After the rapid development of the Crypto market in 2021, with many creators, brands and stars embracing Web3, in 2022, NFT will become more ubiquitous. Among the many NFT projects, only a few projects have relatively large influence, not just relying on pure price hype, which makes them stand out.
So which NFT projects are the most innovative, and which projects utilize this technology in a unique and unconventional way? Below is my selection of outstanding NFT projects for 2022.
QQL
QQL is an Ethereum generative art NFT series created by Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wist. Hobbs is best known as the founder behind the Fidenza Algorithm, an Art Blocks project whose sales will reach the million-dollar level (USD) in 2021, so his next move is also in the spotlight. So despite the cryptocurrency bear market, nearly $17 million in NFT Mint Passes were sold once QQL was launched.
Like Fidenza, QQL artwork is also generated using a fine-tuning algorithm deployed on the chain, which will generate waves of large and small colored circles. In addition, buyers of mint Pass tokens can generate final artwork and mint it as NFT. Anyone can use the QQL algorithm to get a variety of dazzling pattern results, but only the owner of the mint pass can add NFT to the official collection.
This engagement and interaction with collectors establishes a new paradigm for the creation and ownership of NFTs, gamifying the minting of NFTs and giving holders the opportunity to become artists. Also interesting: whoever generates a particular seed artwork (usually an NFT minter) also gets a small royalty when they resell the artwork.
Proof of Merge
Ethereum mergers are one of the most talked about events in 2022. Proof of Merge As a side project, A16Z crew members Mason Hall and Michael Blau created a dynamic NFT of "Proof of Merge" to celebrate the event. Each NFT acts as a sort of "proof of presence", proving that the user who minted it participated in Web3 before the merger took place.
Hall and Blau's NFT automatically changes its metadata through the series' smart contracts, allowing the appearance of the NFT to match the state of the merger process in real time.
Each NFT starts out as a static image of a separate black and white circle. When the merge starts, the NFT is updated with a partially merged circle. Once complete, the NFTs are updated again to their final stages: a yin-yang symbol, where the blockchain's execution layer (the black bear) and consensus layer (the white bear) combine to form an adorable mammal.
Nouns
The Nouns NFT project and the corresponding DAO will be launched in 2021. The project development is based on the premise of community governance and open source IP creation. The project auctions off one Pixelated Nouns PFP NFT per day, and as of this writing, a whopping 29,150 ETH has been amassed in the project’s coffers — worth roughly $37.8 million.
Noun holders can vote on project proposals and spend their pooled funds in a variety of different places, such as promoting Nouns at cryptocurrency conferences, supporting Web3 education in Brazil, bringing Nouns to New York Fashion Week, and more. This further includes sponsoring charities, physical collectibles, and even working with professional esports teams.
Even mainstream brands are getting in on the action — Bud Light, for example, went Noun earlier this year and used its boxy "Noun glasses" in a Super Bowl ad. Nouns is also one of the first notable series of NFTs to use the Creative Commons CC0 license, meaning anyone can use Nouns' IP to create and sell anything they like.
Shibuya
Artist Emily “ppplleasr” Yang has a new vision for the future of cinema — and she’s using NFTs to fund it. Shibuya aims to become the "A24 of Web3" (Translator's Note: A24 is a film distribution company) by selling NFTs as some kind of voting chip, thereby generating a community that jointly decides how the storyline develops, and in the process Provide development funding for future projects.
In December, Shibuya raised a $6.9 million seed round co-led by a16z and Variant Fund to advance its mission. Its first project is the animated series "White Rabbit," which tells the story of a young man exploring the mysterious world of encryption. Pplpleasr told Decrypt that "content in Web3 sucks right now, Web3 has a lot of money to produce content but not many tasteful creators" and maybe that can be changed now.
Goblintown
Who likes to moan incoherently? That's right: Goblintown NFT holders. When Terra collapsed in May, when the crypto industry was in a bear market, the project started to catch on, as NFT users lost hope, reveling in meetings filled with idiocy, shit, and madness.
While the Goblintown NFT art is certainly ugly and popular, its launch is smart and intentional. NFT was launched without a roadmap, without Discord, and without practical utility. Since its launch, it has changed from a free mint NFT to a project with a secondary transaction volume of 96 million US dollars. This irreverent humor brought a much-needed sense of relief to the struggling crypto community and sparked 2022's craziest NFT trend.
Reddit favorite avatar
After an official release over the summer, Reddit's NFTs (which it calls "collectible avatars") took off this fall as users across the online forum platform showed off Snoos in a variety of colors and designs. Some NFTs on Polygon have become very popular.
To date, over 7 million Reddit NFTs have been minted on Polygon, with over 5.3 million unique holders. Overall, Reddit's NFT launch may be the largest yet, and it's a huge win for the adoption of Ethereum sidechain Polygon and the NFT industry in general.
Gods
While NFT transaction volume on Ethereum dominates, Solana NFT has also made waves thanks to several popular NFT series such as DeGods. Created by an entrepreneur named "Frank", DeGods is a collection of PFP NFTs on Solana and offers holders many different benefits.
After a failed launch in late 2021, Frank and team ramped up what he likes to call a "social experiment," rolling out upgraded artwork to owners, offering daily accruals of DUST tokens to long-term holders, and even using a DAO Finance Funds acquired a controlling stake in a team in Ice Cube's BIG3 basketball league.
These moves propelled DeGods to become the most valuable Solana NFT project this summer, ranking it close to many blue-chip projects on Ethereum in terms of dollar value. Development firm Dust Labs also raised $7 million to help build an ecosystem around the projects.
DeGods and y00ts help the NFT market on the Solana chain grow to a great extent in 2022.
Pudgy Penguins
Many NFT projects struggle to maintain long-term vitality and eventually fade into obscurity, especially when the reputation of the founders is called into question. But that doesn't appear to be Pudgy Penguins' playbook, which launched in July 2021 and lost traction just a few months later, when young entrepreneur Luca Netz bought the project for $2.5 million in April after the original founders left. , the Pudgy Penguins are getting a major revival.
At the time of writing, the price of the Penguins has soared to a floor price of almost 7 ETH, over $8,000 each, also a considerable increase from earlier in the year. Under Netz, the NFT collection launched with plans to release related merchandise, children's books, and an auction at Sotheby's. Penguins has also formed an advisory board of Web3 and retail professionals, joined by leaders from Nansen, Saks Fifth Avenue, Hasbro and Meta, to help further shape and develop the project back.
