- The Mint
- Posts
- A Brilliant NFT Fundraiser
A Brilliant NFT Fundraiser
Austin Miller & John Meyer
July 01, 2022
GM, and welcome to The Mint, where we enjoy the sweet, sweet smell of freshly cut grass, nice, warm dark roast coffee in the morning, and, most importantly, NFTs 😊
Meta Continues to Prioritize Metaverse Growth
Meta announced yesterday that Facebook will slowly begin integrating NFT functionalities with select creators in the U.S. This news comes about two months after Instagram (another Meta company) did the same.
Ok, but what does that mean? →
When Meta refers to “select creators” they are referring to celebrities or artists that create or collect NFTs. They want the pilot program to get as many eyes on it as possible before launching it to the public. For now, the functionalities are limited to what you see in the photo above. Meta will allow those creators to 1) connect their digital wallet to their account, 2) post any NFT (limited to Ethereum/Polygon collections for now), and 3) have a dedicated tab on their profile to show off all of their NFTs.
The Mint’s Thoughts →
This news is a bit conflicting for us. We like that NFTs are getting attention from large tech companies like Meta, but we also know that a large percentage of those heavily involved in web3 want to keep their distance from companies like Meta, Google, and others. These companies already own the bulk of our data… do we really want them to own more? On the flip side, they are also recognizing that NFTs are a great tool for content creators, and that’s probably good for the industry as a whole.
Ducks, Enter Flying Formation!
To celebrate the anniversary of Title IX, women at the University of Oregon launched Ducks of a Feather, a collection of 7200 one-of-a-kind NFTs that will be minted and sold to benefit participating University of Oregon women student-athletes.
The Collection →
Lili Tae, the artist in charge of the collection asked the 12 participating athletes to describe themselves in a series of icons, colors, and other attributes. From there, she created 12 unique NFTs that celebrated those qualities. The one shown below is meant to showcase confidence, balance, ambition, and indecisiveness.
Visions of Flight #131
You might be asking yourself… 12? I thought you said there was 7,200 one-of-a-kind NFTs? That’s where technology comes in. Ducks of a Feather is a generative NFT collection. That means that the 12 originals are scaled through a computer program and duplicated over and over. The program changes colors and other properties so that no two are alike. Still confused? Don’t worry. We talk more about generative art in the next section of The Mint.
The cost to mint one of these NFTs is .12 ETH ($126 today). The team also put a 10% royalty on the NFTs so that the women will continue to profit if the NFTs are resold. It’s only fair ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why The Mint is Impressed →
The Mint staff is pretty impressed with this collection. What a great way to raise awareness about Title IX, celebrate women student-athletes, and raise money! The team that launched this covered all of their bases. They made great artwork, launched an impressive campaign, and made it accessible to anyone that wants to get involved.
Today’s Mint is Brought to You by Sioux Falls Simplified
Do you live in Sioux Falls and wish you had a consolidated place to get local news? Are you a Sioux Falls native that lives elsewhere and just wants to keep tabs on the happenings in your hometown? Are you from somewhere else and are just randomly interested in South Dakota's largest town? Look no further than Sioux Falls Simplified, a weekly newsletter that gives you the tea on everything happening in the community. Sign up here.
Enlightenmint!
Generative Art: What is it?
Let’s talk about generative art because it’s kind of the talk of the town with NFTs. If you’ve been peeping around the space, you may have noticed that many NFT collections are pretty simple. Look at this screenshot of some Moonbirds that are for sale on OpenSea. You can see that each one looks vaguely similar, but has different background colors, headwear, eye shape, clothes, eye color, feather color, etcetera. That's because it's generative art!
“ In generative art, instead of designing pieces from beginning to end and controlling the whole creation process, artists create a script that generates random output based on the different characteristics implemented in the script.”
To make generative art, an artist creates a base frame then puts the rest of the attributes into a code and lets a computer take care of the rest. The computer assigns each attribute at random and creates as many versions as you want. The result? A completely unique piece of art! Pretty cool. Generative art allows creators to scale what they have created in the thousands or more, essentially allowing them to mass produce their art.
I’m no expert, so I understand if you want to check out further text on the subject like this article.
Giveaway Time 🤪
Hey! You! Do you want to win something cool? The Mint is doing its first giveaway. We’re giving away a Ledger Nano S Plus ($79 value). If you remember, John talked about what this device does a couple of weeks ago. What do you have to do to win it? Refer 5 people to the Mint. We’ll announce the winner of the drawing on July 15th.
Here's a video of John explaining how to enter.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to get the referral link. Send it to 5 friends, coworkers, or family members. It’s easy! Stay tuned for updates and more giveaways.
A Meme To Brighten Your Day
Fresh News
Access past editions of The Mint here
Sponsor the Mint!
Fill out this form to become a sponsor, and support this growing community!
Do us a favor and check out that referral section below. We'd love it if you could share us with one friend this week.
That concludes this week's version of The Mint! Thanks for reading, and make sure to share your freshly-minted knowledge with your friends and coworkers.