FEATURED ARTWORKS OF THE WEEK
ER’s style is a mix of vibrant colors, fanciful elements and composition that gives his work a feeling of movement. He aims for his work to be a force of positivity and inspiration into the world.
His digital mural Here We Go is a collaboration with ATX DAO, an ongoing public art fund based in Austin.
A portion of the sales of this artwork will fund future public art projects in the Austin area, and all holders will be given governance rights in the DAO.
Level Up with #CryptoCorner
The new crypto frontier is providing a wealth of new opportunities across industry, but for someone wanting to get involved for the first time, it can often seem overwhelming. In a constantly evolving environment where new technologies and ideas are emerging daily, staying up to date can be a challenge, but we at Mint Gold Dust want to help navigate you through the noise.
We are passionate about educating people about the tools of web3 and crypto, arming them with the knowledge to jumpstart their crypto education. The very ethos of web3 centers around decentralization and shared knowledge, and we believe that giving people equal opportunity and free access is an essential part of that.
In that vein, we’ve made changes to the Mint Gold Dust Discord to better help artists, collectors, and the curious to feel confident in beginning and continuing their journey in the crypto space. Our new #CryptoCorner is a dynamic and evolving space dedicated to learning the essentials and exploring deeper concepts of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs in a community setting.
The information is available to anyone who joins our Discord and covers key and trending topics split into increasing levels of difficulty. The concepts are written to be easily digestible with the intent of spurring discourse and further independent exploration.
Think you’ve mastered a level? Take our interactive, timed quiz and earn a new Discord role to show off your skills. Your points are recorded automatically, and you’ll be competing against others within the community for the top spot on the leaderboard as the educational space grows. We’ll continue adding to our knowledge bank as the space evolves, providing you a reliable resource to come back to.
To start our quizzes after completing the reading material, a Mint Gold Dust moderator can generate a quiz session for you. You’re also welcome to use the short code commands built into our Discord to trigger them yourself. Your scores are automatically ranked within the community on our leaderboards, and you can check your standing at any time. With the completion of each level, you will gain a new role in our server; Novice, Intermediate, and Expert that will help you stand out in the community.
We can’t wait to help you jumpstart your crypto education through our Crypto Corner and will be here to help and answer any questions along the way.
CREATIVE COMMONS: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN NFTS
By Mint Gold Dust’s Community Manager, Dylan
There has been a buzz steadily growing in the NFT Space, and the concept of CC0 (Creative Commons) projects have come under intense scrutiny. Creative Commons are not a new idea, but they inherently contradict the definition of conventional NFTs by waiving the legal rights of published works and moving them into the public domain. This idea has gained traction in an effort to decentralize as it essentially puts the interest of the majority above the self.
In the Cryptoverse, this manifests as the greenlight for derivative projects using works “owned” by another individual to legally be mass reproduced and sold even if the original work was purchased with the assumption they would own all corresponding intellectual properties.
The resulting discourse has created two camps- those that embrace the idea of CC0, and those that feel, for lack of a better term, rugged.
Existing CC0 projects have secured a foothold in the market, and tend to be recognizable due to their widespread communities and quantity of derivatives. TinyDinos is an example of a community based project that has leaned heavily into the idea and holds it as a cornerstone of their assets. TinyDinos are a CC0 omnichain NFT which minted for free across 7 different blockchains and can be transferred between each.
This specific project type has allowed for innovation in the NFT Space. As derivatives became more abundant, new ideas surrounded what could be done without the limitations of strict intellectual property rights and the community was able to enjoy their NFTs used in new games, merchandise, and an event they coined as CC0 Summer. This was a new concept that allowed their NFTs to traverse cross-chain and return with new and rare attributes with the ability to be converted back to their original state by traversing back before a predetermined date. At current writing, TinyDinos has performed 4.2k ETH in volume, and the project continues to grow with the formation of rawrDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization coined with the cheeky tagline, “no rights reserved.”
While there has been success with projects that have been advertised as CC0 from their initial minting, Moonbirds, a successful collection of utility-enabled PFPs, ruffled some feathers in early august with the announcement they’d be moving to a CC0 public license without first allowing their community to express their opinions. Moonbirds owner Kevin Rose cited the necessity for the change as the move “honors and respects the values of the internet and web3 and starts a new and important phase of the project”. To individuals who had bought into the project with the knowledge they would retain exclusive ownership of their purchased artwork and were free to establish their own restrictions and limitations for use, the sudden change sent a shockwave through the community.
IP rights in the space are still being explored and established, but a large draw to artwork based NFTs is the potential for commercial rights to your token. Moonbirds specifically promoted this idea in a series of tweets and announcements that owning a Moonbird opened collectors to a host of new possibilities that could be monetized using the rights to an individual bird. This has put owners and potential owners at odds. The reception from existing Moonbirds holders was overwhelmingly negative, while would-be collectors and creators celebrated the ability to freely create derivative works without concern for royalties.
As IP rights, CC0 projects, and traditional mints continue to be discussed and defined in an ever changing environment like the NFT space, it is important for collectors to remain knowledgeable about the types of collections and marketplaces they purchase.
Mint Gold Dust, for example, is not a Creative Commons Zero marketplace. NFT’s purchased through us allow for the buyer to retain exclusive rights to their collection as they have purchased the original work. Each token can only have one owner at a time, and royalties/permissions can only be granted by the owner as listed on-chain.
This more traditional NFT production and sales model affords artists and content creators a unique opportunity to monetize their work. For example, artists no longer have to rely on galleries or auction houses to sell their art. Instead, the artist can sell it directly to the consumer as an NFT, which also lets them keep more of the profits. At Mint Gold Dust, we offer artists the chance to choose their desired royalty percentage for secondary sales on the platform, giving the artists the selling power.
Want to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Miss our recent post about our Curated Spaces feature? Catch up here and check out our marketplace to browse new mints.
