ICON’s NFT ecosystem continues to grow.
Inspired — at least in terms of its mechanics, if not the art — by the hugely successful Bored Ape Yacht Club project, Claws will leverage ICON’s BTP technology to create an innovative NFT collection that incentivizes interchain transactions.
Here’s what we know so far.
Claws is an NFT project focused on interoperability and “built by ICONists.”
The apparently dinosaur-themed collection is designed by Paris-based 3D/VFX/interactive design studio TURBODIESEL — be sure to check out their advertising work on Instagram or at their homepage. The studio’s clients have included Dr. Martens, Victor & Rolf, Technicolor, Google, Ubisoft and other major brands.
According to their announcement on Twitter, the project seeks to innovate on the classic PFP (i.e., Profile Picture) NFT model by creating a “pioneering collection” using ICON’s BTP interoperability technology.
In particular, they’re not content to simply “bridge” their NFTs across BTP’s partner chains, though this would be cool in and of itself.
No, Claws aims to actually incentivize interchain transfers.
How, you might ask?
Well, according to the Claws team, the first time you transfer a “Claw,” as the collection’s NFTs are called, you will receive another NFT that will enable you to “mutate” the original claw into a version exclusive to the target blockchain.
Presumably, this means if you were to transfer your Claw from ICON to Moonbeam using BTP, you would receive another NFT that would transform your claw into a new, Moonbeam-specific NFT.
The Claws team says this model was inspired by the whole Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)/Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) thing, but with the added twist of interoperability.
To review, studio Yuga Labs created the initial MAYC collection of NFTs, which were a mega hit. Yuga Labs followed up this hit by airdropping “serum” to owners of the Bored Apes. Users could use this serum to create “Mutant Apes,” a new, visually distinct NFT. The Mutant Apes have become blue-chip NFTs in their own right, and gave people a way to enter the BAYC ecosystem at somewhat-less-than-BAYC prices.
Likewise, the Claws team hopes that its mutant, blockchain-specific NFTs will boost secondary sales and bring a wider community into the BTP ecosystem. These interactions will apparently burn CLAW, the project’s governance token.
The Claws project will operate as a DAO and generate revenue “through DeFi-inspired mechanics,” though how it will do so has yet to be announced.
