It’s been two weeks since we dropped the Edition 3 “Ultimate” Metakey designed by the incredible Marc0matic (the Marc0matakey, as I like to call it); and there have been a lot of fresh faces in the community Discord with a lot of questions.
So, welcome to the Metakrew; and congratulations for entering an exclusive founders’ club for one of the greatest projects in the NFT space!
The next several weeks’ blog posts will be dedicated to answering and elucidating on your most pressing questions. If you haven’t checked out the first Captain’s Log, we addressed most of these concerns verbatim — you can watch it here. We have also broken up the video into specific topics as separate videos on the channel if you don’t have an hour plus to spare for the full Log (but I would strongly recommend finding the time)!
So let’s get to the first big question:
So What’s the Difference?
We should reiterate here that each Metakey will have basically the same functionality, but a few subtle differences and special rewards for holders of the early editions. Let’s start with what’s the same. All Metakey-holders of any Edition will:
- Receive an NFT from every drop (differences between official and collab/partner drops will be covered in the next post);
- Be able to access exclusive channels on the Discord server;
- Be eligible for every giveaway;
- Have access to any exclusive areas or features on Metakey lands in Decentraland, Sandbox and everywhere else we make land acquisitions;
- Be able to pitch/participate in the Shark Tank;
- Have full access to the Metakademy;
- Be able to advertise on CryptoArtPulse;
- All Editions will come with great art from iconic artists;
- More features that we’re cooking up every week!
In addition, early editions will be eligible for a physical drop. Our aim is to add immense utility to all Metakey holders with every one of our partners; but where it makes sense, add some small differences to early Collectors’ Editions so it’s cool.
Editions 1–4 will also be eligible for the upcoming Metapirates Avatar project (more on this below)!
So if all of these features are accessible to the tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of future Metakey holders for 0.2 ETH, what’s the advantage of holding or investing in one the first three “Collectors’ Editions”?
Aesthetic
Each of the Collectors’ Edition Keys are designed by an iconic artist in the space — Alan Bolton, RTFKT Studios and Marc0matic respectively. Your Genesis Key may be a 1/2250 Metakey, but it will always remain 1/500 Alan Bolton piece.
When Edition 3 launched, many collectors noted that 0.2 ETH was significantly cheaper than the floor on any of the rest of Marc0’s portfolio and FOMO’d into the project for this reason alone — only to subsequently discover the plethora of utility attached. It is possible that if Marc0’s star continues to rise, the value of Edition 3 may eclipse that of Edition 1 or 2 based on this aesthetic component, despite its lesser scarcity.
Scarcity
Yes, the maximum number of Metakeys will ultimately be uncapped — however, each subsequent Edition has been and will continue to be incrementally less scarce. Of the 2250 Metakeys currently minted, only 500 Edition 1 (Genesis) Keys exist. When we release Edition 4 with a cap of 5000 (tentative number, not confirmed), suddenly the scarcity of Edition 1 will shrink from 22% to 6.9% (nice) of total Metakeys.
Giveaways
You will have noticed by now that we’re doing a lot of giveaways — various collaborator/partner NFTs as well as physical goodies like VR headsets and gaming consoles. The majority of these are exclusive to Key-holders. We’re working on a bot that will give slight modifiers based on the number and type of Metakeys held — nothing so extreme to send every giveaway to the whales, but enough to give Collectors’ Editions holders and Key Masters a bit of an edge.
Timing
Shortly before the launch of Edition 3, one of our collaborators dropped Jackie Stewart’s iconic F1 helmet as a DCL wearable to all Metakey holders. Those who were waiting for Edition 3 missed out. Immediately after Edition 3 launched, RTFKT studios dropped us all some sweet kicks. If you didn’t hold at the time, too bad — none of these drops are going to be retroactive. Even within each Edition — the earlier you get in, the more free stuff you’re going to score.
Official Drop Variations
As I said, every key-holder of any addition will receive the official drops. That said, we are planning some subtle variations.
Let’s explore a demonstrative example (but please note that this will not represent the details of an actual drop):
We currently have a number of concept artists working on characters, environments and builds that can be used to direct the 3D artists that we will use to fill land, create wearable assets and our generative 3D Metapirate avatar project. Below is a work-in-progress example of one of our characters, tentatively titled “The Captain”.
You’ll notice that we have requested variations of her outfit: a “standard” and a “regal” version. Once her design is complete, we will be creating 3D assets of parts of her outfit for both Decentraland and Sandbox to drop to all Key-holders — but while everyone will receive, let’s say, her iconic gauntlet, the segments may glow with purple neon LED for Edition 3, orange for Edition 2, blue for Edition 1 — and triple holders may receive the solid-gold cybernetic “Arm of Midas” variation.
From the other characters we will similarly drop iconic wearables with similar variations, such as the helmet of this mysterious fellow:
Similarly, for our avatar project, every Edition 1–4 Key-holder will receive one (no current plans to extend the avatar release beyond this); but each Collectors’ Edition (Ed.1–3) and Key Masters (hodlers of all 3) will have access to their own table/s of exclusive parts or effects/textures.
Bottom line, early Editions are a great way to have something scarce and when there’s tens of thousands of Metakeys out there, know that you hodl something rare and iconic.
Hopefully this post has given you a better understanding of the (admittedly slightly esoteric) subtle differences baked into and planned for each Edition of the Metakey. We will of course continue to keep you all updated on the more concrete use-cases as we continue to progress along our road map. It is not our goal to have anyone FOMO into purchasing a full set — you only ever need one Metakey — but we would all the same like to show our gratitude to anyone that has done so. Nothing is set in stone — it is a delicate balance and we are as always extremely receptive to any feedback you might have on anything we have discussed here today!
In the next post, we’ll be diving into the mechanics of airdrops — both Metakey-official and affiliate/partner/collaborator drops. Keep an eye on Twitter and Discord to be notified when it’s up. Until then, keep exploring, keep plundering — we’ll catch you all in the Metaverse.
