space, and fostering one of the most die-hard communities in the world.
Frank DeGods has said in an interview that in the beginning the idea was to be a “builder project”. This statement is something that has almost been erased from Web3 history. The first thig that DeLabs launched was its own custom marketplace. Unfortunately, not many people used it, opting to use more established marketplaces like OpenSea, or Magic Eden.
Then DeLabs decided to create a blogging tool for project creators. They created the first blogging tool on the Solana blockchain that allowed you to pay a tip to creators. Once again, unfortunately after the tool was created, interest from the Web3 community was lacklustre. Then in December 2021, DeLabs created a private Reddit style forum called DePalace.
Each development period was about 1 to 2 months, where they would try to improve the ecosystem for holders of their NFTs. DeLabs even attempted hosting community bonding events. One such event was called “DeGods Week”. This was where they offered a variety of bounties, enabling successful participants the ability to win a DeGods NFT.
Around December 2021 when things were capitulating and the DeGods/y00ts community was dying out, DeLabs realised that instead of spending all their time and money trying to build utility, they decided to lean into the intrinsic utility that usually excites fans. Frank DeGods referred to this type of utility as, “the crazy shit”. It was a reference to NFT holders making friends in the community, and seeing people promoting DeGods in innovative ways.
Come the beginning of 2022, DeLabs decided to pivot their NFTs into the intangible parts of their collection’s brand. Namely, the culture and the community.
DeLabs switched up their approach and leaned heavily into this.
The cult like community of any successful brand like Bored Ape Yacht Club and DeGods, is one of the central reasons for the collection’s enduring popularity.
Until the recent creation of the Liquid NFT Marketplace by Nathan Hill late 2024, the intangible attributes, like culture and community, were the most valuable things that an NFT collection had to offer to its holders.
Originally both the DeGods and y00ts NFT collections were created on the Solana blockchain. The fallout from the FTX scandal, and issues with the liquidity on Solana, forced DeLabs to migrate their NFTs to other blockchains. DeGods was bridged onto Ethereum. y00ts was bridged onto the Polygon blockchain. While bridging to another blockchain can be challenging, it should be noted that the bridging of the DeGods and y00ts collections were performed seamlessly.
Reportedly DeLabs received a $3M non-equity grant from the Polygon Foundation. This was to assist them with funding the expansion of their team, as well as facilitating the scaling of an incubator that would create y00tpoins and Depoints. Both of these were tokens that would be earned by NFT holders, who would be encouraged to stake their NFT(s) on their new blockchains.
y00ts initially moved to Polygon. But DeLabs ended up moving the collection once again to the Ethereum blockchain. Because of this, they returned the grant they had received from the Polygon Foundation.
Despite the enormous success of DeGods and y00ts, DeLabs’ NFTs have faced the same problems as other traditional NFT collections.
The creation of the Liquid NFT Marketplace, with Liquid NFTs soon to become the standard, has solved one of the largest obstacles to the long-term success of NFTs.
Namely, outside of their utility or appeal to the community, the lack of any real-world value.
Read my article on the Liquid NFT Marketplace, to discover more about how its creation solved the most enduring, and poignant question in the world of blockchain collectibles to date.
“How do NFTs get real world value?”
Check it out here:
My name is Prometheus Bones, and I’m an ambassador for the Liquid NFT Marketplace.
Any project creators who are interested in launching their collections as a Liquid NFT, please feel free to use my referral code to do so.
It will help me out greatly, and allow me to continue doing the work that I love in the Web3 space.
For my referral use the URL (link) below.
https://liquidnfts.finance/share/0xca6d817199d4bd248a53a24e17731bb8c84dab88
Also, if crypto is your thing, you are more than welcome to follow me on X (Twitter).
I am a Bitcoin Maxi, and I post quite regularly.
Many thanks.
English (US) ·