MetaVault #2: High on Your Own Supply
This is MetaVault, a weekly newsletter that tries to make sense of the Pixel Vault universe: PUNKS Comic, MetaHero, United Planets, DAOs within DAOs within DAOs.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Supply
I know sometimes the NFT world feels like just a bunch of animal avatar projects. But in reality, there’s a variety of projects with differing aesthetics, utility, and audiences. You want fine art? SuperRare and Foundation. Generative Art? Art Blocks. Esoteric Community Art Project? LOSTPOETS. Celebrity-driven Collectible? VeeFriends. And yes, animal avatars like BAYC, CyberKongz and Cool Cats.
We’re still early and yet there’s a ton of experimentation in the space. And one area where we’ll start to see more experimentation is supply.
Which brings us to Pixel Vault.
Later today the Planet DAO Token mint and burn for the Moon DAO will end. We’ll have added over 16k+ assets to the Pixel Vault community in the last month (as of this writing @ noon 10/31). All of which will receive a free Jupiter DAO Token. So that’s another 16k+.
I assume within a day or two (maybe tonight?!), more than 40,000 additional Planet DAO Tokens will be given out to the community.
Oh, and small note. All token holders will be given a MintPass #2 which can be redeemed for a MetaHero Sidekick. So that’s another 72k+ assets.
Some in the community express frustration with the high supply. I see Potamus dealing with it on a daily basis in the Discord. I’m hoping to add some context to the supply conversation, how we got here, and what might be next.
BTC & CryptoPunks
When I first got into crypto, one of the primary talking points for Bitcoin was that it’s supply constrained. Only 21 million… EVER. There was going to be a very exclusive club of hodlrs and you need to get in now before the Institutions come.
When I first got into NFTs, one of the primary talking points for CryptoPunks was that they’re supply constrained. Only 10k… EVER. There was going to be a very exclusive club of hodlrs and you need to get in now before the Institutions come.
Hmm.
They even have the same supply lore: Satoshi’s long frozen wallet holds millions of BTC, further reducing the supply. Several wallets without a transaction in years hold hundreds of Punks, further reducing supply.
ETH & AB
Nearly the exact opposite supply story from BTC is ETH. I mean, what’s the total ETH supply now? What’s the final supply? The power of ETH isn’t supply, it’s utility, community.
Art Blocks rides the ETH blockchain and releases world class generative art by both renowned and emerging artists. While individual drops are supply constrained, how many total assets have been minted? 40k+ and counting just on the Curated side. Add another 80k+ with the Playground and Factory projects. They have 10 projects live right now with 7,893 assets available to be minted. Cut forward in five years. What do you think the supply of AB assets will look? Certainly over 1M, right?
DOGE-ification & PfPs
$DOGE has been this bizarre crypto project that just won’t go away. Supply? How about unlimited. Started at 100B coins, supply increases every year. Did that stop the $DOGE train from running wild? Not with Elon’s backing. We all watched his terrible SNL appearance hoping for a $DOGE reference and to see the currency top $1.00.
Now $SHIB is crushing it with a supply of 1 quadrillion. And as much as the community loves to hate on the dog coins, the market is having fun with them (and making bags of money). Meme coins are here to stay — even with their endless supplies.
And that’s the crossover between cryptocurrency and our beloved JPEGs. While the supply of individual PfP projects is typically 10k, just yesterday over 40 new projects were dropped (s/o to Mulligan’s AlphaDrop). The projects might be discrete, but the supply feels unlimited.
NBA TopShots
Ok, one more example: TopShots — the means by which many of us got into NFTs. It’s early January and I’m hearing more and more about this site where you can buy digital basketball cards. I’m a kid of the 90’s. Loved my football and basketball cards. Jordan. Barkley. Jason Kidd. Barry Sanders. Bo Jackson. So, I started looking into this new cross-section between crypto and collectibles…
TopShots has five different tiers:
Common: 10,000+ Edition Size
Fandom: Dynamic Edition Size
Rare: 100+ Edition Size
Legendary: 25+ Edition Size
Ultimate: 1 - 3 Edition Size
This nasty LeBron dunk is a Legendary with only 25 editions. Average sale price is about ~7 ETH. But there are hundreds (thousands?) of Legendary TopShot moments. And the number will continue to rise. The collectible market is inflationary. Overall supply will only go up.
What’s This Got To Do With The Planets?
It’s 2025. There are millions of players playing on Mercury, Venus, and Earth. Pluto is a drunken, bacchanalian waste land inhabited only by the Plutonians. Throughout the universe there’s a mix of MetaHero Cores, Generatives, Sidekicks, Vermicious Knids, Whangdoodles, Hornswogglers, and Snozzwangers.
If game development goes as hoped, the Sidekicks (limited to around a 50k supply in the end after leveling up) will be rare. You were able to get two for .5 ETH in 2021 — and participation / returns in the UPDAO and staking and … who knows what’s coming next!
It’s hard to remember because everything is moving so fast, but we’re early. Zeneca just tweeted something that felt just right about where we are in the NFT evolution:
Success for an intellectual property company like PV isn’t “less is more.” Building various product lines (PUNKS Comic, MetaHero Universe, Origin Stories, etc…) with differing moods and themes that align to the PV vision — that’s the goal. At least that’s what I get from GFunk’s statements in the last couple of months.
Weekly Alpha
Binance Deposit Whitelist. PUNKS Comic was added to the Deposit Whitelist on Binance, giving PV assets access to one of the largest exchanges in the world to buy and sell crypto and NFTs. It’s early days for NFTs on Binance, but building out a cross-chain marketplace that will make it very easy for a crypto trader to hit a button and buy a PV asset with their ETH stored on Binance is huge.
Deeper ChainLink VRF Usage. Good FutureProof article on what Chainlink VRF means for the PV giveaways.
Hyy.pe Guarded Launch and Win for MetaHero! The unique thing about PfPs is they quickly become our identities. We have no idea what Beanie looks like, but he is his avatar to us. Hyype is a platform to build lore around your avatar. They launched a competition to determine which PfP collection would get access to the full site first. We won! Here’s a Medium write-up on our win.
Bright Moments Giveaway. The Bright Moments Gallery in NYC gave away two of their mintpasses to PVFD. We held a vote and… Congrats to Potamus and Richard [MetaHero No. 5] on their Bright Moments wins! Historic first vote by the Founder’s DAO.
Upcoming Roadmap
Planet DAO Token Sale. Active! Ends today at 11:59 EST.
Burn for Moon DAO Token. Active! Ends today at 11:59 EST.
MetaHero Identity Snapshot & Free Planet DAO Token + MintPass 2 Claim. First week of November.
Planet DAO Giveaways to Holders of Pixel Vault NFTs. First week of November.
Planet DAO Token Snapshot for Free MintPass #2. First half of November.
MetaHero Core Giveaway. First half of November.
PUNKS Comic #1 Physical. First half of November.
Staking: PUNKS Comic #1 and MetaHero Identities. First half of November.
MintPass #2 Claim. First half of November.
PUNKS Comic #2. End of November.
Merchandise Tie-in with PUNKS Comic #2. End of November.
MH Sidekick minting via MintPass #2. Q1 2022.
By the Numbers
PV Unique Holders: 9,297
PV Core Sets: 1,619
PUNKS Comic #1: 3,374
MP#1: 3,931
MH Cores Remaining in Giveaways: 110
United Planet Sets (All 9 planets + Moon): 73
MetaHero Highlight
There’s something about pfp avatars that feels like a Vermeer-era portrait sitting. Amazing that Odious and Chris Wahl built into the algorithm this wild variation. Along those lines, I present, in classical form, The Nudes.
Beanie of the Week (BOTW)
Beans had an epic week — impossible to choose just one. Both are historical tweets, but for different reasons.
Some Disclaimers: None of this is financial advice. DYOR. And yes, I’m obviously a PV collector and long-term hodlr. Not a whale by any measure (maybe a squid?), but want to be transparent on what I’m hodling:
Punks Comic #1: 1 (Token ID 3954)
PV Founders DAO: 1 (Token ID 4521)
Mint Pass #1: 1
MetaHero Generative: 1 (Token ID 644)
Planet DAO Tokens: Earth 1, Mars 1, Jupiter 1, Saturn 1, Uranus 1, Neptune 3