Thread by @GenesysGo

This time last year we were deep into the launch of $SHDW! 2022 was a crazy ride for #Solana, #crypto, #NFTs, and our team in general!

Tomorrow marks the bonus unlocks for the SSC NFTs that have been staked for 365 consecutive days as well.

What's next? Let's set some context.

A lot of #Solana tokens do everything they can to limit circulating value. They live in mortal fear of full dilution. Basically looking at any super high supply token.

We took a different route, $SHDW has a small total supply and we actively want to be fully diluted asap. Why?

Because this is when true discovery happens. All the hype and/or FUD is stripped away full dilution removes so many unknown factors and quantities that can only be guessed at.

So, what do you do in the case of $SHDW where there is a huge unlock coming?

Easy, you BUIDL.

The GenesysGo team has several goals over the course of 2023. 2022 was largely a foundation building year.

In a lot of ways, things like $SHDW Drive and our decentralized #Solana RPC network were less of a proof of concept as it pertains to tech and more a PoC of our team.

For instance, $SHDW Drive was a fresh take on #web3 decentralized storage native to the #Solana ecosystem. Since it's deployment six months ago Shdw Drive has stored over 7TB of data and provides a user experience that is VASTLY superior to other web3 storage solutions.

In the course of building $SHDW Cloud, ended up building our own custom consensus mechanism (DAGGER). We are still in the process of really exploring it's capabilities but its speed and capability to handle large data structures is turning out to be surprising even to us!

However, everything we've built thus far is super technical and is deep developer stuff.

And while the possible use cases for DAGGER (think mobile networks, AI, machine learning, gaming) powered by $SHDW are seemingly limitless, sometimes you just need to have some fun 🙂

Which is why we're deploying a v2 for the Shadowy Super Coder #SolanaNFTs!

One of our biggest goals in 2023 is to bring the SSC NFT and $SHDW into closer alignment and use that combination to make our community more accessible and friendly to the broader #Solana ecosystem.

In the near future all SSC #NFT holders will have the ability to use $SHDW to upgrade their existing SSC to the new v2 version.

The first thing you'll notice about the SSC v2 is the high fidelity top tier artwork and how incredibly pfp friendly it is. Previews coming soon!

Now here's the cool part #Solana fam...

When upgraded all SSC v2 #NFTs will look identical. Your coder and the traits are veiled in the shadows...

Traits aren't randomly assigned for SSC v2 however, instead holders use $SHDW to unlock and customize the traits of their NFT!

Yep... that's right... the look and feel of your SSC #NFT is fully in your control and can be changed at any time as many times as the holder desires!

As a part of upgrading, v2 holders gain access to a marketplace of traits to unlock and build their trait inventory using $SHDW.

Everytime a v2 holder unlocks new traits for their SSC #NFT the $SHDW used to unlock that trait is burned and the NFT now has that trait unlocked and attached to it forever (with some exceptions, more on that below).

Burn SHDW to unlock traits and give yourself more options!

v2 holders can burn $SHDW to roll the dice on trait loot boxes with random traits inside or burn an additional amount of SHDW to instead unlock the exact trait that they're looking for.

We've built a mgmt portal where holders can try different trait combos as well!

Some traits will be able to be unlocked by any number of v2 holders, for example... maybe a generic black hoodie.

Other traits will only ever exist on a finite amount of NFTs. Example, after 100 holders have burned $SHDW to unlock a "Frank's Feet" trait no one else can.

Side note... yes... that's a real thing... if you're a #Solana community member who doesn't own an SSC and you're confused it's bc you've missed out on a year of SSC holders peer pressuring me to mint pics of my feet...

Fair warning, it'll take a lot of $SHDW to unlock them 😂

Eventually, we plan to release animation traits that can be unlocked and upgraded 3D artwork (the upcoming redesign is going to be a 2D/3D hybrid) but that'll be in future iterations.

The final form of the SSC and $SHDW mashup will see holders being able to upload custom traits.

We want to give holders the ability to design, then burn $SHDW to upload their design, and empower them to either equip the trait themselves or sell it on the trait marketplace.

Let's talk about rarity. The base v2 effectively sets all rarities to zero bc no traits are assigned.

Given that you'll be able to trustlessly mix, match, and change the look of your SSC #NFT anytime you want via our smart contracts, that means that the overall rarity of your SSC is based on the traits you've unlocked by burning $SHDW.
The gamification of rarity is gonna be huge.

It means that you, the holder, actually have an element of control over how rare or not rare your SSC #NFT actually is.
Your NFT could suddenly skyrocket in value bc you unlocked a super rare trait and that moved you from #3536 to like #7 on the rarity scale.

Or, maybe you're a member of both monkeDAO and the SSC community and you're not sure which pfp to rock so the #Solana ecosystem knows where you belong.
We got you fam! Unlock monkeDAO theme traits that would require you to own an SMB to be able to unlock and rep both communities!

Uh oh... you sold your SMB? Sorry, but that trait is for monkeDAO holders only and so it would be restricted until a SMB was present in the wallet again.

However, if you sold your SSC to someone who has a monkeDAO NFT in their wallet then that trait would become active again.

So, if you've ever been super disappointed bc you minted a #Solana #NFT and your trait combination was absolutely horrible then have no fear!

While you may prefer to rock a less rare set of traits bc they look cool all of your super rare traits are still attached to your NFT.

Meaning, you can create a positive impact on the value of your SSC v2 #NFT simply bc you have a really deep inventory.

Meanwhile, $SHDW is being burned and therefore an increase in the supply of traits directly contributes to a decrease in the overall SHDW supply.

As I had written back in December, our biggest goal is to create something that integrates SHDW and the SSC NFT more closely again but more importantly to create something that's fun for the community to play with and makes them proud to own and show off.

We think this will be a fun first step towards our team's biggest goal for 2023, which is to enhance and expand the SSC community within #Solana and make it much more robust by creating new ways for people to enter and learn about the $SHDW ecosystem via the SSC #NFT.

We're viewing SSC v2 as an on ramp of sorts to expose people to what GenesysGo is all about, what we do, and how we do it.

We realize that so much of our work isn't the most fun stuff out there if you're not a developer. We spent 2022 laying one foundation. Now, we lay another.

Growing, enhancing, and merging the $SHDW and SSC #NFT communities going to be vital for SHDW's long term success and we think this will go a long way towards achieving that goal.

Plus, it'll just be plain fun!

We're a minimum of 4-8 weeks out on the artwork and we have no intention of rushing. We have engaged with a top tier production studio (the same stupid who did our graphical redesign actually) and based on the examples we've seen of their work they are worth every penny!

The good news is that the artwork is the closest thing to a bottleneck since the codebase for what actually happens behind the scenes has been being worked on for months and is more or less finished.

Over the coming weeks we'll be releasing sneak peeks, mood board examples, and finalizing the product experience we want to provide.

In the meantime, holders of "virgin" SSCs (SSCs that have never been staked) can look forward to some special totally unique traits!

We also know many members of our community received their $SHDW emissions from their SSC #NFT and, being the true believers they are, never sold. We have plans to ensure that wallets holding the specific tokens emitted to them by the staking contract will receive love as well!

That's it for now!

We're very excited about this endeavor as it not only creates a new fun use case for $SHDW but the SSC platform is one we plan to build and expand on in order to keep driving demand for newer, cooler, and more cutting edge upgrades to your #NFTs!

We're also exploring what it would take to allow other projects to use $SHDW in order to tap into our platform and provide their own #NFT collection the ability to have custom user controlled traits.

Customization as a Service powered by $SHDW? Has a nice ring to it 🙂

We hope our efforts will help bring some level of joy and excitement to the #Solana ecosystem that goes beyond tokens, markets, and prices.

While those are definitely a huge piece in everything #crypto, we rly wanted to deploy something that could also just be considered fun.

Thanks everyone on #Solana for a wonderful 2022 and we look forward to giving back to the ecosystem many times over in 2023!