Poolside Puffers Project Update - All funds donated!

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2 years ago

Topics: Bitcoin Cash, NFT, Art, Defi, Fundraising, ...

In my first post I shared the launch of Poolside Puffers, an NFT project on SmartBCH. The project was a huge success and sold out in just 3 days! I'm happy to announce that all funds raised from the minting of Poolside Puffers, in addition to direct donations, have been paid out to the Da Nang Orphanage Center. I want to thank everyone who participated in this fun project. This was the first project of its kind on SmartBCH and I hope that it inspires others to try NFT collectibles which support a good cause.

Financial Update

Together the community managed to raise 7.35 BCH via minting Poolside Puffer NFT's, in addition to direct donations of 0.08 BCH. Amounting to 7.43BCH in total. At the current rate of ~$610 USD per BCH that means we managed to raise ~$4,532.30. For folks in the crypto space this might not seem like a huge amount. Here in Vietnam however, that type of money can go a long ways to support an Orphanage that has had limited support since Covid Lockdowns prevented a huge percentage of the population from working. As you can imagine, donations typically are the first to fall to the way side when people run into financial problems.

After selling BCH to Vietnamese Dong via Cash2vn and withdrawing from our bank account, Poolside Puffers ended up with a donation of 103,700,000 VND.

My wife and I met Mr. Huynh Van Hau, Vice Manager in the morning of October 9, 2021 at the Orphanage and presented him with the cash. He was extremely grateful and explained the money would go a long ways to support the children's food, education, and supplies to support the younger children including baby formula, diapers, and medicine.

I've included some photos and details at the end of this post regarding the transaction history for transparency.

NFT's as fundraising tools

There is something powerful about raising funds via NFT collectibles. Especially when there is scarcity and rarity built into the artwork. One of my co-workers said it best, this feels like opening up a Kinder Surprise - the chocolate covered eggs with random toys inside. The donation is the chocolate, you feel like a good person for supporting good causes. The collectible you receive is the random toy which you get to keep forever. Or sell on the open market to someone interested in your toy. Or in this case, a cartoon puffer fish with various unique traits including colours, accessories, and backgrounds.

NFT Collectibles as Social Clout

Holding a Poolside Puffer now has also become a mild form of "proof of social good". By having a puffer in their collectibles, or as a profile picture, people can proudly signal philanthropic good or simply early smartBCH adopter flex. This is similar to the way that wearing an expensive watch signals wealth and may increase the wearers perceived value to others.

Rarity increases fun

I suspect without some traits being more rare than others, this project may not have been so successful. If you joined the community telegram you would have seen people minting more than they may have otherwise, in the hopes of catching a 3-4 diamond Puffer Fish. Several folks were on the hunt for Puffer Fish with animated backgrounds, cigarettes, joints, or the Pit Viper Sunglasses (known as Summer Shades in the traits).

Photo by Andrew Todd - 4 Diamond Puffer Holder

Throughout the minting process it also became apparent that there were some more rare Puffers that weren't baked into the traits. Single coloured Puffer Fish, which soon became known as Purebloods, became the must have Puffer. By the end of the minting it was discovered there is only 3 purebloods. The community expanded its search for rarity, looking at duotone (2 colour only) Puffer Fish which the community called Half Breeds. Modifying the card artwork to support these pieces of rarity kept the community engaged. This kind of rarity filled intrigue drove interest, and pushed people to mint (donate) more.

After all, if your donation returns you a rare puffer that someday can be sold on an NFT marketplace, you may end up coming out on top in the end.

Running your own NFT Project on SmartBCH

If you're interested in running your own NFT project, you'll require some base level skills in solidity, javascript, and web3. You'll also need to know how to create some intriguing art, and understand how to build artwork using layers of multiple transparent PNG's. Working with an illustrator would probably be wise so long as you can explain exactly what you're after.

For those starting, check out this great walkthrough on how CryptoPunks are built.

https://github.com/cryptopunksnotdead/programming-cryptopunks

Then I'd recommend checking out the Boring Banana's Company along with their Github (https://github.com/vortextemporum/BoringBananasCompany) which is what Poolside Puffers forked. Their repo also includes the image generation script in python which makes it very easy to create your own programmatic art.

For those more serious about learning how to build their own NFT, you can also purchase a Boring Banana on OpenSea (ETH). If you visit their Discord server, you can show proof of ownership of your NFT which unlocks their community development channel which includes several very detailed guides and youtube videos that walk you through all aspects of the code. The dev community is very helpful there. Lots of valuable insights to be had there. If you're looking for a crash course on NFT creation, buying a Boring Banana is probably the fastest way to get up to speed.

What's next for Poolside Puffers

I've worked on a few updates to the dApp including:

✅ Ability to transfer NFT's to other addresses

✅ Diamond Rating based on Rarity of Traits

✅ Enhancements to card interface to showcase Pureblood and Halfblood Puffers

🐢 I'm in the process of building our a full collection page to show all puffers including the ones you don't own.

🤔 I might someday do another Poolside Puffer collection, TBD! Follow in Telegram for updates on that.

Bitcoin.com work keeps me very busy, and our team have got some amazing updates coming out very soon, so my focus will be there more so than the smartBCH NFT space. For now I'm really looking forward to seeing what the community comes up with next. I just hope my NFT project inspires others!

Who will emerge in the SmartBCH as the first professional NFT market? What other great ideas will people bring over from other EVM chains, and what unique ideas will people come up on SmartBCH? Can't wait to see where it all goes.

Thank you everyone for your support!

Corbin