y00ts is a collection of 15.000 yeti-like PFP avatars made by the founding team of DeGods and is one of the most popular NFT projects in Solana. The project has received submissions from a number of high-profile individuals, including NFT influencers and football great Wayne Rooney.
What are y00ts?
y00ts is a collection of 15.000 NFTs on the Solana blockchain by Dust Labs, which is the team behind the DeGods NFT collection. The y00ts NFT collection features a single image of a sheep with multiple metadata overlaid to give y00ts its characteristics and attributes. Previously, y00ts NFT was known as Duppies, whose original plan was to become the extended collection of the DeGods ecosystem. y00ts has undoubtedly emerged as a notable standout in the NFT space, especially as it has attracted interest from a number of celebrities including Allen Iverson, Howie Mandel, Wayne Rooney, and more.
In July 2022, the project took an unexpected turn when the team announced Duppies mint in late July or early August. However, a Twitter hack spoiled the plans and the team stated, “We tried some shit. We learned shit. Now, we’re trying some new shit.” It looks like the creators of DeGods were right when they lured DeGods holders and NFT enthusiasts with a comeback. There is now a robust community of 15.000 eccentrics on Web3 who participated in the y00ts project using an innovative academic system and transparent currency list.
What makes this collection so special?
What makes this collection so special is the ‘y00ts Whitepaper’ which is its own version of copyright and licensing. Rather than a central entity controlling the project and its IP rights, the NFT collection will have a record of who is allowed to use the IP of NFTs. The collection has also gained hype for its ‘uniqueness’ as it has an original ‘bags’ feature where the team reviews and handpicks people who have applied and deem eligible enough to be whitelisted for the collection.
Copyright, IP and y00ts
The real differentiator in the y00ts collection is their approach to the rights and permissions they want to grant NFT holders. The current setting for most NFT collections is that holders protect IP rights only on the NFTs they own. The alternative is CCO, or creative commons, which realistically means that an NFT holder’s assets are stored in the public domain. When NFT holders want to build businesses, subcommunities, fan art, and more around their NFT, this often increases interest and, in turn, increases the value of the NFT. However, the current setup does not support the idea that the entire collection benefits.
The easiest way to think about the system described by y00ts is that ⓨ is used as a way of registering a copyright, with an NFT collection being the regulatory body. Each collection would have its own ⓨ registry, where it would be easy to track who is approved to use the NFT IP. This allows projects to endorse and deny usage requests at Web3 speed.
The team behind the project claims that y00ts is the testing ground for this new system ⓨ and is also transparent in their whitepaper that ‘this is a rough approximation of how we believe this system might work. Open to criticism and seeing how it plays out.’
Projects and workflow for y00ts
The main points of the project, the process flow and how the team sees it working are below:
- Holders can also hire artists to do commissioned work for them.
- Artists will own the IP of their work and collect a % of royalties
- Owners can purchase community-created traits in the store. Artists can also set the strokes to free if they want.
- Holders can only apply one custom feature to their NFTs per month. Custom features cannot change the feature’s shape/size/name. A t-shirt cannot be exchanged for a fur coat (it must also be the same size) It will not change the metadata.
- Community members can officially create and register subcommunities/sub-DAOs. They can charge SOL for entry. Collect a % royalty on all sales to your subcommunities
How ⓨ make money from creators?
With the ⓨ registration, the y00ts team thinks they can unlock multiple layers of monetization for each stakeholder involved. Independent and 1/1 artists can:
- make individual strokes and load SOL or DUST for them
- create fashion brands within the collection (covering multiple traits)
- do paid (or free) commission work for holders
- collect money forever via royalty %
- Artists are encouraged to sell their work on the y00ts store because if they get their ⓨ registration, they can receive royalties on their work after the initial sale.
y00ts st0re store
The y00ts store will be a marketplace for custom y00ts features where anyone can submit customizations of any of the original y00ts features for approval.
Approval Criteria:
- must fit in the same space as the original stroke (cannot turn a t-shirt into a fur coat)
- must be identifiable by the original metadata tag (a hat cannot become a crown)
- no hate speech or pornographic images
- no direct use of existing copyrighted IP
- meet a quality standard to match the collection
- Once approved, the submitting individual(s) will have the ⓨ for the trait(s).
Owning the ⓨ for a feature allows you to:
- set dash price in y00ts store
- set available trace supply
- sell the whole ⓨ to someone else
- collect 5% royalties on every sale of the dash
No one else can copy this trait/style/theme/brand. If derivatives attempts try to list on the market – they will not be approved. Furthermore, the team states that no user-generated features will be added to the y00ts store after six months. At this point, the creators can separate the y00ts into their individual parts. You can sell your limited-stock sweatshirt separately or exchange it for another trait. From this point forward, all new features added to the y00ts store will be through limited supply collaborations with major apparel and lifestyle brands.
Customizing y00ts
To obtain customization rights, holders must stake their y00ts for 30 days, then a ⓨ Token is added to the y00t metadata.
- There will be a maximum of 6 ⓨ’s that any y00t can contain
- Metadata example: “ⓨ Tokens: 1”
Holders can use this token ⓨ to apply a custom ⓨ feature from the y00ts store to their y00t. Notably, the new characteristic must match the attribute that y00t has in its metadata. For example, swapping a black hoodie for a custom gold one, the metadata remains the same: hoodie. Once the ⓨ token is used, holders of y00ts can always swap any characteristic back to the original y00t base.
But they will have to wait another 30 days of staking before applying a new custom feature from the y00ts store. Due to the staking requirement, holders should be careful which feature they choose. Notably, if a holder never uses the ⓨ token, y00t will simply collect them. As a result, NFT can potentially be sold for a premium with the Tokens attached.
Can I make money if I’m not an artist?
Imagine if Eminem and Snoop Dogg were compensated for the value they brought to the entire BAYC collection and its unique features. These two mega stars holding BAYC add to the attraction of the collection. However, the two celebrities are not paid for this marketing assistance. Instead, they are free to use the BAYC they have in their creative work.
The real power of ⓨ is that it can drive the creation of smaller clubs within communities. Someone who wants to start a sub-community can use the y00ts store to find an artist and order a custom set of strokes with their logo or emblem and register the club with ⓨ.
Any active member of the community can start their club based on shared interests, memes or anything else. The key is that since they have the ⓨ in the entire feature set, they can monetize that subcommunity. They can collect royalties on every y00t they sell with any of their features. They may also charge an upfront cost of SOL or DUST for the features.
How much will y00t NFTs cost?
The number of NFTs in the y00ts collection will be 15.000 NFTs, and to mint a y00ts NFT, users will need the DeGods ecosystem’s native token, DUST. The founders’ comments on Twitter suggest that 375 DUST tokens will be needed to mint an NFT y00ts. At the time of writing, 375 DUST costs around $1320, or around 36 SOL.
Final Thought
The project y00ts could potentially put Solana on the map regarding NFTs as it still plays a secondary role in NFT based collections. Ethereum. Additionally, y00ts intends to implement its common sense version of copyright and ownership for NFTs, which could yield some exciting results as NFT creators and admirers continue to push the boundaries of what technology can be leveraged.
