The founding father of the Azuki non-fungible token (NFT) mission, Zagabond, has revealed that he was behind three unsuccessful NFT tasks earlier than creating Azuki.
In a weblog submit titled “A Builders Journey,” he identified that the teachings he realized from the three tasks helped him construct Azuki into what it’s at the moment.
CryptoPhunks, Tendies and CryptoZunk
The primary mission Zagabond created was CryptoPhunks, which parodied CryptoPunk.
Whereas his intention for constructing CyptoPhunks was to have a “mission which challenged the neighborhood to consider web3 copyright guidelines,” amongst different causes, not everybody noticed it that approach.
Larva Labs filed a DMCA takedown claiming this was copyright infringement, resulting in the gathering being delisted and relisted a number of instances on OpenSea. He ultimately handed the mission over to the neighborhood in July 2021.
The subsequent NFT mission he created was Tendies. Sadly, the mission didn’t generate sufficient curiosity, with solely 15% of it minting, resulting in the staff shutting down the mission.
In Zagabond’s opinion, this mission taught him a precious lesson. It confirmed that
Though memes have been highly effective, they may solely take us up to now… a mission wanted actual substance to create an enduring neighborhood.
The subsequent mission was CryptoZunk which targeted on creating an NFT mission with a singular minting expertise. He acknowledged that the failure of this mission was all the way down to the excessive fuel charges on Ethereum, making it very costly to mint.
Like the primary two tasks, this failed one was additionally a lesson. Zagabond mentioned these three tasks taught him that “blindly following the NFT meta doesn’t get you far.” He claims that every one the teachings from these tasks are actually being utilized to make Azuki successful.
Crypto neighborhood response
The response to the submit has been numerous. On one facet are Zachxbt and others who consider that this assertion is the equal of an admission of rug pulling three NFT tasks.
The blockchain sleuth alleged that the three tasks have been rug pulls as a result of the founders profited from them and subsequently deserted them.
Translation: so there’s three tasks you rugged prior to now 12 months
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) Might 9, 2022
Others who supported Zachxbt’s view identified varied situations that show these have been rug pulls. There are additionally allegations of Zunk devs pretending to be girls in order that they may promote the mission.
There was NO handoff when the Phunk devs left
Tendies rugged mid reveal
Zunks larped as girls and have been dishonest concerning the connection to Phunks (blocking us for asking questions)
When you do not suppose @ZAGABOND is a rip-off artist, you both maintain Azuki otherwise you’re a scammer your self.
— Chopper (@chopper__dad) Might 9, 2022
Nevertheless, some disagree with this line of thought and argue that not each failed NFT mission quantities to a rug pull. A person acknowledged that rug pull solely occurs when the founder didn’t intend to develop the mission.
No, a rug is when the founders by no means have any intention of truly constructing out the mission. These have been tasks that simply weren’t viable longterm and would have failed in any case in order that they moved on relatively than waste their time persevering with to try to make them one thing they weren’t.
— Retr0E8ght | Ryan (@Retr0E8ght) Might 9, 2022
Azuki ground value plummets
The ground value of Azuki NFTs reacted negatively to the revelation made by Zagabond.
In line with information on NFT Value Flooring, the typical sale value of the NFTs was round 18 ETH initially of the week however fell to as little as 10 ETH on Might 10 after Zagabond’s weblog submit.
Nevertheless, the weblog submit isn’t the one issue behind the decline, because the broader crypto market has witnessed an enormous sell-off in current days.
