Cartoon Apes and War Bonds.
What Does Cool Celebrity Profile Pictures and The Ukrainian Conflict Have In Common?
You know you have made it in popular culture when you made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. This is exactly what has happened with the Bored Ape Yacht Club way back in January this year.
For those who don’t know The Bored Ape Yacht Club is an NFT collection, that is limited to 10,000 images. Almost every A-lister from Post Malone to Snoop Dogg from Justin Beiber to Jimmy Fallon from Steph Curry to Gwyneth Paltrow. The BAYC is an exclusive club, where the minimum price of admission is at this moment is 52 ETH or approx $190,000 AUD.
Purchasing a BAYC NFT gets the buyer, an exclusive discord channel, celebrity hangout, exclusive in house airdrops and the commercial rights to monetise their ape. Think of it as a digital country club. Because of the scarce nature of the BAYC, it makes it both luxurious and exclusive, which in turn, makes it cool.
Why it is so popular with celebrities? In the absence of red carpets when all award ceremonies have gone virtual. There is very little space now to show off their bling and therefore success. Buying exclusive NFTs fills this void.
Ukrainian War Bonds
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, there has been another interesting NFT development, the use of them as war bonds. War bonds are nothing new, they have been around as long there has been war. For those who don’t know a war bond, is a debt security issued by a government when an economy has been mobilised for conflict. What has been interesting this time around is the use of crypto. Initially accepting donations on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether and Polkadot. There has also been a push by the international art community to fund Ukrainian defence and humanitarian efforts through the sale of NFTs. Raising millions in the first three weeks of operations. As this crisis unfolds NFTs are fast becoming the 21st-century war bond. The technology has also proven itself to be transparent, fast and secure with very minimal disruption in the transactions.
So What Has These Both Have In Common?
The answer is social proof. NFTs not only have captured the public imagination most people are now willing to embrace them. Interestingly the acceptance is common from the top-down and bottom-up.
The BAYC is an aspirational brand. At 52 ETH there is no way an average punter on the street can afford them. Having seeing celebrities displaying their Ape rubs off people who especially look to them as role models. Therefore makes the concept of the NFT community more widely acceptable, especially for other projects that don’t have the burden of cost for membership.
For the Ukrainian war bonds, it is from the bottom up. Yes, the Ukrainian government has tweeted the details of their crypto wallets. And yes they may one day deliver on that airdrop promise as a way of thanking those who have supported them. As there is proof of grassroots artistic movements that have stepped up with fundraising NFTs, then it is accessible and affordable to the average punter.
Once a ceasefire has been reached, then the use of NFTs will have a profound effect on the public imagination, and hasten their wider acceptance. Watch this space because as crisis accelerates technology, then we shall see our drivers licences and passports for example in NFT format and other utilitarian uses.
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Cartoon Apes and War Bonds. was originally published in CryptoStars on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.