Blockchain Profit Stories # 1

Hype for past results

In 2021 we were in an extremely bullish market for cryptocurrencies in general, the word NFT was becoming the most searched word of the year, projects like Cryptopunks or Bored Ape Yatch Club (BAYC) had average selling prices of 120 ETH and 42 ETH respectively and they were getting higher and higher, stories of outright life changes due to an NFTs sale were continually found and this gave you the feeling that you could be next, at the same time new business models were being created in virtual worlds and in Blockchain games.

Greed:

The market got excited with every project that had a variation to the previous one and the promises in the whitepapers of those projects and their publications were futuristic and invited to imagine an absolute change of the world as we know it (spoiler alert) that did not happen, not because blockchain technology or NFTs are bad, but because it started to create a bubble similar to .com and increased the greed to make a 10x, 20x, 100x in every investment without researching thoroughly, so everybody was betting everything they had.

Mekaverse mint

On October 7, 2021 the mint of MekaVerse project was held, in their Discord server there were 250,000 members, before the mint you had to register and choose if you intended to buy 1 or 2 NFT then validate that the wallet had sufficient funds for the purchase (0.2 ETH + gas or 0.4 ETH + gas) that could be spent in the transaction (Between $800 and $2000 (USD), by doing this process you sign up for a type of raffle to have the opportunity to be chosen to buy.

Value proposition

As I indicated above, the state of the market allowed founders to propose small variations in a project and from there let the buyers imagination fly. At that point was a continuous comparison with the collections that had been successful before and from there show how to offer something “better”…

What could be better than a pixelated image or some apes in 2d?
-Robots in 3d!
What becomes more exclusive than a collection of 10,000 NFT.
-Well, 8888!

Expected result: Reach the same price of the successful projects and then surpass them.

Note: The design of the Mekas is directly related to the “Mecha” of the Japanese robot culture so this helped to have a relationship with the past and what could be done with this PFP project.

Luck, probability and decisions

At the time of purchase there were several situations that I had to be prepared for and they usually apply to many projects:

Review the smart contract, verify that it does not have approvals to handle other currencies, that it effectively complies with the mining process for the value announced.

Check how many NFT will be rare or special and calculate the probability that you would have to get one.

Accept in advance different possibilities:

• If I am not selected to buy and it goes up in price I cannot stay in a series of guilt feelings, I must accept it and go on, there are infinite opportunities in web3. (It is a simple premise but necessary for mental health in any type of investment).
• Wait for NFTs to be revealed so I will know if I have a rare one and sell it for a great deal but risk that if it is normal it will have a lower value or I sell it before it is revealed at a higher price.

Define risk tolerance:

• How many would I buy?
• If it is not sold out what would I do?
• If it drops in price in the secondary market to the value of the initial purchase or less, do I sell, hold, buy more?
• What factors would make me feel more comfortable about the project after the purchase?

I was selected and have the opportunity to buy:

• Buy first or wait a moment
• How much am I willing to spend on gas?
• Sell or hold, how much is the minimum I would accept?
• Will I wait for the NFTs to be revealed?

What will be the market reaction if…

• The project team stops communicating after the mint.
• They give good or bad news.
• Good or bad rumors leak out.
• People start to lower the price in the secondary markets.

The moment of truth, what happened that October 7?

Despite taking into account different situations to be sure to make the best decision, feelings and other variables begin to complicate the options that look simple.

I entered the page and decided to select to buy 1 MekaVerse, I thought that would increase the possibility of being selected against those who chose 2 and if something went wrong I was mentally prepared to lose only 1K, when it was time to reveal the winners, both networks and the page were saturated, there were more than 200 thousand people trying to get a little more than 8000 NFTs, while waiting, I saw how many were complaining about not having been selected, so I started to believe that my luck would be the same, but after a few seconds the option to buy appeared, I quickly signed the contract and my ETH disappeared, then I went to OpenSea and there the secondary sales began:

First sale at 8 ETH
Transaction: 0xa56fa397f4508555c9ac49a6158261da5c4c080d4885467565317edc41e81475

Then 7 ETH, 5 ETH, then an accepted offer for 9.5 WETH and from there it started in a range of 6 to 3.5 ETH, this was happening while on the discord server they wrote things like: those prices are very high it’s not worth it, on the other hand those who said: in a short time it will cost 10 times more, within these discussions I saw that someone wanted to buy so I quickly wrote him by dm, (seeing how prices were moving I decided I was willing to accept 5 ETH) I asked the buyer how much he offered and he told me 5. 7 ETH so I sent him the OpenSea link and he put an offer of 5.7 WETH, everything was happening very fast and he was pressuring me to accept the offer quickly or he would remove it because he had other sellers writing to him, and at that moment I was about to accept but….

I didn’t have enough eth to process the transaction! Gas was only rising due to the large number of transactions from buyers desperate to get their hands on a Meka.

Despite having made a fast decision thanks to what I had planned, I had not enough eth to pay for the gas and that detail made me go through a small episode of stress since 1 minute at that moment represented not selling at 5.7 ETH, maybe 3 ETH or simply not managing to sell it:

Go to my exchange → Buy 1K with a credit card → Card not accepted by the exchange → Shout: Shit!, why? → Tell the buyer that I was already accepting the offer that it was taking too long because of the gas → Find another way to buy → Buy 1K → Purchase accepted → Laugh like crazy for advancing 50% of the process → Send 1k in ETH to the wallet with which I bought the Meka → Wait for the ETH to arrive → Sign the marketplace contract→ Sign to accept the offer → Write to the buyer “Sold” as if it had been a simple transaction for me.

Note: When you are going to sell on a secondary market you must sign an authorization to give the marketplace access to handle your NFT to perform the transfer process, every transaction on blockchain needs a gas payment to be processed.

After all that process thoughts of doubt began to appear regarding the sale, I could have sold it for 8 ETH?, it would be a legendary item? and other similar thoughts but I stopped all that by remembering the previous analysis and with a phrase that accompanies me in every transaction:

No one has ever become poor by making a profit.

There will always be someone making more gains than you and there will always be the possibility of something going to 0 so making a profit at some point is the best option to stay in the game.

What happened to MekaVerse over time?
When the collection was revealed the rarest Mekas had impressive sale prices:

After these sales there was a lot of expectation of what would happen with the project, from the Sold Out + the commissions from secondary sales they had a good capital to work, but time passed and reality arrived, despite having a good intention the creators did not have good experience to manage the project as a company, As a result the market value of the MekaVerse today is 0.25 ETH, approximately $380 (USD), they start to sell merchandising such as jackets, shirts and some robot head lamps, also 2 additional collections were created: