In the world of blockchain and digital assets, NFTs emerged as one of the most talked-about recent trends. Last year saw NFTs go mainstream with more and more creators, brands, and celebrities joining the Web3 bandwagon. 

However, amidst the sea of NFT projects, only a select few were able to make a lasting impact and stand out for their innovation and creativity.

In this article, we will take a closer look at five NFT projects that truly drove meaningful change, showcasing unique and out-of-the-box uses of this revolutionary technology.

Article Outline

• 1/ Sappy Seals - Content Creation

• 2/ Azuki - Phygital Fashion

• 3/ ZenAcademy - Soul Bound NFTs

• 4/ The Memes by 6529 - Open-Source IP

• 5/ Nouns - Decentralized Ethos

• Closing Remarks

1/ Sappy Seals - Content Creation

Sappy Seals is a Web3 brand that has effectively showcased how significant a role communities play in establishing a robust brand within the NFT space.

Apart from creating a formidable gaming and DeFi ecosystem within their Pixlverse ecosystem, Sappy Seals have also positioned themselves as a hub for content creators through the launch of the Meme Machine. 

This platform enables NFT holders to develop customized memes using their Sappy Seals, effectively becoming an incubator for content creators. To simplify the process, the platform features a browser extension called Sappy React, allowing users to access generative memes directly from their desktop.

The Seals have earned a reputation for being pioneers in the NFT space, and once again, they've caught people's attention through their Bitcoin Digital Artifacts challenges.

These challenges provided users with the opportunity to win one of 101 free Bitcoin Digital Artifacts by participating in various competitions, including auctions, riddle-solving, and content creation. The team effectively utilized their Meme Machine platform during the challenges, where participants had to hunt for clues in some of the templates offered on the platform.

If you're interested in learning more about Sappy Seals and their plans for the future, we've recently published a useful guide "Sappy Seals: From Memes to Leading Content Creation in Web3."

2/ Azuki - Phygital Fashion

Launched by Chiru Labs in January 2022, Azuki is a collection of 10,000 avatars each granting its owner membership to an online club named The Garden. Thanks to its unique art style, the collection gained instant success, and quickly became one of the most prominent in the NFT industry.

Azuki positions itself as a brand for the metaverse, commencing with exclusive streetwear collaborations, NFT releases, live events, and additional undisclosed ventures in the future.

Apart from having introduced the ERC-721A protocol, a more gas-efficient standard, allowing users to mint multiple NFTs at a relatively low gas price, Azuki also introduced the Physical Backed Token (PBT), an open source token standard tying a physical item to a digital token on the Ethereum blockchain.

Azuki has been utilizing PBTs to explore the limits of "phygital" fashion, blending physical and digital elements. They've partnered with AMBUSH to release several limited-edition collectibles, the latest being the Twin Tiger Jackets, which have received significant online attention and praise.

Twitter user @toyninja summed it up best by saying:

“It’s not just a jacket, but a luxury product.” - @toyninja

3/ ZenAcademy - Soul Bound NFTs

Founded by Zeneca, ZenAcademy has grown to become a Web3 home for many newcomers, artists, developers, project founders, and self professed degens all around the NFT space. With a mission “to empower [holders] with the tools, opportunities, and network to excel in Web3 and beyond” ZenAcademy has not fallen short on its promise.

ZenAcademy has recently introduced Student IDs, which are Soulbound NFTs designed to serve as an entry point into the entire ZenAcademy ecosystem. These IDs are Soulbound, implying that they cannot be sold or traded on secondary markets. Their primary purpose is to serve as a dynamic digital profile for users navigating the ZenAcademy ecosystem.

These free to mint passes have an unlimited supply, as their goal is to onboard as many entrants as possible into the ZenAcademy ecosystem. In the words of Zeneca:

“This is the next step in onboarding the first million.” - Zeneca

In the future, there will be unique badges that students can earn and display on their Student IDs, as well as the ability to feature their profile picture (PFP) and many more customization options.

While much of the functionality of these IDs is yet to be released, ZenAcademy has been able to find a very creative way to reward active members of its ecosystem through the use of Soulbound NFTs.

4/ The Memes by 6529 - Open-Source IP

Founded by Punk6529, The Memes by 6529 is a collection of art NFTs whose goal is “to spread the message of decentralization, in a way that tweetstorms, policy papers and podcasts can't.”

The Memes Collection aims to promote the ideals of the open metaverse, which include decentralization, community, and self-sovereignty, and to disseminate this message to a broad audience through accessible means. The Memes are affordable large edition, CC0 (public domain) NFTs, that can be remixed (ReMemed) and reinterpreted, with the goal of allowing as many people to participate.

The Memes advocate for permissionless NFTs on decentralized public blockchains to be the default ownership layer for digital assets such as profile pictures, avatars, artwork, virtual spaces, game objects, and identities. The team refers to this as "the open metaverse," and believes that application providers should acknowledge this ownership layer.

While the artist for the initial cards is 6529er, the bulk of the collection’s pieces are collaborations with other great artists such as Grant Riven Yun, OSF, DirtyRobot, XCOPY, Zuphioh,  to name a few.

Additionally, given the Meme Cards NFTs are CC0, anyone can use them to make derivative works, called the ReMemes, which stand at the heart of The Memes community and core to their mission. 

The ReMemes are a diverse collection of works, ranging from copies of The Memes to original and intricate pieces created by independent creators. They are sold and minted in various formats, at different prices, on separate contracts, and without the need for permission. 

The Memes believe that the ReMemes will be the primary means of disseminating their message to a broader audience across the globe. The ReMemers operate independently, and owning a Meme Card is not necessary to participate. The Memes aim to support the ReMemes community by providing user-friendly tools for distribution plans and establishing an on-chain registry to display the works.

5/ Nouns - Decentralized Ethos

Nouns is another NFT project that is pushing the boundaries of decentralization and innovation to a new level. 

The project has introduced a unique distribution method and open-source IP, which has resulted in its distinct pixelated specs being featured everywhere from beer cans to movies.

Unlike other popular PFP NFTs like CryptoPunks or Bored Ape Yacht Club where the supply is finite and is all made available upon the start of mint, Nouns are a creative experiment where a new Noun is generated every 24 hours and put up for auction. 

Once the auction concludes, another unique Noun is minted, and the process repeats, forever. The proceeds from all auctions are then sent directly to the DAO’s treasury. To date, the Nouns DAO has collected well over 29,000 ETH, or about $43.5 million USD in its treasury.

Noun holders can participate in the Nouns DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization responsible for managing and overseeing the project. Members of the DAO can contribute by voting on proposals that will be financed by the treasury. 

They can also suggest proposals and vote on them, or delegate their voting power to other members. The aim is to fund projects that are unique and captivating to increase Noun's brand recognition and attract more people to join the community.

So far, the Nouns DAO has financed various projects, such as:

• Featuring Nouns glasses in a 2022 Super Bowl commercial. The proposal offered a Nouns NFT to a company that would feature the glasses in the ad, and Bud Light won the auction and used the NFT in their commercial. As part of the deal, Bud Light also changed their Twitter profile picture to a Nouns NFT.

• Creating a comedic documentary called "Nouns Around Town," proposed by the creators of Robot Chicken. The project was able to raise 609 ETH in funding and focused on the Nouns DAO's efforts to have Nouns featured in the Rose Parade.

• Developing Nouns coffee, proposed by a team with experience in the coffee industry. The proposal raised 105 ETH in funding and aimed to create the first-ever consumable brand inspired by Nouns and make it available in cafes and grocery stores.

Moreover, Nouns is licensed as CC0, open-source, which implies that anyone can utilize the Nouns name and imagery to create anything, as it is freely available to the public. Consequently, this has resulted in a diverse range of Nouns merchandise and derivate NFT collections such as Noundles, Lil' Nouns, 3D Nouns, and NounPunks.

Although the Nouns DAO is named as a decentralized autonomous organization, it is not entirely decentralized. 

The Nouns Foundation can still reject proposals that it considers to have significant legal or existential risks to the Nouns DAO or the Nouns Foundation. 

Nevertheless, it stands out as one of the most remarkable examples of how a DAO can leverage the potential of NFTs in transforming simple pixelated PFPs into a widely recognized and valuable asset around the NFT space and outside it.

Closing Remarks

TL;DR

Here are the summarized points made throughout this article:

• Sappy Seals has demonstrated the importance of community in building a strong brand within the NFT space. They have not only created a gaming and DeFi ecosystem within their Pixlverse ecosystem but also established themselves as a content creator hub through their Meme Machine platform, which allows NFT holders to develop customized memes.

• Azuki is a brand for the metaverse that offers streetwear collaborations, NFT releases, live events, and other undisclosed ventures. They have introduced the ERC-721A protocol and the Physical Backed Token (PBT), which ties a physical item to a digital token on the Ethereum blockchain and have partnered with AMBUSH to release several limited-edition collectibles, including the Twin Tiger Jackets, which have been praised as a luxury product.

• ZenAcademy has introduced Student IDs, Soulbound NFTs, that serve as an entry point into their ecosystem. They cannot be sold or traded, but users can earn badges and display their profile picture in the future. ZenAcademy aims to onboard as many users as possible into their Web3 community.

• The Memes by 6529 is an affordable collection of art NFTs aiming to spread the message of decentralization and promote the ideals of the open metaverse. The CC0 NFTs can be remixed and reinterpreted, and the collection encourages the creation of ReMemes, diverse works by independent creators sold without permission, as the primary means of disseminating their message.

• Nouns is a unique NFT project where a new Noun is generated every 24 hours and put up for auction, and the proceeds are sent to the DAO's treasury. The Nouns DAO has financed various projects, including featuring Nouns glasses in a Super Bowl commercial and creating a comedic documentary called "Nouns Around Town."

At Origins we leverage data-driven decision-making, educational resources, and proprietary analytics to remain ahead of the curve with respect to blockchain tech and specifically NFTs. To find out more, please visit our website or Twitter.

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