The Bored Ape Metaverse, Otherside is a virtual land collection from the same company that created BAYC. Otherdeeds are the keys used to access the land.
On the 30th of April, the NFT and crypto world literally shook when Otherdeeds, keys to the Otherside minted. The Ethereum network almost shut down as thousands of people tried to get one of these NFTs. What is the Otherside? Why is it so sought after? Does it have any utility? Let’s take a look at each of these questions.
What is the Bored Ape Metaverse?
The Bored Ape Metaverse, known as the Otherside is a gamified metaverse by Yuga Labs. It is not fully developed yet, as the creators are still trying to fine tune it. However, it is going to be a fusion of Web3 and multiplayer gaming, as the website says.
“Our mission is to make Otherside immersive, interactive, and collaborative in a way that’s never been done before.” Hence, to access the Otherside, you need an Otherdeed to unlock the gaming experience and own a piece of virtual land. Without an Otherdeed, you cannot gain access to this virtual world of Apes.
Does the Otherside have utility?
Yes, it does. Firstly, Bored and Mutant Ape holders would get to use their NFTs as playable characters in the Ape Metaverse. Players will be able to interact and compete with each other and do activities together in real time.
Owning a piece of the Otherside also gives players a stake and a governing type of ability. Players get to decide what the final virtual world would look like. They can test demos and prototypes, and push forward those they like better.
How did the Bored Ape Metaverse mint shake Ethereum?
Yuga Labs claims that their Otherdeed mint is the “biggest NFT mint in history.” And they might just be right. In a matter of minutes, they completely sold out their 55,000 virtual land collection. This is estimated to be worth around $320 million.
To get one of the 55,000 Otherdeeds, users had to do three things: have 305 Ape coins as well as some ETH for gas. 305 Apecoins is almost equivalent to 7000 USD at the time of mint. Users also had to get their wallets KYC approved on somethingisbrewing.xyz. Apecoin is the native coin of the BAYC and MAYC ecosystem.
Bored Ape and Mutant Ape holders? Those people didn’t have to worry about any of these. All they had to do was make sure their wallets were approved for mint and voila, they could claim a piece of Ape metaverse land. This is a feat they could still achieve 21 days after mint. Approved users were also given a limit of 1500 Ape Coin to spend during the mint, although they could get approved again for more.
Mint Madness
Other Ethereum users suffered slow transactions and sky-high gas fees too, even when they had nothing to do with the mint. Yuga Labs immediately said they were “sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while.” They promised to refund the fees of all those who wanted to mint but could not.
Minutes into the mint, the Ethereum network could not hold all the users struggling to get a piece of the Otherside pie. Gas fees spiked up, and some users paid as much as 2 ETH ($5,400) for gas, only to miss the mint.
The company also hinted at building it’s own blockchain, but nothing concrete yet. Four days later, they claimed they had refunded all outstanding fees. The money was sent into the wallets used for the mint.
Why was the Bored Ape Metaverse mint huge?
The BAYC parent company teased fans with a trailer video of the Otherside in March, which instantly generated thousands of RTs and likes. There was a lot of hype before the project, especially because Yuga Labs has dished out mega NFT projects. Who would not want to get an NFT from Yuga, especially when they can not afford a Bored or Mutant Ape?
To own a Mutant Ape, you would need at least 26 ETH right now. Bored Apes are even more expensive, with a floor price of 116 ETH. Paying almost 3 ETH for a Yuga project might just be a steal.
In case you missed the mint, you can get one Otherdeed for yourself on OpenSea. 97,000 Otherdeeds are available for sale, starting with a floor price of 3.6 ETH. In less than a week, the collection has already racked up a trading volume of 219 ETH, about $645,000.
Many of the pieces are listed for insanely high prices, like this piece listed for a 100 trillion Ethereum. However, they can be bid for much, much lower prices.
How many Otherdeeds will there ever be?
The answer is 200,000. 55,000 of those were already minted on the 30th of April. 45,000 Otherdeeds probably went to BAYC and MAYC holders, because the Otherside website says 100,000. Otherdeeds are reserved for those who help improve the virtual world.
While the project is hyped and poised to do well, Apecoin seems to be taking a hit from all that adrenaline rush. Days before the mint, the coin’s price went up to almost $27. The most likely cause is the buying frenzy of Otherside minters.
But as the mint finally came to an end, the price of $APE kept falling and falling, with it even touching $14 at some point. This sudden rise and fall of the ApeCoin brings to mind an important question. Does the coin have enough utility on its own, or will it just feed off the hype of projects in its ecosystem?
As for Otherdeeds, their prices are expected to skyrocket in value as more people try to get a part of the BAYC Metaverse for themselves.
The Otherside has not launched yet but when it does, hopefully, it would be as massive as BAYC and bring more people into the worlds of NFT and the Metaverse!
