GM

There are three things you need in this life:

1. coffee

2. NFTs

3. shelter (and/or family)

Don't overcomplicate it.

In today’s edition:

• It doesn't get weirder than this

• The Mint and Watch Lists

• Four new drops

Links for the Mint/Watch list drops are HERE.

Did you know?

We have a premium pass that gives you access to a directory of every drop we cover, complete with detailed information on how to get on every whitelist (including those underrated ones that aren’t already full).

And for those curatooors out there, you can get free NFTs just by finding drops that end up on the Mint or Watch list.

Lastly, hang with me and the MoS team in a private discord with weekly voice chats. The vibes are great.

Would you like to be featured in Mint or Skip like the above ☝️ ?

It doesn’t get weirder than this

This is the second edition in a new series we started a few weeks back, which I’m now calling the Magic Loot Bus.

What’s the Magic Loot Bus?

You know when you visit a city – let’s say Rome – and they take you to all those tourist attractions, like the Colosseum or the Pantheon, and you take your photos and eat your gelato and buy your little hats for the family back home?

Yeah, this is the opposite of that. It’s more like being taken into random alleyways exploring pop-up goth raves, quantum graffiti exhibits, and something called Gepetto’s House of Absinthe.

In this case, we’ll be hitting NFT side-quests that are flying under the radar, including:

• weird mints

• fun mini-games

• onchain spectacles

• fascinating new products, etc.

These might be forgotten overnight, or they might be the start of a new meta.

Either way, you’re early – hand in your ticket and let’s get started.

DEADWEIGHT by Shahruz 

This one comes first because the grand finale is in roughly 1 hr (you see there are benefits to opening Mint or Skip as soon as it hits your inbox).

Deadweight by Shahruz is a fully onchain game on the zora network with the following rules:

1. Mint an NFT and get randomly assigned to the LEFT or RIGHT side

2. You can shift to either side at any time for 0.0005 ETH (about $1)

3. Every day the heavier side will be eliminated from the event at 10 AM PST

4. 100% of mint and weight-shifting fees go to the prize pool

5. All surviving players after 7 days split the prize pool

Tune in today to witness the final winners splitting the 0.54 ETH grand prize.

OBAA by Miles Peyton 

Tired of buying static monkey JPEGs?

How about living onchain water Amoebas? That do something for you?

OBAA is a new project from artist Miles Peyton described as “a series of 512 mortal NFTs”. These are shape-shifting 3D WebGL water beings that move, divide and replicate in real time.

They’re called mortal NFTs because they actually die – each OBAA has a lifespan that ranges from months to years. They’re also synced to real-world time zones and react to changes dynamically over time.

For those that want to go deeper, there’s a whole bunch of lore behind what an OBAA actually is supposed to be.

For everyone else cautiously considering adopting their own water being, the mint is TODAY (August 1) at a price of 0.035 for whitelist, and 0.04 for the public sale.

Rolls by Dave Krugman

Grab a camera that can only take 10 frames per roll of film.

Then auction off each unshot frame as NFTs ahead of time.

Finally, go out to actually take those 10 photographs before delivering each to its assigned NFT.

This is the latest mechanic that popular artist Dave Krugman is introducing with Rolls, and it adds a new twist that we could start seeing pop up more often.

By purchasing one of these placeholder NFTs, you’re expressing faith in the artist’s ability to actually deliver, and there’s also some speculative fun given the camera is essentially “minting” in real-time, without any do-overs, similar to generative art collections.

This one is minting on August 3rd.

HEAT 

Recently neighbors passing by La Maison du Cicero have witnessed me carrying wood boards, paint and other construction materials up and down my front entrance.

The explanation is quite simple and normal: I’m building a 360-degree motion capture dance studio…for myself.

This came after seeing HEAT announce yesterday that they have officially entered Beta.

You see, HEAT is a platform and marketplace where motion artists can upload emotes (think Fortnite dances) that other creators can then purchase for their projects, online games or virtual worlds.

In other words, once my studio is up and running I’ll be able to capture all my notorious pop-and-lock routines and sell them as NFTs to digital realms like Otherside (maybe), or even to other NFT holders who want to animate their BAYC or Azuki in a virtual setting of their choosing.

I recommend checking out their intro video to see how it works (and also to see Reggie Watts flail around in a motion capture suit).

Just another cool example of all the different kinds of product lines that we’ll see onchain in the coming years.

NOTE: These drops are lightly curated. Our only requirement is that they have recognizable founders. As usual, DYOR. To learn more go here.

Linea Series: 2 by Stuart Batchelor

Stuart Batchelor, a UK-based generative artist with a body of work spanning over a year (mostly on fxhash), will be continuing his Linea collection with a 10-piece drop this Thursday on Verse.

Inspired by hand drawing techniques, Linea explores the use of lines in art and features colorful brushstrokes arranged in abstract compositions on white canvases.

Interestingly, it has an indefinite supply and completion timeline, with the artist releasing small series over the months/years.

We still lack pricing details, but we expect it to be a bit pricier than the first series, which sold out on the day of release at $65 and (albeit infrequently) proceeded to trade for more than 10x that on secondary.

Strange Skies at Alba.art

Alba.art is an open art platform for on-chain generative art, which launched last June from a group of artists and engineers with a track record in the space.

With a couple of group shows already under their belt, they’ve recently announced their next one: Strange Skies.

This one features landscapes from six generative artists you might already know about if you’ve delved into tezos art. Check out some of the sneak peeks, you might find them appealing.

Soundscape Avatars

SAN, a music project founded in 2022 by experienced web3 participants (ex-0N1 Force and Defi Kingdoms), heads into Phase 2, soon launching a PFP collection called Soundscape Avatars.

Notably, it features a tradeable traits system on Polygon (although the avatar token itself is on mainnet ETH) and designs from lead artist cromagnus (you might know him from 0N1 FORCE and 10KTF).

Holders of the project’s genesis collection (a free mint at the time) can receive a free mint for these via a burning mechanism which yields a mint pass.

Oh, and did I mention that this mint pass also yields the project’s proprietary headphones and that there’s an ongoing SBT mint that ends in two days? There’s simply too much to cover here, so if you’re interested, I’d suggest checking out this series of threads by one of SAN’s team members.

Fold by Rudxane

Netherlands-based creator Rudxane, one of the first artists on fxhash and a favorite of some generative art collectors, recently announced Fold, a 400-supply collection releasing with renowned art-focused DAO Grailers.

Inspirations for the work include urban architecture, optical art and geological folds (hence the name), which all come together to create colorful lines that morph into jagged textures.

While many art platforms reward the earliest minters of a collection with things like signed prints, Grailers has opted for perhaps a more interesting approach. The first 10 pieces of the project are hand-selected by specific communities, implying a premium for curators’ choices (a growing trend I recently covered).

The Mint List

1. Taproot Wizards. OG Bitcoin meme inscribed as ordinals

2. 10KTF PFP. Drop from a team that includes Yuga and Beeple

3. Project Animus. RTFKT's biggest launch since Clone-X

4. Shadow Hats. Ordinals drop from the creators of Forgotten Runes

5. Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT

6. Genesis SFT Pass. Digital anime collectibles from a notable team

7. LUCI: Chapter 5. Follow-up from artist with esteemed collector base

8. Quasi Dragons. Innovative drop from an Art Blocks veteran

9. Studies in Color…. Art drop from a pioneer and museum exhibitor

10. Memeland [TBC]. High-value treasure MVPs minting on BTC