Pepeverse for the People
Pepeverse Gen-2 is 1111 NFTs. 432 owned by holders. 679 are CC0.
If you love surprises, you are definitely going to want to own Pepeverse Gen-2.
Indeed, Pepeverse Gen-2 NFTs are an unexpected, AI-generated, and colorful delight.
Equal parts psychedelic rave culture, Web3 meme culture, solar punk fiction, Fraggle Rock, and cutting-edge AI artistic aesthetics, Pepeverse Gen-2’s are wildly mesmerizing, trippy, ooey-gooey fun.
Whereas the art of the Pepeverse 1st-Genesis collection was as creative and original as it was unforgettable (more The Dark Crystal than Fraggle Rock–read about it here), the Gen-2 Pepeverse collection chose another direction entirely and has expressed itself with a gentleness and kindness that is something extraordinary: It is beautiful.
Tellingly, Pepeverse Gen-2 is decidedly more kid-friendly. It is a fantastic and splendid cartoon dream come to life. Indeed, Pepeverse Gen-2 is a cartoon world of friendly, lovely, kaleidoscopic, Pepe the Frog superfriends. It is a different world. The edgy Dark Crystal aesthetic of Gen-1 has given way to the colors and delight of today’s world and today’s visual delights. Picture Pepeverse if it were done by the creators of Disney’s Encanto.
Better yet, look for yourself:
Colorwise, Pepeverse Gen-2 land somewhere between Sponge Bob Squarepants and Stephen Universe.
Yet as mesmerizing and bright and colorful as the art is, Pepeverse Gen-2 is far more than meets the eye–as holders and collectors have already discovered.
The Team
During the two day minting of Pepeverse Gen-2, the four-continent team of degen project creators–front-facing artist Mike Mongo, Prompt, Refine, and Dev–kept their plans mum. With a mint that was largely kept inside and supported by community holders of the Pepeverse Gen-1’s, the Pepeverse Gen-2’s minted casually. With hardly any fanfare, the collection reached 432 minted NFTs.
Then, 48-hours into the launch, the Pepeverse G2 mint was closed to the public. Behind the scenes, however, the team was hard at work.
The Fork
Quietly minting out the 1111-piece collection’s remaining 679 pieces, on the mark of team-member Prompt, team-member Dev sent all 679 of the now-minted pieces to a public burn wallet address, where they now reside, forever unsold. With this move dividing the Pepeverse G2 collection, two groups of the degen NFT project were created:
- 432 holder-held NFTs, tradable with proprietary IP rights held for use by each NFT holder.*
- 679 burn wallet-forwarded NFTs, declared as CC0, and free for public use.
*Of these 432 minted NFTs, 132 are divvied out as follows: 40 for the creators to divide equally, 52 for marketing & promotion, and 40 for gifting to NFT artists for upcoming Pepeverse project.
From here on out, all 679 of the burn wallet-held Pepeverse Gen-2’s are CC0.
The Plan — Degen Anti-Rug Campaign
In the next two weeks [edit: soon-ish], 40 Pepeverse Gen-2 NFTs will be airdropped to a curated list of popular NFT artists who will use the artwork to create original art for the first-ever Degen Anti-Rug Campaign, a PSA campaign dedicated to encouraging responsible degen behavior by creators, devs, collectors, holders, project managers, and flippers.
Front artist Mike Mongo says the Degen Anti-Rug Campaign is as much a model of what is possible for the future of degen projects as it is how he learned to create NFTs and support his own NFT communities.
“Legit degen projects are the future,” says Mike Mongo. “Pepeverse is a pure degen project. We created it by using the tools at our disposal–creator tools, community tools, sales tools–and never once backed away from our commitment to a larger vision of abundance for our holders and our community. What inspired the Degen Anti-Rug Campaign is all the sick and amazing projects whose founders did a number on their communities, pumped their own bags, and left them holding the empty bag. Including on many, many occasions original IP that is now gutted by bad faith.”
“The Degen Anti-Rug Campaign–supported by many of my friends who are some of the best NFT artists in the world today–is a fun way to show how holders and non-holders alike can use Pepeverse Gen-2 IP,” shares Mongo. “As I have been saying since we debuted, Pepeverse is the play. Our job as creators–me, Prompt, Refine, and Dev–is to use our vast and mighty degen powers to support Pepeverse holders with creativity, fun, and abundance. With Pepeverse Gen-2, we are modeling what is possible for a legit degen project. Not a pump-and-dump. Not a churn-and-burn. What Pepeverse is everything we learned Web3 can be in 2021. It’s going to look even better in 2023.”
The Future of Web3: Kids
The next step for Pepeverse Gen-2 is audacious. It is to make the 679 CC0 Pepeverse Gen-2 NFTs artwork available to kids, schools, and student-led art initiatives to use for their own personal and group projects.
Collecting the 679 pieces in a single website for teachers, artists, mentors, and educators to draw upon and use freely, the team is positioning Pepeverse for a bigger play outside of Web3.
“Instead of arguing with other grownups about what NFTs and Web3 and even cryptocurrency is not,” explains Mongo, “we are bypassing that noise altogether and reaching out to next generation with art that speaks to them that they can use and even make themselves. The audience we built Pepeverse Gen-2 around probably have never have an actual wallet, much less a cold wallet. What we are doing is moving Pepeverse into the future. Like [NFT painter] Gabe Weis says, ‘if you’re here today, you’re early. And if you’re here three years from now, you’re early. We made Pepeverse Gen-2 for the future.’”
In other words, it is no accident Pepeverse Gen-2 is so much brighter and warmer a Pepeverse than Gen-1. Indeed, Pepeverse Gen-2 is created with an audience in mind that has no interest in the philosophy or mechanics of NFTs: Kids. It’s a bold play and one that may reap unexpected reward for the project’s most diamond-handed holders.
By winning over young kids to Pepeverse today, a generational audience may be nurtured and cultivated that may never stop loving the project and its art.
If Pepeverse has anything to say about it, the most legit degen play of all time may be the one ignored by nearly every degen NFT project out there today:
Longevity.
