TL;DR
- Rebrand 品牌重塑: MaoDAO — Ready Player Cat Club
- Incubated new NFT collections 孵化新的 NFT 系列: Ready Player Soul
- Cooperate with Snapfingers DAO in the community part
与 Snapfingers DAO 在社区等方面深度合作
MaoDAO’s Story 开始的故事
MaoDAO这封信酝酿已久，但是发出来的时候应该是我们创始团队即将完成 MaoDAO 过渡阶段，迎来下一个全新的发展阶段。MaoDAO 成立于去年的 3 月，最初的方向是专注于 GameFi 以及 NFT 的工会项目。彼时，我刚从区块链媒体 ChainNews 离职，NFT 领域仍处于早期，特别是华人社区 NFT 项目匮乏。于是，我从 NFT 和 GameFi 撰文研究开始，决心下场投入至个人最为感兴趣的 NFT 领域：打造一个以华人社区为主的、来自东方的原生 NFT IP。
We, as MaoDAO’s founding team, have been preparing this letter for a long time, but it comes at a time when we are about to complete the transition phase of MaoDAO and embark on a new phase of development. MaoDAO was founded in March last year, and its initial purpose was to focus on becoming a GameFi and NFT guild. At that time, I had just left ChainNews, one of the biggest blockchain media in China and the eastern NFT ecosystem was still in its early days. So, I started to conduct research and write articles on NFT and GameFi and later decided to devote myself to what I was most interested in: building a native NFT project for the Eastern community.
我们让设计师将 Logo 设计成为猫的形象，并且尝试其实所有成员都可以拥有这种猫的形象的 NFT 作为身份象征，并选取代表东方的红色为主打色，加入一些华语社区独特的元素 Meme 包括「美团外卖」。有了美术，如何为 NFT 社区增加价值？我们计划与我们最熟悉的 GameFi 打金相结合。不可否认，RPC NFT 取得过一些成绩，也一度引发过热潮。
https://medium.com/@mattmao/the-great-crypto-meme-war-36d707d49e39
We asked our team’s designer to design our logo as a cat image and tried to make it possible for all members to have a similar cat character of NFT as an identity symbol. I also chose red, which represents the East, as the main color, and added some memes unique to the Chinese community including “Meituan Delivery”. More than the art, how can we add value to the NFT community? We plan to combine it with Play-to-Earn which we are most familiar with. There’s no doubt that RPC NFT had some success and once made a stir.
https://medium.com/@mattmao/the-great-crypto-meme-war-36d707d49e39
但 NFT 行业如逆水行舟，不进则退，除去我们在发展 MaoDAO 过程中遇到政策相关不可抗力因素、本该完成的融资被迫中断之外，回头看来，我们走过许多弯路、犯过很多错误。同时意识到，如果不去变革，将会有被时代洪流淘汰的风险，有以下几点：
However, the NFT project is like a boat sailing against the current. It must keep forging ahead or it will be driven back. In addition to the force majeure factors of policies that we encountered in the process of developing MaoDAO, and the interruption of the fundraising that should have been completed, in retrospect, we have made many detours and mistakes. At the same time, we realize that if we do not change, we will risk being eliminated by the times. Here are some aspects:
- GameFi 方面，在最高的时候 MaoDAO 拥有不亚于东南亚任何 GameFi 会接近上千人的规模，我们当初的设想，既然东南亚工会的「治理代币」可以拥有不菲的估值，那 MaoDAO 治理 NFT 为什么不可以拥有这样的估值？但事实证明，随着 SLP 价格持续下跌，打金成员的流失导致 Play-to-earn 的模式无法维续，而目前市场上工会代币的核心玩法依然围绕「金融游戏」，而我们设想 NFT 进行治理的估值故事则被证伪。
- In terms of GameFi, MaoDAO had thousands of members at its peak. As our initial assumption, since the “governance tokens” of Southeast Asian guilds could be valuable, why not MaoDAO’s governance NFT? But as it turns out, the Play-to-Earn model is unsustainable as SLP price continued to dump, and the core gameplay of guild tokens in the market continued to revolve around “financial games”. The valuation story we envisioned for NFT governance has been disproven.
- 在 NFT 方面，放到 1 年前 NFT 较为冷清的市场中，Ready Player Cat 不管是美工还是创意还会有一些竞争力，但是于火热的 NFT 市场今日，不管是美工艺术、稀有度设计还是 NFT 玩法，我们都面临被过时和淘汰的风险。对于美工设计方面，我们已经开始孵化独特人物风格的 Ready Player Soul（暂定名称）系列收藏品，并将对现有 RPC NFT 持有者进行空投，并加大现有 RPC（Ready Player Cat）以及未来 RPS（Ready Player Soul）相关 IP 以及玩法的投入。
- In terms of NFT, Ready Player Cat would have been competitive in terms of artwork and creativity in a cooler NFT market one year ago. But in the hot and competitive NFT market today, we are at risk of becoming obsolete in terms of artwork, rarity design, and NFT gameplay. As for the artwork, we have already started hatching the Ready Player Soul (tentative name) series of collectibles with unique character styles and will be airdropping to current RPC NFT holders, as well as increasing our efforts into current RPC (Ready Player Cat) and future RPS (Ready Player Soul) related IP and gameplay.
- 在社区方面，我们感谢现有的 Mod 团队做的尝试和努力，扩大社群的基数。但事情并没有那么简单，白名单机制的火热也带来包括社区「虚胖」、白名单机制不透明带来的争议以及社群的氛围「变味」等等问题。NFT 合作白名单机制将暂定，等待我们有完整的信息公开以及管理机制以及更加公平的链上解决方案再重新开始。
- In terms of community, we appreciate the efforts made by the existing Mod team who expanded the community. But things are not that simple, compared to the excellent NFT community, our whitelisting mechanism actually expanded the community, but it’s not that solid. Since the whitelisting mechanism is not transparent, it also made some controversy, and the atmosphere of the community is not that pure. The NFT whitelisting will be suspended until we have a full disclosure mechanism and a more equitable on-chain solution.
这是非常艰难的时刻，我们将为 MaoDAO 进行大刀阔斧的变革，大方向依然没有改变，但引入我们可以信任的伙伴 Snapfingers DAO 帮助我们优化这个组织的结构、弥补弱势、一起做大影响力，同时专注于最应该专注的方向：NFT 以及社区。
It’s a very tough time and we plan to make some radical changes for MaoDAO. The general direction remains unchanged, but we will bring in a partner we can trust, Snapfingers DAO, to help us optimize the structure of MaoDAO, fill in the gaps, and make a big impact together. At the same time, let us focus on what we should be focusing on most: NFT and the community.
MaoDAO Rebrand to RPC Club
MaoDAO — 目前的主推特将会 Rebrand 为成为专注于 NFT 的 Labs — Ready Player Cat Club
- 治理和核心事务讨论 — 迁移至在 Metaforo 支持的治理论坛
https://forum.maonft.com/
未来，论坛还将支持的功能包括白名单地址以及 NFT 奖品的抽奖功能（2–3周内） - Discord 社群管理方面将引入 Snapfingers DAO 社区志愿者及管理员的协助
- 白名单合作将暂停，等待更严格的审核和更公开透明的一套解决方案
- 支持中国和东南亚的独立 NFT 艺术家，将会有更多的社区互动以及社区活动
- 持有 Ready Player Cat 的用户将会有以下的 NFT 空投以及未来的玩法：
1. 2D 版本漫画风格的 Ready Player Soul 空投（将会有「奇妙」的画风，期待一下）
2. 3D 版本的 Ready Player Cat 可以在我们的合伙伙伴 Digination 元宇宙游戏中玩
MaoDAO — The current main Twitter will be rebranded to Ready Player Cat Club which focuses on bringing value to RPC and future RPS.
- Governance and core business discussions will migrate to a governance forum supported by Metaforo at https://forum.maonft.com In the future, the forum will also support features such as whitelisting and raffling for NFT prizes (within 2–3 weeks).
- Discord community management will bring in assistance from Snapfingers DAO volunteers and administrators.
- Whitelisting will be suspended, a more rigorous vetting and a more transparent solution will be announced.
- Support for independent NFT artists in China and Southeast Asia, with more community interaction and community events.
- Holders of Ready Player Cat will have the following NFT airdrops with future gameplay.
1. 2D version of Ready Player Soul airdrop (which will have a “fantastic” art style, please anticipate that).
2. 3D version of Ready Player Cat which can be played in the Digination Metaverse.
MaoDAO Guild 打金工会 — 将会独立，并与 Snapfingers DAO 的打金工会进行合作。我们希望把成熟的打金核心社区以及管理经验带进其他的社区，共同扩大亚洲的 GameFi 市场。MaoDAO Guild 依然保有 GameFi 游戏资产：
- Axie Infinity 上百只的 Axie 小精灵 + 接近百人核心打金社区
- Aavegotchi 价值超过 10 万美金的土地资产
MaoDAO P2E Guild — It will become independent and collaborate with Snapfingers DAO’s guild. We want to bring our well-developed P2E core community and management experience to other communities and work together to expand the GameFi market in Asia. MaoDAO P2E Guild will still own game assets:
Hundreds of Axies in Axie Infinity and a core P2E guild with almost 100 scholars. Over $100,000 worth of land assets in Aavegotchi.
MaoDAO Research — 将会与 Snapfingers DAO 进行合作，我们将从进行社区开放的模式、定期与 Snapfingers 合作举办不同主题的 Space 活动开始着手。
MaoDAO Research — It will be partnering with Snapfingers DAO. And we will start with an open community and regular Twitter Space events with Snapfingers on different topics.
最后，英国诗人西格里夫·萨松在 《于我，过去，现在以及未来 》中有一句诗句「In me the tiger sniffs the rose」，著名的文学家余光中将这句诗其翻译为「心有猛虎，细嗅蔷薇」，意思是人都会有刚阳和阴柔的两面，同样 NFT 圈子也不仅有光明面也有许多涉及复杂利益的黑暗面。希望 Ready Player Cat 为所有社区的成员在虎年带来好运，虎虎生威，心向光明！
Finally, the British poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote: “In me the tiger sniffs the rose” in In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet, which is translated by the famous literature Yu Guangzhong as “心有猛虎，细嗅蔷薇”, meaning that all people have both sides of the coin. Similarly, the NFT circle has not only bright sides but also dark sides involving complex interests. I hope Ready Player Cat brings good luck to all members of the community in the Year of the Tiger.
