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PROOF, the private community behind the Moonbirds NFT collection, has announced it is shifting its blue-chip collection completely \u201cin chain\u201d \u2014 allowing images to be fully contained within the underlying smart contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a community live stream named \u201cFuture PROOF\u201d on Aug. 30, Harri Thomas, director of products at PROOF explained that the new approach will mean that in the future, the viewable image of a Moonbird NFT will be \u201cconstructed from the contract itself from art layers, which are going to be stored on the blockchain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about putting the birds \u2018on chain\u2019, so what I\u2019m here to tell you today is that they\u2019re not only going to be ON chain, they\u2019re going to be put IN chain.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thomas explained that their Ethereum-based NFTs will be different from most other NFTs which are simply tokens that point to where the images are stored off chain. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an unusual approach. Certainly not unique,\u201d explained Harris, adding that another example of an NFT project using the same approach is OnChainMonkey, a 10K PFP NFT collection launched in 2021.<\/p>\n
Thomas declined to provide a date for when the NFT collection will make this shift, but noted that it is a \u201cprimary focus\u201d for the smart contract team, so \u201chopefully not too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-founder and chief product officer Justin Mezzell, who was one of the hosts of the live stream added: <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s cool to enter that rarefied space of a fully in-chain project and making sure that this project is really fully decentralized and viewable for just generations.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The live stream also revealed the first official expansion of PROOF\u2019s Moonbirds collection<\/a>, known as Moonbird Mythics \u2014 is expected to launch in early 2023.<\/p>\n
The collection will span 20,000 NFTs, and is the organization\u2019s third NFT profile picture (PFP) project.<\/p>\n
\nShort Moonbird recap:<\/p>\n
New collection called Mythics<\/p>\n
Mythics burn oddities or nested moonbirds have a go at it everyday<\/p>\n
50m$ raise led by @a16z<\/a> <\/p>\n
Highrise way to showcase\/explore art on any chains $PROOF<\/a> token incoming (ticker not finalized) pic.twitter.com\/bYDmRn6x5i<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 0xMaki \u2310\u25e8-\u25e8 (@0xMaki) August 30, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
$50M in funding<\/h3>\n
PROOF has just raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), along with participation from Seven Seven Six, True Ventures, Collab+Currency, Flamingo DAO, SV Angel, and VaynerFund. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to have this vote of confidence from some of the most respected investors in Web3, as well as capital to keep delivering great products and services as we mature this business over the long term,\u201d said PROOF founder Kevin Rose. <\/p>\n
In April, the Ethereum-based Moonbirds NFT project completely sold out its collection<\/a> of 10,000 computer-generated pixel owl avatars within 48 hours of launch, netting $281 million in sales at the time. <\/p>\n
Its success despite the bear market earned it a title as a \u201cblue-chip\u201d NFT.<\/a> <\/p>\n