DeGods - The Solana Social Experiment
What is DeGods?
Written by Just JB (33.3%) in partnership with Alpha Trades LLC
DeGods is, at its heart, a social experiment. Born from a group of friends with one objective in mind; to do things differently. By asking not why, but why not?
Conceived in March of 2021 DeGods quickly became a hot topic of conversation in the Solana NFT space with their novel, but the controversial concept of the Paperhand Bitch Tax (PHBT). The PHBT was designed to reward holders with a theoretically ever-rising floor price, and punish Paperhands by taxing anyone who sold under a specified floor price (or their buy price) with a 33.3% royalty fee.
Following in the initial hype of the PHBT announcement was the release of the Bounty Experiment. Twitter became flooded with degenerates completing bounty challenges to try and win presale spots. Thus, the cornerstone of the legendary DeGods community as we know it was laid. The hype leading up to presale was immeasurable so naturally, presale was a shit show. With multiple delays due to Candy Machine issues and the genesis of the “Frank is typing...” meme as the team dreadfully relayed bad news to the server, DeGods presale is forever engrained in the memories of OG holders.
Apart from the PHBT, there were two other main mechanics of the DeGods roadmap; a proprietary marketplace where the PHBT could be implemented seamlessly, and a burn mechanic, fueled by the 33.3% tax, that would make DeGods a deflationary collection. As with the PHBT, these were novel ideas at the time and made up the genesis of the DeGods “Social Experiment”. Despite the slight presale blunder the hype train continued to roll into what may go down as one of the most hectic mints of all time. Attacked by bots mere minutes before launch the team was forced to resort to tweeting the mint site password that many had been waiting in Discord for with bated breath. FUD ensued (and wouldn’t go anywhere any time soon), but the mint proceeded, and 10,000 generative degenerate gods were born.
Over the coming months, the team would experience and overcome multiple challenges (See DeHistory by matt.sol). The launch and immediate failure of the marketplace, a less than effective PHBT implementation, a blog (RIP(?) de.xyz), etc. but as the old adage goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. If there’s one thing you can count on from the DeGods team it’s that Frank and the gang will NEVER give up. And as a result, old ideas were squashed (33.3% for life), and new, better ideas were born. It’s for this reason - the ability to admit when something isn’t working and try something new that might - that many of the original supporters have never left, and the community has continued to grow and become one of the strongest forces in Solana.
De(ad)Gods Today
With the death of the original roadmap came something new, something beautiful, something many had never seen before, and something that would come to revitalize the Solana ecosystem as a whole.
$DUST.
Excerpt from DeGods Roadmap
$DUST started with a supply of zero, with the only way to create it being staked DeGods. While staking was certainly not a new concept, the idea of mining a “utility” token (something Bitcoin holders may be familiar with) was something not done before on Solana. Let’s not forget, DeGods is and has always been about experimentation.
The original “end goal” of $DUST was DeadGods. A complete, fine art style overhaul of the original collection (how many projects will admit their original art wasn’t good enough?). At a price of 1000 $DUST it would take 100 days of staking your DeGod to “mine” enough $DUST for a DeadGod. The only issue being, staking went live on 1/31/22, and DeadGods were scheduled for 3/31/22. The game of $DUST was afoot.
Excerpt from DeGods Roadmap
As if the stress of only having 59 days to stake when you needed 100 for a DeadGod wasn’t enough, the team then introduced raffles and auctions for $DUST (store.degods.com). What started as a few raffles weekly turned into daily raffles and auctions for various high-quality NFTs across the Solana ecosystem, all funded by the DAOs large community wallet. With so many options for one’s $DUST and an extremely limited supply, the game theory Frank dreamed of was in full effect. $DUST has a story of its own that the most technical of financial analysts will marvel over for years to come.
But the game doesn’t end with DeadGods. With a healthy treasury of $DUST due to the launch of DeadGods, the team now plans to implement a burn queue (remember, DeGods were originally designed to be deflationary). With burns comes the potential for MASSIVE instant $DUST gains, especially for rare DeGods.
Burn Formula: $DUST Quantity = 1000 + (# of Remaining DeGods - Rarity Ranking)
But there’s a catch (naturally). DeadGods CAN’T be burned, and only one DeGod may be burned from the queue per day, starting with the LEAST rare (and therefore least amount of $DUST distributed). The game of $DUST is truly revolutionary, and DeadGods is just the beginning. $DUST is an ecosystem, with projects outside of DeGods adopting creating their own utility for it. $DUST is here to stay.
DeGod #8344 Transcended to DeadGod
DeFuture
I’d like to preface this by saying that as DeGods is at its core, a social experiment, the future is never certain. To quote @frankdegods, “it’s always day 1 here at DeGods”. However, with the growth of the project and community in the months leading up to now, it’s fair to say a few goals and a tentative roadmap have been established.
DeGods is a brand.
One of the best on Solana, with the potential to be one of the best in the world. The focus now is on building that brand and achieving the goal of becoming the best. DeDAO is off to a great start with thousands of active users, one of the best alpha groups in NFTs, and strong sub-communities sprouting up left and right (shoutout to the OGs Mickey DeGods). But with plans to establish a more decentralized leadership group for the greater good of the project, DeDAO will only get better.
Excerpt from DeGods Roadmap
The goal is to be recognized. To become a Veblen good (google it). DeGods is all about growth; of the community, of the brand, of Solana as a whole. The future of DeGods will be shaped by the different ways that growth is achieved. As a community, we’re expecting some cool shit. Real-life events for DeGods holders only, viral marketing stunts, you name it. The limit truly does not exist for what’s possible, so just enjoy the ride.
Remember, it’s not about why, it’s about why not.
Written by @JustJB - Co-host of @DeGodCast
Platform provider: Alpha Trades LLC