As blockchain technology continues to penetrate the financial and cultural landscapes of contemporary civilization, the concept of identity — and challenging it — will continue to rank among the most intriguing capacities. Anonymity (or pseudonymity) in the crypto and NFT arena has developed fresh dynamics in keeping with the decentralized and open character of Web3. Thus giving fame to Web3 Proof Collective. For instance, the founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club, the most popular NFT project to date, were unknown until February 2022.

However, anonymity has a flip side: while it permits people to participate in the Web3 ecosystem while maintaining their right to privacy, it also raises some important questions of transparency and accountability when individuals or groups within the NFT community reach a size that exerts nearly unmatched cultural and financial sway.

One of the organizations is Web3 Proof Collective. And as a division of the bigger Proof brand, which entered the NFT market in early 2022, it has since grown into a Web3 behemoth. However, despite its importance and magnitude, it is not as well known as it ought to be. Let’s examine the goals of this group, its history, its members, and why this matters to the larger NFT community.

What is Web3 Proof Collective, exactly?

The Web3 Proof Collective is a private, members-only NFT group that created the immensely popular Moonbirds, Oddities, Grails, and Emotes projects. Although the majority of them are unknown, the group includes some of the most well-known collectors and artists in the field.

Co-Founder Kevin Rose transformed a portion of the close-knit community that had developed around the Proof podcast into an organization with a clear objective, and the collective officially launched in December 2021. that objective? It is to serve as the NFT industry’s best eyes and ears on the ground, constantly on the lookout for the following successful project that will be of the most interest to members.

How do I join Web3 Proof Collective?

We haven’t arrived yet. It’s a good idea to research any group’s history before joining it, and this is certainly true of internet history. Digg, a social news aggregation website from the early 2000s, helped establish many of the fundamental concepts that later became defining characteristics of Web2 juggernauts like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. Digg’s co-founder Rose was its creative force. He is a seasoned Web2 professional who has effectively transferred his acute investing skills, eye for cutting-edge tactics, and talent to Web3.

The Proof team, including co-founder and designer-illustrator Justin Mezzell, helped the Collective develop into a Web3 player that is impossible to ignore. Proof debuted Moonbirds on April 16, 2022, the 10,000-PFP project and the group’s most well-known work to date.

Less than a week after its release, Moonbirds swept the NFT industry by storm, ranking among the top 10 highest-grossing NFT ventures of all time. The project has sold an astounding 166,681 ETH ($284,751,153.16, as of writing), which is a record high.

With the addition of Moonbirds Oddities, a 10,000-piece collection of NFTs inspired by Moonbirds and created by renowned NFT artist Gremplin, the project has since expanded and generated sales of 15,219 ETH ($25,999,530.84, as of this writing).

Now we’ll explain how to join. A Proof Collective NFT, which the group initially distributed through a Dutch auction with a starting price of 5 ETH per unit, is required to join the Proof Collective. However, the group’s value has surged on the secondary market; for instance, as of this writing, one costs 61 ETH, or nearly $104,210.

“We want curation that has a viewpoint,”

KEVIN ROSE, CO-FOUNDER OF THE Web3 PROOF COLLECTIVE

A number of advantages come with that high floor price, including free NFT drops, early access to the Proof podcast, access to the collective Discord, and admission to live events. However, the community’s major appeal is the collective wisdom, wisdom, and foresight that its members bring to the table.

In an episode of the nft now podcast from April, Kevin Rose remarked, “We want to have curation with a point of view and really provide people the in-depth knowledge they need to make judgements around what to acquire and which artists to pay attention to.” Specialized companies in the stock market just collect information and produce exhaustive research reports. For NFTs, we hope to fill that role.

In case you missed it, staying inside and having access to in-depth knowledge of the NFT ecosystem constitutes the main benefit of joining the Proof Collective. It should go without saying that this has a practical use, but it’s also terrific for discovering amazing art and cutting-edge communities. Another benefit is maintaining a stronger position to participate in ventures that yield substantial returns.

Ryan Carson, another prominently identified name, departed the company less than two weeks after Moonbirds began to found his own NFT venture fund. When Carson left his company, 1.21 Gigawatts Fund, some people in the NFT world considered it to be a rug pull. As someone with insider knowledge of the project, Carson amassed more than 200 ETHs in Moonbirds before his abrupt departure and was well aware of NFTs with uncommon features in the collection.

Rose tweeted in reaction to criticism of Carson’s action that he had a company policy “not to purchase any Moonbirds before rarity counts were out to the public” but that he couldn’t stop someone from “pressing a button to purchase.”

I had an internal policy not to purchase any moonbirds until after rarity counts were out to the public. I can’t control someone clicking a button to purchase, but I can put stronger controls in place for all future drops. e.g., no employee purchases for 7-days.

— KΞVIN R◎SE (🪹,🦉) (@kevinrose) April 25, 2022

Nevertheless, Rose expressed her gratitude to Carson for his contributions to the undertaking and wished him luck in his future endeavours.

Proof Grails

Proof has so far launched three “seasons” of its highly sought-after Grails collection, with each drop showcasing a distinct set of 20 works of art from 20 prominent NFT artists. A Grails III Mint Pass, which is airdropped to Proof Collective NFT holders, is required to mint a Grails NFT. A raffle is held for some fortunate “Grail” trait Moonbird owners to win a Mint Pass, and they can also be bought on the secondary market (and, as of writing, have a floor price of 2.55 ETH).

Grails Season III mint is live, and will be open for the next 7 days. Remember: we have some new mechanics this season, implementing maximum limits on each artwork. Follow along with our live mint feed: https://t.co/eZE13POtpy pic.twitter.com/u137O2tSz7

— PROOF (🥃,🦉) (@proof_xyz) January 17, 2023

There are also some intriguing minting dynamics in the Grails drops. Proof members and owners of Mint Passes have seven days to mint an artwork after the season of Grails’ minting window opens. The problem? Members are encouraged to mint artwork they enjoy over pieces they might identify with star power because the artists’ names are kept a secret until the mint is accomplished. Of course, it can be very simple to recognize a well-known artist’s work, but the idea is still intriguing and gives the mint a sense of the unknown.

On January 17, the seven-day minting window for Season III went online, and the collection is already running low. These drops have some notable names as Proof. Gary Vee, Alexis Ohanian, Hackatao, Grant Riven Yun, Refik Anadol, Drifter Shoots, and a number of other artists contributed to Seasons I and II of Grails. Editions and Series mints are two further new mechanics that Season III adds to the mix.

While series mints are a curated group of works by a single artist, with each mint choosing a random selection from that series, editions are a single artwork minted as an edition and have a hard cap of 50. The first piece of art in its linked Series is shown in the artwork on the Grails minting website.

Also, read – Proof Of Reserves (PoR): What Is It? Is It Useful For Blockchain

The Proof Collective consists of who else?

According to the Web3 Proof Collective website, its members proudly own more than 150,000 NFTs, including, among other things, close to 150 CryptoPunks, close to 800 Bored Apes, close to 500 Meebits, close to 5,000 Art Blocks, and close to 330 SuperRare 1:1 NFTs.

One of the most priceless and outstanding NFT collections in the ecosystem. But it also begs the question of who is supplying Proof with these NFTs. The 1,000 people who make up the collective are mostly anonymous. However, it is feasible to discern from the blockchain that certain well-known NFT members are or were members; this raises the question of how nepotistic the Proof team is based on the ties and relationships that these individuals have with one another.

For instance, immediately after the NFT pass was introduced in December 2021, the Proof Collective transferred a membership NFT to Beeple. Additionally, the group “sold” or transferred membership passes to a number of other well-known and connected people in the area for next to nothing.

Twin Flames, a Web3 alias used by visual artist Justin Aversano, paid 0.001 ETH for his pass. The co-founder and CEO of the platform that curates and offers for sale NFTs, Quantum Art, is Aversano. In a funding round managed in part by True Ventures, a venture capital firm whose board of directors includes Kevin Rose, Quantum Art raised $7.5 million in February 2022. Gary Vee, another investor in Quantum Art, was given a complimentary Proof Collective NFT membership pass (as is his brother). In this way, the collective distributed more passes to various anonymous wallet addresses.

The fact is that no Web3 guideline prohibits this type of backtracking. Thus anyone criticizing Proof for doing so should consider whether or not they would behave any differently in the same circumstance. The NFT environment has a reputation for nepotism and high-powered in-group-out-group dynamics, and it is also true that recent events do little to change that.

Maybe not all aspects of Web3 must adhere to the principles of equality and a (more) level playing field. However, such behaviour does reside uncomfortably close to Web2’s centralized favouritism. To be fair, though, Proof started introducing initiatives to make its community more inclusive and diverse by giving 400 Oddities NFTs to seven organizations that onboard underrepresented groups to Web3. Although it’s not yet evident if these gestures and intentions will result in noticeably greater diversity inside the Proof Collective, they are a positive step in the right direction.

Highrise: The Proof Metaverse

The Proof brand’s Highrise metaverse initiative is its next major objective after the collective. In an April 2022 episode of the Proof podcast, Rose said, “For us, [the metaverse] is a method to connect with a community that is different, unique, and more immersive than just what’s happening in Discord.” Rose has tended to be vague when explaining Highrise, but he has often shown dissatisfaction with previous metaverse project methodologies.

Rose said, “Highrise is a fictitious name.” However, it is one that Proof specifically chose because it reflects their vision for the metaverse, which involves going above and beyond what is already available to give users a variety of “buildings” and “floors” of intentional interaction.

“I was terribly let down when I saw the Facebook presentation for their metaverse,” Rose said, “where they showed two individuals playing chess in VR while sitting across from each other in VR.” “I would have sold my Facebook shares there and then if I had any, which I didn’t. Chess? On AOL, I was engaging in it. We can do better than this. I kind of just thought because it lacked imagination.

Despite its flaws, how Proof chooses to innovate in Web3 in the future will be anything but routine. The brand and the Web3 Proof collective will probably continue to be a driving force in the NFT community, given what Proof has accomplished in such a short period of time and in a down market. When they perceive a shift in the Web3 winds, like when they said they were moving the Moonbirds collection to a CC0 licence, Rose and his crew have demonstrated a willingness to be adaptable. Few things are without controversy in this area, but that decision was not without its own.