The y00ts NFT collection coming to Solana is stirring interest across the crypto-verse. The collection of 15,000 NFTs will live on the Solana blockchain and is developed by the same team behind the successful Solana DeGods collection.
The team behind y00ts promises to build a community of 15,000 of the coolest people in Web3 using an innovative scholarship system and transparent mint list. Moreover, the team wants to test drive the idea of a new copyright and ownership system for NFTs they call ?, which is a custom replacement for the commonly seen copyright symbol ?.
The collection hasn’t even launched, but candidates have already filled the waiting list. All successful applicants will receive a notification via an associated Twitter account called the y00tlist. The dedicated Twitter page prides transparency on all successful applicants. The y00ts website is stripped back and simplistic but has some cool features. For example, clicking the y00ts image on the page reveals alternate y00ts logos and characters.
- What are y00ts?
- How much will y00t NFTs cost?
- How do I get DUST?
- How do I get a y00t NFT?
- Copyrights, IP and y00ts
- Projects and workflow for y00ts
- How does ? make creators money?
- What’s the y00ts store?
- Customizing y00ts
- Can I make money if I’m not an artist?
- DeGods NFTs Surging
- y00ts NFTs in summary
What are y00ts?
y00ts is an NFT collection on the Solana blockchain by Dust Labs, also the team behind the DeGods NFT collection. Before the idea for y00ts came around, it was called Duppies. Which they originally planned as an expansion collection to the DeGods ecosystem.
However, In early July 2022, the team announced an expected Duppies mint at the end of July or early August, but after a Twitter hack, the team changed plans, saying, “We tried some shit. We learned some shit. Now we’re trying some new shit.”
The collection of the y00ts NFTs appears to be crafted around a single image of a sheep with various metadata layered on top to give y00ts their characteristics.
How much will y00t NFTs cost?
The number of NFTs in the y00ts collection will be 15,000 NFTs, and to mint a y00ts NFT, users will need the native token of the DeGods ecosystem, DUST. Looking at comments from the founders on Twitter suggests that 375 DUST tokens will be required to mint a y00ts NFT. At writing, 375 DUST costs around $1320, or about 36 SOL.
How to get DUST?
As the native token of the DeGods ecosystem, users can earn DUST by staking DeGods NFTs. However, the token can be purchased on the secondary market if you do not have a DeGods NFT or DUST.
For example, users purchase DUST using Jupiter Aggregator or another decentralized exchange on the Solana blockchain. To purchase DUST on Jupiter, first, connect a Solana wallet and navigate to the Jupiter Aggregator website and input the Dust Protocol contract into the “You receive” section on the swap page:
DUSTawucrTsGU8hcqRdHDCbuYhCPADMLM2VcCb8VnFnQ
After that, choose the amount of DUST you wish to receive, and confirm the swap. To save time, use this link with the correct receive input and swap the token of your choice into DUST.
How do I get a y00t NFT?
To be on the allow list for the upcoming y00ts mint, users must receive a scholarship for the y00tlist. The y00tslist is similar to getting on a presale for a project, except in this process, users must submit an application that will either be approved or denied at the team’s discretion. Those approved for the y00tslist will need 375 DUST to mint their y00ts NFT.
At writing, the list is full and possibly oversubscribed, so at this stage, it’s a case of waiting for the initial mint. After that, you will be able to find y00ts NFTs on Solana’s secondary NFT marketplaces like Magic Eden. The team has set September 2, 2022, as the release date for their y00ts collection.
Copyrights, IP and y00ts
The real juice in the y00ts collection is their approach to the rights and permissions they want to grant holders of NFTs. The current setup for most NFT collections is that holders secure IP rights on just the single NFTs they hold. The alternative is CCO, or creative commons, which realistically means that an NFT holder’s assets are stored in the public domain.
When NFT holders want to build businesses, sub-communities, fan art, and more around their NFT, it usually drives increased interest and, in turn, increases the value of the NFT. However, the current setup doesn’t support the idea of the entire collection benefitting.
The easiest way to think about the system outlined by y00ts is that ? is used as a way of registering a copyright, with an NFT collection being the governing body. Each collection would have its ? registry, where it would be easy to track who’s approved to use the NFT’s IP. This allows projects to endorse and deny usage requests at Web3 speed.
The team behind the project claims y00ts is the testing ground for this new ? system and is also transparent in its whitepaper that ‘this is a rough approximation of how we believe this system can work. Open to criticism and seeing how this plays out.’
Projects and workflow for y00ts
The main points of the project, the process flow, and how the team sees it working are below:
Create the “y00ts st0re” for artists to submit their custom versions of traits.
- Holders can also hire artists to do commissioned work for them.
- Artists will own the IP of their work and collect a % of royalties
- Holders can purchase the community-created traits from the store.
- Artists can also set the traits to be free, if they’d like.
- Holders can only apply one customized trait to their NFTs per month.
- The customized traits can not change the shape/size/name of the trait.
- A t-shirt can’t be changed into a fur coat (also must stay same size)
- Will not change the metadata
- The customized traits can not change the shape/size/name of the trait.
- Community members can create and officially register sub-communities/sub-DAOs
- They can charge SOL for entry
- Collect a % of royalties on all sales for their sub-communities
How does ? make creators money?
With the ? registration, the team at y00ts thinks they can unlock several monetization layers for every stakeholder involved. Independent and 1/1 artists can:
- make individual traits & charge SOL or DUST for them
- create fashion brands within the collection (spanning multiple traits)
- do paid (or free) commission work for holders
- collect money forever via % of royalties
Artists are incentivized to sell their work on the y00ts store because if they get their ? registration, they can collect royalties on their work after the initial sale.
What’s the y00ts store?
The y00ts store will be a marketplace of custom-made y00ts traits where anyone can submit customizations of any of the original y00ts traits for approval.
Approval Criteria:
- must fit the same space as the original trait (can not turn a t-shirt into a fur coat)
- must be identifiable by the original metadata tag (a hat can’t become a crown)
- no hate speech or pornographic imagery
- no direct usage of existing copyrighted IP
- meet a standard of quality to match the collection
Once approved, the individual(s) that submitted will own the ? for the trait(s).
Owning the ? for a trait enables you to:
- set the price of the trait on the y00ts store
- set the supply of the trait available
- sell the entire ? to someone else
- collect 5% of the royalties on every sale of the trait
Nobody else can copy this trait/style/theme/brand. If attempted derivatives try to list on the marketplace – they won’t be approved. Furthermore, the team states that no more user-generated traits will be added to the y00ts store after six months. At this point, creators can separate y00ts into their individual pieces.
You could sell your limited-supply hoodie separately or swap it for another trait.
From this point onwards, all the new traits added to the y00ts store will be via limited supply collaborations with big apparel and lifestyle brands.
Customizing y00ts
To gain customization rights, holders must stake their y00ts for 30 days, then a ? Token is added to the y00t’s metadata.
- There will be a maximum of 6 ?’s any y00t can hold
- Metadata Example: “? Tokens: 1”
Holders can use this ? token to apply a customized ? trait from the y00ts store to their y00t. Notably, the new trait must match the attribute their y00t has on its metadata. For example, swapping a black hoodie for a custom gold one, the metadata remains the same: hoodie.
Once the ? token is used, y00ts holders can always swap any trait back to the original y00t base. But they will have to wait for another 30 days of staking before applying a new customized trait from the y00ts store. Due to the staking requirement, holders must be careful what trait they choose.
Notably, If a holder never uses the ? token, the y00t will simply collect them. As a result, the NFT can potentially sell for a premium with the tokens attached.
Can I make money if I’m not an artist?
Imagine if Eminem and Snoop Dogg were compensated for the value they brought to the entire BAYC collection and their unique traits. These two mega stars holding BAYC gives the collection more lure. However, the two celebs don’t get paid for that marketing assistance. Instead, they are free to use the BAYC they own in their creative works.
The real power of ? is that it can supercharge the creation of smaller clubs within communities. Someone that wants to start a sub-community can use the y00ts store to find an artist and commission a custom set of traits with their logo or emblem and register the club with ?.
Any active community member can start their club based on shared interests, memes, or anything else. The key is that since they own the ? on the entire set of traits, they can monetize this sub-community. They can collect royalties on every y00t that sells with any of their traits. They can also charge an upfront cost of SOL or DUST for the traits.
DeGods NFTs Surging
As mentioned, the collection is developed by the same team behind the Solana NFT collection DeGods. At writing, DeGods is the NFT collection on Solana with the highest floor price of 587 SOL, or around $18,500. The collection has also seen a more than 300% lift in trading volume over the last 30 days.
Some of this lift could be caused by speculation that DeGods NFT holders will be entitled to some freebies or benefits once the y00ts collection launches. The holy grail for DeGods holders would be free y00ts NFTs, of course.
Ten days ago, the floor price of a DeGod was around 280 SOL, or around $9,000, and now, it’s about 585 SOL. Some even sell for closer to 600 SOL, or around $19,600. Effectively the price of a DeGod NFT has doubled while some other NFTs on the market is in freefall.
y00ts, DeGods Twitter accounts suspended
News broke today, August 31st, that the social media platform, Twitter has suspended the official DeGods NFT accounts, along with Y00ts and other team-associated accounts.
The situation is still developing and the team behind DeGods is awaiting a resolution from Twitter support to clear out the matter. Also, the team warned that this could also be an attack and asked the community not to click on any suspicious links.
y00ts NFTs in summary
The y00ts project can potentially put Solana on the map regarding NFTs as it mostly still plays second fiddle to Ethereum-based NFT collections. Moreover, y00ts aims to implement its common-sense version of copyright and ownership for NFTs, which could yield some exciting results as creators and NFT admirers continue to push the boundaries of what the technology can be leveraged for.
Will DappRadar report on y00ts as an NFT collection that turns heads upon launch? It’s hard to say, but the initial noise from the community and creators is intense. After launch, we will monitor the floor price and average sale price to check for movements in the collection.
DappRadar users can now track and analyze NFT collections on Solana and the leading marketplace Magic Eden.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in various cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and RADAR.
