August 7th 2022 Update: I burned the token originally mentioned in this article ($PLEXUS) and created a new one named $OPLEXUS. But the tokenomics stay the same.

Today I decided to try a little experiment: mint multi-editions of lost artworks restored with AI, and use them to start a token-gated community.

During my crypto journey, I read a lot of articles and attended many courses to learn about the space and try to see where I could fit: I explored NFTs, social tokens, DeFi, and recently DAOs.

Seven months after the beginning I realized I had made many mistakes, but today is an attempt to ~start over the NFT adventure with the knowledge I have now.

Let me introduce to you MMXVII Collection: the meeting point of Art, AI and Social Tokens.

The Art ✨

The collection is a selection of 5 digital paintings made in October 2017, representing how I felt during that period. Bones, Flowers, Planets and Symbols were elements I was drawn to, so I added them to my work.

Unfortunately, the computer where were the original HQ files of the artworks died so I no longer have them. 💀

The only ~memories of the pieces available today are the posts I made on Instagram but the quality is not excellent because the files are compressed.

This is why I decided to restore them using Artificial Intelligence.

AI & Digital Art Restoration 🥲

This is the first time I have used AI in my work. It felt weird because I didn’t know how the result would look like since the website seemed to be focused on photos, but the result was surprisingly good! The AI-created pieces are slightly different from the original ones, but I LOVE how detailed they look.

Digital Art Restoration is not something I thought seriously about until now, and I’m thinking about creating a series of low definition artworks to see how AI will edit them… But for now, let's talk about the token part of this experiment.

The Token 🪙

Social tokens are a way for creators like me to interact in a new way with their community, and I had to create one to explore Web3 possibilities fully.

If you often read articles on the Creator Economy x Social Tokens, you might have seen the “Imagine you could invest in Taylor Swift at the beginning of her career” example to explain how early fans would have earned value from her success with her, if she had a token. Well, I am your Taylor Swift 💀💀💀

On a more serious note, I think I have a lot of potential and it would be cool if we grew together ~
[here’s a link to my Tellie if you don’t know me and want to know what kind of things I do] (:

Utility

The token will be used to gain access to my Discord Server, where I will regularly post updates about what I’m working on + early access to my creations. My current priority is Zouzoukwa, but I have many other ideas too – and you could vote for them in a token race on Mirror✨ –

Tokenomics

I minted 7,000,000 $OPLEXUS, and I will airdrop them to my collectors, supporters and first collectors of MMXVII pieces. I currently don’t know if I will create a Liquidity Pool at some point, but the token holders will be able to share their opinion on this, and we will all decide together.

Inspired by Mirror crowdfunds, I will send the tokens at a ratio of 10,000 $PLEXUS to 1 ETH. For example, if you buy an edition at 0.07 eth you will receive 700 $PLEXUS, and if you buy 3 at 0.17 eth you will receive 1700 $PLEXUS.

Let’s F***ing Go! 🔥

The Collection

I originally listed the collection on OpenSea to save on the gas fees, but I finally decided to use Rarible to deploy a custom contract for the collection.

Important if you're planning to do something similar: don't be fooled by the "lazy minting" option, as soon as you mint on your own contract, the option is no longer available 💀

Imagine how hurt I was finding that only after spending $600 in fees 💀🥲

Link: 🔥 MMXVII Collection on Rarible 🔥

5 artworks – edition of 10 - 0.077 eth
2 close-ups – edition of 25 - 0.033 eth

Sooo… What’s next??

First thing first, I’ll go back working on Zouzoukwa 💀

I will be thankful for the collectors because having some funds + a community will help me promote my next projects. I easily generate ideas but choosing which one to focus on is difficult for me, so I can’t wait to leverage the power of a community to have people believing in me and helping me select the right ones.

I also think it could be exciting to create a collective like the “Warhol Factory” or “Haus of Gaga”, to work on creative or random projects together, in a Web3 and decentralized way.

While the long-term goal is not well-defined yet, this NFT collection will serve as a first step in building a strong community around my art and projects. I couldn’t encourage you more to purchase a piece of this collection and be part of this exciting project. 🔥

Further Reading

(you’re ngmi if you judge some of my sources)

The MMXVII Playlist

Big thanks to Eliot for editing the article & Louis for his feedback! 🔥