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The past two months I have been knee deep in NFTs. It is quite amazing how quickly innovation occurs within the space. At the moment the current top trends are:
- access key
- scavenger hunt
- Immutable X- gasless layer 2 NFT solution
Discord groups and Twitter accounts are being stealth created with unique entry mechanisms in order to gain access or engage a community. The most notable NFT project to launch in this manner is Neo Tokyo Identities, which saw a first day secondary floor price of 10 ETH. This project is mysterious in nature and led to a rush of creativity throughout the NFT space to come up with innovative gamification to capture the attention of potential community members.
The Access Key
This isn't necessarily a new concept and has been ongoing for most of 2021. That stated, the access key is generally an initial NFT mint that gives you access to the project's ecosystem. You are able to mint further NFTs within the project as long as you hold the initial NFT. Notable blue chip NFTs that have used this method:
- CyberKongz
- The Doge Pound
These blue chips also have Alpha groups and have created launchpads that have expanded their brands. Owning an original or generational NFT gives you certain privileges/access within their ecosystems and launchpad mints.
You don't have to spend multiple ETH to get on good projects that are using the Access Key method though. For instance, if you were to mint one of Genetic Chain's Spiral Frequency which was a gas-only mint you now have access to all of their future projects. You can still pick up a Spiral fairly inexpensively on the secondary.
Another inexpensive Access Key projects to look at is Entities Multipass- this one popped within the last twenty-four hours to ~ .23 ETH but I still suggest you look into the project, roadmap, and team.
Before you degen ape into either of these projects go to their Twitters, check out their websites, and join their discords to perform your due diligence on the projects.
The Mystery
The past two weeks I have joined multiple discords/communites that have created unique gamified entry points. I can't give you information about these as it will ruin the game, but I will give you a list if you want to DYOR, find them, and play the game. I will give you a hint: have patience and interact.
- Stringify(door)
- Immutable Apes (X) (full disclosure- I chose not to participate in this one)
- Neo Tokyo
Scavenger Hunt
Digital scavenger hunts are both fun and rewarding. The Doge Pound, BAYC, 0xVampire, Neo Tokyo and multiple others have provided scavenger hunts for access and/or to reward NFTs as prizes. This is a great engagement and marketing technique for a community to work together, bond, and communicate.
IMX is the Future of NFTs
Immutable X is a gasless layer 2 NFT solution for Ethereum that uses zk rollups. If you have not used the platform yet go check it out now. The UI features still lack in development and moving ETH off the platform is time intensive- it took me about 14 hours to transfer back to ETH network. But you will literally save tons of ETH because there are no gas fees. There is a very small transaction fee, but this is what it cost me:
I minted 5 Moody Krows and paid the equivalent of $13 USD in transaction fees (in addition to mint price). I also sped up the transaction. This was a very fast mint as well, because the Moody Krows sold out in less than one minute.
Immutable X is gaining a ton of traction right now because NFT creators that truly care about their communities are seeing the benefit of immediately saving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ETH for their patrons.
Additionally, they procured a partnership with Tic Tok for creators to publish on the platform. This is going to be huge for mass adoption.
The largest trend out of these four going forward is the push to Immutable X. People are tired of paying more in ETH for gas fees than they pay for their jpeg. I know I am and that's why I have jumped on the bandwagon. Their UI will improve with time and so will their transaction times for bridging back to the Ethereum network. In the meantime pretty much everything launching on IMX is seeing a quick 3-4X mint price, so go grab some gains and/or quick flips without killing your ETH bag.
As always, thank you for reading and following. Citizen #149 out.
Authors Note: I own the following positions/NFTs mentioned in this article: Ethereum, Neo Tokyo Identities, Spiral Frequencies, Moody Krows, Entities Multipass, 0xVampire.
