I minted a few Companion’s In A Box (CIAB) yesterday. My favorite is #767 (below). CIAB is an NFT project that a few friends and I dived into after researching newly released projects. We can create some pretty cool characters of our choosing.
Run by Michel Wang, a designer by trade, his approach is fresh, unique, and fun. The project launched January 15th, 2022, and allows early minters to customize their Companions based on the minters chosen characteristics. Only 888 of the 8,888 can be customized, with 171 slots still open before the customizable functionality is sold out. Minting a custom is .16 Eth while choosing a randomly assigned CIAB is .08 Eth.
The project is delivered through Vercel, the same developer toolkit that Mcdonald’s and Walmart use. Attributes are not stored on-chain. For example, if hosting fails, a fail switch exists to push content to IPFS, so my Companion will live as long as the internet.
This limited run of NFTs is based on the Ethereum blockchain and is an ERC-721 token. The ERC-721 non-fungible token standard is written in Solidity language on the Ethereum blockchain and allows developers to tokenize ownership of any arbitrary data. Once minted or purchased through exchanges like OpenSea, Gem, or Looksrare, you can either hold and show it off like I’m doing, or you can stake your Companion.
Staking your Companion yields $COMPANIONSHIP every day. Once you claim your staked rewards, you can then use them to customize the attributes and make your NFT rarer through select modifications of your choosing. Full disclosure, I haven’t staked yet, but I will be doing it tomorrow, so I better understand the validity of its function.
What I like about this project is (i) I’m buying some digital art that I otherwise would not have been able to create myself, (ii) I’m supporting a designer and artist – I too love to draw and enjoy art, (iii) and the roadmap for CINB will be moving proceeds from the sales into a DAO to contribute to charities that the community votes for. I find the latter to be my anchor reason.
CIAB has seen rapid growth over the past 3 days precisely. This is Michael’s Ethereum wallet for the project, and in it, you’ll see movement in terms of Eth kept. You can view -> here <- that one CIAB is being minted about every 15 minutes at today’s current rate.
Regarding the most valuable being traded or sold, this CIAB -> here <- was recently purchased for 1 Eth and is on OpenSea being offered at 4 Eth. Others are also being listed for 70+ Eth, although I’m unsure if any will command that given the current nascent nature of the project.
When evaluating these projects, you would typically see a Discord channel, multiple team members listed, and heavier press on day one. CIAB is not the typical NFT project, it’s a one-man show, and I like that.
I didn’t purchase mine to flip and make money, as there are many other projects with higher liquidity and hype I could have spent the .16 Eth on. I bought mine to use as a new profile picture and test out a new project. For all I know, Companion #767 could be worth 1.16 Eth or .0000161 Eth in a few months. Either way, gas prices will still be my point of complaint.
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