TL;DR - Watch the video at the end of this article!
Today we are gonna talk about one of the most hyped NFT projects of all time, called Loot. Loot is basically a project with no team behind it, no roadmap...it’s just a bunch of tokens with texts on them, and for some reason they seem to be a big deal.
But why is that? WTF is Loot in the 1st place?
We’ll explain what the fuss around it is all about. So let’s get into it.
Loot Timeline
Before we start digging deeper on what Loot really is, let’s first get some context on when and how this project was created, also analyzing the developments that took place after its creation.
So it all started with this tweet on Aug 27th 2021 by Dom Hoffman, an artist and entrepreneur, already involved in other well-known NFT projects such as Blitmap. The tweet read…
After people started minting these NFTs (or bags, as they are referred to in this specific case) and the word spread about the project, a series of other developments surrounding Loot started to occur. Many communities started to be built around it, different market trackers started to pop up and derivative projects began to be launched in a matter of only a few HOURS after Dom’s tweet. Even a currency was built for it!
But why did this happen? What’s the fuss all about? WTF is Loot?
What Exactly is Loot?
Loot is basically a collection of 8000 NFTs that were minted for free (requiring only the gas cost) directly from its contract on the Ethereum blockchain. Once they were minted, they looked something like this…
Yes, not a JPEG, there’s no art in it, just a blackscreen with 8 lines of text. That’s what people got. A TXT file consisting of randomly generated fantasy adventurer loot in a set. Basically a very simple RPG card but with no game built around it, really.
At first glance they don’t seem like a big deal. They even look silly, actually; but let’s zoom out a little bit so we can better understand why they became so popular.
Loot is an unfiltered, uncensored building block for anything else that you wanna build on top (stories, games, experiences, derivatives…you name it). It’s basically a creative playground, a universe of possibilities put in the hands of the community to use however they like.
Just think about it. Imagine somebody threw a bag of lego pieces on the ground and it’s up for us to build whatever we want with it. This is basically what Loot NFTs are: lego pieces. The possibilities are limitless!
The 1st thing to emphasize is that Loot NFTs live on-chain, unlike the typical NFT, which usually contains a line of code, with a link that points to where the artwork is stored! In Loot’s case, the NFT ITSELF is stored on the blockchain, which is not very common to see.
The 2nd thing that makes this project unique, is that its founder, Dom Hofmann, did not set any secondary sale fees, allowing the community to use the NFT anyway they wanted, without needing his permission. In contrast to what LarvaLabs did with its Cryptopunks project, for example.
The 3rd and most important thing that makes this project so relevant is the whole concept behind it. The fact that there’s no official artwork makes the artwork made by the community even more exciting, as every artist can have their own interpretation of LOOT, allowing for an even broader expansion of its culture.
This diagram shared by @tandavas on Twitter, illustrates this concept that Loot brought to the NFT world. Normally, the typical NFT uses a top-down approach, where creators create something like a picture, game item, or art as an NFT and then expand the ecosystem to bring more value to it. In a nutshell, creators sell a "finished product" to the buyer, then later on possibly provide some additions to this product. In Loot’s case, we have a bottom-up approach. Instead of the creator creating value to the NFT after the drop, it’s up to the community to decide its value. This is a new and more decentralized way of building an NFT project, where the value of the NFT is no longer tied to a single organization or person.
Also, the fact that there’s no pre-made game built around these RPG-like cards has people speculating on what kinds of games are gonna be created (if any). Some even say the game IS the process of building around Loot itself.
(show guy scratching his head)
I know...it takes some time to wrap our heads around this concept. This is a whole rabbit hole on its own! And there's more...
Here is a look at some of the most notable Derivative Projects, these are projects that remix or build on top of Loot
$AGLD (Adventure Gold)
On Sep 1st, only 5 days after Loot was created, Will Papper, the co-founder of SyndicateDAO, launched a token called Adventure Gold (AGLD) and enabled Loot NFT owners to claim 10,000 tokens for free. In minutes a Uniswap pool was already made. At this time, it’s also possible to buy AGLD on exchange companies such as crypto.com, for example.
$AGLD, according to its creator, is an in game currency, made to strengthen the projects building on top of Loot. There are also speculations that the token will be eventually used for governance. Ultimately, it’s up for the community to decide how they are gonna be used!
Latest Developments
Besides AGLD, other so-called derivative projects were created. There’s a list of them on Loot’s website.
Some of the main ones are:
Abstract Loot - a collection of generative and animated artworks, the first one designed from the Loot project's metadatas.
Loot Characters - which creates characters for Loot bags.
Realms - a collection of 8000 maps (1 for each Loot ID), showing the regions, cities, rivers and topography that exist in the world.
Besides these derivative projects, there’re also:
Synthetic Loot - created by Dom himself
And More Loot - also created by Dom
As we speak, the Loot legos continue to be built and it has no sign it’s gonna stop any time soon.
Final Thoughts
In my opinion there are 2 sides to this project, one very bright and another one more obscure.
On a positive note, Loot encompasses all the essence of the decentralized blockchain ecosystem both in the collaborative nature as well as creativity. It has also injected a fresh and exciting idea into this space. The keys to the Loot contract were burned recently, which means that there will never be a royalties fee for sales of Loot. Literally, no one owns the rights to the project! THIS is the true meaning of decentralization.
When the crypto community thinks about the Metaverse, for example, the concept of total decentralization and collective building comes to mind, and Loot is fundamentally the realization of these ideas. Hence why some call Loot some sort of “starting point” of the Metaverse.
Now, on a more negative note, the level of speculative hype that was created around Loot reminds us that we still have a long way to go before we can reach a mature state in the crypto space. Just so you have an idea, at this moment, the floor price of a Loot bag on OpenSea is 6.29 ETH (around $20k). This much money for a single item from a possible game, which we don’t know will ever exist...
Does this really make any sense? Aren’t we pricing things too much in the future based on pure speculation and hype? Do we want the NFT space to be reduced to a speculative market where the sole intention is to flip NFTs and try to get rich quick? Are we even using this technology how it was designed to be used?
I’d really like to see your answers to these questions in the comment session below. Now, before we end this video, I wanna remind you that none of the information given here was financial advice. All crypto projects, such as cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs and DeFi applications are risky! If you wanna invest in something, always do your own research and due diligence, and invest responsibly.
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