Contents

1. Gratitude
2. Honesty

3. Expectations
4. Reality
5. Choices
6. Free Mint
7. Amends
8. A New Direction
9. Final Thoughts

Dear Community,

1. Gratitude

First off I’m incredibly grateful to the ones who chose to take the pill & walk with us on this trip of love, art & good vibes. It’s been an amazing few weeks since we launched pH. Every day we are greeted with beautiful conversations in our Discord server. People are more than excited than ever to see their newly revealed Pillheads. This truly gives me & the team a sense of fulfillment & hope.

2. Honesty

I understand this will be disappointing for a few, but here’s the truth.
We haven’t sold out.

We believed that we had a chance even when the odds were stacked against us.
We thought that people saw what we’ve been pursuing & pushing for.
We hoped for a better outcome and situation than the one we are in right now.

We believed that art could win.

3. Expectations

When we first set about on this generative journey as a team, it was a very different time in the NFT space. Dreams seemed achievable more quickly because of the nature of web3. The sentiment of ‘we’re gonna make it’ was echoing across the Metaverse. Projects sold out as quickly as they launched. After consistently showing up every single day for the past 1 year & making countless connections during this time; the thought of exploring a generative project seemed like an attainable dream in my journey as a digital artist.

4. Reality

It saddens me to know that despite the insane amount of hard work, passion, and resources that the team & I have poured into this: At the time of writing, we are sitting at 631 Pillheads mints & 237 Pillheads holders. The project now requires a different direction, and changes will be made. But this does not invalidate the vision that we shared or the statements that we made.

We know who we are, what we have created & where we stand.

Although this seems disappointing, this is not the end. This is a chance for us to pivot in our approach and find a different way to make Pillheads the success we all want it to be - but not in the way that we imagined.

5. Choices

Some voices in the community suggested that we drop the price. However dropping the price to anything below 0.1 ETH felt like an injustice to me, my art & my team.

We would’ve taken this call of a price drop much earlier in this journey if it were an option that we thought was worth considering - with factors like my investment to date, the schedule of deliverables, team recompense & the constantly changing market.

Yes, there may be other options that are worth exploring, like trying to push harder with our marketing or capping the mint. This would also mean that our exhausted funds, resources & energy would stay stuck in this stage of minting while we would not even get a chance to do more. That doesn’t sit right with me.

Other voices in the community suggested that we need to have patience. As much as I agree with this truth - it will not guarantee that a Pillhead will have a holder, or that a sellout would be achievable in the next few months based on the very fact that we are in the worst & unpredictable market that NFTs have ever seen.

Things are changing very quickly here.

I’ve seen projects not mint out, and eventually sell the entire supply over a period of a few months. And I’ve also seen projects with mint still live even today, with no progress. I do not want Pillheads to meet that same fate. I feel that we need to take action now when there is still an opportunity, before the tides in web3 shift to a new Meta.

If we’re constantly worried about this phase of minting, we will not be able to move forward to do what I’ve always wanted to do with Pillheads. So we will continue to walk the path of the vision that was laid out but at a different pace, with a different approach. The bottom line: I do not see this as a failure.

6. Free Mint

We are a group of artists that do not see making money as our metric for success when it comes to Pillheads. I’m not even desperate to fill our wallets at the risk of losing a community. If every single one of these Pillheads does not land in a wallet & get revealed, then we have truly failed, at least in my eyes.
Keeping all of this in mind,

I’ve chosen to make the rest of the mint free, rather than drop the price. If that’s what it takes to get them out there, so be it.

I hope that you - our beloved community - value & protect the art as much as we do. Once we do take this approach of free mint, the value of the Pillhead will be set by each & every one of you. We still believe that we can rally enough people to build a strong foundation for the commune that we’re seeking to create. It falls in the hands of every holder to ensure we have a larger collective voice in the space to spread the vision & beliefs we began this initiative with. Just as it was essential to have your support with our previous step, we need your support for this next step more than ever.

7. Amends

This also brings us to a very important part of the discussion. I want to begin this new path by making sure that nobody feels misled, duped, or rugged in any manner. We’ve been having some tough discussions over the past week & the approach of fully refunding everyone who minted was carefully considered.

To be completely transparent: I personally have invested $76,000 USD into the Pillheads project since March of 2022. The high unforeseen costs were due to many reasons like render-farm failures & my effort to ensure that every single Pillhead was of the highest standard - just to name a few.
The project has made a primary revenue of 47.91 ETH to date. After distributing percentages to the team which they deserved (ranging from 1% to 14%), I now hold 25.87 ETH [21.08 ETH (44%) + 4.79 ETH (Community Funds)] from the project revenue.

■ I am not willing to take back the ETH that was distributed to my team, because they deserve that and a whole lot more.

■ I will be giving back everything I made to provide a 50% refund to everyone that minted using the 25.87 ETH

■ Holders will be airdropped 2 tokens for every Pillhead owned. So, for example, if you hold 3 Pillheads, then you will receive 6 Pillheads for free.

■ We will also record OG minters as our early investors, including a new role in the Discord server. We promise to provide first-in-line early access for all future deliverables from the Stacyverse.

8. A New Direction

I think it’s important to mention our stance on the secondary royalties now that things are different & we do not have a primary source of revenue. Secondary royalties from this project will be split across the team in various percentages. These split royalties will be distributed in perpetuity, for as long as the project lives on the blockchain. However, this step shall only be taken once I recoup the initial investment that went into getting Pillheads this far.

9. Final thoughts

I hope you understand where I come from, and why we have to take this step. I hope you embrace this new direction for Pillheads. I want to remind you of the Manifesto for Pillheads so that you know we are still the same at the very core of everything.

A message of caring. Creativity is medicine for the soul. By allowing inspiration to flourish, we nourish our personal well-being.

A message of hope. Even when things seem dark, imagination can lift us out of despair. Art is the ultimate chemical elevator.

A message of love. Visionaries are powered by love. When we come together as a community to experience positivity, we feed our souls & hearts.

I know I am not going anywhere and I can only speak for myself, not my team. This has been a hard ‘pill’ for all of us to swallow as a team and community. I respect that.

I’ve been here for more than a year and I will continue being here, creating every single day. Pillheads are a part of who I am in web3 & I shall work every single day to bring to it the glory that it deserves.

What do the next few weeks & months look like for Pillheads?
Wearable airdrops, holder art drops, physical toy pre-orders, community events - those are just a few things to look forward to!

Thank you for continuing to be here! ☻

With love, CFW