summary: Moonbirds is a collection of 10,000 Ethereum NFTs featuring pixelated owl characters with randomized traits and features, giving holders intellectual property r...
content: Moonbirds is a collection of 10,000 Ethereum NFTs, each featuring a pixelated owl character with randomized traits and features. While there are shared characteristics among multiple images, no two NFTs are exactly alike. The project is similar to the Bored Apes and other profile picture (PFP) projects in regard to holders having intellectual property rights and the ability to create products, services, merchandise, and more. Moonbirds holders also have access to the PROOF Collective, a private community. PROOF Collective The PROOF Collective is an NFT-based membership club created by Kevin Rose, who is a tech founder (Digg, Revision3), Moonbirds founder, and a partner at VC firm True Ventures. Rose is a renowned NFT collector, and he converted his PROOF podcast into a private community that can be accessed with an NFT pass. It offers advantages such as free NFT drops, access to events and content, and other rewards to its holders. PROOF released 1,000 access pass NFTs in December 2021 via a Dutch Auction format, starting at 5 ETH. PROOF aims to bring together members of the NFT community, including early collectors and decision-makers, who collectively own more than 150,000 NFTs, including over 800 Bored Apes, nearly 500 MeeBits, and 148 CryptoPunks. Each PROOF NFT holder was gifted two Moonbird NFTs, which left 7,875 for the public. Moonbirds Launch In April 2022, Moonbirds released an inaugural collection of 10,000 pixelated owls, featuring firey hair, eye patches, mohawks, flower headbands, and colored eyes. Two Moonbirds NFTs were distributed to PROOF NFT holders, with the remaining 7,875 available to the NFT community. The Moonbirds collection had a set mint price of 2.5 ETH, approximately equivalent to $7,000 at the time, which was met with criticism from the NFT community regarding its level of accessibility. Despite this, the collection sold out within two days, and resales have been increasing on secondary marketplaces since the drop. Each Moonbird grants holders access to PROOF’s exclusive discord community and associated rewards, first dibs on PROOF’s upcoming metaverse project, Project Highrise, and additional rewards that increase in scale the longer holders keep their Moonbirds NFT. PROOF calls this process “nesting” — Moonbirds’ version of NFT staking — by which holders lock up their assets in exchange for passive crypto income, potential rewards, and other benefits. While Moonbirds are within their nesting period, they can’t be sold on secondary marketplaces. !image Growth and Leadership Challenges Following the Moonbirds launch, Kevin Rose detailed in a YouTube video that proceeds from the first Moonbirds collection will be used to build a new media company. "many different benefits are coming to collectors over the coming years and this is the very beginning of what's going to be a multi-decade journey to build a new media company" - Kevin Rose On April 25, 2022, co-founder, and COO Ryan Carson announced on Twitter that he was stepping down to focus on his NFT investment firm, the 1.21 Gigawatts fund. This was Carson’s first time mentioning he was involved in said fund. The NFT community discovered that Carson’s purchase of $580,000 worth of Moonbird NFTs, some of which were rare, on launch day from a secondary marketplace, was the reason behind his controversial exit. This has been seen as a possible conflict of interest, given that Carson had knowledge of the project's inner workings, including the rarity numbers of the collection. This is known as "NFT sniping" — when stakeholders purchase rare NFTs on secondary marketplaces at lower prices before their values increase. Kevin Rose hosted a town hall on Twitter Spaces to discuss Carson’s departure and encourage the community to remain invested in the project. Rose also stated that Carson will remain a shareholder and PROOF community member. “We are not the next Yuga Labs or Crypto Punks, we’re PROOF and we're going to keep being PROOF and we're confident that alone is a reason why we want to be here,” — Rose said towards the end of the Spaces. Around the same time on April 25, 2022, Alexis Ohanian — co-founder of Reddit, joined as an investor, with his Seven Seven Six firm investing $10 million into PROOF as it scales its media and community plans. Moonbirds Oddities The Oddities collection of Moonbirds was launched in May 2022, one month after the launch of Moonbirds, containing 10,000 'Moonbird pellets' designed by industry veteran Gremplin, artist of CrypToadz and Noun. The artwork for the collection was revealed two months later in July. Kevin Rose confirmed that the Moonbirds Oddities Twitter account is associated with the Moonbirds project and that a holder has “to be nested to be ready to receive an oddity.” !image Moonbirds Mythics Kevin Rose and Justin Mezzell introduced Moonbirds Mythics, a 20,000 collection PFP project featuring Moonbirds-inspired art, on August 30, 2022, during the Future PROOF. Holders of Oddities may be eligible to receive a Mythic when nesting Moonbirds, though the exact distribution of Mythics is highly contested and may be subject to change based on messages from Rose in the PROOF Collective Discord. Rose and Mezzell unveiled several drawings at Future Proof, emphasizing that the drawings were not final. The art featured sketches of owls, one with a black-and-white Chromie Squiggle and another with a sleeping hoodie. “I love the idea of really thinking about the Mythics being these collectors of art and culture and creativity,” — Mezzell said. !image Moonbirds DAO The Moonbirds project plans to adopt community governance through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) set to launch by the end of February 2023. Kevin Rose's startup will associate the DAO with property worth approximately $2.6 million, including $2 million worth of ETH and approximately $500,000 worth of Moonbirds NFTs, and seven DAOs (or approximately $100,000) worth of Proof of Your Own Moonbirds NFTs. This is estimated to be 37 NFTs based on the current floor price (or the cheapest available NFTs). 