Around the Blockchain: Solana, WAX, Flow NFTs

Welcome back to "Around the Blockchain!" As a reminder, Around the Blockchain specifically covers non-Ethereum based blockchains, most notably Solana, WAX, and Flow. 

This Week in Solana

Solana NFTs created quite a buzz this week, thanks in part to new big-time innovations. However, as can oftentimes happen when things are new and unknown, they are met with skepticism and can sometimes struggle to gain traction before the value is truly realized. Think about the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club and how they innovated by being the first to get rid of the bonding curve pricing model and deliver value via airdrops and other token-holder-exclusive benefits. Of course, not every innovation works and many more will fail than will succeed, which correlates with the lack of traction. Therefore, the recommendation is to always do your own research and decide for yourself what risks you are willing to take and which projects and innovations you believe in before making any purchases or investments.

The first on this list of innovative NFTs is the SOL Airdrop Pass. Still minting at 0.4 SOL - there are approximately 600 remaining of the initial 2,000 supply. The idea behind the pass is to reward token holders with regular airdrops. Unlike other collections that create derivatives or sidekicks of other NFTs that may or may not hold intrinsic value, SOL Airdrop Pass holders will be given free NFTs from other, partnership projects. Mainly these will take the form of Solana-based NFT projects that did not sell out in their initial drop. For example, if a project only sells 3,000 NFTs of a planned 5,000 supply, in the past they might choose to burn the remaining 2,000 and lower the supply. Or, perhaps they never sell their fully supply. By collaborating with the SOL Airdrop Pass team, they can instead gain 2,000 more holders to their project.

If less than 2,000 are left unminted, the supply will be randomly dropped to NFT holders. While novel, there are clear limitations with the project. The upside potential is the procuring of a diamond in the rough, the project that doesn’t sell out and needs extra support, yet makes a comeback and rises in value over the longer term. At the entry price point of 0.4 SOL, that is the value of future airdrops needed, and dozens of projects are already well past that floor, sold out or still minting. One final word of caution -  every wallet can only be eligible for one airdrop of any particular project. Therefore, do not hold multiple passes in the same wallet. 

Xyndicate is another innovative mint that occurred this week, selling out relatively quickly. Outside of the NFT, Xyndicate is a Singapore-based startup in the B2B SaaS space that was looking for funding to bring their product idea to market. They opted out of venture capital or more traditional crowdfunding sources, and instead created a SAFE NFT, essentially a SAFE contract (special type of financing created by Y Combinator, more details can be found here) in the form of an NFT.

At different levels, based upon the mint serial, token holders will receive a greater valuation in the eventual return of their investment. However, similar to venture capital, this is inherently a long-term investment, as the NFT holds no utility (other than secondary market potential) and its valued is directly tied to the success of the Xyndicate business. The potential benefits, though, are immense. As an NFT, there is a lot more liquidity for investors to exit the investment early, if desired, while maintaining the same potential for high, VC-type returns. The Xyndicate roadmap details the eventual conversion of the NFTs to an equity stake in the company upon their planned more traditional Series-A seed funding round, at the end of 2022, after the initial product has been released. If successful, this could usher in a new wave of startup investing, available publicly on the blockchain.

With more fanfare but less innovation, Sigh Ducks was a more traditional NFT project that minted this week, selling out its supply in under four minutes on Thursday. As of this writing, the floor Sigh Ducks is 0.915 SOL on Magic Eden. The project promises daily $DOOK tokens for holders that will be used for purchasing merchandise and future Sigh Duck collections.

This Week in WAX

NFT Panda is a play-to-earn game on the blockchain that is a fantasy, RPG-style game still in the midst of development. The game features fighting pandas that are protecting the multiverse world of Elgard. On Tuesday the game sold out all 2,300 packs. Light packs containing six NFTs were sold for $49 each (in WAX), and Hero packs, containing 20 cards each, were priced at $99 (in WAX). The next steps for NFT Panda are to complete development and launch the full version of the game, expected in the first quarter of 2022. You can read the “bamboo paper” and see the roadmap here.

Warspace.io is another WAX-based game on the blockchain. A self-proclaimed “true strategy NFT game," the game features four resources able to be mined using building-card NFTs. There are four types of buildings, each to earn its own unique resource out of food, stone, gold, and wood. Through blending of NFT cards players will be able to increase the rarity level of their buildings, thereby increasing production. On Friday the project sold its final round of premium passes for 150 $WAX, which will grant holders game access upon game launch. According to the website’s countdown, game launch is expected to be January 12, 2022.

Gods and Legends is a unique, multi-chain, multi-reward staking and collectible-based game. Covering both the WAX and Binance blockchains, players are able to stake their collectible card NFTs for multiple rewards including the native $GNL token, as well as Waxarena’s $AEXP, Animezation’s $ANI, and previously featured project Warsaken’s $XP. Although the packs dropped prior to this week, there was a special Santa Claus pack drop on December 24, and on Wednesday a brand-new card was released, available by blending only. Learn more about the tokenomics and the game by reading the whitepaper.

This Week in FLOW

Thursday saw two separate pack drops on Dapper’s flagship NBA Top Shot platform. First, holders of at least 350 trade tickets were given the chance to purchase one of 500 previously unsold Series 1 packs, each containing four moments and one guaranteed to have a mint count of 1,000.

Following the successful sale of the Series 1 pack, the platform opened up the queue and sold out of their sixth pack release of Series 3. 150,000 packs were sold and collectors were eligible to purchase up to ten total packs at $9 per pack. 

Other Blockchain News

DeFi Kingdoms announced and released a new profession, mining. Heroes can now be sent on Gold Mining quests, which will reward players with anything from more gold to rare eggs and others. $JEWEL mining is not yet ready but expected to be released next week.

Thanks for reading, have a Happy New Year, and we will be back next week for an amazing 2022!