What is Loot?

Loot is an NFT project released by Dom Hoffman, who previously created the social media app Vine. There are 8,000 NFTs in this Loot series and they do not contain any “images or stats,” but just words on top of a black background.

On the surface, Loot doesn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. But upon closer inspection, this is not like any NFT project that we have seen. It consists of just eight lines of text. Each line represents an item in a fantasy game akin to the popular game Dungeons & Dragon. 

The NFTs in the Loot collection set the stage for items that an adventurer would take on their journey.

New NFT Framework

Historically, creators would use a top-down approach to set the project’s direction from the art style, roadmap, and down to its execution. What Loot did differently is that it flipped the script on its head and only provided a blank canvas that people could build on. 

This bottom-up approach represents the unbundling of an NFT into individual parts that can be repurposed for various use-cases, one that is not constrained to a set plan. The vastness of what can be built on top of a fantasy-themed NFT project is immense. The community’s imagination started running wild, and they started building.

Source: https://twitter.com/tandavas/status/1432802983528448000

Loot went with a fair launch. All participants had to do was pay for “gas.” It didn’t launch with a traditional website containing a mint button. To mint Loot NFTs, people had to interact directly with Loot’s smart contract. 

Savvy crypto users quickly rushed to “mint” from Loot’s smart contract while newbies struggled to figure out how to do so without a simplified user interface. The experience minting Loot taught people to interact directly with Ethereum’s smart contracts. 

The “minting” period concluded quickly, and people started digging to find out which Loot bag was the rarest. It wasn’t long before people started gathering around the notion that Divine Robes were the most coveted. 

Although Divine Robes were not special on their own, they had memed their way into popularity, thereby granting it special status. Additionally, guilds of different items such as Crowns and Dragons started forming.

What Gives Loot Value?

Valuations of Loot went astronomical once more people caught wind of it. It was indeed a ground-breaking moment for the project. At its peak, the floor price of an ordinary Loot bag went as high as 16 ETH before falling to about 8 ETH currently. 

Why are Loot NFTs so expensive? I would argue that on the surface, plain text does not have value. But the ideas that lie beyond the text are what people see value in. The various applications and visions for Loot are driving the community forward. 

One of the earliest ideas was people categorizing the rarity of Loot with colors. 

For example, a mythical item colored in pink meant that only one such item existed in the Loot universe. A common item, meanwhile, is colored in gray. 

Loot Derivatives

Together with the composability of blockchains, people could create a vision for what they think Loot should be. This set off a chain reaction in people’s imaginations of what is possible with Loot.

Many exciting projects have since spun out after Dom released the original Loot NFTs. One of them is Adventure Gold (AGLD), an ERC20 token that became the currency for the Loot universe. Each Loot NFT gave its holder the right to claim 10,000 AGLD, worth roughly $50,000 when AGLD was announced. 

As of writing, there are now over 40 Loot derivative projects. Three major projects that have been launched are mLoot, Bloot and Rarity. mLoot is an extension of Loot that allows for more participation from those who missed Loot. Bloot meanwhile is a Loot spinoff that incorporates its free-to-mint model and also supports other projects building on top of it. Rarity is a Loot-inspired game on the Fantom blockchain created by Andre Cronje. 

Other Loot derivatives include Loot extensions such as pets, songs, guilds, mounts, and many more.

The information below is from a dashboard that tracks Loot derivatives, showing the unique holders of each project. Earlier derivative projects received much more attention in participation and secondary marketplace volumes than those released later. 

Source: https://dune.xyz/dqniellew/Loot-Derivatives-Overview

Where is Loot Headed?

We don’t know where Loot is headed. What is certain is that we are seeing the coordination of passionate builders and community members working together to realize this vision. Loot community members have set up a governance structure for Loot and AGLD holders to coordinate and vote on proposals to bring Loot forward.

Can Loot be the metaverse people have been talking about? Will Loot still be talked about a month from now and be included in different applications? We will have to wait and see. Currently, it is difficult to track the happenings of every project in the space, and this is only the beginning. 

How to Mint NFTs from Smart Contracts?

With the number of NFT derivatives launching daily, there are plenty of opportunities for people who have missed Loot to get in on the action. Some projects forgo websites altogether and require users to mint from smart contracts. 

This process is not beginner-friendly but fret not as it is simpler than it looks. It doesn’t require any coding, only an understanding of smart contract fields.

To mint NFTs from smart contracts, you need to refer to the “Write” portion of the smart contract, viewable on a block explorer like Etherscan.

Take the Realms (for Adventurers) NFT smart contract for example:

1. Put in the contract address (“0x7afe30cb3e53dba6801aa0ea647a0ecea7cbe18d”) into Etherscan.

2. Head to the contract tab under “Write” and connect your wallet.

3. Check if the contract is open to the public or just Loot holders. If the former, pay the cost of the derivative and enter an available “lootId”.

4. If the fees are too high, that means that the NFT has been claimed. Do try with another ID.

Take note that some NFT derivatives have reserved mints for original Loot NFT holders. Also, some derivatives may have been claimed by previous Loot owners. 

That said, be very careful when interacting with unaudited contracts. They pose a risk to users as rogue smart contracts may compromise your wallet. Only interact with contracts that have been verified to be safe. On that note, have fun and happy exploring!