The Memes by 6529
Project name: The Memes by 6529
Links
- Website: https://seize.io/the-memes
- Collections Twitter: https://twitter.com/6529collections
- Punk6529 Twitter: https://twitter.com/punk6529
- 6529 website: https://6529.io/
- Discord: https://discord.gg/join-om
- Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/thememes6529
Mint details
Mint date: 3 times a week
Max supply: Continuous
Mint price: Not fixed, most at 0.06259 ETH
What is The Memes by 6529?
The Memes by 6529 is a collection of art NFTs with the aim to encapsulate the benefits of a decentralized, pro-social and public commons-based digital architecture into messages of viral and impactful images, also known as memes.
The 6529 team and meme artists believe that art should be in the hands of users rather than centralized corporate databases.
These NFTs are Creative Commons 0 (“CC0”), meaning that they are in the public domain. This encourages people to use the NFTs in whatever way they see fit, whether it be for pictures, avatars, art, game objects, or identities.
Users can also remix and reinterpret them and take part in the ReMemes journey (ReMemes are community-created derivatives of The Memes that anyone can make without approval).
At the time of writing, there are 74 different collections of ERC-1155 NFTs. The edition size of each collection varies based, according to Punk6529, on “the vibes of the team and the artist, more or less.”.
Most editions to date have been between 300 and 1000 in size, with the most sought after being the “Nakamoto Freedom” meme.
It was made in homage to the first Rare Pepe (Nakamoto Pepe) and is currently listed at 23.5ETH.
Project Background
Punk6529 is a thought leader in the web3 space, with involvement in crypto since BTC summer 2013.
He believes that BTC and its successors will decentralize power away from choke points, leading to a net positive for humanity.
The mission is to create the Open Metaverse, an alternate reality where people can interact in a decentralized manner. To prevent centralized control, they suggest using decentralized systems like blockchains and NFTs to create shared myths or memes.
Punk6529 encourages people to contribute to decentralization, stressing that it is a “no-lose proposition.”
The goal is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that can produce a constant stream of impactful, high-quality memes and spread them to the masses. Punk6529 believes that memes are the apex object of society, with the power to elect politicians, drive consumption, and set the direction of society at large.
This will be achieved by building a community of meme creators, curators, and distributors aligned with the values of the 6529 community.
The 6529 team plan to use NFTs to create a shared myth around the concept of an open metaverse that is decentralized and controlled by its participants. This could become a powerful movement that drives society towards decentralization and freedom.
According to Punk6529, “controlling the memes matters more than the specific metaverse tech stack in which you present them.”
Punk6529 has shared their thoughts and plans in one of their famous mega-threads, which you can find [here].
Market Fit
Memes are images or videos with captions that spread quickly on the internet and social media, oftentimes due to their humorous appeal.
They are used for entertainment, political commentary, and can influence public opinion. Memes also serve as cornerstones of culture by creating and nourishing social connections as well as being an important part of online communication.
Memes have become a popular tool for marketers and advertisers;
- According to a study by Global Web Index, 41% of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 have shared a meme online.
- The “Distracted Boyfriend” meme generated over 1.5 million tweets and 1.8 million Reddit posts in its first year, according to Brandwatch.
- The “Ice Bucket Challenge” meme, which involved people pouring ice water on themselves and challenging others to do the same to raise awareness for ALS, raised over $115 million for the ALS Association.
- In the 2016 US presidential election, memes played a significant role in shaping the narrative and influencing public opinion. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 44% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 reported seeing political memes online.
- According to Hootsuite, branded memes can generate 10 times more engagement than traditional advertising content.
In web3, famous memes were sold as NFTs for significant amounts which demonstrates the high demand for meme ownership.
Utility
The Memes do not offer any utility beyond being an art edition NFT. The purpose of The Memes is to make provocative CC0 art that can stimulate social change in favor of decentralization.
There are no commitments to make the NFT more valuable or exciting through further actions, beyond owning the artwork itself.
“Ask not what The Memes will do for you, but what you will do for decentralization.”
Process & Roadmap
The Meme cards are minted one at a time, and this process will go on indefinitely (as long as it makes sense to keep it going according to the team).
The minting price is not fixed for all cards, but most of them have been selling for 0.06529ETH. For every card, 6529 collaborates with a different artist and the details are individually announced on their Collections Twitter.
The mints are currently scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11am ET (4pm UTC), but times may vary depending on the completion of the art.
The Memes team usually follows an allowlist model to avoid gas and bot wars, and to provide a broader range of individuals the chance to mint. Nevertheless, it is important to note that collectors of The Memes NFTs do not have a guaranteed allowlist spot since there are too many holders and the selection process is constantly changing.
The Memes prioritizes accessibility and inclusivity in their minting process. At the beginning, the allowlist process involved inviting a select group of people to mint, similar to inviting friends of a gallery to a new art exhibit.
However, the typical allowlist process is vulnerable to Sybil attacks, where users create multiple wallets/identities to gain disproportionate ownership. To combat this, The Memes manually allowlisted real people for their initial mints and established a well-distributed ownership base. As demand grew, the allowlist process became more challenging and had to be updated.
As of February 2023, The Memes’ allowlist process begins with automatic airdrops to the museum, project, fund team, and the artist(s) who worked on the meme. Partial airdrops are also given to collectors of meme cards, gradients, and the artist.
In Phase I of the minting process, The Memes team tries to estimate how many people to allowlist, primarily focusing on larger meme card collectors, gradient collectors, artist collectors, and a few others for diversity.
If they underestimate, they move to Phase II (continue selecting people for the allowlist) or phase III (public mint). The approach is similar to a guest list for a gallery, where larger collectors tend to receive more invites as they tend to collect the art to support the artist and/or gallery.
The team behind The Memes NFT project has implemented a series of measures to ensure transparency and diligence in the creation of their allowlists.
They announce in advance which Ethereum block will be used to snapshot collectors, post their allowlist formula and calculations on GitHub, and plan to roll out a new metric called “TDH” (Total Days Held) to capture the length of time NFTs have been held by an address.
The team also hopes to find a way to capture social factors in the metrics and categorize collectors based on their actions. They plan to make their allowlist tools available to everyone and publish daily statistics to Arweave.
The Memes are launched in seasons (SZNS) to give a sense of structure and cadence to the collection. The genesis SZN1 was in 2022, and 4 SZNs are scheduled for 2023 according to the calendar below.
Keep in mind that technical issues may arise during the minting process, and users may have to refresh multiple times or pay a higher gas price to mint during competitive mints.
Team
Punk6529 is a well-known member of the crypto community and a significant NFT collector who has been involved in the space since 2013. His NFT collection is worth over $20 million.
He has built a 6529 ecosystem that includes several projects; the 6529 Capital and NFT fund, Project OM (Open Metaverse), Educational projects, a Virtual 6529 Museum, and The Memes.
Meme Lab, 6529 Gradient, and ReMeme are also projects that connect to The Memes:
- ReMemes are community-created derivatives of The Memes that anyone can make without approval.
- The Meme Lab is an experimental contract for artists who have already minted a Meme Card, allowing them to mint NFTs freely.
- The 6529 Gradient collection has no direct relationship with The Memes, but collectors are included in allowlists.
6529er is a Multi-disciplinary artist/designer who is responsible for the initial cards and is a part of The 6529 Team.
6529 has a big operation and (most of the employees are anonymous). The team includes, but is not limited to the following people:
- 6529 Guardian, a lawyer;
- Teexels, a photographer;
- Batsouyum, a digital artist;
- NooNe0x.
Collaborations
For every Meme, 6529 collaborates with a new Artist.
You can see the list of artists with their “personal links” here on Dune. XCOPY and OSF are two of the biggest collaborations so far.
Communication
The marketing of this project has been heavily reliant on Punk6529, which could be seen as contradictory to the project’s whole idea of promoting decentralization.
Nonetheless, Punk6529 is frequently communicating information on relevant ideas and developments within the space, as well as sharing his own thoughts. Having done this for a long time, he’s been able to create a community that behaves more like a movement than an NFT project.
Punk6529’s content especially appeals to strong believers of the web3 ethos, acting as a filter for the type of people getting into the project. This creates a solid foundation but their long term vision aims to target a wider audience, including “normes”.
So far, its reach has been steadily growing. This is confirmed by the fact that the number of The Memes holders have increased close to 400% since June of 2022.
However, the aim towards mass awareness includes millions of holders to become advocates of the message. Punk6529 believes that the project is still in the early building stage, whereas the experience and concept is still being polished to be able to scale massively.
In the Open Metaverse discord server, there are a few public channels dedicated to The Memes. This shows that The Memes are a part of a larger project/goal. And it seems that The Memes are a means of communicating the message while the infrastructure of a truly decentralized Open Metaverse is being built.
Punk6529 is active and frequently engages with community members, debating ideas and concepts, answering questions, and sharing the thought process behind the whole vision.
Analysis
Opportunities:
- The message behind the project resonates directly with the ethos of web3 which portrays a solid foundation to build from.
- More and more people are likely to learn about the importance of decentralization as events continue to demonstrate the weakness of centralized systems/entities. Thus, the target audience may continue to rise.
- Opportunity to become the messenger/movement for decentralization leading to mass awareness.
Challenges:
- With the shrinking attention span of the general user, people tend not to dive deeper into the message of memes. They could get excited about a certain meme, especially in times of “centralized turmoil”, but the “attention” usually wears off.
- Providing information and bringing awareness through different media so that new users can easily digest the purpose and importance of this collection/movement.
Conclusion:
- The intention of 6529 is not to create short term hype, rather, it intends to build a decentralized infrastructure which will take time. Thus, it should be appreciated with a long term approach.
- This project could be seen as more of a contribution to “the cause” than a collection suitable for speculative NFT trading. Most of 2023 will continue in “building mode”, according to Punk6529, where its short term performance could largely depend on global events.
- The collection could once more see exponential growth as more details are polished in conjunction with the return of broader NFT attention which can lead to the influx of more users excited about the idea of decentralization. The Memes could then become a way to show off “your loyalty to the cause”.
Score
- 4/5
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