GM

Welcome to the 14 people who joined yesterday.

In an alternate universe, you actually chose not to subscribe. I’m glad we got the cooler, wiser, better-looking version of you.

In today’s edition:

• Two huge NFT upgrades

• My updated rankings

• Freshly found drops

More info on Mint/Watch lists HERE.

Two huge NFT upgrades

I’m disappointed in myself. I’ve been sitting here, at the local favorite Boulangerie des Etoiles, trying to come up with a clever analogy for what I believe to be one of the most significant trends happening in NFTs.

And despite all my efforts, I’m going to end up leaning on one of the most boomer memes ever invented. Truly a shoo-in for the mount rushmore of corporate, go-get-em-tiger, brain worms.

So here we go, this is the NFT space right now:

Your old boss might’ve used The Iceberg in the past to illustrate how “people see the success, but they don’t see all the hard work”.

But in this case, it’s more like:

What people see = the ebbs and flows of current projects

What they don’t see = the constant upgrades to NFT technology

Buidlers have been buidling, as they say, and over the last few months we’ve seen a bunch of variations to the trad NFT format that could completely change the game.

A couple weeks ago we spoke about Limit Break’s ERC 721-C standard, which allows for royalty enforcement as well as royalty sharing with collectors themselves.

Today I’m sharing two more.

As you read these, remember that they’re open-source developments, meaning they are instantly available to all developers the moment they’re released. It’s a superpower that’s often underappreciated and can lead to things getting very weird, very fast.

Upgrade #1: Doppelgänger

Popular crypto artist Patrick Amadon announced an open edition mint yesterday called Doppelgänger, which is still running here.

The mint doubles as a proof-of-concept for the brand-new Doppelgänger contract from Transient Labs, which could change the way artists sell collections.

How it works

1. An artist can add more than one image to an NFT.

2. The holder can choose which image they want their NFT to point to.

3. There are no limits to how many switches you can do.

4. Images can be added, never subtracted.

What it could lead to

The most obvious use case is subscription NFTs. Think about something like a Fortnite Battle Pass – you pay upfront for a “season” of content that will be delivered over time.

Now artists can do the same thing. Instead of having multiple minting contracts for individual pieces, which is cumbersome and fragments the market and attention for each NFT, they can now “bundle” all that content with a single token.

Doppelgänger can also be used for storytelling. Jack Butcher famously used Checks as a canvas for daily metadata changes, but every new design was forced to replace the prior one.

With a Doppelgänger contract, the holder can access every single variation whenever they want, allowing for much greater expression.

This is just day one. They’re running a contest to see who can come up with innovative new use cases, so expect a lot more to come.

Upgrade #2: ERC-6551

Yo dawg, I heard you like NFTs, so we built an NFT that can hold your NFTs which can also then hold more NFTs.

That’s the idea behind ERC-6551, which turns NFTs into smart wallets that can own other NFTs and ERC-20 tokens.

This can be used for any existing ERC-721 NFT – so yes, even your ruggy 2021 fiverr jpegs just got upgraded.

The contract was launched last month by Benny Giang, who previously worked on Cryptokitties back in 2017, and we finally got to see it in action with the recent Sapienz mint.

How it works

Every NFT is connected to a Token Bound Account, a smart wallet that is controlled by that NFT.

This wallet can take full actions on-chain, including logging into web3 apps, setting an ENS name, buying other NFTs, etc.

It can also start building its own on-chain identity, which turns NFTs almost into living characters with its own history of transactions and collection of assets.

What this leads to

Here are some new fancy things you can do with an NFT using 6551. This comes from a medium post written by the 6551 creator, which I recommend reading in full:

• Equipping digital outfits and items

• ERC 20 token earning/airdrop models

• POAPS or badges earned by participation

• Trading entire collections as a single unit

• NFTs as on-chain identities with the ability to layer on social network models

Check out the latest Sapienz collection to see what these wallets actually look like.

So i’ll say it once more, and then never again for as long as I live:

The NFT space is like an iceberg.

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

Gather Here & Community by hafftka

Renowned artist Michael Hafftka has announced an exclusive art drop for his Bull Token collectors.

The Sunday mint will feature two editions: Gather Here and Community, each with 12 pieces.

Gather Here is priced at 0.15 ETH, whereas Community requires the burning of another hafftka edition.

Reddit Collectible Avatars x Raving Rabbids

Reddit mod @JackDaniel8008 dropped some leaks yesterday suggesting a future Ubisoft x Reddit collab.

I’ve chosen to include them here since these seem legitimate enough for now, but do keep in mind that nothing official has been announced yet.

If real, then the drop would be another step in Reddit’s development of their collectible avatar program. Fingers crossed for a smoother release this time around🤞.

THE MINT LIST

1. Nike Our Force 1. Digital shoe drop from the global consumer brand.

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

3. Symbiogenesis. Square Enix's upcoming gaming NFT.

4. FewoWorld. New PFP by Fewocious, a rising star in the art world.

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

6. Ether. Anime PFP collection by viii, an artist with a cult following.

7. BIG INC. New free mint from the goblintown team.

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

9. Garbage Friends. New PFP from the creator of Invisible Friends.

10. Human Unreadable. AB curated from award-winning artists.