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Moonbirds NFT Sub-Parliaments: Creating Micro Communities

Moonbirds NFT Sub-Parliaments: Creating Micro Communities

by corporate trash

8/16/2022

The Moonbirds NFT by Proof Collective has embraced “sub-parliaments,” enabling their community members to gather around specific traits of their owl PFP NFTs. The popular NFT collection has risen to a steep entry point — around 12.5 Ethereum floor — but many initially won the raffle to mint a Moonbird for 2.5 Ethereum. This made it possible for many to own higher-end trait Moonbirds with a cheaper entry point.

The high number of unique holders — about 6,600 — has also enabled a passionate collector base, many who have chosen to “nest” (a soft-staking mechanism) their bird instead of selling it for a profit.

These community members are looking to connect with others who share their Moonbird’s traits, and also with others of a similar demographic within the community. These “sub-parliaments” are the sub-communities of the Moonbirds NFT world.

What are Moonbirds NFTs?

Moonbirds is a 10,000 PFP NFT collection that acts as a second-tier membership to Proof Collective, founded by tech entrepreneur Kevin Rose. The allowlist for all of the public mints was randomized through Premint, open to all wallets with 2.5 Ethereum. Mint then began on April 16, 2022.

Holders of Moonbirds had full commercial rights to the IP of their NFT when minted, similar to many other top NFT projects. However, in early August 2022, Rose announced that Moonbirds would move to a CC0 license.

Moonbirds Oddities

Moonbirds Oddities were launched as airdrops to holders soon after the Moonbirds mint. They are described as: “10,000 Moonbird pellets, revealing July 2022. In design collaboration with Gremplin.” There is not much else known about them as this time, but there are more NFT airdrops expected for Moonbirds holders.

The Moonbirds event at NFT NYC sent more excitement throughout the NFT space, as a keychain hinted at additional drops.

Moonbirds NFTs on Collective.xyz
Moonbirds NFTs on Collective

Ryan Carson, a co-founder of Moonbirds (no longer on the project) recently did a 749 Ethereum Moonbirds sweep for his fund, 121G. Soon after, internet detectives discovered a trademark application for Moonbirds Ravens, sparking major speculation and sales volume.

The highest sale to date of a Moonbirds NFT was 350 Ethereum (over $1M USD at the time of sale) to The Sandbox Game. They plan to use it in The Sandbox metaverse.

Moonbirds move to CC0 license

Major news was released in August 2022 as Moonbirds (and Oddities) were suddenly declared to be CC0 (public domain) by founder Kevin Rose. This was a highly controversial decision and many in the community did not like the abrupt choice that was made, without community input.

Now, anybody — without ownership — can use the art from Moonbirds as they see fit, for commercial or personal use.

Trait-Based Sub-Parliaments

Whether the traits are common or rare, various communities have popped up based on the fun attributes of Moonbirds NFTs, both common and rare. These sub-parliaments have Twitter accounts and some have token-gated Discords.

Some of these are even DAOs (decentralized autonomous communities), empowering members to make decisions for the wider group.

Here is a list on Moonbirds sub-parliaments, but more are popping up every day.

There have also been rewards for traits coming directly from the Moonbirds team. One of these was an intimate live magic show from David Blaine for witches and wizards traits at NFT NYC. Another was a Chromie Squiggle giveaway for those with the Squiggle trait.

Other Moonbirds NFT Sub-Parliaments

Moonbirds didn’t stop with just the trait-based communities. Other types of sub-parliaments have also been created for various identities, cultures, and interests, rather than being trait-based.

These include Ladybirds, who are made up women-identifying members and members who support them. There was a brunch at NFT NYC just for the Ladybirds, where they were all able to connect in-person. There’s even a channel for Ladybirds in the Proof Collective Discord.

Many other sub-parliaments have been established, based on the demographics of holders, rather than traits of their birds.

The Hoot List is the largest sub-community, with over 1,200 Moonbird holders, created for people interested in allowlists, NFT alpha, and talk about generative art. Moonbirds Dynasty is for Mandarin-speaking Moonbirds holders, Aussie Moonbirds is for Australia-based birds, and Moonbird Cali is for California-based holders. Los Latin Birds is for Latino Moonbirds. Healthybirds is a group for collectors who are interested in health and fitness.

The community continues to find their home in Web3 through other Moonbirds NFT collectors.

Moonbirds NFT Impact on the Space

While Moonbirds NFT sub-parliaments are not the first NFT project to create sub-communities based on traits, they seem to be embracing it at the founder level. Kevin Rose and the official Moonbirds account have tweeted many times about various sub-parliaments, encouraging community members to find their tribes.

The community-built Leaderbird.xyz page has a special Parliament section as well.

The Proof Discord is planning to have a place where Moonbirds NFT holders can go to discover the sub-community for them, whether it is trait-based or not. They may be the first NFT project to have held actual IRL satellite events for these sub-communities, after many missed out on tickets for the Moonbirds event at NFT NYC.

By taking advantage of members’ strengths, backgrounds and experiences, sub-parliaments tap into leadership at multiple levels within the Moonbirds ecosystem.

Maybe members don’t have the rarest bird, but that doesn’t mean they can’t celebrate what makes them unique and connect with like-minded holders.

Follow Corporate Trash on Twitter: @corporatetrash1

Photo for this blog created entirely by Dalle 2, by OpenAI.