Thread by @sainteclectic

Recently there has been an NFT explosion on Solana. As new entrants & capital flow in, low-effort cut & paste cash grabs have emerged.

So, how do you identify a good NFT project?

Some of my learnings below:🧵 👇 #NFT #NFTs #SolanaSummer #Solana #SolanaNFTs

1/ Engagement: a great level of activity, replies and responses from mods & community members. Look at their twitter and discord to analyze # of followers and the team's responsiveness and how well they answer questions. @DegenApeAcademy & @SolanaMBS do this particularly well.

Projects with 10k+ members in their discord and ~5k+ in their twitter typically signal good traction.

Meanwhile projects that don't even have their own dedicated discord are ones to be wary of e.g. @solpunks @boldbadgersquad are owned by & sitting in @SolanartNFT's servers.

Popular projects mean its much harder to get one at mint, but at least you know you will have something of demand once the dust settles. For example, there were 10k apes in the @DegenApeAcademy discord and 20k+ @AuroryProject discord at time of mint. @Monoliff is typing...

2/ Community: the critical heart of an NFT project. Projects are built for a community. Whether it covers profile pictures, art, loot or social tokens. If the project does not offer you value, then why does it exist? A strong community is a signal that value is being delivered.

The easiest way to track community strength is to observe if members are proud and happy of their pfps / membership / community and actively sharing about it and and helping each other.

Then ask, are they STILL doing this days, weeks, months after launch?

https://twitter.com/nicolaicrypto/status/1434188945634603012?s=20

Another sign of the strongest communities are the ones who come up with memes, pictures and content - driving enthusiasm, attention & loyalty in a virtuous cycle. Memes is how our crypto generation communicates & markets.

Here is a great example:

https://twitter.com/msevilmonkey/status/1434534831652757512?s=20

Another one: @hatomugi_s

https://twitter.com/hatomugi_s/status/1432329257825579016?s=20

And another one (seriously give it a watch & listen): @HeavyCryptoBag

https://twitter.com/HeavyCryptoBag/status/1434393818766319618?s=20

ANOTHER ONE: @realcorban

https://twitter.com/realcorban/status/1435179435674648577?s=20

3/ Roadmap: This may involve future drops / benefits / token upgrades for the community. Bad projects will not have a plan

"Smoov launch", "Secondary market", "Futur game" is NOT a roadmap. You should demand timelines and execution. You JUST handed them over your $ didn't you?

Examples of execution:
- @SolariansNFT delivering holder befits (e.g. presale access to @BitBoat1, auction rev share)
- @thugbirdz: immediately donations to @wildlifeSOS

https://twitter.com/thugbirdz/status/1432982414196887552?s=20

. It is being rewarded now by lots of community love.

4/ Art: this is subjective but the picture you pay to own should be something unique or different. Not just a simple ETH clone @solpunks, @solanamees or a low effort graphic. @DegenApeAcademy had unique 3d art. @AuroryProject's anime art is undeniably appealing, but...

... then you have stuff like this...

And this beauty...

5/ Mint Cost & humility: with SOL mooning you have to be aware of the USD cost. Degen Apes was ~$200-300 to mint (2-3SOL), which is somewhat standard in ETH. Anything more than 2-3 SOL without strong utility feels exploitative of the community. Arrogant mods don't deserve your $

Don't forget creators are not just getting paid once at mint, but also residuals for each secondary sale.

@TheBearGangNFT found this out the hard way. I know they get a lot of hate (rightfully so in many aspects) but to be fair to them, they have been taking steps to address it.

Lets see where their project ends up, I thought their art & launch had a lot of promise.

6/ FRENS: get the opinion of your friends. Real, imaginary or twitter. The more views we share and ideas we bounce the better and stronger we get. It's getting harder to find good projects that will accrue value going forward. We're all in this together fam.

Anyway that's all for now. Of course there will be some projects that tick these boxes but disappoint - that's risk and fun of NFTs.

Hope some of these lessons help all of you who are looking to explore the Solana NFT ecosystem further. HMU for thoughts. DMs open

Thanks as always:
@DigitalxMisfits @zxple9 @Bardstocks @degen_inc @shake_dude_ @spacegatsby_j @RealCryptotem @MilstGuga @SOLBigBrain @stphnhss @DegenExplorer @NFTmoms @munkionpluto @nicolaicrypto @HeavyCryptoBag @realcorban @ezbucko @ape9400 @antavedissian