Talking Crypto #61 - Chichi From Degen'$ Farm
Primer: Chichi is the founder of Degen'$ Farm, a gamified NFT collectible project. In this episode of Talking Crypto, he shares with Gabriel Haines his background, how he entered the crypto space, and the inspiration behind Degen'$ Farm.
Background
Came from the music scene
Running a record label for 10 years
Co-runs a club
Entered the crypto space in 2017 as an anonymous person. Wanted to have the freedom to be whoever he wants to be
Collector of vinyl records and art
His Early Days In Crypto
Early on, doubled his money in Bitcoin
Went all-in and lost quite a lot when the bear market arrived
Had to work twice as hard to recoup the losses
Divided his life into 2 parts:
One part is pure art. When he releases music, it is solely about the music. Does not care whether he gets his money back or not
Other side is his professional side. Account planner/strategic planner in different communication agencies
Coming Back To Crypto
Still keeping tabs on crypto during the bear market
In 2020, realized that the entire crypto landscape has changed
Followed Degenspartan and Redphonecrypto
Redphonecrypto's 95 Theses opened the world to him
Immediately realized that he wanted to spend his next decade in the crypto community
"So we're talking about the DeFi summer, we're talking about Yearn, we're talking about Curve Finance, we're talking about Aave and Compound and I realized that wow, this thing is actually working. And this really gives financial freedom, and it helps the world. And I was really, really amazed by how fast actually, people were like delivering cool products on Ethereum." - Chichi Gonzales
On NFTs
Empowering Artists
More into the NFT world than the DeFi world
This is just the beginning for NFTs
NFTs are leveraging creativity
Have always been surrounded by artists and musicians. They are struggling to survive by doing what they do
NFTs enable them to monetize their creativity/work
Examples
Previously, artists doing generative art were not able to live on their earnings. Now, they can sell their pieces and make a living out of it
"Five years ago, if you are doing something like that [programmable art], you have a nice, cool gig. Like, yeah, gig. Have fun staying poor or go to the university and teach people how to do that. And, oh, you want to sell it? Oh, good luck, man. And we're now in 2021. And it's like, I think one of the best professions you can actually have is programmable art." - Chichi Gonzales
Genre of hand-drawn animation is dying. NFTs gave artists the opportunity to revive that genre
eBoy, one of the pioneering groups of Pixel Artists, is now on Foundation and can earn a living from their work
The Shift To The Digital World
Our lives changed drastically and we started to value digital stuff
In 2021, Damien Hirst was experimenting whether people would prefer the real-life version of The Currency or a digital one
The blockchain is transparent and enables people to verify ownership of their digital assets
Blockchain facilitates the sale of NFTs. Do not need to source for a dealer to close a sale
Degen'$ Farm
Degen'$ Farm is a gamified collectible that is tightly connected with DeFi culture
Starting Degen'$ Farm
Was fascinated by the DeFi landscape
Really into pixel art. Was from the generation that grew up playing games designed with pixel art
Wanted to make a snapshot of the current DeFi landscape and to tweak the distribution model of NFTs
Did not like the the existing NFT distribution model:
Be on time
Win the gas war
Hopefully become the lucky one to get the special NFT
Started production in January
Inspired by yield farming and the saying "It ain't much, but it's honest work"
Users buy BAGZ, which could be opened to reveal a creature or a land. Creatures are farmed on land, with the latter being consumed by the process. At the end of each cycle of farming, your creature either level up to its next form (normies —> chad —> degen) or produces DUNG, which could be used for additional farming.
Total of 2420 creatures
Of which, 2000 are sitting in BAGZ and the remaining 420 has to be farmed
"I think it's gonna be a really good proof of degen in a way that in year 2021, you were crazy enough to burn those lands and to breed this fucking chad." - Chichi Gonzales
Their Team
8 people on the team
He was the one that came up with the idea (name, structure, balance)
Friend doing the art for all the creatures
Another friend is helping out with the technical stuff
3 people from creative department
1 blockchain developer with huge experience in mobile gaming
Couple of coders in charge of frontend and prototyping
1 business developer and himself working on marketing, communications, and strategy
How Do They Make Money
Mainly from selling BAGZ
Thinking about implementing a percentage from secondary sales
Future Developments
Thinking about future projects and how they can give special access to those who have been supporting them
Thinking of how to bring their creatures into a 3D world
Used Meebits as a guide. If someone holds both their creature and a Meebit, they will be able to create a unique 3D version of the creature in the Metaverse
Negotiating with several game developers to develop a game. Currently, they are investigating games that have already been built inside a Metaverse
Getting To Know People
Initially, found it difficult to build relationships in the space
Contacted plenty of people but received few responses
First person he showed his project to was Redphonecrypto. Received a response from him and it was a huge boost to their confidence
Established their reputation but people were just not paying attention to their product
Chainlink community supported them. ChainLinkGod retweeted their project
"Definitely got to keep hustling, you got to keep pushing, you got to keep working. It doesn't come easy." - Gabriel Haines
Took small steps and eventually built their reputation further
On The Metaverse
His First NFT
Participated in the first Decentraland auction
Has a parcel in a community-owned district
Don't have any exposure to the Sandbox Game
Gabriel: How Should I Explore Decentraland?
Just randomly walk around in Decentraland
Sometime you can find some crazy stuff that someone built
In Vegas City in Decentraland, they created a street of galleries. Fun place to walk around
How Can Listeners Take Action
Grab some BAGZ from the link here and start farming
Can consider holding an unopened BAGZ as they may appreciate in value over the long term
Do some arbitrage. Price of land on secondary markets is 0.14 ETH. If users grab a BAGZ at 0.1 ETH and open it to reveal land, they can sell it on secondary markets for a profit
Can use rarity.tools to find out which creatures lack a chad form and begin farming a chad form for that creature
Can focus on farming certain animals or collecting them
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