In 2018 I created The Pizzaverse Comic Issue #1. This was the first NFT based comic book. I utilized an NFT creation tool and marketplace I built called Cargo. Cargo was the first NFT tool to implement encrypted, unlockable content accessible via NFT ownership. The Pizzaverse Comic was the inspiration! I wanted to allow for owners of an NFT to access files using the NFT as an access token. At the time very few people knew what NFTs were. It was too early for the Pizzaverse Comic to get the attention I thought it deserved! NFT Twitter wasn’t really a thing, so I posted on Reddit and maybe Product Hunt, but nobody really seemed to care.
Fast-forward to today and even our parents are talking about NFTs! It’s for this reason I am creating the Minionz NFT project — a tribute to the original Pizzaverse.
What are Minionz?
Minionz are extremely intelligent, fur covered hexapeds native to the jungles of the planet Tagawa. However, it is now known that Minionz reside on at least 4 other planets and have adapted to flourish in each ecosystem in which they are found. They are usually kind, curious, and loyal, but if you were to cross a minion be prepared for swift retaliation. They are about 1.5 meters tall when standing on their hind legs, but they walk on all 6 legs. They are able to maneuver and climb quickly. They have a sharp understanding of advanced technologies and it is for this reason that, we believe, they have been able to travel long distances and are found on multiple planets. Minionz are communal creatures. Despite being extremely intelligent and technologically advanced, they usually live in tight-knit, simple communities built into the ecosystems which they inhabitat. Minionz are known to live sustainably in the same areas for many generations.
The Minionz NFTs and On-chain Traits
There will be 8,888 Minionz available to mint. Mint costs 0.0333 ETH plus gas. Each Minion will be generated during the minting process. When you mint a Minion a random seed number is generated. Using that seed we can randomly select various traits for your Minion. This means that rarities will not be completely known until after all Minionz have been minted.
I’m using a novel approach which dynamically creates Minion images in the NFT smart contract based on the generated traits. A layered SVG is dynamically generated on the fly using those traits and referencing trait images stored on IPFS. Trait images are stored as IPFS hashes in the smart contract and the root IPFS gateway is dynamically added and can be swapped out if needed. The image and JSON metadata are base64 encoded and returned from the tokenURI function.
Eliminating Gas Wars
In an effort to curb gas wars and to grow the Minionz community I have created a custom Discord bot which will be distributing minting codes via Discord. Having a code ensures that you will be able to mint up to 10 Minion NFTs. Codes will be eligible for minting for several days. After that time period any un-minted Minionz will be sold on a first come first serve basis.
Minting codes will be available for claiming at a later date. Join the Discord and follow on Twitter for updates.
