How to Buy Your First Moonbirds NFT
TL;DR
- Moonbirds are the official PFP project within the PROOF ecosystem, led by entrepreneur Kevin Rose.
- Moonbirds main utility is around its "Nesting" feature, allowing holders to lock their NFT for rewards.
- Moonbirds holders were airdropped Moonbirds Oddities for having their NFT nested in May 2022
- Moonbirds mystery project, Codename Highrise, is being built for the future
- Moonbirds keynote meeting, Future PROOF, outlines roadmap and project updates for holders.
What Is Moonbirds?
Moonbirds is the official PFP project of the PROOF ecosystem. Moonbirds is a collection of 10,000 pixelated owls that unlock a private club membership, and access passes into the PROOF Discord.
Moonbirds launched on April 16, 2022, with a mint price of 2.5 ETH. Initially the Moonbirds mint was going to utilize the Dutch auction mechanic, however, given the pre-launch hype surrounding the project the team opted at the last minute to use allowlist service PREMINT to gather an eligible list of minters.
Additionally, each PROOF pass holder was able to mint two Moonbird NFTs for free plus gas fees. The remaining 8,000 NFTs were minted after wallets were selected from the PREMINT allowlist raffle. The PROOF and PREMINT teams tried heavily to remove bots from entering the raffle, and wallets were required to hold a balance of at least 2.5 ETH to register successfully.
Moonbirds also built an innovative take on staking, which the project calls "Nesting." Nesting allows the Moonbirds NFTs to be "locked up" without ever leaving the holder's wallet. The Nesting contract removes the ability for the holder to sell their token. Holders must un-nest their NFT before they can list it for sale on a secondary marketplace. Holders can transfer the tokens without un-nesting and are able to nest with hardware or multi-sig wallet.
Rewards are given to holders after nesting for certain levels of consecutive days (see below). Moonbird NFTs achieve new tier levels (checkpoints) over time, and their nest is upgraded. Upgraded nests will enable enhanced drops and rewards. Un-nesting a Moonbird will reset your rewards back to the beginning of your highest achieved Nest level. Holders can track their rewards and nesting streak on the nesting website.
As of August 4, 2022, the PROOF team made a controversial decision to give Moonbirds the CC0 license. CC0, or creative commons licensing, enables Moonbirds to be freely built upon, without restriction under copyright law. Other notable CC0 NFT projects include Cryptoadz, Chain Runners, and Goblintown.
The team is also expected to work on Project Highrise, a metaverse project. The PROOF-built metaverse will be "a dramatic departure from the existing never-ending worlds."
Key Players in the Moonbirds Ecosystem
Moonbirds notable standing in the NFT ecosystem is due in large part to the team members at the project's helm.
Kevin Rose - Entrepreneur who rose to fame after co-founding the news aggregator, Digg. Kevin is a partner at the Silicon Valley VC firm, True Ventures, which was named a "Top 25 Angel Investors" by Bloomberg.
Justin Mezzell - Co-founder & Chief Product Officer at PROOF. Justin also co-founded and lead the art on the Solana NFT project, Grim Syndicate.
Alexis Ohanian - Co-founder of Reddit. On April 25, 2022, it was announced that Ohanian's VC firm, Seven Seven Six, invested $10 million in a funding round for PROOF.
Origins of Moonbirds
Moonbirds is a project created by PROOF; the team behind the PROOF Collective and Grails.
Moonbirds has attracted higher-end collectors, especially those with an interest in collecting expensive art. Many of the Moonbirds holders have previously invested in the past ventures of Kevin Rose.
Value of Moonbirds
The first weekend after the Moonbirds mint saw record sales volume and soaring floor prices. Users minted the NFTs at 2.5 ETH, but within minutes the floor price of the collection ballooned to more than 7 ETH, and it has not fallen below 7 ETH since inception.
The unique Nesting mechanic can provide holders with other means of value and utility as well.
The first nest level was called "Straw Nest." After 30 consecutive days of Nesting, holders' Nesting levels are upgraded to "Bronze Nest." After achieving a Bronze Nest, holders are allowed to claim a free hat (Snapback or Dad Hat) and sticker bundle for free.
After 60 consecutive days of Nesting with the Bronze Nest status, holders' Nesting levels are upgraded to "Silver Nest." After achieving a Silver Nest, holders are allowed to claim a free sock and fanny pack bundle for free. The next level of rewards was announced to be 90 consecutive days of Nesting with Silver status, and will be called the "Gold Nest."
Moonbirds Oddities
Moonbird holders that were nesting their NFT on May 22, 2022 (the same day as the earliest possible Bronze Nest reward), were airdropped a new collection called "Moonbirds Oddities."
The remaining Oddities connected to Moonbirds that were not nested at that time were given away to the following partnered diverse NFT communities: @endaomentdotorg, @unicorndao_xxx, @50mmCollective, @Blackatxyz, @humandao, @0xDecaArt, and @myBFF.
Oddities is a collection of 10,000 NFTs created in collaboration with artist @gremplin, widely known for his art behind the Nouns and CrypToadz projects. Moonbird Oddities cryptically stayed unrevealed for two months before being revealed on July 22, 2022.
Oddities give holders access to channels in the PROOF discord and access to Codename Highrise, but they are not considered a companion to Moonbirds and cannot be nested for rewards.
How to Buy Moonbirds
Users who wish to purchase a Moonbirds NFT can follow the following steps.
- Go to an NFT marketplace such as OpenSea, LooksRare, and X2Y2.
- Browse for your ideal rarity using our asset explorer
- Go to the Moonbirds nesting site and check on which nest level the Moonbird NFT has achieved
- Hit the “Buy Now” option on the NFT you desire.
After all of those steps have been completed, the Moonbirds NFT will now be in your account. If you connect your wallet to the Nesting site, you will be able to start Nesting your Moonbird to earn future rewards.
