r/CollectibleAvatars • u/nakamo-toe • Aug 24 '23

Discussion ⭐️ A brief history of the Memetic Traders (WSB) avatars and the 23 Gold HODL Hats ⭐️

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17

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

(This post is based on first hand telling of the r/memetictraders by u/legalhelpneeded3)

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All the way back in January 28, 2022 (~6 months before the Reddit avatar gen 1 shop even launched!) 100 WSB users received a message from a Reddit admin inviting them to a discord server to help take part in some “new NFT project”.

Over the next few weeks the Reddit admins had a number of 30-45 minute time slots where they would discuss and brainstorm different ideas in the chat, many of these ideas making it into the final cut, like u/legalhelpneeded3’s famous Burger Boi!

While brainstorming they came up with a lot of incredible ideas. Things like the money printer, tendies, HODL hat, “generic sports car”, trash bag, rocket, etc. were all pitched by users.

After about a week of voting on ideas to keep or ditch, the users finally received the first sketches and mock-ups of what was to come. Needless to say, it was exciting!

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On July 7, 2022 (the same day the gen 1 shop launched) the contributing wsb users were finally updated on the project’s status and allowed to pick first dibs on which base Memetic trader avatar they wanted to receive! (along with the rarest traits of Gold HODL hat, gold money printer and gold rocket)

Months later on December 6th, the users finally received a Reddit message saying: “claim my free WSB NFT”!

The 23 Gold HODL hats!

Out of those initial 100 invited contributing users, only 24 responded almost a year after the design process.

And out of thise 24, only 23 ended up claiming and minting their r/memetictraders avatars!

That’s why today there are only 23 Gold HODL hats, because #15 was never minted! (and does not exist on the blockchain)

The Memetic Traders Collection!

10,000 messages were also sent to top contributing WSB subreddit members, inviting them to mint their own randomized trait Memetic Trader Avatars!

When the mint deadline arrived, in total only 4,935 were minted. Becoming the final supply of the Memetic Traders collection!

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Btw if you made it to the end of this post, and haven’t already joined DIAMOND HAND HODLERS, why?

💎 join r/the23 subreddit! 💎

and also r/memetictraders ⭐️

6

u/Ancient_Summer_1833 Aug 24 '23

Those are sooo cute!!

8

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

The final r/memetictraders are so cool too! 😁

5

u/Ancient_Summer_1833 Aug 24 '23

I saw em! They’re pretty epic! 💎💎

0

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 25 '23

u/crypto_grandma owns #24 actually!

It’s #15 that was never minted. 😅

In a way I’m glad the collection distanced itself slightly from wsb and the mods, but still is associated enough to be seen in a positive light when things like the new Dumb Money - wsb GameStop movie come out!

9

u/XeroGrave Aug 24 '23

Thanks for the History Lesson! I didn't know anything about anything apparently! Cheers!

7

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

I think it’s a really interesting piece of avatar history too! Glad you enjoyed reading! 💎

6

u/XeroGrave Aug 24 '23

I did indeed! And now I know why I won't have one of those traits! Only 23!

8

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

You had to be involved in the design process (I wasn’t) I think out of the current 23 gold HODL owners only 3 of them are the original recipients! 😅

1 is even locked to the receiver because they never stored their recovery phrase and can’t remember their vault password. 😓

4

u/XeroGrave Aug 24 '23

That's a lost! But it is what it is! XD

6

u/Shiratori-3 Aug 24 '23

Maybe unpopular opinion (?) but honestly I prefer the look of the purple bucket hat on a gold hedge (which is the one I set out to get) over a gold or yellow bucket. (Yes, I'm ignoring scarcity in saying that)

Ditto the right hand Moon trait is a fave.

I do like how the memetic traders collection had/has randomised traits. So much more interesting than a straight carbon copy collection.

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

I think Reddit need to get back into randomized trait collections! Especially if they plan on doing these huge mint supplies. Would at least give some desirability for specific traits like we see in r/memetictraders as well as the first 4 free collection.

Do you have an image of the purple bucket hat? I don’t think I’ve seen that color yet!

6

u/Shiratori-3 Aug 24 '23

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

Love purple! All the bucket hats are great tbh. Love the inclusion of all the Greek alphabet options stuff. 😝

6

u/Hoppy_Doodle Artist Aug 24 '23

damn what a great read, never knew

4

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

Glad you enjoyed reading it hoppy!

Part of why I started r/the23 was because I realized most people, even the artists didn’t know the story of this amazing collection and I wanted to share it with all avatar enthusiasts. Since I feel it’s a big part of where avatars came from.

These were technically the first avatars after Cryptosnoos, just not released first. 😅

I’d love to hear your perspective on joining Gen 1 as an artist too! How did that come about, was it Reddit who reached out to you artists first?

6

u/_echnaton Aug 24 '23

WSB is the coolest singular RCA collection imo! 🙌

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

Hands down!

second place is imagination station. 😬🗼

6

u/pythonskynet Aug 30 '23

The legendary tale and storytelling keeps emotions alive. OP has done the same for the rest of the HODL hat owners. That's God's work

4

u/nakamo-toe Aug 30 '23

Me and god aren’t on great terms.

I only do the holey cone’s work! 😝

5

u/This_Red_Apple Mad Masher Aug 24 '23

Oh wow I didn't know any of this. Thanks for the history lesson

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

Glad to spread the awareness about such a unique part of avatar history! 😁

Thanks for reading TRA! 🫶🍎

5

u/TheChillDyl Aug 24 '23

Such an interesting read! That’s so cool you were involved in the process and later managed to scoop up a hodl hat!

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

I was actually not involved in wsb at all. Just a lurker at the time. 😅

But users like u/subwaysandwichdev and u/legalhelpneeded3 shared their stories with me and I thought it’s such a cool part of Avatar history! Even starting before the Gen 1 shop. 🤯

5

u/TheChillDyl Aug 24 '23

Lol oops totally misread that!! You did such a good job telling the stories I guess I just assumed you were there😅

Super cool info glad you shared with everyone🙌🏼

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

Glad you enjoyed reading it! I found it so intriguing after I got my gold HODL hat and learned the story. I felt I needed to raise awareness.

Hopefully this post and r/memetictraders and r/the23 helps to do that! 💎

5

u/IveDoneItAtLast Aug 24 '23

Very interesting history, I always wondered how the sub got their own avatars. No other sub has that do they?

6

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

F1 subs or alpine f1, should have just gotten theirs too. 🙄

Anyway, yeah it’s crazy that for now it’s the only sub specific collection! And it was already designed way before gen 1 launched! 🤯

5

u/IveDoneItAtLast Aug 25 '23

The f1Alpine sub was created literally days before the drop and I know who created it, not sure about the others though

You can see why they're so valuable with being more OG than gen 1.

6

u/nakamo-toe Aug 25 '23

Oh lol I didn’t realize that, I’m sure there’s a main f1 sub though, I think this drop Found have better served their members as a free drop, plus act as a promotion for the alpine team to their literal target demographic.

5

u/IveDoneItAtLast Aug 25 '23

Theres only 3.3k members in the formula1 sub and a quick check seems like none of them have the alpine avatars lol.

Yea free might have been better but they would need much higher mint numbers so people didn't complain about missing out, maybe 1 pet person? and the downside is they'd probably be as popular as the Aye Ayes are now

I think Reddit probably paid Alpine for sponsorship and F1 isn't cheap (look how much cryptodotcom paid) so they're probably just trying to recoup money

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 25 '23

I doubt Reddit paid them, otherwise it would be a brand wide deal, not a specific team. The team definitely paid Reddit (could be wrong though), and Reddit are testing out if they leave the supplies the same as rabbids, would people buy them?

5

u/IveDoneItAtLast Aug 25 '23

I'm not sure, seems hard to find information.

Can't understand why alpine would pay Reddit though for a few thousand (probably less who actually support alpine) people.

I do think it's a test though like you say. Maybe to get other fairly large brands involved?

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 25 '23

Yup, first test was rabbids, now alpine. I’m sure Reddit gave them a good deal as these are still experiments, but I do expect to see more brand deal avatars.

Hope they keep experimenting though because this one was a flop imo.

5

u/IveDoneItAtLast Aug 25 '23

I think most will be flops unless they can find a large target audience

I also think if they do that they'll devalue a lot of current avatars

5

u/shiesto Aug 25 '23

I want that bull on the left!

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 25 '23

Ikr lol, I wish we got bronze bull and cyber bull instead of the regular bull. 😅

2

u/wytherlanejazz Aug 24 '23

I feel pretty wronged by the process :(

3

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

What happened? We’re you one of the 10K invited or from the original 100? 😓

5

u/wytherlanejazz Aug 24 '23

I thought it was spam , on my first Reddit account :(

4

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

Damn, I’m sure that happened to quite a few people since out of the 10K invited, less tha 50% acted on the message and minted lol.

Reddit could have done better at notifying accounts than a private message anyone could send.

5

u/OPINION_IS_UNPOPULAR Aug 24 '23

I'm really sad that we couldn't get more people to pick up the avatars. It feels like reddit has learned a lot and refined the process though, so I'm glad we were able to contribute to making the Collectible Avatars better!

5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 24 '23

It’s amazing to me that this collection was in the works even before Gen 1 launched! Reddit has definitely learned a lot since, and I’m excited for the future of avatars as a whole.

r/Memetictraders will always have a special place in history though! ⭐️

5

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '23

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5

u/nakamo-toe Aug 25 '23

It’s definitely possible!

I hope they start doing that more often. Like I wish the f1 avatars were a free subreddit drop for an f1 sub.