Originally released in January of 2022, AshVault was the first NFT collection to change dynamically based on its owner’s $ASH token balance.
To read about the development and tech stack of this project, skip ahead to V1 Development & Tech Stack.
Learn about the V2 collection, or claim your V2 token, at https://ktrby.xyz/ashvault-v2
View the collection at https://opensea.io/collection/ashvault
Market Context
$ASH is an ERC-20 token created by Pak, a legendary and anonymous NFT artist. Pak is among the highest grossing NFT creators.
Fans of Pak quickly formed communities surrounding the $ASH token; speculating on it’s utilities, price action, and future. As with many communities formed around NFTs or ERC-20 tokens, ownership became a measure of status within the community. The biggest holders of $ASH were revered.
At the time of AshVault’s creation, hype around the $ASH token was reaching a peak, and communities on discord and twitter were buzzing about $ASH.
Narrative
AshVault’s narrative is simple. The NFT serves as a visual representation of its owner’s $ASH balance - one may consider it a ‘vault’ where their $ASH tokens are kept. The animated symbols move around inside the NFT’s frame, so viewers feel a sense that their tokens are alive and at work.
This narrative served the collection well, leveraging the flexing culture among the online communities to generate sales. Owning an AshVault NFT is a way to show off just how much $ASH you have, or how dedicated you are to the project.
Sale & Reception
AshVault is an ERC721 collection which consists of 33 tokens. All tokens from the primary sale sold out in 15 mins, despite high gas fees at the time (>100 gwei).
The reception of the collection was strongly positive, with many folks sharing their new token and its dynamic appearance in their wallet. The collection was shared and talked about in multiple discord communities, and across twitter.
V1 Development & Tech Stack
The AshVault V1 smart contract was developed using Solidity and Remix IDE.
The dynamic token metadata is returned on-chain via the smart contract, rather than through a web API. On-chain metadata is seen as more permanent and more in line with blockchain’s overarching mission for decentralisation — and therefore more desirable.
The token’s visual element was created using HTML, CSS & Javascript. The animation created by the code is dynamic, and changes in response to the token holders $ASH balance. The owner’s $ASH balance is fetched via Etherscan’s API when the token is loaded, and the returned result is used as the catalyst for the generated animation.
The HTML, CSS & Javascript code is hosted on IPFS (inter-planetary file system), a permanent and decentralised file storage solution. Using IPFS to host NFT metadata and artwork is standard among NFT collections. IPFS is considered desirable because of its durability, security and longevity as compared to a standard web server.
V1 Issue
The AshVault V1 collection stopped working in late 2022, due to global web browser updates. Essentially, scripts loaded from an external source via an iframe (this is the way which Opensea and other NFT marketplaces display NFT artwork) now require more security validation within the code in order to be run.
Since the V1 contract did not include a method to update the NFT’s linked artwork, the V1 collection had to be replaced with a new version. This issue is not present in the V2 collection.
V2 advancements
AshVault V2 was released in December 2022.
The new collection resolves the critical issue with the original collection, and features a number of significant improvements.
In the V2 collection:
- Gas fees for token transfers are ~5x cheaper
- The token metadata system is significantly improved
- Safeguards have been put in place to prevent the collection from breaking again
- The smart contract uses EIP-2535 Diamonds, which allows it to be fixed or upgraded if required
- The smart contract meets contemporary industry standards
- Digital signature authentication is used for token minting
The inclusion of EIP-2535 Diamonds allows the smart contract to bypass many of the built-in limitations which smart contracts usually need to work around — primarily, it facilitates contract upgradeability. This means that any issue found with the smart contract can be patched, no matter how fundamental or far-reaching. The V2 collection will never have to migrate to a new address.
Additionally, the V2 smart contract meets contemporary industry standards in areas such as security, interoperability, token metadata and royalties.
The V2 contract has support for:
- ERC165 — Standard Interface Detection
- ERC173 — Contract Ownership Standard
- ERC2981 — NFT Royalty Standard
- ERC2535 — Diamonds, Multi-Facet Proxy
- ERC721 — Non-Fungible Token Standard
V2 Development & Tech Stack
The AshVault V2 contract was developed using Solidity and Hardhat. You can view the source code in the AshVault V2 Github repo.
As mentioned above, the V2 contract utilises EIP-2535 for contract upgradeability. As well as including support for a number of industry standard protocols (as detailed above), the code was significantly improved in efficiency (saving users from unnecessarily high gas fees).
The NFT’s visual element was streamlined and amended as well, to resolve the issue from the original collection and improve the user experience. The V2 contract queries the owner’s $ASH balance on-chain, rather than via the Etherscan API. This represents an upgrade to the contract’s durability and permanence.
Like the original collection, the updated collection returns dynamic token metadata on-chain, and the artwork files are stored on IPFS.
V2 Claiming Process & User Experience
Holders of the original collection are entitled to claim a token from the updated collection. They can do so by visiting https://ktrby.xyz/ashvault-v2
The above web page, from my website, facilitates the claiming process from beginning to end. Users must burn their token from the original collection to claim a token from the updated collection. Both transactions can be sent easily from the web page, with a simple, step-by-step user flow.
The web page has built in authentication features to make sure the process can’t be abused. There are also safeguards for users to quickly receive help if they encounter issues.
Digital signature authentication is used so that ensure only users who have burned the V1 token may claim the V2 token.
Future of $ASH community
Since January of 2022, the price of $ASH has plunged to a long-term low, and many have forgotten about or lost faith in Pak.
Since the massive price drop and the advent of the bear market, interactions around $ASH on all platforms have significantly reduced. Some $ASH communities are still alive, and have turned to social activities because of the lack of new activity or updates from Pak about $ASH.
As a result of the reduced buzz around $ASH, only a few holders of the original AshVault collection have claimed a token from the updated contract.
It is believed that Pak has future plans for $ASH, but when and how they might come are a mystery for now.
