Hashmasks allows you to experience the dual fun of unboxing NFT artworks and naming them
Hashmasks not only tests your luck in unboxing art pieces but also challenges your naming skills.This article was published on Chain News, authored by Lou Yue.
Blind Box Player: "Unboxing blind boxes is a momentary thrill; the joy of continuously unboxing and getting hidden versions is beyond your imagination."
A project called Hashmasks attempts to combine this unboxing fun with NFT artworks by introducing "naming tokens" that give players the right to name their pieces, testing your naming skills while unboxing. Would you like to give it a try?
What is Hashmasks?
In a nutshell, Hashmasks is a digital identity blind box in the NFT space that can be self-named.
Specifically, Hashmasks is a digital art collectible project created by over 70 artists worldwide, with a total supply of 16,384 NFTs, each being a unique personal portrait. Each artwork also has 5 elements of rarity, each with different levels of scarcity, randomly drawn.
After purchasing a portrait, users can also name their Hashmask, meaning buyers can become one of the original creators of the artwork, further enhancing the scarcity of the piece.
Showcase of some Hashmasks works
Hashmasks also shares its views on digital identity on Medium:
NFTs are not just digital art; they are a digital identity. Especially among the younger generation, the importance of digital identity sometimes surpasses that of physical identity. Nowadays, having a photo of a moment worth sharing on social media like Instagram seems more important than the moment itself, and this trend will only accelerate, not reverse. In the near future, identity is likely to become fully digital, and your identity online will be more important than at home and in the real world. Digital identity will become the soul window to the outside world, the first thing people think of when they think of you. Hashmasks are designed as portraits of digital identity; as long as the internet and Ethereum exist, your name will be etched in the contract.
How to Obtain Hashmasks?
Hashmasks launched via a blind box auction at 4 PM EST on January 28 (5:00 AM Beijing time on January 29), using a joint curve model for pricing. Those who bid will receive their personal portrait through a random algorithm 14 days after the auction ends, meaning the rarity elements on each NFT collectible will also be randomly determined.
The initial auction price was 0.1 ETH, and after the first 3,000 NFTs are sold, the price for the next 4,000 NFTs will rise to 0.3 ETH, with the final three pieces priced at 100 ETH. The initial auction period is expected to last 2 weeks.
Auction price range as of February 1
To prevent founders or anyone else from purchasing the rarest NFT artworks in advance, Hashmasks employs a fair distribution method through an on-chain random mechanism. Specifically, after completing a purchase, users will receive an initial serial number but will not know which artwork they have received. Hashmasks will further process the data using hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and index data, combining them in a specific order to create the final piece.
Hashmasks is auctioning according to the schedule set by the joint curve, and after 14 days (February 11) or when all NFT artworks are sold, the purchased NFT artworks will be revealed, marking the exciting unboxing phase.
If there are still unsold pieces after the display phase, the auction will continue at the current pace, but the NFT artworks will be made public, meaning buyers will be able to see the finished product before making a purchase; additionally, after the 14 days, buyers will no longer be able to obtain NCT tokens.
However, as of the morning of February 2, Hashmasks has sold out all 16,384 digital art collectibles and opened the blind boxes, raising a total of 10,243 Ethereum, currently valued at nearly 14.2 million USD.
Characteristics of Hashmasks Works
Hashmasks states that its NFT works are not just simple collectibles; they are more like art, which is not systematic and is quite mysterious. The buyers are also part of the art.
The design of the works combines collectible props and artistic creation, and many features or attributes of Hashmasks are not explicitly labeled, encouraging consumers, or rather collective consumers, to project their interpretation of value onto the artwork.
Defining the exact value of an artwork can be challenging, and the unique artwork obtained by the buyer combined with the fun of unboxing is also difficult to measure. However, Hashmasks' works still possess two major characteristics.
Scarcity + Uniqueness
First, as mentioned above, all 16,384 pieces are unique, and each piece has five different rarity elements, including different masks, eye colors, items, styles, skin colors, and other attributes. This means that all Hashmasks will be combined and randomly generated into a unique NFT artwork composed of five rare elements.
Hashmasks features 14 different types of masks, with 12.5% of all characters wearing animal masks, 5.9% wearing pixel masks, and only 13 Hashmasks wearing unicorn masks. Other hidden features include different backgrounds, shirts, hairstyles, colors, etc.
Naming Rights
Secondly, each NFT artwork has a unique name, and the naming rights are determined by the buyer. Currently, popular special names like Satoshi, ETH, Bitcoin, and DeFi have already been taken.
Hashmasks states that users can add a unique naming touch to the artwork, and transferring the naming decision to consumers eliminates the invisible boundary between the creator of the artwork and the consumer.
- Naming Rules
- Artwork names cannot be the same
- Up to 25 characters (including spaces)
- Uniqueness is case-insensitive (i.e., "John" and "john" are considered the same for the blockchain)
- No leading or trailing "spaces"
- Only alphanumeric characters are allowed
- After a name change, the new name is immediately available
Popular figures in the crypto community, such as artist CryptoCobain with 220,000 followers, have also participated in the Hashmasks project and provided a naming suggestion on Twitter:
If you can think of a good name, then name it. If not, I suggest selling NCT to buy more Hashmasks, or keep NCT and don't name. People's naming is so bad that NCT might be more valuable than Hashmasks.
Hashmasks' "Naming Tokens"
If you want to name a Hashmasks artwork, you need to use NCT tokens (Name Changing Token). Each artwork will have a unique name that can be used to rename, and this name will be permanently stored and publicly visible on the Ethereum blockchain. Thus, Hashmasks commodifies each artwork through NCT tokens.
To give early participants more decision-making power, bidders in the 14-day initial sale will receive 3,660 NCT tokens (Name Changing Token) upon obtaining their NFT artwork, with each renaming requiring 1,830 NCT.
Holding each Hashmask artwork will yield approximately 3,660 NCT tokens annually, and after 10 years, NCT token production will cease. Tokens can only be destroyed, until there are no circulating NCT tokens in the market, meaning that Hashmasks names will no longer be changeable, and each artwork will be considered "complete and unique."
NCT tokens can only be obtained in two ways: the first is by holding one or more Hashmask artworks, with each NFT artwork accumulating 10 NCT tokens daily; the second way is through market trading of NCT tokens.
- Hashmasks contract address: 0xc2c747e0f7004f9e8817db2ca4997657a7746928
- Name Change Token contract address: 0x8a9c4dfe8b9d8962b31e4e16f8321c44d48e246e
Can Hashmasks Be Traded?
Hashmasks follows the ERC 721 protocol standard and can be freely transferred between Ethereum wallets. Although the Hashmask website does not provide a trading entry for artworks, users can trade freely on third-party websites.
According to data from Opeansea on February 1, Hashmasks' trading volume has surged to second place in the past week, only behind CryptoPunk, with a total trading volume reaching nearly 1,400 Ethereum, an average transaction price of 2.14 Ethereum, and 2,986 unique holders.
The owner of the initial serial number 1 of Hashmasks sold an NFT artwork named after former U.S. President Donald Trump for about 97 Ethereum (currently valued at over $126,000) here, while its cost price was only 0.1 ETH (about $130).
Conclusion
Hashmasks' trading volume is surging, showcasing that its artistic style has gained recognition from many in the crypto community. All 16,384 pieces have sold out in advance, and when the exciting unboxing phase arrives, many may find that the named pieces, such as personal names, turn out to be robot artworks, possibly leading to a wave of renaming frenzy.
Just like blind boxes, although there may be some hints on the outer packaging, you never know what is inside, and you may not necessarily draw the one you desire, yet many still find joy in the experience.
