What is Proof Collective?
The collection is the product of an online social club called Proof Collective. Kevin Rose and two other crypto investors, Ryan Carson and Justin Mezzell, founded Proof Collective late last year as a way to monetize the community around Rose’s crypto podcast. It now bills Moonbirds as the “official PFP [profile picture]” of the group, a way for adherents to express their allegiance online.
In a short video message on Saturday, Rose said the Moonbirds sale made $58 million for an entity called Proof Holdings Inc. – money he sees as a “capital raise” for Proof Collective. (Per the Moonbirds FAQ, Proof Holdings is backed by True Ventures.)
Membership in Proof Collective is limited to 1,000 slots, and guaranteed through a separate collection of 1,000 NFTs (they debuted at 1 ETH each and now go for an eye-popping 98 ETH – $285,000).
It’s essentially the Bored Ape Yacht Club playbook: NFT ownership makes you a part of the community, which gets you special perks and early access to new crypto projects down the line (ka-ching!).
Moonbirds are also built around a special investment mechanism, whereby holders can effectively lock up their tokens in exchange for additional perks. Proof calls this process “nesting,” and claims it will incentivize long-term holding as opposed to day trading and flipping.
Crucially, though, there has been less talk around what Proof actually intends to build beyond the VIP social club framework it already established. Proof has promoted a few NFTs in the past and runs a small Discord server, but its plans for future projects still lack specificity. Among those plans, so far: a series of real-life community meetups and a dedicated metaverse platform called “Project Highrise.”
“We like to under-promise and over-deliver,” Moonbird’s website reads, perhaps a tacit admission that they’re building on the fly.
Proof has only been around for a few months and has gained about 1,000 members (many members own multiple NFT passes). The fact that it managed to raise $58 million in an unstable market speaks to that sense of trust in Rose. (And also, perhaps, to an element of mercenary opportunism.)
