What is ZENFT? Bonsai NFTs from the Zen NFT Community
by corporate trash
4/19/2022
The ZENFT ecosystem is the convergence of zen experiences and NFTs, focused on their primary collection of finely crafted bonsai tree NFTs. While many other projects choose to use animal traits, the choice of using bonsai trees is unique and stands out from many other “profile picture” type projects.
The project was an idea in March 2021 and a reality in June 2021, selling out quickly on June 1, making it a somewhat early Ethereum NFT project for all those who came into the fast-growing space.
Since then, ZENFT has maintained a strong community while managing to grow with new holders and innovative collections, recently selling out its second major collection — Forest Spirits.
What is ZENFT?
ZENFT is an Ethereum NFT project that launched on June 1, 2021. It was created by co-founders known as 8ncient Gardener, Seedmeister, and Eternal Caretaker. They were influenced by their visits to Tokyo and wanted to create an NFT collection that embodied the bonsai trees they saw there.
The main ZENFT collection is made up of 8,888 Bonsai Tree NFTs, which give you membership to the ZENFT Garden Society. Holders have full commercial rights to the Bonsai trees, including AR versions of their trees. ZENFT also has a Curated Collection of unique artwork that was sent to holders.
The Ancestral Seedlings collection was created in order to mint Forest Spirits, the second major collection in the ZENFT ecosystem, acting as an avatar with similar art style to the original Bonsai collection.
Bonsai Trees by ZENFT Collection
The Bonsai Trees by ZENFT collection went on sale on for 0.08 Ethereum each. All of these 3D trees sold out in under an hour. Many in the NFT space remember when it launched fondly, as NFTs started to catch on a bit more in the mainstream. The minting started about a month after Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The traits of the Bonsais were programmatically assembled, but every asset was made by hand as original art. The founders have noted that there was a lot of manual editing and curation as the trees were generated and rendered.
There are three different backgrounds, eight bark types. Some trees have fruit, pets, special pots and more. Four-trait Bonsais have became increasingly sought after as an aesthetic, since it’s looked at to be a very “zen-like” tree. The community has also been drawn to more edgy traits, left-facing traits, and other traits which can’t be deciphered via metadata filter.
In August, the $WATER ERC-20 token was launched, which is earned by holding Bonsai Trees. Each Bonsai earns about 21.6 $WATER per week for 8,888 years when the max supply is reached.
When the project minted, six special Bonsais were held for early supporters and influencers. These are the Chosen Ancient Bonsais, and currently none are for sale. The highest sale for a Bonsai was for an all-gold tree (Bonsai #7672) for 12.5 Ethereum, about $29,000 at the time.
There are almost 3,000 unique holders of the ZENFT Bonsai collection, and the floor is currently 0.1 Ethereum. Well-known NFT community member dingaling owns 10.5 percent of the NFTs in the collection, and Pranksy owns 9.6 percent, which has kept the floor strong for nearly a year.
ZENFT and The Metaverse
The project has a strong presence with various metaverse ecosystems. It has partnered with The LandVault to have prime real estate storefronts across multiple platforms, and also has its own land plot in The Sandbox Game. The Sandbox Game also provided voxel versions of trees to holders. In addition, ZENFT has partnered with OnCyber to show off bonsai trees in 3D digital galleries.
In November 2021, ZENFT airdropped a Kimono and Gata to every bonsai holder as Decentraland wearables. Those with three or more bonsai trees also received a Kasa (hat) wearable.
ZENFT claims that it is the third augmented reality (AR) project ever to launch on Ethereum. The trees, as well as the Forest Spirits, can be viewed in AR in any environment by following this guide.
Curated Collection from ZENFT
The Curated Collection by ZENFT comprises the NFT art airdrops given to holders on the Polygon network. The collection began with 13 different hand-drawn NFTs which were airdropped to Bonsai holders in September 2021. They are done by the artist CS LIM.
The collection also includes special Bonsai trees awarded to winners of community contests, as well as other airdrops from collaborations from the ZENFT team.
Forest Spirits by ZENFT
Ancestral Seedlings were announced as a method to mint the new collection Forest Spirits. Seedlings cost 333 $WATER in order to mint, and they were burned in order to bond traits from the held bonsai NFT with a new Forest Spirits NFT.
The Forest Spirit website says: “Each spirit draws power from a universal element, inspiring its role in life. Join us as the Forest Spirits carry us on an adventure into ZENFT mythology nearly a year after Bonsai by ZENFT.”
Spirits cost 0.1 Ethereum plus a Seedling to mint. It was also one of the first NFT projects to take ApeCoin ($APE) as a form of payment.
Just like bonsais, the 8,888 Forest Spirits are fully rigged for 3D and metaverse use. They also have full commercial rights for holders. This is the second major project from ZENFT.
TL;DR: ZENFT Bonsai NFTs
The NFT space is notorious for being short-sighted, but ZENFT has continued to build nearly a year after it has launched. Despite thousands of Ethereum NFT projects that followed the bonsai trees, they still stand out for their uniquely calming art and strong community.
The co-founders’ inspiration from Tokyo shines through in their other collections, including Curated Collection, Ancestral Seedlings, and Forest Spirits. The roadmap for ZENFT is just beginning, as ZENFT has started 2022 continuing full speed ahead.