From 0 to 100 million US dollars, Jack Butcher's 4 NFT projects and their success secrets

This article analyzes Jack Butcher's 4 projects in the NFT field: NFTs, explained, VV Checks, Opepen, Checks Element, and analyzes their success factors.

Original title: "From 0 to 100 million US dollars, Jack Butcher's creative life from working as a worker for Party B to VV Checks (Part 2)"

Written by: Starzq, Ruby Wang

Last week, after writing about how Jack achieved "after-sleep income" from 0 to 1 million US dollars within a year, many friends left messages saying that they had a new understanding of Jack Butcher, and wanted to know more about how he "through visual effects, using Complex things are easy to understand" this idea is integrated into NFT to create phenomenal projects.

In this issue of Newsletter, I will take you to review and analyze Jack Butcher's 4 projects in the NFT field (NFTs, explained / VV Checks / Opepen / Checks Element), and its 3 key success secrets.

0. TL;DR

1. NFTs, explained: in early March 2021, try the Crazy Sword
2. VV Checks: An Infinite Canvas of Expression that Aims to Challenge Notions of Ownership and Authorship in the Internet Age
3. Opepen: This artwork may or may not be handsome
4. Checks Element: From the digital world to the physical world
5. Jack Butcher's 3 successful tips for creating NFT projects
6. Combining with the current cultural phenomenon, it is easier to catch the user's attention and impress their heartstrings
7. Turn NFT into a dynamic canvas, allowing more people to play and have fun
8. Build in public, extremely transparent, based on community-based innovation and dissemination, to achieve a state of self-growth

1. NFTs, explained: Try it out in early March 2021

Jack Butcher has been actively learning about Crypto/Web3 since the beginning of 2021, and believes that Crypto promotes transparency, node connections, and rapid iteration of the market, while NFT is the next container for value transfer (shells, gems, spices, coins, stamps, wine and Pokemon cards and so on belong to the NFT of the past era), and did a thought experiment.

What makes the blue tick on Instagram so desirable? What does it really mean? How much would it cost if one could be purchased?

On the basis of this thought experiment, Jack Butcher created a 1/1 NFT titled "NFTs, explained" in March 2021. By "simplifying the complexity through visuals", it uses a white background map and a blue tick The number vividly explained the difference between NFT and JPG (NFT = Verified JPG), and sold a high price of 74 ETH on the foundation.

2. VV Checks: An Infinite Canvas of Expression that Aims to Challenge Notions of Ownership and Authorship in the Internet Age

2.1 TwitterBlue Checkmark: This is an account verified by the old system. it may or may not be famous

Jack Butcher is associated with NFT/Blue Checkmark again, after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he decided to change the account authentication Blue Checkmark (Blue Checkmark), from only celebrities and institutions can apply, to anyone can apply for it every month Pay $8 to buy it.

In order to transition under the old and new rules, Twitter changed the blue check mark prompt copy under the old system to

This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable. This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not have popularity.

Previously, a blue checkmark marked an account's notability, activity, and authenticity as celebrity, elected official, brand, journalist, or some other public-facing category. But its core purpose is not to reflect popularity, but to prevent counterfeiting.

But now that anyone can buy a blue check mark, what do these checks really mean? Plus the "Schrödinger"-style copywriting has caused a lot of controversy. The White House, Tom Hanks, and even Elon Musk himself, have become "it may or may not be famous."

This middle-of-the-road statement probably most accurately describes the current state of the internet as it oscillates between reliance on centralized authority and a more decentralized, empowered, bottom-up approach through blockchain . ——nftnow

2.2 Open Edtion: When you are buying NFT, what are you buying?

The controversy also caught the attention of artist, designer and Twitter Blue subscriber Jack Butcher. He sees the issue of Twitter validation as an excellent opportunity to explore the culture storm, and makes the following deep reflections.

• This artwork may or may not be notable. In the internet age, the foundation of ownership and authorship is verification.
• The concept became part of internet culture in 2009, when Twitter introduced a verified checkmark into its interface to denote an account's popularity -- a mark typically reserved for journalists, politicians, athletes, artists and celebrities.
• There is a small check mark next to your name, proving your popularity. Explain that your words carry weight, your ideas are more insightful, or your accomplishments are above average.
• The symbol has absorbed new contexts in recent months, driven by the acquisition of the Twitter platform and the dismantling of the old verification process.
• Now, the "checkmark" is a symbol hidden behind a $8/month subscription barrier. It's a symbol that transcends language and culture, almost as ubiquitous as the "$".
• The intention of this piece is to capture a moment - in a society dominated by electronic culture and communication, the context of the verification process is changing. The coveted check mark previously bestowed by institutions is now just a symbol that the holder can afford and is willing to pay for it.
• If no one is authenticated, then everyone is authenticated.
• If no one has popularity, then everyone has popularity.
• We are moving to a digital verification system that no longer relies on a central authority. The authenticity of works of art, the origin of ideas, and the cataloging of Internet culture - whose provenance can be verified by thousands of decentralized nodes through smart contracts and Tokens verify.
• Checks is an infinite canvas for expression, designed to challenge notions of ownership and authorship in the internet age.
• In one configuration, it can pay homage to a modern artist; in another, it can refer to the most famous iconography of an era; in another, it can refer to an internet meme from a week ago.
• Now is our time.
• Don't trust - but check (Don't trust - check).

NFT artwork VV Checks released against this background

Riding the Open Editon, on January 3, 2023, Jack Butcher released a 24-hour Open Edition NFT on Zora to pay tribute to Twitter Blue (also priced at $8), each NFT contains 80 ticks of different colors Mark (checks), finally mint 16,031, exceeding Jack's expectations.

Why 80 checkmarks, and here's a little story

One of the sources of inspiration for VV Checks comes from Jack Butcher March 2021: NFTs, explained

Since then, I've been exploring the overlap between social contracts, NFTs, digital provenance, what art is, how it evolves, and who decides all of the above. Obviously, all of this has generated huge controversy, which is why it's such a fertile ground for creating art.

Jack Butcher further developed VV Checks based on this idea, which is essentially a sociological experiment to verify his thinking on the above issues

Twitter Blue is a centralized top-down digital verification system, and we now need a bottom-up distributed infrastructure, which is verified by thousands of decentralized nodes through smart contracts and tokens.

VV Checks are priced at $8, which is an acknowledgment of Buying Status.

I hope that through this work, people will be encouraged to think about what NFT is. "When you are buying NFT, what are you buying?"

2.3 Burning Mechanism: Exploring NFT as an art canvas can go further than an image

The successful launch of VV Checks Open Editon gave Jack the confidence to further advance the project, promote the functionality of NFT and people's understanding of the nature of NFT.

Exploring NFTs as an artistic canvas can go further than just pointing to an image

On January 9th, Jack Butcher started the second phase of Checks - Burning, to create unique (and conflicting) incentives for holders.

1. Burn two 80 checks to create a 40 checks. And so on, create 40, 20, 10, 5, 4 checks, and finally create a single color ckecks (up to 250 are created).
2. Burn 64 single colored checks to get a single black checks (up to 3 created). In other words, by burning 4096 original 80 checks works, you can get the top single black checks
3. When the holder burns 2 blocks to create a new NFT, the color of the new NFT will be automatically inherited, but its Token ID can be selected as any one of the original 2 blocks, giving users a certain amount of playability.

Behind this experiment, Jack Butcher hopes to verify 2 thoughts

• Would it be more popular if Checks were harder to get?

Although single colored checks and single black checks are very rare, the more NFTs are burned, the rarer the original 80 checks will become, and users need to choose the game that maximizes their benefits

• Based on interesting gameplay, what kind of on-chain art can be created?

Based on the color inheritance and the choice of Token ID, Jack Butcher believes that holders may formulate strategies based on visual preference rather than rarity, use specific color schemes, create unique works, and at the same time leave Tokens that are important to them ID

2 days after the release of the mechanism, 5 people have created a single colored ckecks by burning 128 80 checks. The reduction in supply and the evolution of this cultural movement have gradually pushed up the floor price, which has risen from less than 0.02E at the beginning It reached a maximum of 2.69E, and attracted the participation of many giant whales. Some users even conceived to create a Black Check DAO to obtain a single black checks.

Butcher has done what few other projects in this space have contemplated to achieve: use NFTs to reflect on the internet culture they spawned, while allowing the community to create their future. ——nftnow

3. Opepen: This artwork may or may not be handsome

At about the same time (January 9th), Jack Butcher launched a free mint of 16K PFP Oppen, almost mint out (15,984).

Both Checks and Opepen are essentially sociological experiments by Jack. If Checks is used to experiment with "bottom-up digital verification", Opepen is used to experiment with "constructing high-quality real estate in the digital age through PEPE memes + PFP", and at the same time more extreme practice of "using NFT as an art canvas to explore".

The mechanism design of Opepen is super interesting, endowing it with great vitality:

• The NFT released by Mint is a blind box with the image of Pepe and a white frame on a black background. Simple strokes inspire imagination, essentially an NFT canvas with Pepe's image
• 16000 NFTs are divided into 200 sets, each set has 80 pieces. The distribution of these 80 refers to the checks method, including 40 1/40, 20 1/20, 10 1/10, 5 1/5, 4 4/1, and 1 1/1. That is to say, the general blind box is an uncertain rarity, but oppen is a blind box with a certain rarity

• Since it is a blind box, the uncertainty lies in "what is painted on this canvas and by whom"
• Every time the box is opened, a set will be released, making 80 NFTs into finished products. The image style and artist of the current issue will be announced in advance, and then the holder of the oppen can decide whether to choose this round of unboxing (OPT-IN) based on the preview of this artwork
• Each user can vote based on the rarity of holding oppen. For example, if you hold a 1/40 oppen, then OPT-INS votes in the column of FORTY
• Voting lasts for 48 hours. When the number of votes in each column of OPT-INS exceeds 200% of the number of NFTs in this file (for example, 1/1 requires at least 2 votes, and 1/40 requires at least 80 votes), the entire set will be released box to start
• When the unboxing conditions are met, since the number of votes is > 80, there will be a lottery algorithm to select who will enter the box opening list, and holders with checks will have a higher probability; if the conditions are not met, this The image style and artist of the first issue will be skipped
• After successfully opening the box, the metadata of the entire set of 80 NFTs will be updated; and holders who have not been successfully activated to open the box will retain the original black and white color of the oppen
• Because 16,000 NFTs are divided into 200 sets, that means there will be 200 unboxings. If the box is opened once a week, it will take 4 years, so that this project can have a longer period of iteration, and constantly surpass itself through innovation

At present, 4 sets have been opened, and the third set, FULL CIRCLE, which is a collaboration with the famous encryption artist BATZ, has attracted more than 10,000 votes. The floor price is currently at 6E

Opepen has been going all the way to the present, the current OpenSea transaction volume is 59341 ETH (more than 100 million US dollars), and the floor price is from free mint to the current 0.94E

Jack Butcher thinks

Opepen will have a longer life than Checks, and hope to use Opepen to more directly explore bottom-up participation and verification methods, including who are the artists? What is art?

4. Checks Element: From the digital world to the physical world

On the 100th day of the launch of VV Checks, Jack Butcher launched Checks Element, which consists of 152 NFTs and corresponding single prints, combining his thinking on digital verification with the physical world, and exhibited at Christie's in Rockefeller Plaza, New York and auctions, taking the artistry of Checks to the next level.

Checks Enter the atomic world by way of the classification of matter that has defined it for centuries: Earth, Fire, Water and Air. The basic elements that make up Earth are one of the earliest examples of a decentralized consensus; transcending language, culture, and geography to understand the world.

Comprising 152 handcrafted 30" x 42" monochrome prints and corresponding NFTs, Checks Elements was co-conceived and published with legendary master typographer Jean Milant of Cirrus Editions in Los Angeles.

Among them, the top "Earth", "Air" and "Water" were exhibited and auctioned at Christie's Rockefeller Plaza in New York from May 20th to 23rd. "Air" sold for a high price of 19.88E, and "Water" sold for 17.25 ETH ( The price of about 3.1w USD) was taken by 6529 NFT Fund, and the last transaction price of "Earth" was 12.97E.

Being able to be auctioned and exhibited at Christie's has a very special meaning to Jack. It is the realization of his long-term dream. On May 15, 2019, 4 years ago, Jack held his first art exhibition in Queens, New York. He paid to exhibit 3 original Visualize Value posters at $20 each.

From Queens to Christie's, it's not easy for Jack Butcher to get this far. Her wife, Celia Butcher, also sent an emotional tweet that day

This is the result of years of hard work. In early 2018, Jack and I took a road trip and first announced my artist dreams in the car. On May 15, 2019, exactly four years ago today, Jack opened his first art show in Queens, New York. That's humbling - we paid ourselves to exhibit, and we actually lost money. Jack showed 3 original Visualize Value posters and charged $20 each. Words can hardly describe Jack's true energy and uniqueness. He is the most creative, determined and versatile person I have ever met. He is practically a know-it-all. (Note: Also the best husband and father) Checks was launched just in time for our second baby. To say the past few months have been life-changing is not enough to describe this. Watching Jack establish and push the boundaries of thinking in his field was both challenging and incredible. The Checks collection means a lot to our family. Thank you for all your support. For you, Jack, this is a very important moment and I am very proud. From moving poster tubes to holding a personal sale at Christie's 4 years later, only you can do it.

Congratulations, Jack Butcher

5. Jack Butcher's 3 successful tips for creating NFT projects

The three NFTs launched by Jack Butcher this year have quickly become phenomenal projects. What are the key secrets of their success, which are worth learning from? I have summed up 3 points

1. Combining with the current cultural phenomenon, it is easier to catch the user's attention and touch their heartstrings
2. Turn NFT into a dynamic canvas, allowing more people to play and have fun
3. Build in public, extremely transparent, based on community-based innovation and dissemination, to achieve a state of self-growth

5.1 Combining with the current cultural phenomenon, it is easier to catch the user's attention and impress their heartstrings

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, he asked everyone to pay $8, which changed the meaning of check. Next to the original check symbol, there was a sentence "it may or may not be notable" (it may or may not be well-known), Schrödinger The expression makes people rethink the meaning of "check", "notable", "verify", centralization and decentralization. So this project itself has cultural significance. At the right time to "capture a moment in time", NFT is priced at $8 and it is easy to resonate.

Checks also caught the Open Editions craze starting in January 2023. Riding on this small wind, Checks quickly mint out 300 pieces, and finally mint 16,031 pieces in 24 hours, exceeding Jack's expectations.

And Pepe itself is the top meme in the Crypto circle, which cannot be ignored. At the same time, the meme coin $pepe itself was also very popular during that time, which also played a role in boosting the project.

5.2 Turn NFT into a dynamic canvas, allowing more people to play and have fun

The launch of most NFTs is the peak, and the box is rug, because of the lack of a mechanism that can be played, and the artistic style is not necessarily loved by users, making it unsustainable.

Jack Butcher repeatedly mentioned that "exploring NFT as an art canvas can go further than an image", which is also a reflection on the above phenomenon, and the ultimate practice is in VV Checks and Openen.

Checks creates a unique and conflicting incentive mechanism for users. A single colored checks and a single black checks will increase in value due to their rarity, but the more NFTs are burned, the original 80 checks will also become rarer, and users need to choose their own The game of maximizing profit.

At the same time, color inheritance and Token ID can be selected. These two points further enhance the playability of Checks. Holders may formulate strategies based on visual preference rather than rarity, and use specific color schemes to create unique works. , while leaving the Token ID that is important to you.

Opepen takes the "playability" to a higher level. The opt-in box opening mechanism enhances interaction and unprecedented participation. It is also exploring permissionless and bottom-up artistic creation. Popular voting also avoids unboxing rugs due to unrecognized artist/art style.

Openen has 16,000 NFTs and 200 sets, so that it has 200 chances to open the box. If the box is opened once a week, it will take 4 years, so that this project can have a longer period of iteration, and constantly surpass itself through innovation.

These features also constitute the unique, conflicting and vital gameplay mechanism of Opepen. Users need to choose among four factors: rarity, artist, blind box and box opening time. On the one hand, it gives users more ways to participate and fun, on the other hand On the one hand, it also avoids single factor risk. No wonder Jack Butcher thinks Openen will outlive Checks.

5.3 Build in public, extremely transparent, based on community-based innovation and dissemination, to achieve a state of self-growth

Jack Butcher is well versed in the way of communication, and checks itself is a kind of meme and even culture, so Jack set it as CC0 to attract a larger community group to innovate and spread. In just 2 weeks, hundreds of derivative projects emerged, and some enthusiastic people created a website to list all the derivative projects (currently 485), as well as the parts that are currently in mint. Jack Butcher also helped spread the word on Twitter and the official website, making the meme more and more popular

In addition, Jack Butcher provides extreme transparency. Since January 7th, he has opened a Twitter Thread called "Transparency time", constantly sharing his thoughts on Checks, and has accumulated 230 tweets, constantly attracting user interaction and dissemination, as well as driving iterations of the project.

Transparency is the best Marketing

Oppen also uses a similar strategy. Jack came up with the idea of Opepfp in February, and after posting it on Twitter, he received a lot of interactions from OGs, including Frank from Degods, Franklin from BAYC, and so on.

At the end of March and the beginning of April, Jack publicly talked about the experimental mechanism of Openen, which is constantly evolving and revealing artworks, how to design the drop mechanism, and also replied to Franklin to open Blur bids.

Jack also launched the website opepefy, allowing everyone to quickly generate their own Opepen, turning Twitter into a carnival about Opepen and attracting the participation of many giant whales.

Finally, use Jack Butcher's insight to summarize

In this space, you want to compete with billion dollar VC-backed brands for attention, without permissionless distributed creative action, you will have a hard time attracting attention and appearing on other people's timelines superior

I hope these 3 points can also inspire you to build interesting NFT projects.