Spotlight

Fantom Ecosystem Spotlight – MowsePack

Does it let you stake for rewards? Check. Does it come with interchangeable accessories? Check. Is it cute? Check. Does it have a devoted following? Check. Does it have fur and hide in small spaces? Check. The MowsePack NFT collection ticks all the boxes and more. In this week’s spotlight, Rhyngo, the artist and “big cheese” (get it?) behind MowsePack, gives us the dets on one of the most exciting NFT projects on Fantom.

1. What is MowsePack?

MowsePack is an NFT collection of 10,000 Mowse friends. It was one of the first generative collections on Fantom, with a long development roadmap planned from its inception.

Mowse NFTs will soon be customizable; they will have their own wearables and even “work” for tokens.

2. What inspired MowsePack, and how did the project evolve?

MowsePack has always aimed to be unique and different from other NFT projects that launched simultaneously.

While most early projects and protocols were named in the spooky themes inspired by "Fantom,” MowsePack has always more broadly aimed at creating casual, fun opportunities for users. We are all friends on Fantom.

Early NFT projects like CryptoPunks and BoredApes were immutable and held value as the earliest NFTs. From the very outset, we planned MowsePack as a customizable collection.

This ability to change the image and metadata differentiates MowsePack from other projects.

Furthermore, in the next update, we are adding extensive functionality to Mowse NFTs. Mowse has always been like a sandbox environment where we can try new ideas and concepts.

3. What are the team members’ backgrounds?

The initial MowsePack team consisted of 3 team members: Doublesharp, Rhyngoh, and Cipher0x. After launch, Cipher continued working with Doublesharp to build an NFT gen application for artists without coding experience interested in launching generative NFT collections.

For current Mowse development, Doublesharp is continuing to work on the smart contracts, while Rhyngoh has been learning and developing a revamped front-end application on his off time from full-time work.

Cipher0x was the original front-end developer for the MowsePack site. He and Doublesharp have worked together on other projects in the past.

Doublesharp is the smart contract developer behind many NFT projects on FTM (ChunkNFT, Portalheads, MowsePack, Bitgem, etc.).

Rhyngoh is the artist and current front-end developer for the upcoming Mowse update.

4. How did you get into NFTs?

I (Rhyngoh) initially got into NFTs through the metaverse lands on Ethereum (TheSandBox and Decentraland) and Enjin (pioneers of ERC1155).

Gaming has always been an integral part of my life, and the idea of true ownership of digital items has been a concept I had never truly considered until interacting more with NFTs.

Why can't you use the Master Sword outside of a Zelda game? Or the diamond pickaxe you spent valuable resources crafting? If you've spent hours on a game and the game studio shuts down the game servers, you've lost all your progress and items.

Time spent should retain value. This is what we want to try to provide in future updates to Mowse.

5. How did you learn about Fantom?

Last year, I first learned about Fantom when Popsicle Finance, led by Daniele Sesta, announced they were launching on Fantom.

This was around the time I had been getting more involved in Ethereum dApps and investing in DeFi. After experimenting with the lucrative rewards and cheap transactions for harvesting on FTM, I stuck to Fantom.

6. Why did you decide to launch on Fantom?

Around the time I was learning about DeFi, I had also dabbled in minting NFT artwork on Ethereum (using Rarible and OpenSea); however, that was the time when Ethereum gas skyrocketed and stayed above $200+ per transaction.

It didn't make sense for a hobbyist to stay on Ethereum.

Even LPing into UniSwap, I was losing more in gas creating the LP than what I would have earned by farming, even if it beat impermanent loss.

With its fast finality and cheap transactions, it was a no-brainer to begin building and launch MowsePack on Fantom. It is also a blessing to have FTMAlerts on Fantom. What they have cultivated has become the backbone of an incredibly welcoming and collaborative community.

7. How is your experience working on Fantom?

I haven't done too much high-level smart contract development, but I've created several off-shoot Mowse-related collections. I’ve also minted hundreds of NFTs, and each of the contract interactions was near-instantaneous and cheap.

In the next update to Mowse, we are leveraging the speed of Fantom to do things not feasible on Ethereum.

Doublesharp has developed a way to get a verifiable random number via Verifiable Delay Function (more info in Discord) without using an oracle like ChainLink.

We’ve been able to find ways to make Mowse customization easy and inexpensive!

8. What has the community response to MowsePack been like?

The community has been welcoming of Mowse from the start. Since our team is so small, we've been slow on development but are almost ready to release the next update.

MowsePack has focused on collaborating with other communities, and many are excited about what we are about to bring to the table!

9. What’s coming up for MowsePack? Free alpha!

The original MowsePack contract is immutable but has always had the functionality to update token images and metadata from the start. What is coming next is a wrapper contract that provides a wide range of functionality to the existing MowsePack contract.

This update introduces MowseWear, the individual assets that each Mowse can own, wear, and transfer.

Along with splitting each Mowse attribute into wearable assets, all metadata will be stored on-chain. When you change your Mowse clothing, the image will automatically adjust on any sites reading from the contract.

Furthermore, Mowse will be able to be staked to earn MowseGold tokens as they work jobs and level up. Mowse owners will be able to play games at the MowsePlay gaming hub, a collection of curated web games, to earn additional MowseGold tokens.

Additionally, all MowsePack NFTs will be granted a large inheritance of MowseGold tokens, including unminted NFTs! Already minted Mowse will get double the inheritance when the update is live.

Lastly, Mowse can be nested with each other to produce new Mowse and grow your family. Mowse is evolving into more than a simple static profile picture.

We have drawn influence from many of the games that we used to play in our childhood: Neopets, Newgrounds, MapleStory, SIMS, etc.

A full summary can be found in our Medium article or in discussions on Discord.

10. How do you see NFTs evolving?

We've seen NFTs grow dramatically since the beginning of 2022. Most NFT projects before were static images with some metadata attributes. Some NFTs (Solidly veNFT and Revest fNFTs) are applying the tech to be financial instruments.

NFTs are amazing pieces of technology, and this is just the start of what they can do. Doublesharp has also been prototyping leveraging NFTs for liquid staking and extending use to governance voting.