GM

Sometimes we mint.

Sometimes we skip.

Sometimes we wish we minted.

Sometimes we wish we skipped.

(a poem about the human condition)

In today’s edition:

• Jack Butcher's next drop could be big

• New additions to the Mint and Watch Lists

• Four fresh drops

More info on Mint/Watch lists 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.

Jack Butcher's next drop could be big

There are two moments that come to mind when I think of creatures gathering in a state of euphoric one-ness.

The first: when all the citizens of Who-ville, in an eggnog driven frenzy, linked hands around a Christmas tree and started singing Fah Who Doraze, Dah Who Doraze while The Grinch looked down from his mountain and coped.

The second: when all of NFT Twitter came together on July 17th to dance and celebrate the existence of the meme known as Opepen.

It was quite a sight to behold. And more evidence that Jack Butcher, the artist behind Opepen, has become one of the main characters in the space.

Just think – between Checks and Opepen, his collections have received nearly $300 million in volume in the last seven months. I had to double check my math because that’s actually insane.

And today, O Dearly Beloved, we are gathered to talk about his next project, which might drop any day now:

Infinity Checks

So one thing that has tied all of Jack’s projects together until now has been the active role that collectors play.

This is true in Checks, where people can merge different pieces of art together and make a new NFT.

And it’s true in Opepen, where holders get to vote and essentially curate each individual drop.

They value this a lot, as can be seen in this tweet earlier today from Jack’s partner:

But there’s a problem

These collections are scarce, which often brings speculation and weird financial incentives that muddy the waters.

Are people buying for the art, or for the gains? It’s tough to know, and this brings its critics.

Infinity Checks is an experiment that tries to solve this. It’s an expansion of the Checks ecosystem that comes without dilution and without speculation.

Here’s how it works (based on what we know):

1. Infinity Checks (IC) is an open edition with unlimited supply.

2. You mint an IC by “depositing” 0.008 ETH into a smart contract.

3. You can then generate a randomized piece of IC art.

4. Alternatively, you can copy the art of an existing IC.

5. At any point, you’re free to de-generate the NFT and receive a full refund of your deposit.

One of the keys here is that the price of every IC is fixed. It’s not tradeable on secondary markets, and therefore can never be worth more or less than the deposited 0.008 ETH.

Think of it almost like a decentralized piggy bank with an onchain art wrapper.

But there’s a social element too

IC will be made up of sub-collections based on how many people “copy” the tokens that already exist. The supply of these sub-collections will rise and fall as outputs change (and maybe other social drivers not yet revealed).

They plan to emphasize this with provenance that shows how each token “evolves” over time with re-rolls, as well as leaderboards that show top collections/collectors.

The point is: anyone who participates is doing so solely because of the experience, aka they’re “in it for the art”.

Bottom line

I think this can grow surprisingly fast if Jack can make an experience that’s more fun than simply keeping ETH in your wallet – which is not that high of a bar.

If he does (and I expect more will be revealed), and people really do start converting their net worth into IC art, then this could become one of the largest onchain “art games” ever made.

And IMO, that would be the most gangster way of expanding a brand without dilution that I’ve seen thus far.

Chefs Kiss if he pulls it off.

✨ Added to Watch List ✨

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

Lope by Jenni Pasanen & Speciesism by Obvious Group

The renowned Kate Vass Gallery continues its AI art show "Do Androids Dream About Electric Sheep?” with two different collections dropping today at 1 PM ET: Lope and Speciesism.

Lope includes 101 ethereal compositions by Finnish artist Jenni Pasanen, depicting the lack of boundaries in human imagination.

In contrast, French collective Obvious uses a more classic art style to reflect on the troublesome relationship between man and machine in Speciesism’s 69 pieces.

One for believers in the combination of AI art and onchain tech.

metablocks by Billyrestey

Abstract artist Billy Restey, active in web3 since early 2021, presents a great example of Recursion on Bitcoin with metablocks, a 256 megapixel artwork that references 400 other inscriptions to generate the full art piece.

Don’t know what Recursion is? Then check out this Mint or Skip edition from June where I explained it in the context of the OCM Dimensions drop.

The mint for these 400 inscriptions takes place this Thursday, with holders of Billy’s previous BTC releases (Ordinal Shards & Cypherglyphs) receiving allowlist allocation.

✨ Added to Watch List ✨

Fingerprints NFT Membership

Another one for the high rollers in the chat.

Fingerprints, a respected art collector DAO and drop studio, just announced a transition to an NFT-membership format, with the coming token’s artwork done by none other than Larva Labs, the creators of CryptoPunks.

While it’s still unclear whether there’ll be room for the general public to get in on this drop, I assume that it’ll be available for the DAO’s members. Joining would require you to buy 5,000 $PRINTS (~$9,000 at current prices).

This is either under, over or adequately priced (NFA).

Possibility Spaces by Look Highward

Pindar Van Arman’s sovrn.art, an indie drop studio, has announced its upcoming Curated release Possibility Spaces by emerging artist Look Highward.

The collection consists of 555 tremendously intricate pieces that often exceed 250 million pixels each, which explore twenty-seven realms, each realm with its own distinct narrative and raison d'être, all coated in the artist’s surrealist style.

One for the detail-oriented collectooor.

The Mint List

1. Taproot Wizards. OG Bitcoin meme inscribed as ordinals

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

3. Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT

4. Themes and Variations. Sotheby’s showcases pioneer gen artist

5. 10KTF PFP. Drop from a team that includes Yuga and Beeple

6. Dimensionals - EVE. Free gaming PFP from doxxed studio

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

8. Tony Babel x Typical Friends. Limited edition from the popular artist

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

10. LUCI: Chapter 5. NFT art series with an esteemed following