BitDaemons — Post-Launch Update & the Future of the Project
Hi Everyone — LuckyLuciano here, cheers for clicking! It’s been a couple months since I released our first Medium article introducing the BitDaemons project (though it’s felt like about a year) — it’s about time I wrote a follow-up! We have interesting updates to share with you all on our plans for the future of the project, both immediate & long-term, and exactly how BitDaemon holders will benefit!
BitDaemons Launch
BitDaemons began minting at 9pm UTC on 21st December 2021, total supply 1576, priced at 40 $FTM at bitdaemons.space. At the time of writing (8th Jan 2022), 265 BitDaemons have been minted, and are held by 99 unique Fantom addresses. While this is considerably less than our total supply, we’ve had some amazing feedback from Fantom community members who have minted and are genuinely humbled that anyone at all is interested in our odd little pixel creations! In addition, this doesn’t mean it’s game over for the project! We hinted at a lot of future plans leading up to launch, and still fully intend to see them through (More on this later in the article).
Our immediate priority (considering the slow mint) is safeguarding those who’ve supported us through minted, and securing the future of the BitDaemons project. We considered a few options (price reductions/airdrops to existing holders etc.) but the most popular option amongst the team (and amongst the community judging by the quick & dirty poll we ran in our Discord) is to announce a closing of the mint, no matter what.
The BitDaemon portal network is under attack!
The BitDaemon Science Directorate (BDSD) research team stationed on our deep-space observatory have reported troubling news: an unknown force has launched an assault on the BitDaemon portal network! We don’t have the capacity to interfere, & current rates of decay indicate that the bridge link won’t last long…
So what does this mean? On Sunday 16th January at 9pm UTC, the BitDaemon minter will be deactivated, rarity stats recalculated to reflect the final population and both the contract and metadata locked — forever.
While a bit dramatic, we personally love this approach! Our little creatures are about to become a whole lot rarer. If you’re one of the lucky few who’ve minted a handmade Precursor? Congrats! 76 were made for the full collection, but they currently number just 7. This approach also makes sense considering our future plans, while an airdrop/price reduction would definitely have driven more mints, we’re promising a lot for OG holders and as a result still believe that 40 $FTM is a fair price. it’s also much less of a headache for me to be airdropping free NFTs and treasury profits to ~100 holders rather than ~1000!
“What’s this Lucky? Free NFTs? Treasury profits?!”
Oh my bad, lemme explain:
BitDaemon holders make up the DaemonDAO
Aside from being a gnarly PFP, your BitDaemon is your ticket into the DaemonDAO. The idea to form an NFT DAO is by no means novel, but we’ve got plenty of ideas to make it fun, engaging & rewarding.
The DaemonDAO guides the future of the project (& reaps the rewards)
As you may have noticed, we take our lore seriously over here at BitDaemon HQ — the arrival of the BitDaemon population, the formation of the BitDaemon Science Directorate (BDSD), the interruption of the Mass-Transit Event (MTE); everything lore-wise we’ve dropped in promo or on the minting site has been by design. We’ve mapped out a wild branching story arc for the project, with each chapter culminating in a new NFT collection that will either be free to DAO members, or bring benefits to them in more sophisticated ways. The DAO will choose which research proposals the BDSD will pursue, in turn advancing the story and deciding what the creative team should focus on next. Of course, all decisions, while framed with lore, will be accompanied by concepts of what the actual collection will entail, realistic timeframes on delivery, upsides, downsides & challenges as we see them, & so on.
We’re also planning interactive live events that accompany big cornerstones in the project story — say we decide to design a probe to explore the Daemon homeworld, wouldn’t you wanna be there for the launch? What happens if there’s a hardware malfunction? I hope we didn’t skimp on the repair drones during the design phase…
Rescue the Daemons that were trapped when the portal network collapsed? Investigate faint signatures of transit events elsewhere in Sol? Design a probe to explore the Daemon homeworld? Investigate the mysterious force that attacked the BitDaemons in-transit? The choice is ours.
The DaemonDAO will have a treasury
Now we’re talking ey. While the story stuff is fun, we couldn’t let the opportunity pass to create some tangible value to being a BitDaemon holder! While final decisions will of course be up to the DaemonDAO, I’m going to fire off some ideas for seeding & growing the treasury, and potential uses for the funds (note that some of these are only achievable if enough of the community has an appetite for it):
- Proceeds from future NFT collections — this encompasses the main collection NFT mints (sales & royalties), auction sales, and smaller-scale side collections (think DaemonDAO-produced 1–5 $FTM mints in the style of Santas Slaves, Degenerabbits etc.).
- Art competitions — say for example we run a BitDaemon-themed art comp with $FTM/NFT prizes to the top 5 or so (as decided by vote). We mint all entries onto a contract, live auction some, list others on marketplaces and split proceeds between the DAO treasury and the artist. Fun fact: The StrangeBrew logo competition was actually how I first started out making pixel art NFTs! I’d love to give someone their first auction experience in the same way
- Crypto plays— once we have some $FTM accrued in the treasury, do we sit on it? Or do we implement it in low-risk farming strats ($FTM-stable LP, for example), degen plays ($TOMB-fork shares anyone?) or promising Fantom projects for the long-hold?
- NFT plays — we could also choose to invest in promising new NFT projects, or even, once the treasury is sufficiently large, big blue-chip bastards like metaverse lands, Umans etc. Either to hold long-term, or to seek to make short-term profit.
- Profits distributed to holders — This one may take a while (we can’t promise to match Stonk Society on the pace!) but once the treasury is sufficiently self-sustaining (either through farming, gains, NFT sales or a combination), we can propose to distribute profits amongst holders proportionally! This would be a fantastic way to reward holders and make the BitDaemon collection a serious commodity.
- The galaxy play — imagine the treasury grows to a point where we could run a validator node, secure the Fantom network & reap the rewards as a collective for life? Not saying it will of course, nor that 15% APY is particularly appealing to most degens, but who knows!
- All of the above, but cross-chain — while Fantom Opera will always be our home due to the fantastic community here, who’s to say we shouldn’t expand our reach cross-chain if a good opportunity comes? As a collective, we’d be well-equipped to do so.
The DaemonDAO looks after its own (& others who need it)
Aside from NFT collections, treasury growth and all of those things, it’s important to think about the people who we share our space with, both the blockchain space and the world outside it. If these plans play out and we do end up accruing power as a collective, we can leverage that to help where we can. Supporting upcoming artists & project creators, donating to charities & raising awareness for good causes.
We can also use our social space to look out for each other — in a world where your portfolio can halve overnight and hackers & scammers are desperately trying to part you with your wallet keys, this is an absolute necessity, regardless of whether you’re in our little club or not.
Other stuff (Collabs etc.)
Almost forgot to mention, alongside all of this Daemon research we’re getting involved with the community, partaking in new NFT drops, attending auctions, chasing up exciting collab opportunities and generally doing our best to be as difficult to ignore as possible! We’re very excited to announce what’s in the works collab-wise, but that’ll have to wait for another day. And if you’re reading this as someone who is thinking we could collaborate in some way, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Summary
Fuuuuck me that’s a lot of reading, sincerely well done for making it this far! In summary, thanks so much to those who’ve supported us (either through minting or otherwise) and if you like the sound of the above and wanna get involved, head to our website to mint before Sunday 16th January, 9pm UTC, jump in our Discord, follow us on Twitter and come join the DaemonDAO.
LuckyLuciano & ArcAyn
