DeGenerous DAO is an ecosystem built for AI and NFT-powered storytelling and gaming products. It creates a platform for shared & personalized experiences, as well as fostering charity. Degenerous DAO was born from a unique encounter in Kenya between its founders, Pano (Daniel Elkins) and Maxi (Uros Trbovic), who connected over a mutual commitment to philanthropy and block-chain technology. After Pano funded a $100,000 humanitarian service trip, their bond strengthened, leading them to create Degenerous—a DAO with a mission to empower users and give back to the community through a blend of block-chain innovation, immersive storytelling, and impactful philanthropy. Starting with a substantial $125,000 donation to charity, Degenerous has continued to build a reputation for community driven social good, bringing both virtual and real world impact to its members.

Degenerous transforms narrative world building, character development, and user engagement by leveraging generative AI and dynamic NFTs to create a myriad of unique gaming & storytelling products. These enable journeys of emotions evoked by personal and shared experiences while changing the world with tech innovation, disruptive products, and philanthropy.

Through their humanitarian partnership with the Lions Club, the largest service organization in the world, DeGenerous DAO harnesses the power of these innovations and our vibrant community to support charitable causes around the world.

The Vision and Mission of Degenerous DAO

Degenerous combines elements of Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi), and social responsibility to foster a community where users not only shape their experiences but also contribute to meaningful causes. The DAO empowers members to have a voice in the platform’s development, ensuring transparent governance and a robust ecosystem. With a goal to raise enough social capital through user engagement, Degenerous employs community bonding stories and avatar-based gamification to make charitable contributions enjoyable and impactful. Degenerous stands out as a bridge between virtual engagement and realworld impact, utilizing the transparency of blockchain to support philanthropic initiatives. DeGenerous DAO values innovation, community, empowerment, transparency, and impact.

Innovation: DeGenerous DAO values innovation, community, empowerment, transparency, and impact.

Innovation: They embrace groundbreaking technology and unconventional ideas to build unprecedented products and drive meaningful change

Community: Community is at the heart of everything that DeGenerous DAO does, and they actively seek input and involvement from their members

Empowerment: DeGenerous DAO empowers individuals to be a part of a movement, understand themselves, shape narratives, and influence decisions through block-chain technology

Transparency: Open communication, honesty, and on-chain actions guide the interactions and operations of DeGenerous DAO.

Impact: DeGenerous DAO are dedicated to creating a positive impact on society through disruptive products, and humanitarian services.

Products Built By DeGenerous

Degenerous DAO combines storytelling, community engagement, and Web3 technology to create an immersive ecosystem. Its products include narrative-driven experiences that empower users to shape their stories and avatars while promoting social impact. The DAO’s unique approach integrates AI and decentralized governance, enabling participants to influence outcomes and contribute to charitable initiatives. Through dynamic NFTs and interactive storytelling, Degenerous redefines how users connect with digital narratives and each other.

The Dischordian Saga: A Community-Governed Sci-Fi Narrative  

Central to Degenerous’s offerings, the Dischordian Saga is a sci-fi narrative that unfolds based on weekly community votes, allowing players to influence the story and their NFT avatars’ traits. Each week, a “story node” is released on-chain, evolving according to the majority’s decisions and introducing twists based on user choices. This structure makes every vote meaningful, with critical decision points (KDPs) that distribute new traits based on the votes’ outcomes.

For instance, players might face a choice to go to war or avoid conflict. If the community votes against war but an individual user votes for it, their avatar will reflect an antagonist trait, even though the war doesn’t happen. This dual structure means users can shape both the collective storyline and their characters’ personal paths. Those who own more avatars, known as Potentials, hold greater influence over the story’s progression, ensuring that engagement translates directly into impact within the saga.

CoNexus: The Power of AI and Interactive Storytelling  

CoNexus, Degenerous’s AI-powered storytelling platform, redefines interactive experiences through Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story games. Leveraging AI, CoNexus generates unique story arcs, visuals, and choices in real time, ensuring that no two adventures are the same. Narrated with immersive music and personalized psychoanalysis, CoNexus offers an experience tailored to each user’s choices, from casual gamers to dedicated NFT enthusiasts.

This platform is particularly engaging for those with Degenerous NFTs, who gain daily access to story games that explore the saga’s lore and prepare them for upcoming incentives. CoNexus enables users to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, as each decision not only impacts the story but also reflects in their avatar’s traits and characteristics. Users can play one story game per day per NFT, delving into scenarios that enhance their understanding of the Degenerous universe.

DeGenerous NFTs

Degenerous’s NFTs serve as the foundation for user interaction and narrative progression within the DAO, comprising two main collections: Potentials and Inception Arks.

Potentials:

The flagship NFT collection, Potentials are 1,000 dynamic avatars on Ethereum and Base. These semi-soulbound tokens are deeply customizable, evolving through user decisions and story involvement. Potentials reflect the holder’s choices and personality, gaining new traits such as alignments, dimensions, armor, and more. They are nested on Base to allow participation in the Dischordian Saga and avatar customization through RMRK-powered traits.

 Each Potential holds unique characteristics, like gender, species, and class, along with flexible traits that update based on user choices. Potentials exist in a shifting universe shaped by the community, gaining traits as they engage in the Dischordian Saga and CoNexus. This progression unlocks new paths within CoNexus and provides lore-fitting opportunities for game participation, giving users a personal stake in Degenerous’s expansive world.

Inception Arks:

 The inaugural NFT collection, Inception Arks, initially launched on Exosama Network before transitioning to Ethereum. Representing a fleet of spaceships, these NFTs laid the groundwork for Potentials by bridging the platform's lore with block-chain technology. Each Ark provided maximum utility until holders received a 1:1 Potential airdrop, transitioning the core focus to Potentials. However, Inception Arks retain historical value, can be equipped as backgrounds for Potentials, and offer exclusive access to a space exploration story within CoNexus.

Dynamic NFT contracts

Degenerous uses RMRK NFT Building Block System as they are developing numerous ERC standards. RMRK NFTs are a unique, modular NFT framework initially developed on the Kusama blockchain (Polkadot's canary network). They support advanced features like multi-asset capabilities, nesting (holding other NFTs), composability (adding items), soul-binding (linking to a specific user), and emoting (on-chain emoji reactions). These traits allow RMRK NFTs to be highly interactive and dynamic, letting owners change aspects of the NFT, evolve it based on interactions, and create complex on-chain experiences that go beyond traditional NFTs.

The RMRK contracts allow us to ensure our NFTs are truly dynamic in a decentralized fashion. They evolve on-chain, and we make sure the changes are seen in real time across platforms such as Opensea.

Potentials are customizable, and in theory, they can have multiple versions (e.g. 3D & 2D), add music, experiences, and much more. Every avatar comes with fixed parts that can't be changed (reflecting gender, species, etc) and with slots for changeable parts.

At launch, every avatar receives Potential-bound traits which will be auto-equipped.

The different levels of the dynamics are:

Equippables: These are items that can be acquired and sold separately (as a part of the Potentials: Equippables collection on Base) or equipped onto a Potential and sold with it. They are based on the least personal experiences.

Potential-bound traits: These are traits that cannot be sold separately but can be added onto a Potential and sold with it. They are based on more personal experiences but from the Dischordian Saga so the new holder can continue the story with the past experiences.

Address-bound traits: These are traits that can only be held by the address that got them. That address can add the traits onto a Potential while they hold one, but they are removed upon listing so they can’t sell it with their Potential or as a separate item. They are based on the most personal experiences that can't be bought, such as making a charitable donation or being a top Discord member.

To use some of Degenerous’s  products, you need to have a Web3 wallet set up with some ETH, and a Potential NFT.

How to set up a wallet

On PC:

First - install Metamask wallet

To use Metamask on a PC you should download an extension on any of the following browsers:

Chrome / Brave, Firefox, Edge, Opera

On Mobile devices:

You could also download the Metamask app on your iOS or android if you wish to use it on a phone. The wallet setup process is simple and does not take much time, the main thing is to remember the mnemonic phrase and keep it safe. 

How to buy a Potential

You should be on Ethereum Mainnet and have ETH in your wallet.

Then, you can find the "Potentials" collection on an NFT marketplace such as Opensea, MagicEden and Singular. Once there, you may select which one(s) you want to buy, and sign the transaction from your wallet to spend the ETH amount requested by the owner listing their Potential(s).

When you buy a Potential on Ethereum, you immediately get airdropped its mirror copy on Base chain, which you can customize by equipping and unequipping items through Singular's UI.