The Algorand NFT Project Roaring to Bring People Together
An offshoot of the 1circle Chinese community on Algorand, TigerChi launched in February with a collection of 888 NFTs on Algorand. The launch was a roaring success, with all the tigers sold. The TigerChi team upheld a record of selling 50 TigerChi within 2 minutes on its weekly shuffle, and its most recent shuffle of 35 tigers sold out in merely 50 seconds.
Read on to learn more about the project from 1circle founder and TigerChi project lead Tian and the artist Yangyang in the Q&A below.
Q: Tell us about your background and your career.
Tian: I am the founder of the 1circle Chinese community on Algorand and the project leader for the TigerChi NFT project. We introduced our first Chinese artist Yangyang from the community to start his NFT journey on Algorand. I’ve been doing product marketing for 15 years and always enjoy building up interpersonal relationships and now a community.
Yangyang: I’m from mainland China. My specialty is animation design and production, and I am experienced in creating vibrant and trendy vector illustrations. I’ve worked at internet advertising companies and animation companies for many years, and now I am a freelance artist.
Q: When did you first learn about NFTs? What was the process for creating your first NFT?
Yangyang: I’ve been following NFTs since 2021. As a creator, I feel that this new art form can bring people closer together quickly. It also creates a good space to integrate my ideas and concepts into the creation of digital arts, sometimes in the form of generative art. This new art form will be more and more accepted and loved by the public. With the NFT process, I’m trying to understand what really matters. I did not jump in too early, because I wanted to truly realize the artistic, creative ideas, rather than simply catering to the market or commercial profits.
My real first NFT experience was not an easy one, as none of us had any knowledge on NFTs. It was very challenging to overcome all obstacles and complete the creation, minting, distribution, and full go-to-market plan in a short period of time. Although I participated in NFT projects earlier, I didn’t know the process (I had only been commissioned to do art). Getting involved from square one this time, I found that behind the seemingly easy things, there was often a lot of hard work.
Tian: The design draft has been revised several times. The small team was very dedicated, and every step was well organized. It didn’t matter if it was 2 a.m. Beijing time or 2 a.m. in Europe, there were teammates who were awake getting things done.
Q: What inspires TigerChi’s art?
Tian: For the past two years, the world has been shrouded in the haze of COVID-19, and we all hope that we can get rid of COVID and regain our freedom as soon as possible. Coincidentally, the tiger is a sacred animal in Chinese culture that wards off disease and brings good luck. Therefore, the Chinese community brought the tiger, a symbol of luck and prosperity, into the Algorand ecosystem, hoping that the virus would go away soon.
At the same time, we wish to raise everyone’s awareness of the environment and animal protection. Algorand is one of the greenest blockchains in the world and has always been committed to protecting the environment and its ecosystem. This philosophy is very much in line with ours, and is why we chose Algorand for this project.
We plan to implement this philosophy in our Tiger NFT project and contribute to the protection of wild animals. We will do this by donating a portion of NFT sales revenue to Tigers4ever, a charity that is dedicated to giving wild tigers a wild future. We recently announced our formal partnership with them. It is not just a matter of donating money. For us, it is a way to onboard charities to blockchain and open up new ways of fundraising.
Q: What makes NFTs special/unique/different for artists?
Tian: NFTs are a new art form and a powerful communication medium that brings people closer together. In this new art form, everyone can learn about different cultures around the world. This inspired us to incorporate Chinese elements into NFTs, and make them travel through this borderless world.
Q: How were you able to market your work?
Tian: We know that a new project coming to the market won’t be successful without a good launch campaign. We planned our launch and campaign around Chinese New Year by gifting the “five tigers” of Algorand, including founder Silvio Micali and CEO Steve Kokinos, a customized Tiger NFT. We got huge support from Algorand and the Algorand Foundation.
We felt truly blessed to be part of the Algorand community as we received tremendous support from them. We also began to collaborate with projects from the ecosystem by visualizing their key messages with our tigers, and more and more projects acknowledged what we are doing and came to us for collaboration. So far, we partnered with AlgoMINT, Folks Finance, and helped Blockbeam and AlgoDAO with their NFT art. We also supported the Algorand Foundation student event by offering branded student tigers as well as supporting community events with special designs. We always try to deliver high quality art!
Q: What do you find interesting about Algorand?
Tian: Algorand has the potential to become one of the largest and widest used blockchain protocols in the world. I could go on and on about what’s good about Algorand, but here are some specifics:
- Algorand’s blockchain is built around scalability, security, and reliability.
- Those who create NFTs on Algorand benefit from all features of Layer-1, such as flexibility and low costs.
- Users can issue fractionalized NFTs.
- Last but not least, Algorand is carbon negative.
Algorand is mathematically proven to be immune from forks, practically never splitting into multiple networks. This permanently protects the uniqueness of NFTs and is why we chose Algorand for the long-term sustainability of TigerChi.
Q: What are you looking forward to in the future when it comes to NFTs?
Tian: NFTs have become a disruptive force and play a big role in helping community members build strong connections with each other. Many companies have been incorporating NFTs into their event marketing efforts to much success. These initiatives not only enhance user loyalty but also gives users a chance to participate in building the project. This is just the beginning. I expect NFTs to have more and more utility, until eventually acting as the medium to connect the virtual economy with the real-world economy.
Q: What’s next for TigerChi?
Tian: We just sold out all our v1 TigerChi and obtained a record of selling 50 tigers within two minutes. Our last shuffle of 35 tigers sold out in merely 50 seconds. That transaction finality time is unthinkable on many other chains.
We are in the process of developing TigerChi v2, Wushu Tigers featuring Chinese martial arts. We always try to bring in some cultural elements into our collection. Chinese martial art is a fascinating topic, and we wish to show more lore and legends to our community.
We recently joined the Algorand Foundation in a joint effort for a metaverse event — Earth Day in a Green Metaverse. This event was a great success and praised by many! The venue is the TigerChi Kingdom and was designed by our community members. We will continue exploring opportunities in the Metaverse. Stay tuned!
TigerChi is very energetic and positive. The project is full of our best wishes to the Algorand community, to the world, and to ourselves. We wish to ride the journey with all of you, and we stay close together to contribute to the Algorand ecosystem, we are gonna make it (WAGMI)! :)
Website: https://tigerchi.club/
Discord: https://discord.gg/FtgMYvRMqd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TigerChiClub
Telegram: https://t.me/TigerChiClub
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