Anonymice: The Next Bluechip

Anonymice: The Next Bluechip

Thanks to @grantland.eth I stumbled across one of the most innovating projects in the space, The Anonymice. NFTs are entering uncharted territories and if you’re reading this we are truly pioneers. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the amount of value that can be created by this technology. A segment of the NFT market that has really caught my attention lately is the cross of NFTs and DEFI.

Anonymice is the kind of project that you can brag to your grandkids about that you were there and got in early. The developers of the project released them with no website, no major promotion, just on chain smart contracts and the promise of decentralization of the Ethereum blockchain. The Anonymice had an initial supply of 10,000 mice, but with a major twist. The first 2000, were free to mint, only the gas fees were to be paid to the network. With no web UI, users had to interact with the smart contract directly.

The remaining 8,000 is where things got even more interesting. Each of these mice minted came with the ability to earn the token $CHEETH. This utility token could only be acquired by staking your mice into a smart contract. Once staked, users started earning their $CHEETH and had the tools to claim another one of the 8,000 mice. This was accomplished via a tiered system, the remaining mice were then able to be claimed by the amount of $CHEETH required for the next tier until sold out.

To take this to another level, holders had the ability to burn their mice in hopes of getting one with rarer traits. Not only did this give users another chance to get a super rare mice, but also it decreased the total supply making the mice more scarce. This kind of gamification was quickly taken notice. Users that were able to mint multiple mice started staking right away. Others sold their $CHEETH, whereas some sent their mice to a fiery inferno. In only a few short days the project went from a free mint to now over a 3 ETH floor.

As an NFT investor, I strive to not only love the art I invest in, but also invest my money in outstanding teams that provide constant utility to its holders. The team behind the Anonymice ethos really clicked with me. Instead of taking the traditional route of most 10k projects, the mice are not hosted on any IPFS. 

These mice are fully on chain. No matter what happens; if the Ethereum network runs, your mice will be there. Even through all the project’s success the team has decided not to take any royalties in the secondary market. Instead, they have their heads down planning more use cases for $CHEETH with the upcoming breeding and mutation system (and just like the rest of the project everything is on chain!).

Occasionally, a talented group of developers (kudos to the team of 2 here!) prove that code can be just as beautiful as the art. This kind of grass roots, true to decentralization approach is what is needed in the space. This ethos is what drives communities forward and allows people to rally around an idea.

So much so, there are already community-built projects ranging from a web UI that allows holders to interact with it instead of the smart contact, a dune analytics page that tracks the stats of the Anonymice, A graveyard that shows all the burned mice, and a creator that helped turn SVG images into PNG images.

The innovation here is so new that our current infrastructure has a hard time keeping up. The numbers that are listed on Opensea are all wrong. Currently over 6,000 mice have been burned, a whooping 90% of the remaining mice are staked earning $CHEETH, and only around 300 or so are listed on Opensea for sale (which only will incur the 2.5% since the team decided not to take royalties on).

This type of community engagement is unprecedented and is paving the way for what an NFT project can be. Currently the devs are fighting the good fight to get the project verified on Opensea to keep users from investing in scams not affiliated with the team. Opensea has its reservations since they are arguing that this is a DEFI project.

Even without, the project has done almost 5k ETH volume in less than a week. NO matter if Opensea decides to but a blue check mark besides the collection or not, I know a blue chip when I see one and the Anonymice check all the boxes.