Interview with the Mouse DAO team
FireFly06.01.2022
FireFly
Hello! First of all, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. I'm really excited to talk about the Mouse DAO project. Could you please introduce your team to our audience? How many team members do you have? Where are you from? Where did you meet each other? What are your team roles and responsibilities?
Keller
Hello, FireFly!
And thank you for the invitation! The core team is 4 people right now:
• wenmintsir – he is responsible for business development
• Keller – I am responsible for our platform and technical solutions.
• Rick Solchez – he is responsible for design and community management
• SolMine – Marketing and communication
Actually our team is mostly Russian origins, but we don’t live in the same place. We have acquainted with each other during our university years, previous jobs and one day NFT happened
Rick Solchez
The Core team is experienced in crypto & NFTs. All of us are actively investing in digital assets for a while, some of us have launched NFT collections on Solana
Besides, we also have “real-world” experience, including BIG-4 consulting, FMCG and big-tech project management, analytics, and more
FireFly
Oh! very interesting!
Why did you choose Singular and RMRK?
Keller
In fact, we found it several months ago on some forum, read the docs, watched all the videos and understood that it would be the next step in the NFT world. There is no such functionality for NFT on other blockchains / projects. So we decided to make a move and invest our time and energy into the new sea of Kusama and RMRK.
Rick Solchez
Singular and RMRK are on the next level comparing to Solana and other chains. I personally was inspired by nested NFTs, personal profiles & banners
Thanks to this, here we can deploy more complex & interesting ideas
FireFly
Your project has already attracted attention of some collectors of Singular, firstly, It is interesting ART, and secondly, your team immediately showed you are not only artists, but also programmers who are making impressive and useful project https://www.mouse-dao.com in the RMRK ecosystem! ) Please tell us more about your current product and more details about roadmap plans.
wenmintsir
The main idea behind mouse dao is to build a diversified ecosystem on the Kusama blockchain. We started with NFTs’ space as the easiest and the most straight forward thing, however we have a bigger plans, including DeFi and cross-chain solutions.
Rick Solchez
Again, relying on the previous experience in SOL & others, we have seen a great demand for this type of products
As you have mentioned, we are here not only for the visual part of the NFT indeed, but rather for the utility part
We want to help this space grow together with us. And right analytical tools can really speed things up
Keller
So right now we have several products that are alive:
• Top RMRK collections – it is our most popular product right now. It helps you find top collections on RMRK currently in one place with easy UX (i guess). When I first discovered singular, I was constantly searching for new interesting projects. So this is how the idea for it was born!
• Overall Analytics – this tool helps you understand what is happening with the RMRK market right now. It is not for everyday use, but I visit it somehow two times per week and it is always tells me that the RMRK community of buyers is growing. This is dope!
• Collections Sales Discord bot – actually we launched a bot for our community in discord, so close people can see our collection’s NFT sales and then decided: “why it should be only our collection? Let’s share it with the community!”
• NFT Calendar or Upcoming Drops (will be launched shortly) – it would be a convenient NFT calendar, where you can always find new upcoming drops!
Rick Solchez
Next steps include
- Improvement of our core product, analytical platform. Soon we will add RMRK 2.0 analytics, upgrade the design and increase the number of available tools.
- Addition of new highly demanded products. We are working on the drop announcer/NFT calendar, discord verification system, other useful discord bots
- Launch of new collections, airdropped to Mouse DAO holders
FireFly
All these ideas really look very useful !
Is it possible to say the ownership of NTF from your first Mouse Dao collection will be guaranteed to give advantages to the owners in your future collections and projects as well? And let's generally talk in more detail about the utilities (useful functions) that you put into the Mouse Dao collection. What is your personal opinion, should an artist or team immediately reveal the secrets of using NTFs or it may remain a mystery to collectors?
Rick Solchez
The exact benefits for holding Signature NFTs will be decided along the road, but we already have some plans on that.
Firstly, Mouse DAO holders will often receive airdrops or other bonuses in the upcoming collections made by us. This already happened with the BNNR collection https://singular.rmrk.app/collections/8c99cd908a0e09cf72-BNNR (10 were airdropped) and will continue. Also we plan to launch RMRK 2.0 collections and a 3d mice at some point
Secondly, Mouse DAO holders will receive special benefits on our analytical platform once it grows. This may include some in-depth, personalised or other analytics, or can be used by collection-owners
The most important, is that we aim to create a DAO here (as the name states). All holders will be members of it and will have governance rights to decide where we all are going. We are already relying on our holders opinions a lot, but formal DAO structure, voting, etc. will help to improve and grow
I’ll just add that auction mechanics are also in our pipeline 😅
FireFly
You have chosen an interesting sales strategy, Prices for Signature NFTs follow the Fibonacci sequence. Buy early = by cheap! There are a total of 100 mice of the same rarity in the collection! You put 10 mice in one drop, the price in the third drop was already 2 KSM and you sold the drop out 5 minutes, the price in 5 drop will already be 5 KSM, and in 8 drop the price will already be 21 KSM!
In fact, my opinion is that your system is very good. You give early supporters the opportunity to buy cheaper, since their investments are riskier. Later fans will buy more, but by then your team will be able to do more and show new results. Such a sales system is also convenient for you, while on Singular it is (temporarily) not possible to hold auctions, but you immediately honestly tell your fans what the prices will be in the future. How did you come up with this idea? Are there any fears that you need to show a great job in order to sell 8-9-10 drops later?
Rick Solchez
The main goal of collecting funds here is to fund the infrastructure, salaries and etc. needed for our platform to operate and evolve
The further we go, the more costs are needed. So the idea of the growing sequence is born from here
As for the fears of not selling out - no at all. To be honest, we were quite surprised with 5 min sold out, and initially, we weren’t planning to sell them fast. But in the long term, this utility NFT can cost way higher, as now people buy simple nft jpegs for even larger sums, while we offer a real product. So at some point, we will find a demand even for 20+ KSM drops
Keller
Actually, it was wenmintsir's idea. Yeah, as you said, we wanted to show our community the transparency for the next drops, so they can know what to expect. So early adopters will have a price advantage in the future (whether they want to sell or become our DAO member). Right now raised money is spent on building the infrastructure and actually this sales plan helps us forecast the future. We are willing to work hard in order for everything to happen.
FireFly
Who are your favorite Singular artists, who do you actively follow? do you sometimes buy without utility? because you just liked the art?
Keller
I like #multitommy . Very beautiful work of art, thinking about buying one
FireFly
gorgeous art, I'm thinking about buying too) I know the artist. corresponded with her.
Rick Solchez
I often buy without utility, at least every NFT gives community access + some speculative prospects
My favorite on RMRK 1.0 is MAO Collection Snails. Love the process of snail growing from the egg. And the art is crazy
Donkeys are also not bad from the visual side and selling fast, might be a nice one in the future.
Rick Solchez
my snail 😅
wenmintsir
I personally don't buy NFTs as ART. For me NFTs only make sense as utility assets (it also might be access to some cool community) or like bling-blings to show off in social media (like BAYC). That's why my personal NFTs portfolio is not that big.
SolMine
Well, my favorite singular artist is @helloluigi (Luigi Lucarelli), really love his works. From the last one, alien pets were dope:
https://singular.rmrk.app/collections/e84b20a21c206ec37a-HPTWJ
If we are talking about utility, sometimes it doesn’t matter. Actually, I bought a song by 13 years old kid who is very talented. He is a son of one of the ChaosApe holders. So for me sometimes art is very important
FireFly
@RickSolchez , you are responsible for design! What tools do you and your other designers use in your work?
Rick Solchez
I am more kind of an Art director, managing our artists, rather than a designer by myself. As far as I know tools are quite obvious, including photoshop, illustrator and etc from Adobe. 3d artists work in cinema or similar
Also we are working on the fully generative collection for the BNNR, there we will create art by using Python or others
Collection of different profile banners inspired by the chaos and experimental ideology of the Kusama.
FireFly
What features would you like Singular to add in the future? Secondary market auctions and royalties will definitely be introduced soon, maybe something else?
Keller
RMRK 2.0 on singular and smart contracts are the most valuable features we want to see. It will boost platform capitalization rapidly!
FireFly
yes !!! this is definitely what all of us are waiting for!
Keller
Everything else on the RMRK roadmap can also be very valuable but these 2 are the core one, I consider.
FireFly
Can you briefly explain what web 3.0 is in your understanding?
wenmintsir
it's the future!
Keller
Freedom, transparency, and community-driven society
Rick Solchez
Everyone is equal in terms of access to technologies, information, art and etc., what is achieved through new technologies like NFT and decentralisation
FireFly
ok ! and the last question ! Are you an active participant in the crypto market now? follow new projects, buy tokens on early sales? highlight projects (tokens) that have great prospects in 2022 and why! in your opinion ! NFA !
Rick Solchez
this will blow up for sure https://twitter.com/hapebeastgang
We are actively seeking new projects and ideas on multiple chains. Imo there is not a lot of great ones in the last month or so, as the market saturated, but there will be in the future for sure.
wenmintsir
for me web3, is the start of a new "era" of full decentralization. I think our generation is going to witness the greatest world transformation ever. I hope web3 is the first step to create a cross government society using one language, currencies, governance, etc....
Keller
As for me, I am a great believer in the Polkadot / Kusama ecosystem, Ethereum, and RMRK for sure. But, actually, the time will definitely show us new interesting projects and concepts that we should dive into!
I wanted to add that i am an active crypto participant since 2015. At first it was just BTC and ETH. Then as crypto community grew, i started to search for different projects. That’s how I found out about BNB, Solana and Kusama. I didn’t actually participate in any crowdloans for parachains for now, but guess will do it shortly. As there are some projects with great potential. I did buy some NFTs on singular, but I will dive deeper as the time goes😅
FireFly
Thanks a lot! very interesting conversation! We look forward to the next achievements of your work! Good luck!
https://singular.rmrk.app/collections/daf9e25824d4bd9357-DAO - MOUSE DAO collection
https://discord.gg/5NDRgmDr - my referral link for joining the discord of the MOUSE DAO project
GvYhEKCUYcK5GdHB5MHPMmLKZqrdyPZV9HMW83RV5L7ZZLz - my KSM address if you want to donate, and I can devote more time to similar interviews.
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