DeGods Season 3

Apart from being one of the most creative and hyped NFT collections out there, DeGods is supported by a community strength like no other. Founder Rohun "Frank" Vora plays the most active role in holding up the project by offering consistent and out-of-the-box innovative extensions to his idea. This frivolous founder has now announced the launch of season 3 on August 9. Given the collectibles' unsurmountable success with previous updates, the whole NFT realm now looks forward to the launch with ubiquitous anticipation.

Where did it all start?

Looking back, the digital collectibles were launched in October 2021, on the Solana Blockchain. In a recent Podcast interview, while reminiscing the journey of DeGods, Frank mentioned how he got to the idea of creating this unique collection. As a kid who grew up on the internet, Frank was quick to spot what mattered and what the NFT community desired. In his words, everyone at that time was bringing in animal NFTs, but he wanted to do something different. Hence, the evolution of godly characters with modern streetwear. But the subject isn't the only element that differentiated DeGods from the rest, it was Frank's well-curated storyline, the wit behind the team's creative updates, and the whole online/offline community engagement.  

DeGods is created and managed by Dust Labs, led by FrankDeGods. The team is also behind the popular y00ts NFT collection. As a web3 studio, they are mostly driven towards building innovative projects and fostering vibrant NFT communities around their collections. To be deserving of its current position, the team went through a series of unpleasant occurrences following the launch of DeGods. The NFTs were sold out after the first 7 seconds of its launch due to a technical issue, and the mint was inaccessible to a larger community. This caused people to question their integrity, calling out on the team as a "rug pull". By the end of the year 2021, the collection was dead, and the team was on the verge of quitting.

What made them viral was their first experiment with PHBT (Paper Hands Bitch Tax). The goal of the PHBT mechanism was to create a disincentive for NFT holders to sell their tokens at prices below the established floor, thereby helping to maintain a more stable and desirable market value for the DeGods NFT collection. However, despite these efforts, the PHBT experiment did not achieve the desired outcome of raising the floor price, leading the team to eventually remove this mechanism.

PHBT made its comeback in April 2023 when DeGods migrated to Ethereum. All the remaining DeGods on Solana were updated to have an enforced 33.3% royalty fee.

What does it mean to own a DeGod?

The DeGods collection consists of 9,465 NFTs on Ethereum and 535 on Bitcoin. When DeGods first minted on Solana on 8th October 2021, they were available for only 3 SOL. Now, the collection's floor price stands at around $15,000 with a rising trade volume amidst ongoing negative market trends.

Aside from being a part of one of the most popular NFT communities, DeGod owners can stake their NFTs to generate rewards, claim alternate versions of their NFTs (DeadGods), and participate in DeDAO which directly enables them to guide the direction of the project. So, it is far from owning a basic NFT.

DeadGods

In March 2022, Dust Labs introduced an exclusive and, artistically refined version of DeGods naming it "DeadGods". These new collectibles can only be achieved by burning DeGods NFTs and paying a small fee. DeadGods were born out of the developers' concern for stagnant DeGods. The dying popularity of some DeGods led them to the conclusion that the art was just plainly "ugly". To improve that, they allowed an upgrade to DeadGods. Since it is not a new NFT, but just an addition of new metadata to the existing NFT, users can choose to switch between DeGods and DeadGods.

DeadGods weren't just an ordinary update of the PFP-type NFTs, they served as a gateway to y00ts. Holding a DeadGod NFT also means getting access to the DeGods DAO, which allows the users to vote on community initiatives. On top of that, while staking DeGods allows you to get your hands on a number of DUST tokens in rewards, staking DeadGods triples those rewards.

Since digital assets are valued by demand, it is worthwhile to mention that, these NFTs also stand to be one of the most sought-after assets by investors and collectors. Depending on the rarity and value, DeGods can fetch up to a six-figure price range.

The DeDAO

The DeDAO is an organization made up of three groups of specialities:

1. The DAO Leads: The Project founders
2. The Alpha team: The market experts
3. The Divine Council: The contributing members voted by the community

The organization collectively decides how to govern the project and what decisions to make regarding the finances. The major contribution of the DeDAO was to acquire the "Killer 3s".

The DUST Token

DUST Tokens are a type of digital currency that originated on the Solana blockchain. They are a kind of SPL Tokens, having similar functionalities to ERC-20 tokens. To earn them, one has to stake their DeGods or DeadGods. In terms of usability, the tokens can be used to transform DeGods into DeadGods. But what helps the community relate to the value is the token's ability to purchase physical items from DeGods store.

When the DUST Tokens were introduced, there were none in existence; they were generated as people staked their NFTs. This is different from many other cryptocurrencies that start with a certain number of coins.

The total supply of DUST Tokens has a maximum cap of 33.3 million tokens. Similar to the concept of Bitcoin halving, where the rate of new Bitcoin creation is reduced by 50%, DUST Token rewards for staking decrease by half three times over the lifetime of the project. This feature intends to control the issuance of new DUST Tokens and influence the project's overall economy.

From Solana to Ethereum

In December 2022, despite a fair amount of risk being involved, Degods announced its migration from Solana to Ethereum. As a team always looking out for new premises, this transition was also motivated by Solana's on-chain condition at that time.

The bridge finally took place in April 2023. Since then, DeGods have continued to thrive on the Ethereum network, frequently reaching the Top 10 NFTs by trading volume.

DeGods on Ordinals

In 2023, February, Ordinals protocol started in Bitcoin Blockchain. For the NFTs community, this prompted ubiquitous excitement and curiosity.

In March 2023, the project inscribed the first 535 burnt DeGods on Bitcoin Blockchain forever. The sale operated on a first-come, first-serve basis. Of them, 500 DeGods were minted with BTC and 34 were auctioned/raffled in DUST. This was another event to demand attention from the community and investors. The whole event was also fuelled by Bitcoin's innate popularity.

Season 3

If you have been following through the updates on NFTs, you would know the projects that stand steadfast on their value are rarely due to the randomness. The idea to generate a JPEG image that could harness a monetary value of an enormous volume is only possible through meticulous speculation and a very balanced line of action. The case is no different for DeGods. While, Frank, the founder of the project, seems to carry a frivolous air of charm, there is a lot more to the project than just his social media hype. Frank admits having thought through what would be more appealing to the community.

The updates on season 2 are a testament to the team's diligence and hard work. The team decided to introduce the updates when certain DeGods' growth came to a standstill. Their speculation revealed that there was still the room to improve these NFTs' aesthetics. In order to achieve that, they launched an upgraded version of the prevailing DeGods, but with better art and better community engagement. That is how DeadGods was a success.  

Moving forward with the question of a third season, given its previous track record, the community would only expect a better. The bars are higher this time, and the team has a little option to do otherwise. Although it is not precisely clear what August 9th will bring forth, people are hopeful that the updates will be worth the anticipation.

From Frank's point of view, the idea of a specific roadmap is monotonous. He asks the community to be speculative about the project's direction. By not specifying anything, but giving enough hints, he engages the community in an analytic phase of predicting the next move of the project. Here's what people have been expecting from the upcoming update:

1. Change in the current art style: While DeadGods have been fairly successful wiith the community, it carries a vibe which comes off as "too goorey" for many. Knives and forks sticking out of the character's body– might not be the identity that many people would want to stick with, full-time.
2. Introducing female characters: The community is also awaiting the update to introduce female characters to the collection.
3. There will be a substantial increase in unique JPEGs from 10,000 to 40,000+ attached to the DeGod NFTs. This provides more diversity without diluting the collection.

Conclusion

DeGods seem to hold an exciting future ahead. Their consistent updates and social media interaction has allowed them to build a strong community. On top of that, the team relentlessly works towards the goal of establishing an ideal tribe.  The founders' commitment is not just limited to online activities, but their thorough involvement offline ensures that everyone inside the community feels included. As a result, the holders, instead of relying on the creators solely, take it upon themselves to make this project a success.