Step 1: Realization, once you realize everything is a pattern and you begin to look for the connections and synchronicities between things.

I was like the everyday NFT kid apeing into project after project spending hours in discord and days on crypto Twitter looking for every piece of alpha I can get until I came to a realization that we are making the Creators of the project more money with little to no return. I begin to wonder if I can do the same thing, drop an NFT collection, and also make big bucks. I started to dream and wonder what this feeling will be like. So I decided to drop my collection but if this article we are not talking about that. We are discussing how I saw this pattern and immediately hopped on with my very own tweaks.

It all started with me buying this project, this came out and I saw on the marketplace Magic Eden. The designs were out of this world, I immediately thought this is a blue-chip NFT and the floor price would rise tremendously in price and in value over time. So of course I aped in and bought a total of 10 ‘Mutant Phaycs’ and spent nearly 600$ in total on this collection. Hoping this will go to the MOON, as you can see currently the price is sitting at $0.71, I bought around the prices 0.30-0.80 SOL which was around $30-$90 per NFT. I sold all of those for a loss for each one a total of 0.10, I took the revenue from this collection and bought the NFTs from my collection.

After seeing this I saw another project of a different derivate but this time I watch and observed them very closely. Seen how they operated and decided to duplicate these rules. This project below is what really made me start my own collection.

This collection moved a total volume of 388.41 SOL which at the time was around $40k-$50k although this is still flagged people are still actively buying & selling this collection and the owner gets a royalty of 8% off of each NFT sold.

Their Twitter and Disocrd is no longer availble which is clear signs of a rug. In my mind seeing this just fueled me with all kinds of creative ways I can drop a project, So that’s what I did.

NFT’s allow you to control the supply and demand of a project if you do it correctly, I will control the supply of my project by minting 666 NFT’s I will also control the demand by minting 100% of my very own collection.

I will do this so I can go to the public market (Magic Eden) and release my NFTs for the price of my own choosing. Call it crazy, genius, unethical whatever I’m just a kid in a world experimenting and trying new things. This will be a documented experience and I will bring the reader along with me through this journey down the loopholes of rabbit holes.

What is an NFT Derrivative?

A derivative is a copy of an existing collection. They may look very similar or have small identical changes but in all they are the same. To the public they may look the same, these projects often look like the original and function similarly in terms of utility.

Derivative collections often act as a lower entry point into a blue-chip-like community. But is there any value in collections like this long-term?

What Does a Derivative Project Look Like?

Derivatives look very similar to the most popular collections available. Collections that have the most inspiration drawn from them are:

• Bored Apes Yacht Club

• CryptoPunks

• Doodles

• Cool Cats

These projects will pull attributes and styles from the most popular collections to make their projects pop. The similarity in art style helps bring these collections to the top of OpenSea for a few days. This trend does seem to be unsustainable long-term though.

Often times, they are similar in name, or a play on the name of the original collection, as well.

Who started the derrivative cricis?

While it is tough to say for sure who the "Father of Derivatives" was. Many agree that one of the most popular early derrivative projects was Crypto Phunks which was a derrivative of CryptoPunks.

How is this ethical or legal?

In most cases, if you buy a digital art NFT, you will do so through a marketplace. These marketplaces serve the same function as art galleries, auction houses, and eBay do for works of physical art. They connect buyers and sellers. They also create the terms of sale. If it’s a first-time sale, those terms are (presumably) created in conjunction with the original artist.

So, if you buy an NFT, my presumption is that you are only buying ownership in the NFT itself. You are not buying the copyright unless there is a written contract (such as language in the marketplace’s terms of sale) stating that the seller is assigning the copyright in the work to the buyer.

Will this ever come to an end?

I don't believe this trend will go away anytime soon since the notion of everyone having their own version or spin-off of a product is seemingly irreversible with marketplaces that approve the listing of these derivative projects in production. In the end, if customers are still willing to buy these products and sellers are willing to produce them then who exactly is at fault?

Just take a look here, Magic Eden Solana’s leading marketplace for NFTs recently released an article on how they feel about the listing of derivative projects to their platform.

https://blog.magiceden.io/p/magic-eden-thoughts-on-nft-derivatives

Quoting “We will ensure that collections that are either flagged or marked as derivatives will not be featured on our home page, but they will remain tradable. We think it makes sense to list derivative works that improve upon existing non-fungible tokens." This shows awareness of the fact that many customers enjoy derivative projects from popular original collections, but because of that, Magic Eden has made it a point to make it clear to give credit to the original project of which it was a derivative from.

My Personal Thoughts on NFT derrivative projects?

As an anarchistic self-proclaimed degenerate, this whole situation has me on the fence. If the market chooses not to care and still allow for the usage of derivaties then why as the consumer/collecter or whatever you call yourself should we care if we are the ones buying into these projects. But as I've been digging into it more and more, it's becoming very clear to me that we have a revolution on our hands here - A BIG F** You to the system! Whether you like it or not, the average person will never be able to APE into 'Bored Ape Yacht Club'. But as a Bored Ape Solana Owner, the estatic satisfaction buying into this derrivative and seeing how this all plays out is mind boggling.With this being said I'm taking matters into my own hands and joining this revolt.

Derivatives have huge potential

The derivatives market has as much potential as the NFTs themselves. If we can work together as an industry to create a system for derivative works that is as safe and easy to use as the current base NFT marketplaces are, it can take the market to entirely new levels.

The next major breakthrough for NFTs could be anything, but if I had my guess, I think derivative works have a lot of potential and will be the next major frontier for the NFT community.

As a speculative social experiment, I will be joining this massacre while bringing readers along with me. Yes, I am going to create and sell my own derivative project though in doing so I will be stepping on the other side as a seller and showing why it is difficult for non-experts to both purchase NFTs as well as value them (even if it's a derivative). This will be documented evidence about what market manipulation does and how non-experts trying to collect unique items can be taken advantage of. This will be documented PROOF that anyone can create their own NFT project (Even if it’s a Derivative). Call it what you want: manipulation, political maneuvering or simply a stab at democracy -- as they are presented on the blockchain, these examples are all true! This may be what TRUE DEMOCRACY for ALL looks like. During the process I will document the steps I took along this journey and bring Mirror.xyz right along with me … why did I choose Mirror? One reason is simply that the Project I will be creating a derivative of will be a mirror of the original image and Will be released on the Solana blockchain at a FAIR MINT price to all…Take side with us and bootstrap because we’re going to the MOON!!

DeGen Diary: This series will be a two part series that shows you exactly how we went about creating this collection and more! With DeGen Diary, you’ll get an in-depth look at the process undergone to create each of our collections and why these products were created and a little insight on who the author Is.

Part 1 of my production diary will detail everything I have done before the products are minted, showing you exactly what it took for me to bring this project from start to finish. If this collection sells out during mint this collection will get listed exclusively on Magic Eden.

If this collection gets sold out, I will write Part 2 of my production diary that will cover in-depth what it feels like to sell out a derivative project and details on some projects I have planned in the cryptocurrency/web 3.0 blockchain space.

My question to whoever is reading this article is, Would you like to join me and take part in this revolution?

Derivative Mint Details?

Mint price: 0.06 SOL ($0.36)

Mint Supply: 666

Blockchain: Solana

Mint Date: 1.26.2022

You will be able to mint the collection on this NFT Marketplace once the collection has dropped!

https://www.launchmynft.io/

Future Mint Details regarding the OFFICIAL Twitter and the official mint link will be posted in the next article… Stay tuned !! WAGMI!!!!

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