Traversing the world of non-fungibles is a daunting task. With so many new NFT projects, artists, and large-scale collections cropping up weekly, it has become nearly impossible to keep up with every subsequent development.

In the past, a simple browse of OpenSea was enough to find the latest NFT craze. But things have changed drastically since the 2021 NFT boom. Now, NFT enthusiasts have to be acutely mindful of what and where they collect.

To aid in the unearthing of awe-inspiring NFT endeavors both new and old, nft now presents Undervalued: a weekly column highlighting innovative projects, collections, and artists pushing the NFT space forward.

RENGA

RENGA, launched September 2, 2022, is a large-scale PFP project created by independent illustrator and comic artist Dirty Robot. Capped at 10,000 NFTs, the collection is steadily growing as holders of RENGA Black Box NFTs burn their tokens in exchange for a RENGA PFP, created in the unique style of Dirty Robot.

Although the burn/claim mechanics of RENGA are something we’ve definitely seen before in the NFT space, RENGA itself presents a unique new form of community building through storytelling. Each time a Black Box is burned, a generative avatar is revealed, billed as being a building block to the “perpetual storyteller and creator through all current mediums, and those which have yet to be defined” that is RENGA.

Hello Kitty and Friends World

Hello Kitty and Friends World, launched on August 25, 2022, is the first major NFT collection from the iconic Japanese brand Hello Kitty. Created in collaboration with RECUR, a technology company that designs and develops dedicated branded experiences on the blockchain, Hello Kitty and Friends World is both a collectibles campaign and an interactive Web3 experience.

Collectors of Hello Kitty and Friends World NFTs have a lot to love: first off, they get the chance to own a piece of Hello Kitty history. But they also get to take part in challenges and obtain rewards. With the Hello Kitty World Marketplace, users can send their NFT characters on adventures to collect stamps from different virtual cities that can be traded for limited edition prizes. Interested? Learn more from the Hello Kitty and Friends World website.

Grails

Grails, launched on February 25, 2022, is a collection of 45 edition pieces of art from 45 different artists that split into two separate seasons, each curated by and for the PROOF Collective. Initially, the identities of the artists featured within the collection were hidden, only to be revealed after the minting window had closed.

While Grails NFTs were originally only collectible by those who owned a PROOF Collective membership pass, holders could immediately trade their Grails on the secondary market, of course, with the risk of accidentally trading away a rare piece from a coveted crypto-artist. The collection, which consists of 2,214 NFTs (1,036 from season one and 1,178 from season two), was quickly overshadowed by MoonBirds, but has remained a robust part of the PROOF ecosystem.

Lil Pudgys

Lil Pudgys, launched on December 19, 2021, is the companion NFT series to the coveted Pudgy Penguins collection. Featuring 22,222 possible NFTs, Lil Pudgys originally ushered in an expansion to the Pudgy Penguins universe, while creating an economical way for NFT enthusiasts to join the Pudgy community.

Although Lil Pudgys trading saw a bit of a dry spell as the Pudgy Penguins project was reformed in 2022, the companion series has started to see a bit of an uptick in price alongside its predecessors. There is still much left to the imagination regarding the companion collection, but as things progress with the Penguin universe, Lil Pudgys will likely remain an undervalued way to join the community.

Abracadabra (ABC)

Abracadabra, commonly known as ABC, is a large-scale Solana PFP collection created for the simple reason of reminding NFT collectors how fun childhood is. Featuring 10,000 NFTs, the collection was launched on August 22, 2022, by the infamous NFT collector/investor 9x9x9 via his SOL moniker HGE.

Over the years, the meaning of NFTs has changed and evolved. Although commonly perceived to be all about money and art, the NFT space has much more to offer than profit and prosperity. With ABC, 9x9x9 seems to be issuing a callback to the very basics of collectibles and how they are, first and foremost, about fun. The images that make up the ABC collection are reminiscent of scribbles from school-age children, and they give ABC a unique and carefree aesthetic.

The post Undervalued: RENGA, Hello Kitty World, Grails, and More appeared first on nft now.

In 2021, we witnessed the birth of a new creator economy on the blockchain. Since NFTs took center stage, artists have achieved NFT superstardom, billion-dollar brands have been forged in just a few months, and lives have been utterly transformed time and again. Yet, the most inspiring thing about the NFT space is the number of artists of all creeds and mediums who have found community and support by embracing this technology.

In keeping with our mission to empower creators, we present Next Up — our monthly franchise dedicated to showcasing rising artists. In our September edition, we’ve curated a list of five ascendant talents who are poised to make significant waves in 2022.

Alizé Jireh

Alizé Jireh is a 22-year-old self-taught photographer and filmmaker who has worked in more than 25 countries on a range of promotional and documentary projects in the past six years. She explored self-portraiture during the pandemic, and crafted her own unique brand of conceptual photography — designed to reflect someone eager to explore the rawest and most sensual experience by wandering through ordinary environments with curious eyes.

We spoke with Jireh, and asked a few questions about NFTs, and her artistic process.

How did you first become interested/involved in NFTs?

My friend Summer introduced me to the Twitter community and NFT world a little under a year ago. I was being shadow banned on Instagram at this time and felt a little lost and rejected as an artist in that space. I quickly fell in love with the Twitter community that very openly welcomed me into this space and offered reflection and support in ways I had never experienced before. I started dipping my toes in the NFT waters at the beginning of 2022. I’m grateful to the collectors that have supported me so far and am now ready to dive all the way in. I feel inspired and uplifted by this digital art world and am excited to keep learning and growing in it.

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

I would describe my art as an exploration of the human body as lifeless nature, as an inanimate object that mixes with its surrounding landscape. I study the intensity of human emotion through surrealism and dreamscapes. Solitude, observation, sensuality… the soul. I spend as much time as I can wandering in places and trying to recreate visions I’ve had in daydreams and am often inspired by the aesthetic/emotional analysis of a space and how my body feels in it. Then I set up my tripod and put on the timer, then mold my body with whoever or whatever is with me, and start shooting.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

I still have one piece available to collect in my NFT collection SENSUS on Foundation, and a small photography NFT collection that will come out this month featuring work I have been quite anxious to mint. After this, I’ll be working on releasing new works that I am excited to curate as collections in the very near future.

Lewis Osborne

Lewis Osborne is a freelance illustrator/animator from Bristol. He first became interested in design at age 15 after stumbling upon YouTube tutorials on “making cool backgrounds.” After going to school for graphic design and securing a job in the field, Osborne contained to illustrate/animate in his spare time, eventually becoming a full-time freelancer in October 2021, leading to him gaining notoriety in the NFT space.

We also spoke with Osborne, and asked a few questions about NFTs and his artistic process.

How did you first become interested/involved in NFTs?

I first heard about NFTs from someone who sent me a DM on Instagram in 2021 saying that my work would do well on a website called Hic Et Nunc on Tezos. I had no idea what NFTs were, and I was seeing some people hating on NFTs quite early on so I was a bit hesitant about giving it a go. Eventually, he explained a lot more about it and convinced me to give it a go. I absolutely love the Tezos community and the stunning art that I’ve discovered from it. I couldn’t be more grateful to the guy for sending me that DM.

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

I would describe my work as playful and hypnotic. I like to play with my signature happy and sad faces in unusual environments that draw on this relatable feeling of feeling confused in this weird world. I feel like a fair few of my ideas stem from me being generally quite an anxious person, so I’m always trying to think of weird ways to visualize my thoughts and express how I’m feeling. I find that my best ideas pop into my head while I’m going for a stroll around Bristol and simply taking the world in.

My actual design process is generally bog-standard. I’ll start by sketching out an idea, then I’ll create the vectors in Adobe Illustrator, and then I’ll animate them using Adobe After Effects. I always finish my pieces with a texture overlay and export them out at 12 FPS as I love that it adds to the retro feeling of my work.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

I’ve actually just been accepted by SuperRare which is extremely exciting, so you can expect to see my debut there soon! Other than that, I am planning to carry on adding to my Moving Cities and Balloon Fiesta collections as well as creating further random loops, all of which you can find on my OBJKT profile.

Niall Ashley

Niall Ashley is a Bristol-born, London-based painter and performance artist taking the NFT space by storm with their unique, multidisciplinary works. Having first found a knack for creation early on in life, Ashley pushed their artistic prowess aside throughout grade school out of necessity.

Eventually, they became a personal bank advisor as a means to pay the bills but quickly found the desire to venture back into the creative realm around the age of 18. First through video editing, then through painting, Ashley has continued to build up an impressive catalog of physical and digital pieces.

We had the opportunity to ask Ashley a few questions about NFTs and their artistic process.

How did you first become interested/involved in NFTs?

NFTs introduced the possibility of performance art being able to exist in its final raw form as an entity that constantly reinterprets itself from digital wallet to front-end platform to LED screen to transaction. In the past, performance breaks down into collecting stills or compressed video in physical formats as an afterthought to creating work. This new provenance change excited me as an artist, and I immediately dove into the space.

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

My art examines the context of avatars in a social media landscape and uses such containers to define content as high art. I present multiplicity as a vehicle for expressing tangents of one’s identity, an extension of Édouard Glissant’s “Opacité.” Through the flattening of topographic canvas and polygonal mesh, I aim to question institutional concepts of aura and what constitutes a work of art, as well as accepting the [matrices] of TikTok and Instagram’s interpersonal format as a paintbrush itself.

Creating starts with throwing up spray paint and oil stick on canvas, intuitively worldbuilding with a central painted figure to later be digitally immortalized. Next, I scan and lift off these painted textures into sculpted 3D and create an extended narrative via Unreal Engine. Then performance becomes a mechanism to bring life into a digital avatar, using motion capture to create a playful scene in my studio, typically including prop work and dialogue. Finally, I present a digital moving image painting in tandem with its physical counterpart, flattening the hierarchy between medium and becoming an affirmative one with my art practice.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

Elixir is my next big project. It’s a series of physical and meta-paintings using Los Angeles as a case study for alchemy in the form of consumer goods and manufactured realities. I released the first piece last month, named regenerate+repair[2oz], and the following pieces will be dropping in tandem over the next two months. As an extension to this project, I also want to create avatar DAOs for each character presented in these works, following the Nouns model with some new twists.

Yinkore

Yinkore is a self-taught digital artist from Nigeria. Her art focuses on her lived experiences as a Black woman, highlighting her own personal struggles navigating mental health issues, sexuality, and activism through artistic defiance. After walking away from her job as a lawyer, Yinkore found success in the NFT space early on. Her collections sold out, she worked on group exhibitions, she engaged with brands like ConcenSys and Blockworks, and she also became aware of the need to reinvest into the NFT ecosystem, becoming a prominent voice in the push for inclusivity.

We had the opportunity to ask Yinkore a few questions about NFTs and her artistic process.

How did you first become interested/involved in NFTs?

It was through my friend Z4HIIR, an amazing 3D artist. He had been actively involved in the space and had told me how he thought my art would thrive if I joined back in June 2021. I was a bit intimidated by all the tech and art though, so I stayed away till he gave me a foundation invite later in the year. Back when those were incredibly tough to come by, I had just left my job, so that gave me the push I needed to at least give it a try.

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

My art is a love letter to Black women. In its simplest form, that really is what it is. Someone tweeted something about not really having an art style but having an artistic voice in all your pieces, and I related to that very heavily. I like to play around with my art in terms of styles, colors, and textures, but my central theme is always Black women. They’re the reason I create.

As for my process, it’s very chaotic. I’m very much in my maximalist era, so I have an idea then add fifty things on top of that. I have a general understanding of what I want to say, but honestly, everything, till I get to my final product, is often just trial and error. While I take my work seriously, I’m also aware that my work is very emotional so I often just have to trust my intuition and play around with textures, colors, and patterns till they feel right.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

As an artist there’s always new work, so would love people to stay connected regardless. But majorly, I’m in an artist residency program with Wildxyz, they’re a platform, launching soon, that I think is really going to change things up because of their focus on building interactive experiences. The residency also paired me with a mentor as part of the program, Kate Vass. It’s been really exciting to access additional expertise as I move through the program. I’ll be dropping a generative collection with Wildxyz that I’m currently working on right now. I’m being extremely intentional, and it’s a lot of hard work so I can’t wait to see how it’s received.

ZafGod

ZafGod is a visual artist from Romania who lives and works in Bucharest. With a bachelor’s degree in graphics and a master of fine arts degree in painting, he has created his own eclectic style that encompasses both psychical and digital works. With his primary focus on digital media, ZafGod has continued to turn heads within the NFT space by consistently churning out eerie, intricate, and colorful animated pieces.

We had the opportunity to ask ZafGod a few questions about NFTs and his artistic process.

How did you first become interested/involved in NFTs?

I first got involved in NFTs at the beginning of November 2020 when I randomly searched one night for alternative ways to sell my work. I discovered OpenSea, and from there I fell down the rabbit hole, and a new world of possibility opened up to me. It has really helped me grow as an artist, it’s fantastic!

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

I wouldn’t say I’m interested in a specific style. Instead, I enjoy experimenting and learning new things. I make every effort to broaden my horizons. I call it “Future Mixed Media” because it’s an eclectic combination of traditional techniques and new media. So even though it is an outcome of my witnessing, my art is more about your seeing than it is about mine. I’m also enchanted by the sense of presence. That is, space in which you experience a presence, nearly akin to an entity. That physical sensation and power that space may provide.

As far as the process goes, it’s trial and error and a lot of freestyle. I’m inspired by the music scene and the idea of freestyle, so I wanted to bring some of that freedom to my process. Besides that, each technique has its own process, so I mix them up until I am satisfied with the results.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

The first piece that I dropped on SuperRare: OMEN 17. It resembles one of my most predominant styles of painting.

The post Next Up: Five Ones to Watch in September 2022 appeared first on nft now.

The Alpha:

An alleged “terrorist sympathizer” just minted an ISIS announcement — along with two pieces of ISIS propaganda — as NFTs, according to an initial report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).Since their discovery on public NFT marketplaces Rarible and OpenSea, the “terror NFTs” have been delisted.As part of the WSJ report, intelligence experts believe terror groups could use blockchain technology to raise funding for terror campaigns.

Why it matters:

So why mint these “terror NFT” in the first place? It’s all about the blockchain. The alleged “terrorist sympathizer” may have turned to NFTs due to their inherently immutable and inalterable properties, according to the WSJ report. Despite being taken down from public NFT marketplaces, these illicit NFTs remain fixed within their respective blockchains. All it would take to access these images once more is knowledge of their specific addresses, and they’re free to be distributed once more.

This was corroborated by an interview Cointelegraph held with Jihadoscope Co-Founder Raphael Gluck, who referred to these images as “an experiment […] to find ways to make content indestructible.” Jihadoscope was the first to discover the NFTs, posting its discovery on social media late in August 2022.

What’s next:

Nonprofit organizations have long utilized NFTs and blockchain technology to raise much-needed funding for all sorts of noble causes, worldwide. Even the Ukrainian government has called on NFTs to help fund its defense efforts in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Unfortunately, the openness inherent to NFTs has also invited bad actors to take advantage of this new decentralized means of acquiring funding. The decentralized aspect of this means of fundraising is key. Through this, organizations — even small countries — could harness the power of this technology to gather funds from all over the world, even without proper trade and diplomatic relations with more cash-flush nations.

The world economy has taken a harsh stance against countries under unsavory leadership for decades, if not longer. Take the ongoing mass exodus in Venezuela, for example. Lacking proper diplomatic relations with the U.S., not even the promises of economic growth from its new leadership could provide hundreds and thousands of citizens the confidence to remain there long-term. Situations like these run counter to the promise of a decentralized world the blockchain hopes to achieve — and give desperate actors further motivation to engage with it.

Read more:

The New Use For NFTs? Funding DefenseA New Project Uses NFTs to Feed Ukrainians Impacted by WarA Russian Artist Filmed Her Burning Passport to Make an NFT to Aid UkrainePussy Riot Founder Shares How NFTs Can Empower Activism

The post ISIS Is Minting Propaganda: When NFTs Put Lives on the Line appeared first on nft now.

The DeGods NFT community is shaking up the NFT space in a big way. With a current floor price of 529.9 SOL, or more than $17,000 (as of writing), the DeGods collection has shot up into the top five most valuable NFT collections across all chains, coming in after Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and Moonbirds.

The collection has more than 4,300 unique owners and is one of the highest-ranked Solana projects on both OpenSea and Magic Eden. One of the most well-known and respected Solana-based projects, the approach of the DeGods y00ts mint, which launches Friday, September 2, has only caused DeGods to rise even further in popularity. The project saw more than 97,000 SOL ($3 million) in sales in the week before the release of the y00ts collection.

Y00ts attracted the interest of several celebrities, including Allen Iverson, Wayne Rooney, Howie Mandel, and more. So, given the imminent drop, the hype, and DeGods’ Cinderella story comeback from the end of 2021, now is an excellent time to refresh your knowledge on what the DeGods project is, and how it’s changing the face of Solana NFTs.

What are DeGods NFTs?

DeGods is a deflationary 10k PFP collection of gods clad in a creative aesthetic combination of modern streetwear-meets-ancient-deity vibes, with an emphasis on building utility for its community.

How many DeGods are there?

There are currently 9,465 DeGods NFTs in existence, as the team has burned the remaining 535 (more on that later). They feature various traits ranging from Common to Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, and Mythic. Some of the Super Rare and Mythic traits in the collection include the Divine Robe, the Heaven background, Night Vision Goggles, the Mythic Helmet, Smoke Ring, and more. The rarest trait in the collection is the Medusa Head, of which there are only 25 in existence.

Where can you buy DeGods?

Collectors can purchase DeGods NFTs on the Magic Eden, Alpha Art, OpenSea, and Solanart marketplaces.

Affecting the value of the entire collection further is the fact that DeGods NFTs can be burned.

When the Degods team first announced the project on Twitter in September 2021, they did so by detailing its plans to institute what it called a “Paperhands Bitch Tax;” a 33.3-percent tax levied at anyone who listed their DeGods NFT below the mint price. For a time, project developers sent the funds from that tax to a treasury wallet that they used to buy back the cheapest DeGods NFTs on the market.

And here’s where things get interesting: The DeGods team burned all 535 of the NFTs it bought back with this treasury wallet. This resulted in the lowest ranking pieces in the collection, those in the Common category, becoming increasingly rare and driving up the collection’s value overall.

What are DeadGods?

DeadGods was the DeGods NFT upgrade that allowed collectors to buy a “fine art” version of their existing NFT. Starting on March 31, 2022, DeGods holders could pay 1,000 DUST (the community’s utility token) to obtain the new version of their NFTs (which featured the same rarity but had their attributes re-illustrated). As the team added the DeadGods NFTs to the metadata of collectors’ original NFTs, they are considered the same and can’t be sold separately. In this way, the introduction of DeadGods didn’t inflate the collection’s supply while adding to its value. It was a much-needed shot in the arm for holders and grabbed the attention of many people outside the community. The new NFTs look like undead and decrepit versions of their original counterparts, and the community celebrated the artistic upgrade.

When did DeGods mint? 

DeGods minted on the Solana blockchain on October 8, 2021, for a price of 3 SOL each. And while the team did a great job of building anticipation for the collection, both the lead-up to the mint and its immediate aftermath saw a great deal of controversy.

The DeGods team had offered allowlist spots to community members through “bounties,” essentially having people film themselves doing pushups or chatting about the project to friends and family members. Unfortunately, bots mucked up the mint, causing the project to sell out in less than ten seconds. Thousands were unable to mint, and the community quickly labeled the project a rug pull. The floor price crashed, and the team set out to build the project back up.

In the coming months, they launched a handful of products, like de.xyz, a webpage dedicated to providing people with Solana NFT resources, and DePalace, the project’s “private forum.” Regardless, the project’s floor kept plummeting. Things were going so badly by November 2021 that at least one team member claimed developers felt like abandoning the project altogether.

In January 2022, DeGods axed the Paperhand Bitch Tax once and for all and introduced the DUST token. Shortly after the token launch, the team relaunched the DeGods collection with the DeadGods upgrade, and things began to turn around for the project.

What is DeDAO? 

DeDao is the community’s decentralized autonomous organization. It gets its funding from the DeGods’ 9.99 percent marketplace fee, which is split into two parts. 6.66 percent goes to DeDAO to help fund project development, while the remaining 3.33 percent goes directly to the core team.

The DeDAO leadership, which consists of DAO Leads, The Divine Council, and the DeAlpha Team, also holds community raffles and works together to decide on DAO acquisitions.

For example, one of these acquisitions saw DeDAO buy a basketball team in Ice Cube’s Big3 Basketball League.

What is DUST?

DUST is the DeGods community token created to drive utility in the project further. It is an SPL token on the Solana blockchain with zero starting supply. The team aims to cap the supply of DUST at 33,300,000. The only way to mine DUST is to stake a DeGods or DeadGods NFT. Staked DeGods earn 2.5 DUST per day, while staked DeadGods earn 7.5 DUST per day. However, DUST is listed on the DEX Raydium and is available for purchase with SOL.

The leading utility of the token is to transform your DeGod into a DeadGod, but collectors can also use it to take part in raffles, auctions, and mint future collections. And while the community has only staked 3.6 percent of DeGods, it has also staked a whopping 95.8 percent of DeadGods.

The DeGods team also claims that the DeDAO will actively seek out opportunities to integrate DUST utility into other significant projects in the Solana Ecosystem. Rumors have swirled that to mint one of the 15,000 y00ts NFTs, collectors will have to part ways with 375 DUST, but one of the DeGods founders, Frank, has played down this alleged condition. 

Overall, the project and its leadership have shown themselves to be incredibly resilient, putting some serious respect on the Solana name in the NFT community in the process. If you scroll down to the bottom of the DeGods’ website, you’ll find three short sentences encapsulating the developers’ approach to their NFT community: “We tried some shit. We Learned some shit. Now we’re trying some new shit.” It’s the perfect encapsulation of the attitude Web3 entities should adopt if they want to create something of substance, whether in a crypto winter or not.

The post DeGods and y00ts NFTs: A Guide to the Ultimate Comeback Story appeared first on nft now.