Community

It is not unreasonable to say that DeGods has one of the most prominent communities in the NFT space across all chains. With more events (admittedly centred in Europe and the US) than any other project, DeGods holders have access to one of the most socially active communities available. The project’s leaders have fostered a culture of being bold in the space but also enjoying the journey and having fun in the process. This is clear to see with some of the most well-known figures in the NFT space repping DeGod PFPs.

De[ID]

Alongside the de.xyz announcement, the DeLabs team released De[ID].

De[ID] functions as a verification system for DeGods and y00ts holders on Twitter. Where fake accounts using other people’s PFPs to drive scams is very common, this tool allows the community to verify and connect with each in a way not seen before.

Staking and Points Parlour

Previously, NFTs were stakeable to earn $DUST tokens. This has since been phased in favour of a points system with an earn rate of 1 point per minute staked. At present, there is no immediate use-case for accumulated DePoints, however future utilities will likely involve redemption of points for various rewards.

DeGods (non-upgraded) do not earn points from staking.

The first edition of Points Parlour was released on August 15th with the first round of rewards being sponsored by KrakenNFT.

Points Parlour introduces an element of strategy for holders to consider. At present, Holders may choose to open from a selection of 3 packs. As can be seen in the image above, the far right pack carries the highest reward but also the smallest reward. Not shown here are additional prizes that can be won at a rate of 0.055% probability. These prizes include a Tesla Model 3, a range of gift cards, Ledgers, a range of Apple products and more.

Participants are able to open as many packs as they wish BUT opening more than one of any pack incurs an impatience tax which can add up very quickly. Given that each ‘series’ of Points Parlour lasts 4 days, holders can choose to go in heavy to try and win from the current prize pool, or wait to see what other prizes become available. What happens to prizes that haven’t been won remains to be seen.

The Bridge

For those who are entering the project by purchasing a DeGod already on the Ethereum blockchain, this part won’t be relevant for you. For those still holding DeGods on Solana, or are looking to purchase a DeGod on Solana, the following points should be noted:

• ETH gas fees were initially covered for NFTs migrated in the first 24 hours
• DUST staking/unstaking fees on ETH were waived for the first 48 hours
• As of April 3rd, the Paper Hand Bridge Tax was introduced with royalties on Solana transactions increased to 33.3%. This was to encourage holders to bridge.

Team Members	Role

Powered by

Frank

• Founder
• Twitter: @frankdegods

Kevin

• CEO Dust Labs
• Twitter: @kevindegods

Aaron

• Business Development @ Dust Labs
• Twitter: @aarondegods

Chill

• CTO and Co-Founder
• Twitter: @0x_chill

Jonny

• Artist
• Twitter: @jonnydegods

Update – 17th August 2023

Holy hell. What a rollercoaster ride it has been and still is, all within the space of a few days. Let’s dive into a few key takeaways.

Hype – The Double-Edged Sword

Season III has revealed the double-edged sword that is hype. Hype is a great way to drive attention and traffic towards what you’re doing. The flip side of that is the expectations that come with building hype around what you are doing. In the past, DeGods have done well to deliver on their hype but unfortunately Season III failed to live up to that track record and in turn, the floor price suffered drastically, dropping 53% in the last 7 days at time of writing. The scary part is that this would have been worse if it not had been for the bidding habits of well-known ETH whale MachiBigBrother holding up the floor, but a little more on this later.

Season III DeGods

The Season III art brought about a much more subtle and clean approach to the art. The goal was to create a PFP that was more appealing to the broader population and shift away from some of the more gory and less desirable traits and I strongly believe that the new art has achieved this.

The problem was around the messaging associated with the new art. Holders were expecting a similar shift as to what happened between DeGods and DeadGods where the change in art was very dramatic and exciting. Season III represented a regression in a sense where instead of a whole new collection of ‘mind-blowing’ traits, the art was essentially a rework of the existing traits without drastic changes. I personally saw it as finding a middle-ground between the first 2 seasons. It arguably also saw the loss of features that defined DeGods and distinguished them from other human-based PFPs.

Whilst I do believe the goal was achieved and definitely appreciate the new art, this wasn’t effectively communicated to a large portion of holders who were expecting similar escalations as previous seasons. Holders can take some solace in the fact that they can still rep their previous generation’s art if they prefer.

DeGoddesses

The introduction of a female PFP option also created a lot of excitement and unfortunately suffered a similar fate of being underwhelming. The team have announced that they will be delaying the release of DeGoddesses until at least September

Points Parlour

For me personally, this was a huge sticking point. The team and members of the community had on several occasions alluded to the fact that ‘points would be essential’ or ‘noone could guess what points will be used for’. In the end, the first use case for points was revealed to be nothing more than what is essentially a lootbox system.

Don’t get me wrong, the UI/UX is incredibly clean and some of the prizes available are exciting – but I don’t think you can make the case that nobody could have guessed it. Again, the hype and narrative around what was coming truly set this up for failure from a community reaction standpoint.

The Aftermath

Credit to the team, they have been very receptive to feedback from the community following the fallout of Season III and Points Parlour launches. I must give credit to Jonny and Frank for fronting up to the community and taking the L on the chin. The team have opened up dialogue with their holders for suggestions on Points Parlour rewards to make it appealing as well.

Despite what has happened, I still have faith in the team to deliver in the long run. Their capacity for self-reflection, willingness to admit mistakes and ability to make necessary adjustments is a big part of the reason I’ve been a supporter.

The Machi Dilemma

The space however, remains on edge with the development that MachiBigBrother, a notorious ETH whale with a reputation for accumulating large holdings and then dumping them, now has 400 DeGods. Given his history of accumulating large numbers of MAYC and BAYC only to dump them, holders have been understandably concerned about his future actions. Ironically, this has led many people to dump directly into his bids as they try to front-run the expected dump.

How this unfolds remains to be seen. Although large whales such as ZK_shark and FreeLunchCapital have made offers for OTC deals to acquire Machi’s DeGods, speculation persists over whether or not Machi would even go for it. Given his wallet is currently running at over 9000 ETH unrealised losses, he doesn’t appear to be phased by a financial loss of this magnitude as he appears more interested in farming Blur points.

Behavioural Observations

I’d like to take the time to point out a couple general observations made following these events:

1- The drastic drop in floor price clearly reflected the space’s penchant for being overleveraged with a large volume of underwater DeGod loans contributing to the downward cascade. Many players overleveraged themselves on the assumption that DeGods would nail their Season III launch and they would be able to capitalise on the attention and hype. Unfortunately, life comes at you fast.

2 – Many people have talked about the psychological element of investing/trading. One part of this that I have been observing is the correlation between euphoric sentiment only to be followed by a large drop in price. In the lead up to Season III, we saw a large number of DeGod PFP Twitter accounts bragging about one of the following:

• • Flipping Mutant Ape Yacht Club in floor price (even though this was a fallacious sentiment due to the different supplies and therefore market caps)
  • Clearing 10 ETH floor price

As the old adage from Warren Buffet goes, ‘Be fearful when others are greedy’. We’ve seen this happen in the past on several occasions and history will typically repeat itself.

Initial Thoughts – 3rd April 2023

I’ll admit, I was surprised about how little concrete information I could find about the project (e.g. whitepapers etc.). That being said, this functions as a double-edged sword. By not having any concrete plans laid out, the Team are not limited by what they can/can’t do giving them freedom to pivot as they see fit. Furthermore, it stops them from being defined by fixed utilities and what they have planned.

The downside to this is the lack of concrete metrics to assess the project makes it a predominantly speculative play. In the early days, this would certainly have been a huge roadblock for those like myself who are more risk-averse. However, I think it’s fair to say that the speculation has more legs which is reflected in their pricing.

Community

Yes, it’s a cliche and we typically roll our eyes at projects that make the usual claim of ‘fostering community’. In the case of DeGods though, they have very much set the standard as the pre-eminent Web3 community on both Solana and now Ethereum. They’ve cultivated a community that has a little something for everyone. From ‘degenerate’ behaviour (depending on how you define it) like shoeys and tattoos that we might roll our eyes at to more prestigious activities, the project really has all bases covered.

The key element to this is the creation of a prestigious and exclusive club where membership instantly grants some element of status within the space. The emotional attachment that has been created between holders and their NFTs is what has driven their price action. If you’ve read my other reviews, you’ll know I often harp on about the fact that quantifiable utilities lead to hard metrics to measure a project by, and therefore an inevitable ceiling on the valuation. DeGods is exhibit A of a project not hampered by utilities and instead driven by the brand and emotional attachments.

De[ID] was also an absolute masterstroke. In hindsight, it seems like such an obvious thing to create, but it was the DeLabs team that thought to create it. The ability to verify and connect with your fellow community members further drives that tight-knit sentiment that the project has created.

Team

Admittedly, DeGods was the first project that really made me take a hard look at Founding teams and the values that they bring.

Let’s start with Frank. Yes he is very young and engages in a lot of behaviour that I roll my eyes at (the let’s f*cking go culture for example). On the other hand, he displays an emotional intelligence well beyond his years. His ability to be open to criticism and discussion without letting personal attacks get to him (at least as far as I can see) is incredibly admirable, especially given how toxic this space his. As much as many people will enjoy the dunk game, Frank would rather let his results speak for themselves. I think his mindset is best displayed in this Twitter post.

Then you’ve got other members of the team like Kevin. Where Frank is the maverick willing to test boundaries, Kevin is the man with the experience and history to help steer that pioneering mentality. His experience growing multiple projects to the 7-figure mark will no doubt be valuable as he leads the Dust Labs side of things.

What stands out most to me about this team is their willingness to take risks, to push boundaries and to accept that they will make mistakes and get things wrong without letting it deter them. There is a reason why they are leading the way in the cross-chain movement through their partnerships with some of the biggest platforms in the space such as Blur, Phantom and MagicEden.

The Migration

The migration of DeGods to the Ethereum ecosystem sent shockwaves through the Solana community with many accusations being made that the project was abandoning its roots. For me personally, I thought the move was what the project needed. There’s no two ways about it, the Solana and Ethereum communities are built different. With its cheaper entry, Solana inevitably attracts smaller players in the space and with limited liquidity, there was a ceiling in place by remaining on Solana. By moving to Ethereum, they’ve opened themselves up to an audience with significantly more big players which will allow them to keep pushing the boundaries they want to push. I wouldn’t be surprised if DeGods still remain a prominent and vocal part of the Solana community despite the move.