We've had a nice conversation with Kokoon (aka Kokoon.eth) — one of the founding Goats and the visionary behind the Gnarly Goats Island Club
This is how Kokoon describes himself:
A thirty-something with a professional background in healthcare and a doctorate. I had first heard about Bitcoin back in 2013, but wasn't until out of school and training that I delved into the world of cryptocurrency at the end of 2019. I went all in early 2020 just before the March 2020 crash and became an OG farmer of everything from Yams to YFI. I immersed myself in Crypto Twitter (CT) and experimented with all of the new DeFi projects the moment they came out. To me this was just being early to innovation and reaping the benefits. I realized later on that other more risk averse crypto investors would actually classify my all-in mentality (on often unaudited smart contracts) as true "degen" status.
Chris: You are working on developing an island only for the goats. We have read that there are many other aspects to it. Would you please explain the concept of Gnarly Goats NFTs to our readers in simple terms?
Kokoon: Simply put, the Gnarly Goats NFTs were created as an aesthetically pleasing piece of art to be used as your identity on the blockchain, but would also give access to a community where the members would add value to each other. Gnarly Goats NFTs are: 1. A detailed and aesthetically pleasing PFP art piece with a future 3D metaverse avatar of your Goat 2. Membership into the Gnarly Goats Island Club and community 3. Specific IP rights to your Gnarly Goat NFT
Chris: The Gnarly Goats Islands sound lit! What are the benefits for the members? What kind of merchandise do you want to expand for Gnarly goats?
Kokoon: Thanks! We really set out to create something that would get us excited if we saw the project, which takes a lot after seeing my share of 1000%+ APY farming opportunities.
Gnarly Goats NFTs give you access to a wealth of experience and resources shared from within the community among OG goats (crypto veterans) and "baby" goats (new to crypto space). Crypto / NFT Twitter can be the wild west and overwhelming for someone new to the space. Crypto is a zero sum game, and I had to find my way through the trenches of psyops, FUD, FOMO, and rugs. The Goat Islands is both a metaphorical "island" and also will be the home for Gnarly Goats in the web and metaverse. Metaphorically speaking, it will be a community that is an island isolated away from Crypto Twitter. Through my time and research into Crypto Twitter, I've been able to sort through the noise finding the people and anons adding true value to the space. Our vision is to bring members like these into the club and those that have "made it" alongside those new to the space where they have a collective community surrounding them they can come to. The OG goats wisdom along with the new fresh ideas and viewpoints from the "baby" goats will build a strong community following around the NFT art. I had a group chat I started between myself and a friend who had been in the crypto space. It grew and new members constantly wanted to join to learn how to get into crypto, which is where the idea for this community stems from. We have ideas to incorporate other benefits and opportunities providing further gamification to the Goat Islands, but this will ultimately depend on how the regulatory landscape plays out. That being said, what our holders get is transparency and due diligence when it comes to long-term sustainability of the community. We are working with a legal team closely to ensure this.
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The merch will start with activation of the Ape in Country Club (merch store) in the roadmap. The first merch available will be some of the Gnarly Goats brand t-shirts and hoodies seen throughout the NFTs. One of the things I liked about the YFI (Yearn Finance) community in the early days was the exclusive merch for early YFI farmers who helped move it forward. We would like to do something similar for the early active members of the Gnarly Goats community, maybe a specific merch drop limited to 100 units for example.
Chris: Subsequently, the Gnarly Goats move to the Metaverse platform. How do the 3D models integrate and distribute to the owners at this phase?
Kokoon: We really liked this concept inspired partly by Meebits NFTs from Larva Labs. We see the future heading to the metaverse, therefore we wanted to make sure that Gnarly Goat holders can build their brand and name around their Goat well into the future. As far as integration and distribution goes, we've been playing with a few ideas. We ultimately plan to secure land within the metaverse, but since this is such a new space we haven't seen who the clear winner is going to be. As things stand right now, I personally see Sandbox, backed by a top VC company Framework Ventures, coming out the winner. Things change so fast, so we will see where it goes. We've also played with the idea of letting Gnarly Goats holders decide which metaverse we migrate to in the future.
Chris: Is it true that a Yacht NFT drops before the goats? How many yachts will be up for sale? How can I mint the Yacht? Will they be up with the pre-sale?
Kokoon: This is actually one of my favorite parts of the project. We have the Yacht NFTs dropping as an activation of the roadmap at 90% of the Gnarly Goats minted. Each Gnarly Goat holder will be able to claim a Yacht NFT, most will be common tier with a few higher tier yachts in the mix. We haven't finalized the number of Yachts for sale, but the Yacht NFTs that will be for sale will be of a higher tier. Gnarly Goat holders will be able to claim their Yacht NFT (just paying for gas) and some higher tier Yacht NFTs will also be available on our site to buy. We will have a presale for the higher tier Yacht NFTs, for those who want to reserve the most luxurious Yacht NFT for their Gnarly Goat.
Chris: When do the Gnarly Goats go up for the first sale? What will be the minting cost for each NFT? How much is the associated gas for Gnarly Goats?
Kokoon: The first sale will be at the end of January 2022. Minting will be 0.1 Eth each for a Gnarly Goat. We have a whitelist that just started after Christmas with 1,200 spots initially reserved. This should help reduce some of the "gas wars" and incentivize our early supporters. You can join our social (Twitter and Discord ) so as not to miss new updates
Chris: When you say that only the gnarliest live on the Ethereum Blockchain, are you hinting at burning a portion of Gnarly goats? How will you pick the ones that will be burned forever?
Kokoon: In that statement, we are referring to the Ethereum blockchain being the best blockchain for our NFTs and community. Going into why every other blockchain was not the right choice for us would be a whole other can of worms. While we are keeping an eye on where the other top blockchains are headed, we feel Ethereum is the best platform for our project and for collaboration with the "blue-chip" NFT projects that have led the NFT space forward. As far as burning any portion of Gnarly Goats NFTs, we will not be doing any burning or incentivizing via a reduction in supply. Two reasons behind our decision on this. 1. We put a lot of thought into the number of Gnarly Goats NFTs that we would be minting in the collection when we decided on the 10,000 NFTs. There will only ever be 10,000 Gnarly Goats Island Club NFTs in the collection which fosters our vision of scarcity, uniqueness, and inclusivity. 2. We've also been working closely with a top legal firm from the beginning of the project. Bringing a top legal team onboard was one of the top priorities when we formed Gnarly Labs, the company behind the Gnarly Goats project. We wanted to make sure the Gnarly Goats project was compliant with the available regulatory guidance available and also to proactively navigate through the murky waters of regulation in this relatively new NFT space.
Chris: Lastly, Furthermore, you are unlocking a different paradigm to the Gnarly goats NFT series at every stage of the roadmap. Could you briefly highlight your plans for the future?
Kokoon: We plan to continue to build around our community of Gnarly Goats holders. One thing I'm particularly excited about are the vast opportunities for ENS domain name integration within the Goat Islands in conjunction with the Gnarly Goats NFTs. Additionally, we are looking at the possibility of opening up a specific area (Yacht Dock) within the Goat Islands that would allow cross-NFT community collaboration in a sandbox-type environment. We are looking to start with the Bored Apes Yacht Club as an homage to their contribution to the space. Plus you know, the Bored Apes holders never did actually get dropped a Yacht with their NFT, so we might be dropping them Yacht NFTs also as the access key to the Yacht Dock.
