NEW PROJECT + CONCEPT: Dogs Unchained and Combining NFTs
Mr. Fox breaks down the latest project on his radar, Dogs Unchained, and what they're doing to change the NFT game.
Hello all and welcome back to another email. I hope you’re enjoying the increased frequency, I will try and write an email per day, content willing.
Today I have a new project I’ve got my eye on. The last three projects shouted out on the newsletter have all done quite well - The Vogu and PUNKS Comic are both up and The Meta Key has maintained its levels. I hope you have slowly begun building your NFT collection. Feel free to reach out anytime for advice or help.
The project I want to introduce to you today is one I’ve been excited about for a long time - Dogs Unchained.
Dogs Unchained is a generative (see the Art Blocks email here, if you don’t know what that means) dog avatar project.
Let me walk you through what draws me to the project and how it differentiates itself from the rest.
Vibe
I am simply really drawn to the project. When I look through the Discord server, Twitter account, and most of all the website, I get so excited. I really do feel like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to Dogs Unchained. As intangible as ‘vibes’ are, they are so important, especially in NFTs. In an ecosystem where many are trying to make a quick buck, if you build a community that genuinely wants to collect your pieces with monetary prospects aside, you build something long-lasting (and long-lasting is lucrative). I love the vibe, and it’s is built by the following things:
The Art
The Dogs Unchained team have taken their art very seriously. They truly want to position this project to succeed for years to come. The art you see above is actually an entirely different style to what was initially in the plans. The team behind Dogs had conversations with many members of the community who voiced their opinions on the art and made a decision to bring in a new lead artist (@iggynore) and revamp the art completely. Iggy has previously done work for DC Comics and Image Comics. Further, they changed from the original one dog breed (Bulldog) to include five different ones. The other four breeds are Husky, Labrador, Corgi, and Pitbull. Through what they have shown through their art process, it is clear that the Dogs Unchained team cares about their project deeply and listens to their community.
The NFT Innovation
Now up to now you may be wondering what really is different about the project. Sure dogs are cute and the art is neat and the team is dedicated, but that’s not a very strong investment thesis. The part about Dogs Unchained that I think will attract capital to the project is their idea known as The Boom Boom Room. If you own two or more Dogs, you can take them to The Boom Boom Room and combine them to create a Superdog! You will have the option to choose which traits from each you would like to have in your Superdog. Once created, your two original dogs are what we call in the NFT world “burned” which means the non-fungible token that represents each original dog is destroyed (or sent to an inactive wallet) and those dogs no longer exist. It’s like making a chocolate milkshake - you start off with milk and chocolate, combine them, they become one, and then you can never separate them and put them back into their original form again. This is the power of NFTs and blockchain technology.
I must be entirely honest and tell you that this concept has featured earlier in another project called GOATz, but has yet to be fully developed by their team despite the project’s release weeks ago. Dogs Unchained is the project best positioned to execute on this revolutionary idea.
Further technological innovation from the Dogs Unchained team comes in the form of their minting process.
If you minted (or at least attempted to mint) The Vogu Collective, you will know that it was the most costly gas war since the start of the digital avatar era. Many people paid multiples of the cost of a Vogu simply to process the transaction (for example, let’s say a Vogu cost $200 USD, people paid $400-600 more on top of that just to finish the transaction). Dogs Unchained built a solution to this that not many other projects have deployed. The concept is known as a ‘Mint Pass’ and Dogs Unchained have named their ‘Mint Pass’ a ‘Proof-of-Steak’ (notice the pun).
In a sense, anybody who was either following Dogs Unchained on Twitter or was a member of their Discord server was given a Proof-of-Steak. Each Proof-of-Steak guarantees the owner the ability to mint one dog. This stops enormous gas fees as people no longer need to be faster than each other during the minting process (which is what causes gas costs to increase). Instead, since the Proof-of-Steaks are distributed, those who own one will be able to use it in when gas prices on the Ethereum network are low. It is genius. Here is a link to a Twitter thread the team posted on it if you’re still confused.
Now, you’re probably wondering how to mint a Dog if you didn’t receive a Proof-of-Steak (because you weren’t following them on Twitter or in their Discord). No need to worry, you can still mint them when the sale begins regularly, and lucky for you (since many people already have Proof-of-Steaks) the gas costs to mint will be a lot lower than they would have been without this solution.
There is one last awesome technological innovation the Dogs team built into their project. When you go to mint or use your Proof-of-Steak, you will have the option of donating 0.01 ETH to real-world dog-supporting charities. If you choose to donate, not only will the Dogs Unchained team match your donation, but they will also increase your chances of minting a rare Dog. Genuinely amazing work by their team.
Ok. We’re almost at the end. We’ve talked about the Vibes, the Art, the Tech, and now it’s time for one last thing:
The Team
Although I have been impressed by the team’s communication skills and development thus far, don’t take it from me. Possibly the biggest innovator, investor, and influencer of the NFT world, Beanie, has personally stuck not only his neck out on the line for this team, but also his money. His investment firm BEANIE CAPITAL has backed the Dogs Unchained team.
As I have followed them on Twitter, something that strikes me (due to how rare it is in the space) is how frequent and transparently they communicate. There are multiple threads where the team has no issue detailing the ideas and mechanisms behind their smart contracts. They are clearly experts in Solidity (the programming language of the Ethereum network). Finally, they are the most patient founders in the space. They have yet to rush any aspect of their project which, to me, is a pretty clear indication of their intentions in the space.
Ok. So Mr. Fox has covered all of the reasons he loves the project.
Closing Thoughts
You can never truly recommend an investment that exists in the highly speculative environment of NFTs. Will Dogs Unchained do well on secondary markets and into the future? You have to deduct that with the information you’ve been given and the research you will do.
I will personally be minting Dogs Unchained. I haven’t made my mind up about whether or not I expect a return on my investment. The truth is that there are a lot of digital avatar projects out there only so much capital. Many have been calling for a top for a few weeks. With that being said, the highest chance you have of growing your wealth in this space is to make bets on strong teams, strong projects, and strong communities. That is something I have made up my mind about - that Dogs Unchained has all three.
In all honesty, I’m not minting Dogs Unchained to make money. It goes back to what I said at the start of this post - I just really really dig it and can’t wait to add some Dogs to my NFT collection.
The sale is slated for some time in early August, so keep your eyes and ears pealed. To find more details about the sale and the project in general, follow them on Twitter @Dogs_Unchained and follow the link in their bio to their Discord server.
If you enjoyed the email today, consider sending it to someone you think would find this whole process really cool, or a person you think would want to mint a Dog. If you’re new here, you can subscribe to get these emails right into your inbox if you so choose.
And down the Rabbit Hole we continue.
Mr. Fox.