Metaversal is a Bankless e-newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs and the onchain frontier
Expensive Bankless Nation,
I all the time questioned what a extra crypto-native model of Reddit Collectible Avatars may appear to be.
That’s why cygaar’s thread on Sofamon, a digital stickers challenge that simply launched its beta on Base, caught my consideration final week.
Sofamon has the potential to catch on with Telegram’s many hundreds of thousands of crypto customers, so for at the moment’s publish let’s break down what that you must learn about this fascinating new platform.
P.S. The Metaversal rebrand is kicking off on Thursday, make amends for what’s leveling up! All Metaversal points after at the moment’s will come by way of workforce@bankless.com 🧑🚀️
-WMP
👉 Kraken NFT is constructed for safe NFT buying and selling ✨
On March twenty sixth, Sofamon—“a brand new layer of social expression” centered round accumulating and buying and selling onchain Telegram stickers—kicked off its beta on Base. Inside only one week of launching, the challenge has already generated over 3,300 ETH in buying and selling quantity and over 95 ETH in income.
Sofamon is designed to function a brand new cultural platform for crypto natives. It’s important pillars embrace:
📱 Telegram — Leveraging Telegram, a favourite app amongst crypto diehards, Sofamon permits folks to make use of their avatars and collectible wearables as stickers.
🎀 Customizable Avatars — Sofamon lets customers customise their avatars with quite a lot of collectible gadgets for individuality and expression.
🎨 A Platform for Creators — Whereas solely the primary genesis collectibles are reside at the moment, Sofamon will finally permit artists to launch their very own collections on the platform, thereby increasing the aesthetic choices over time.
📈 Dynamic Pricing — Sofamon makes use of a Pal Tech-style bonding curve for its collectibles, guaranteeing liquidity for speedy buys and sells and a responsive worth mechanism primarily based on demand.
💬 Collector Chats — The challenge additionally gives token-gated Telegram channels, unique to collectors of particular gadgets. This creates a novel social layer, the place possession not solely gives entry to coveted stickers but additionally entry into personal communities.
I’m not a sensible contract dev, however in scanning the Sofamon sensible contract, I didn’t come throughout any NFT mentions, e.g. ERC-721, ERC-1155, and so on.
As an alternative, Sofamon seems to make use of a extra streamlined metadata system the place every sticker is tracked as a novel phase of metadata onchain. This method gives fungibility inside units of wearables and non-fungibility between them, and it additionally lends itself effectively to the challenge’s fractional possession and dynamic pricing components.

In fact, my evaluation may very well be off right here. The Sofamon workforce may additionally increase with added NFT components later. As for the stickers now, although, they’re non-fungible-ish however don’t seem like NFTs per se. And that’s completely high-quality, it’s a distinct however comparable method. Let’s see if it sticks!

Sofamon’s beta is in invite-only mode, so you will want an invitation code like one in every of these already used ones to get began.
I’m presently clamoring for a code myself, and I believe the most effective strat this early on is to activate publish notifications for the Sofamon Twitter account, which has been dripping out new batches of invitations over the previous week. In case you do get your fingers on a code, then simply punch it in at sofamon.xyz/onboarding/invite to start.

Base is presently the most popular Ethereum L2, Telegram has a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of customers, and Privy makes onboarding easy by way of embedded wallets.
That is Sofamon’s stack, and the challenge is the primary of its variety relating to utilizing this actual combo. In my view, this method positions the platform to change into a pressure to be reckoned with within the crypto social scene within the months forward.
Like I stated within the intro, I’ve been curious to see a extra crypto-native take within the common ballpark of Reddit Collectible Avatars, and now I believe we’ve obtained our first actual reply right here in Sofamon.
To make certain, the challenge has solely simply begun, and it will probably evolve far more going ahead. However I see a captivating and promising basis that I imagine the workforce can construct some critical momentum round, and I’m excited to strive it myself.
Trying additional forward, it will likely be fascinating to see how Sofamon continues to place itself within the more and more crowded NFT market, particularly towards or with the reigning PFP (profile image) tasks. Additionally, the challenge’s expansions with new artwork releases and doubtlessly with leaps to platforms past Telegram will likely be key threads to observe!
William M. Peaster, Senior Author, has been with Bankless since January 2021. Immersed in Ethereum since 2017, he writes the Metaversal e-newsletter on the onchain frontier, protecting every thing from AI tasks to crypto video games, because the workforce’s lead NFT analyst. With a background in inventive writing, he writes fiction and publishes artwork on Ethereum in his free time. He lives in Washington.
Kraken NFT is among the most safe, easy-to-use, and dynamic marketplaces out there. Lively and new collectors alike profit from zero gasoline charges, multi-chain entry, fee flexibility with fiat or 200+ cryptocurrencies, and built-in rarity rankings. Be taught extra at Kraken.com/nft

👉 Go to Kraken.com to study extra and open an account at the moment.
Not monetary or tax recommendation. This article is strictly academic and isn’t funding recommendation or a solicitation to purchase or promote any belongings or to make any monetary selections. This article is just not tax recommendation. Speak to your accountant. Do your individual analysis.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I’ll add hyperlinks on this e-newsletter to merchandise I exploit. I’ll obtain fee when you make a purchase order by one in every of these hyperlinks. Moreover, the Bankless writers maintain crypto belongings. See our funding disclosures right here.
