The latest on the web3 controversy radar – the Art Gobblers Mint. A brainchild of Rick & Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and web3 firm Paradigm. The project amassed over $15 million within minutes of the free mint. Although, this was only part of the reason why a lot of web3 eyes were on the project. Find out all the fuss about Art Gobblers below!
What’s All The Fuss Around The Art Gobblers Mint?
Just a few minutes after the official free mint for Art Gobblers NFTs started, an image started circulating showing the allowlist members. Most of the members in this list were top NFT influencers, who gained free access to this unique NFT. This led to speculations of insider trading and calls of this “influencer-wins-all” strategy came into question. Twitter user @Pons_ETH pointed out the image below stating that many people think the NFT game is rigged. It is due to these factors that adoption may stall and people quit the space.
Source: Ninjalerts App
The image shows many top NFT collectors and influencers minting the Art Gobblers NFTs basically free of charge. This image has been the center of the whole controversy. With some stating that influencer marketing has always been an option and applied to NFT projects all along. Other arguments siding with the project also stated that the move was a fair, smart, and just strategy in a bear market for a unique project.
Although, the resulting controversy has excused itself as the new normal, according to some. The fact that some of the biggest names in NFTs should be on a whitelist does not, and must not, come as a surprise. It all boils down to the marketing vs culture debate; in a space where there have been no rigid rules that define NFT minting. Across both sides of the argument, a clear conversation emerges regarding the “strategy” applied to this mint.
The Bottom Line
The crypto world is writing its own history, but taking action with unwritten rules. It seems that the NFT ecosystem has found itself a prisoner of its own moment. This strategy may be good on some and bad on others, but zooming out, if this same strategy gets applied across the board, there could be heavy leverage owned by a select few. This also brings out the age-old web2 vs web3 argument.
We can only hope for moments and mints like these to teach us new ways to do things. The NFT space cannot continue to be a revolving door of mints heavily influenced by either web2 or web3 brands. Although, in the age of community, it is very difficult to know or decide what or who influences the next big project. The efforts of some of the Art Gobbler collectors should definitely be taken into consideration, though.
For example, top NFT collector Andrew (@andr3w), alongside Justin Roiland, created an official Art Gobblers account. Balthazar Crumps, a fictional 13 year old character is someone who “likes to draw and paint”. At this point, the characters main job was to draw and explore the ethos of the Art Gobbler universe. At no point was Balthazar doxxed, or even promised a whitelist spot. The whole point of the character was to let go, and just draw.
In a character reveal tweet storm, he explains “I’m empathetic to the people who think there was foul play involved, and I think it’s okay to be skeptical of anyone with influence in the space, no matter how they got that influence, and yes, that includes me! I also hope everyone is also open to the facts…”
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