Smyths
About Smyths
Overview
The Smyths represent the brand image of the Blocksmith Labs ecosystem. Think what DeGods are to DustLabs. As one of the OG projects on Solana, Blocksmith Labs have been at the forefront of product and brand development on the ecosystem and in doing so, has gained widespread recognition as one of the best SaaS services available.
The Collection
The collection is made up of 4444 NFTs which exist in either OG or upgraded forms. The team has put together a primer to assist any new holders navigate the ecosystem which can be read here.
OG Smyths
OG Smyths were the original art minted in March 2022, characterised by its front-facing pose. These NFTs still remain functional within the Blocksmith Labs ecosystem, albeit with reduced benefits (e.g. staking emissions). They can be upgraded to the new art via the Smyths website at a cost of 917 $FORGE.
Ascended Smyths
November 2022 saw the opening of the Ascension process for holders to upgrade their Smyths to the new art. The goal was to create a more aesthetic and brandable PFP, with the most notable difference being the right-facing stance.
The Ascended Smyths can exist in one of two forms:
- Vanir – characterised by a darker and more sinister aesthetic
- Aesir – characterised by brighter characteristics
In the Ascension process, holders are not able to select which category their Smyth will become. However, holders have the option of switching their Smyth to the other side via the Switch platform. This process comes at a cost of $FORGE with dynamic pricing. The pricing is based on how many Smyths are in each faction. If there are more Vanir Smyths in circulation, the cost of switching an Aesir Smyth to Vanir will be higher than the other way around.
The division of the NFTs into these two factions presumably opens the doors to various faction-based competitions and gamification.
Recent Events
Distinction
Originally, the NFTs were also named Blocksmith Labs and everything operated under that umbrella. Early 2023 saw a separation made between Blocksmith Labs and the Smyths NFT collection. The idea here was to maintain Blocksmith Labs as a SaaS provider that would continue building. Smyths would reap benefits from these services but would have more of a focus on building the brand and community.
Meegos
On April 13th 2023, the Blocksmith Labs Twitter revealed their upcoming project Meegos.
The mint will occur on August 24th 2023. Each Smyth will be able to mint a MeeGo for 1400 $FORGE, with the price increasing by 200 $FORGE per month until a cap of 2000 $FORGE is reached.
Updated Vision
The Smyths recently shared an updated vision (or roadmap) through this Twitter post stipulating the following:
- Bringing Smyths to a new world centres around fun and community
- Building through Blocksmith Labs with Smyths being the social layer empowered by $FORGE
- Confirmation that each Smyth will get to mint 1 Meegos with $FORGE
$FORGE
$FORGE is the utility token for the Blocksmith Labs and is the centrepiece that value is built around. It is earned via staking with OG Smyths earning 10 $FORGE per day and Ascended Smyths earning 12 $FORGE per day. It should be noted that they have separate staking websites.
OG Smyths are staked here.
Ascended Smyths are staked here.
Smyths announced changes to the $FORGE tokenomics on August 16th 2023 with this tweet and the introduction of the GoalPost milestones.
At presumably the launch of MeeGos, $FORGE yield will be adjusted as follows:
- OG Smyths will emit 4 $FORGE per day
- Ascended Smyths will emit 16 $FORGE per day
Once 70% of MeeGos claimable by Smyths have been minted, the emissions of Ascended Smyths will be reduced to 8 $FORGE per day.
Switch
As previously stated, holders of Ascended Smyths have the option to switch their Smyth’s design. This might be for a range of reasons such as aesthetic preference or exposure to what each faction may get. The pricing of the switch mechanism is in $FORGE and operates on a dynamic basis depending on the current distribution between Aesir and Vanir Smyths in circulation.
SHFTR
SHFTR is a tool for holders to generate various images using their Smyth as a base, whether that be to reflect current events (e.g. Christmas) or general branding purposes. Some of these generations are available for free whilst some will cost $FORGE.
Blocksmith Labs Products
Bifrost
Bifrost is the launchpad service built and brought about a variety of new features, the most notable of which was Dynamic pricing whereby mint price would increase as more NFTs were minted in succession. This mechanism provided several benefits such as:
- Functioning as an anti-bot mechanism as bots would very quickly cause the mint price to rise and make the process not worthwhile.
- Allowing projects to capitalise on hype to increase their mint revenue if the mint price gets driven up through demand.
A portion of mints are also allocated to be minted in $FORGE for Smyths holders.
Atlas3
Atlas3 acts as a central hub for the NFT community by providing a platform for people to discover new projects and participate in giveaways. From a project’s perspective, it provides a suite for managing project collaborations, whitelist allocations and communications.
Atlas also recently introduced a project leaderboard. Projects may work their way up the ladder through votes at the cost of 1 $FORGE each. Benefits of being towards the top involve priority display on the ‘Discover‘ page for now.
Raven
Raven is a gamified marketing platform that helps projects and/or influencers to incentivise and reward engagement with their tweets by adding another dimension to the usual Twitter raids we are all familiar with.
| Team Members | Role |
|---|
Alex (Cryptonent)
- Co-CEO
- Extensive experience building products and leading tech teams.
- Notably a former Dev for DeGods
- Twitter: @cryptonent
Harmy
- Co-CEO
- Several years of experience in software and architecture design
- Twitter: @_hcrypto
Gee2Kay
- Chief Operations Officer
- Twitter: @Gee2kay1
Wozgun
- Chief Technology Officer
- Twitter: @wozgun
Initial Thoughts
For a very long time, Blocksmith Labs was a project I was very eager to get into based on the prestige they carried in the ecosystem as one of the gold standard builders. Their community is also quite stellar and I definitely felt that when I finally bought in late last year prior to the art upgrade.
That being said, I do feel like the project has eased off the throttle in recent times. Obviously behind the scenes, this is certainly not the case as I am not privy to what happens, but on the outside looking in, things have slowed down a tad.
The Rebrand
The art upgrade and rebrand was absolutely the right move. Splitting off the utility and brand aspects of the project allows for focus on each aspect on an individual basis. Blocksmith Labs can keep doing what they’re doing and the Smyths side of things can focus on creating that speculative value without the glass ceiling created by quantifiable utility value.
That being said, I do feel like they have been lacking in their marketing. For a team that has built so much, there is comparatively little noise made about it across social media. I have a lot of respect for Alex for the way he goes about business and the products that he and the team has built. His recent shift to being more front-facing on social media and appearing in interviews and Twitter spaces is a testament to his willingness to step out of his comfort zone to be that ‘face-of-the-project’ in the way Frank is to DeGods.
That being said, I’m not 100% convinced that he’s the guy for that. There is no doubt that he is very intelligent and listening to his thought processes is very eye-opening. He just isn’t that guy who will play the ‘social games’ to create the hype needed to drive a brand. I definitely see him more as a ‘brains behind the scenes’ kind of person. That being said, they may well, and would have every right to, have their own philosophy for what kind of community they want to cultivate and build. One thing that’s for certain is if Smyths can take off, Alex and the team deserve everything good that comes to them.
Utilities and $FORGE
When I talk about things having dropped off a bit, I’m mainly referring to the utilities and use cases for $FORGE. When I first came across the project, the most eye-catching aspect of it was the use-cases and tokenomics surrounding $FORGE. There is no doubt that this has stagnated which is reflected in the price of the token.
In terms of their utilities, for a long time Blocksmith Labs were the pioneers but I feel like they haven’t exactly pressed their advantage. Over time, many similar tools have been developed by others and created competition. Of course, competition is a great motivator to keep on innovating, but there is no doubt they have lost their advantage.
- Bifrost
- Initially, dynamic pricing was a very clever mechanism. Since then, launchpads have been opening up left, right and centre, all with their own features.
- Minting projects on Bifrost in $FORGE was a big value proposition as a holder as well and there hasn’t been a mint in a while. Granted, the minting meta faded as the bear market really took hold, but there have still been projects launching elsewhere and given how many projects are using Atlas3 for their whitelist management, there’s no reason (in my mind at least) why none of them could have launched off Bifrost.
- Atlas3
- This will understandably be an unpopular opinion. I was rather underwhelmed by the launch of Atlas3. I think a big part of it is the fact that in the time it took for Atlas3 to launch, Subber really flexed their muscle with their own project management system.
- I would personally like to see some sort of system in Atlas3 for QoL benefits to Smyths holders. For example, my favourite benefit to being a Subber K3y holder is that I can collate all the giveaways I have access to across all the projects that I am a holder in. On Atlas3, I have to manually go into each individual project to see what collaboration giveaways they have. Granted that’s a high maintenance thing, but I’d be lying if I said my whitelist hunting process wasn’t much quicker on Subber than on Atlas3.
- Regarding the ranking system, I am personally not a fan of how it was done. Where votes are based on $FORGE being spent, it’s blatantly obvious that Smyths are going to remain at the top. Furthermore, I feel that any other project will know the ranking is not based on any merit but rather who is willing to fork out the most $FORGE. I believe a better approach would have been to use a similar system Subber does whereby $FORGE can be burnt to boost your project. At least that’s not trying to create an illusion of ranking being based on merit.
Summary
I want to be very clear. I’m wary of the fact that my comments may come across as harsh and/or FUD. If they do, it’s only because I hold the project to high standards as they were the gold standard for a very long time but have sadly faded in recent times. I am still a holder in this project and would love nothing more than to see it succeed and reclaim its status within the NFT space.