Overview
A high level overview of Pixel Vault
What is Pixel Vault?
Pixel Vault (PV) is one of the most complex ecosystems in the NFT space. It was founded in May 2021 by Sean Gearin (a.k.a GFunk). Since then, it has become one of the most ambitious companies in web3, looking to:
redefine the future of storytelling, media & entertainment, gaming and sports; and
build universes as big and as compelling as Disney and Marvel
GFunk: "Pixel Vault’s greatest differentiator is our team. Bull market or bear, we are a team of builders, relentlessly dedicated to telling great stories and embracing new technology for and alongside our community. We have never been more motivated than we are today." (source: From the Desk: An Open Letter to the Pixel Vault Community)
To make sense of Pixel Vault:
The Pixel Vault rabbit hole is constantly getting deeper, so once you've done all that - check out What's On to stay up to speed.
Understanding Pixel Vault
The Pixel Vault ecosystem is complicated. Because of that, it’s important to understand how PV thinks about building their products, and designing experiences.
There are 3 aspects which make Pixel Vault, Pixel Vault.
Develop crypto-native IP assets, and tell their stories
Pixel Vault's ambition is to build universes as big and as compelling as Disney and Marvel. They’re doing this through the power of storytelling, and across a broad range of channels. Think: comics, television, movies, video games, consumer goods, real-life experiences and much more. However, there’s one major difference between Pixel Vault & Disney: PV is building with web3 technologies & principles.
GFunk: “We do not look at the fan as the customer. Our fans are the owner and the builder.” (source: Pixel Vault banks $100 million in funding to chase an NFT media empire)
To break that down:
Fans as owners: PV develops “crypto-native IP assets” in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They wants their IP assets to be owned by their fans. That way, the success of PV in building a broad fan-base through the stories they tell and the media they create, is the fan’s success as well (as value accrues to the IP assets over time)
Fans as builders: IP assets in traditional media companies are tightly protected. However, PV wants to build alongside their fans, rather than treating them as customers and passive consumers of their media. For example, PV will let their fans contribute to stories, and also give full commercial rights to owners of some of their IP assets. Since fans are owners, they’re incentivised to help build with PV
GFunk: We’re an IP business leveraging next generation technologies. We’re still approaching IP in a way that’s very similar to what these legacy institutions are doing, but we’re doing it in a way that actually benefits the broader community. This collective mind of our community all working together to develop this IP is going to be tremendously disruptive to legacy institutions. You’ve seen Amazon and Netflix already disrupt what the traditional studios were doing, and I think this is the next logical progression of where that’s going. (source: Comicman: The Exclusive Interview)
Make web3 fun
One thing Pixel Vault has become renowned for, is gamifying the collector experience. For the nitty-gritty details of this, check out the Gamification section. Otherwise, just know this:
PV wants each person’s collection of their assets to reflect their own decisions - based on their unique personality, personal preferences and risk appetite. Being one of their collectors is like being a part of the game that is Pixel Vault, orchestrated by GFunk and his team.
This all stems from GFunk’s desire to create an active, engaged and fun collector experience:
GFunk: At the end of the day, NFTs should be fun. If it's not bringing a smile to your face, you're doing something wrong (source: Every Punk has a story: GFunk and the PUNKS Comic | PROOF)
It’s a lot of - do you do Option 1 because of X & Y, or Option 2 because of Z. In the first instance, it may seem like one option is clearly better. But then there’s the game theory element. What if more people go with Option 2, does Option 1 start to become preferable? And then what if Option 3 is unexpectedly introduced?!
Also, PV is thinking more broadly than just the collector experience. They want to make participating in the web3 ecosystem more fun and easy in general, for example, by gamifying DAO participation to incentivise engagement.
Build web3 idea legos
Packy McCormick, who writes Not Boring, talks about the concept of idea legos. He argues that in web3, every new experiment is a building block for the future; a lego piece that anyone can pick up and use. Even if the things being built look silly or stupid, everything helps to compound human knowledge, enabling us to build faster & potentially solve more and more complex problems.
Pixel Vault are constantly building new idea legos which solve problems within the space, and push the boundaries of what’s possible using web3 tech. These legos not only enable PV themselves to build faster and create new experiences, but it helps the broader space too.
For example:
creation of MintPasses avoid gas wars
releasing a high supply of planet DAO tokens, in a context where 10,000 supply NFT collections were the norm
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