A complete guide to Proof Collective’s exclusive Web3 world

We can’t deny it: the concept of identity ⁠—and questioning it ⁠—is and will remain among the most exciting features as blockchain technology continues its evolution across the economic and cultural landscape of modern society.

In keeping with the decentralized and open nature of Web3, anonymity (or pseudonymity) in the crypto and NFT space has created new dynamics. Until February 2022, for example, the identity of the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the most successful NFT project in existence, was a mystery.

But anonymity cuts both ways: It allows people to be active in the Web3 ecosystem while maintaining their right to privacy, but it also raises some serious questions about transparency and accountability when individuals or groups in the NFT community grow to a scale that is nearly unmatched . cultural and economic sway.

Proof Collective is one of those groups. And as a subsidiary of the larger Proof brand that burst onto the NFT scene in early 2022, it has since become a Web3 powerhouse. But despite its size and influence, it is less well known than it should be. So let’s unpack what this group is about, where it came from, who the members are, and why it’s important to the wider NFT community.

Just what is Proof Collective?

The Proof Collective is an exclusive members-only NFT community responsible for highly successful projects such as Moonbirds, Oddities, Grails and Emotes. The collective consists of some of the most recognized artists and collectors in the space, although most of them are anonymous.

The collective launched in December 2021 after co-founder Kevin Rose turned a subset of the tight-knit community that had grown up around the PROOF podcast into an organization with a specific mission. That mission? To be the best eyes and ears on the ground in the NFT area, always on the lookout for the next successful project of greatest interest to members.

Ok, so how do I join the Elite- …I mean, Proof Collective?

We’re not there yet. To join a group, it’s a good idea to look at their history (and it’s a cornerstone of internet history). Co-founder Rose was the creative mind behind Digg, the early 2000s social news aggregation site, which before its untimely end helped build many of the core ideas that became hallmarks of Web2 giants like Reddit, Facebook and Twitter. He is a veteran of the Web2 world who has translated his keen investment skills and eye for innovative strategies and talent into Web3.

With the help of co-founder and designer-illustrator Justin Mezzell and the rest of the Proof team collectively grew into a Web3 player no one can ignore. On April 16, 2022, Proof launched Moonbirds, the 10,000-PFP project, and the collective’s most famous project to date.

Moonbirds took the NFT world by storm, becoming one of the top 10 grossing NFT projects of all time less than a week after its release. The project’s all-time sales volume has reached an astounding 166,681 ETH ($284,751,153.16, as of writing).

This project has now grown to include Moonbirds Oddities, a 10,000-piece collection of Moonbird-derived NFTs designed by successful NFT artist Gremplin, with a sales volume of 15,219 ETH ($25,999,530.84, at time of writing).

Okay, now we’re going to tell you how to join. To become part of the Proof Collective, you need a Proof Collective NFT, which the group first released via a Dutch auction starting at 5 ETH per unit. But the group’s price has skyrocketed on the secondary market – for example, owning one will cost you 61 ETH (about $104,210), at the time of writing.

The steep floor price comes with a number of benefits, including early access to the PROOF podcast, access to the collectives Discord, free NFT drops, and access to in-person events. But the main feature of the community is the shared knowledge, experience and assumptions its individuals bring to the group.

“We want to have curation with a point of view and really give people the in-depth information they need to make decisions around what to collect and what artists to pay attention to,” Kevin Rose said in an April episode of nft now- the podcast. “In the equity world, there are professional organizations that do nothing but collect data and create really in-depth research reports. We want to be that for NFTs.”

In case you missed it, therein lies the main value of joining the Proof Collective – staying on the inside and knowing high-level intelligence about the NFT ecosystem. The utility value should go without saying, but this isn’t just great for finding amazing art and innovative environments. It also means maintaining a better position to invest in projects that yield large dividends.

Another associated name with considerable notoriety is the group’s former COO, Ryan Carson, who left the brand less than two weeks after Moonbirds launched to start his own NFT venture fund. Called the 1.21 Gigawatts Fund, Carson’s departure ruffled some feathers in the NFT community, with some coming close to calling it a coup. As someone with inside knowledge of the project who was well aware of NFTs with rare properties in the Moonbirds collection, Carson accumulated more than 200 ETH in Moonbirds before his sudden departure.

In response to the criticism surrounding Carson’s move, Rose said tweeted that he had an internal policy “not to buy any Moonbirds until the rarity figures were out to the public,” but could not stop anyone from “clicking a button to buy.”

Regardless, Rose thanked Carson for his contribution to the project and wished him well in his future endeavours.

Who else is in the Proof Collective?

The Proof Collective website proudly states that its members own more than 150,000 NFTs, including nearly 150 CryptoPunks, more than 800 Bored Apes, nearly 500 Meebits, more than 5,000 Art Blocks, and nearly 330 SuperRare 1:1 NFTs, among others.

It is one of the most valuable and impressive NFT collections in the entire ecosystem. But it also begs the question, who brings these NFTs to Proof’s list? Most of the collective’s 1,000 members are anonymous. However, looking at the blockchain, it is possible to see that some big names in NFTs are or were members – and the connections and relationships these people have with the Proof team raises another question: How much nepotism is there?

For example, the Proof Collective transferred a membership NFT to Beeple shortly after the NFT pass launched in December 2021. The group also transferred or “sold” membership cards to several other notable and connected figures in the space for next to nothing.

Visual artist Justin Aversano, who goes by the pseudonym Web3 Twin flames, acquired the pass for 0.001 ETH. Aversano is the co-founder and CEO of Quantum Art, a platform that curates and sells NFTs. In February 2022, Quantum Art raised $7.5 million in a funding round led in part by True Ventures, a venture capital firm whose board includes Kevin Rose. Gary Vee is also a Quantum Art investor and another recipient of a free Proof Collective NFT membership card (as is his brother). The collective gave several more passes in this way to several anonymous wallet addresses.

But the thing is, there’s no Web3 rulebook that says this kind of backscratching is out of bounds, and anyone who wants to criticize Proof for doing it should think hard about whether or not they’d behave differently in the same position. It is also true that these events do nothing to diminish the NFT ecosystem’s reputation for nepotism and big-money in-group-out-group dynamics.

Perhaps not everything in Web3 must conform to ideals of fairness and (more) equal playing fields. Yet such behavior inhabits a space uncomfortably close to the centralized favoritism of Web2. But to be fair, the Proof brand has recently begun introducing efforts to make the community more diverse and inclusive, by giving 400 Oddities NFTs to seven communities dedicated to bringing marginalized populations to Web3. It is unclear whether such gestures and intentions will lead to measurably more inclusion in the Proof Collective itself, but it is a good step in the right direction.

Beyond the collective, the Proof brand’s next big goal is its metaverse project called Highrise. Rose has been mostly light on details when describing Highrise, but he has generally expressed disappointment with other approaches to metaverse projects. “For us, [the metaverse] means a way to connect with the community that’s different and unique and more immersive than just what happens in Discord,” Rose explained in an April 2022 episode of the PROOF podcast.

Highrise, Rose noted, is a placeholder name. Still, it’s one Proof chose purposefully, as it speaks to their vision for the metaverse, which is to rise above what’s currently offered to provide users with different “buildings” and “floors” of purpose-driven interaction.

“I was really disappointed when I saw the Facebook presentation for their metaverse and they showed two people sitting across from each other in VR playing chess,” Rose continued. “If I had any Facebook stock, which I didn’t, I would have sold it right then and there. Chess? I did it on AOL. It showed a lack of imagination and I just thought “We can do better than this”.

Given that Proof has done so much in such a short time – in a bear market, the brand and the Proof collective will likely continue to be a driving force in the NFT community. Rose and his team have shown a willingness to be flexible when they sense a change in the Web3 winds, such as when they announced that they were switching the Moonbirds collection to a CC0 license. That move was not without its own controversy, but few things are in this space. How Proof decides to innovate in Web3 in the future, regardless of its shortcomings, will be anything but mundane.