Web3 powerhouse Yuga Labs has announced it has created a community council composed of seven Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT holders who are active in its community.
In a blog post published Wednesday, Yuga said the council members—described as "long-standing proactive community members"—will focus on gathering and curating community feedback and spearheading philanthropic efforts.
Yuga said it also wants to keep the council “autonomous,” meaning it’s not governed by the multibillion-dollar startup. Members are encouraged to bring and pitch their own ideas for upcoming initiatives.
NFTs—unique blockchain tokens that signify ownership over an asset, typically digital art—have become an important part of Web3. NFT-based communities often congregate across the internet and IRL in Twitter Spaces, Discord servers, Telegram groups, and at token-gated conferences and parties. And an NFT collection’s “community” can be a driving factor that leads a trader to buy or sell their digital asset.
Yuga’s move to establish a community council, then, affirms that the company wants to take its NFT holders seriously—and give them a clear avenue to voice ideas and concerns.
Apes, we wouldn’t be where we are today without our incredible community. We’re excited to announce the first BAYC community council made up of 7 long standing proactive community members to work alongside us moving forward. 🧵below
“This council, and future councils to come, puts a more formal, efficient and consistent process in place for Yuga leadership to get community feedback and advice on an ongoing basis,” the company wrote in its post.
Newly-appointed council member Wave, aka 0xWave, told Decrypt via Twitter DM that he thinks the council’s job is to “mainly to serve as aggregators of community ideas and sentiment rather than over-inject my personal preferences.”
The Bored Ape Yacht Club offers plenty of disinterested-looking Apes—10,000 of them, to be exact, in NFT form—but a suspicious lack of boating opportunities. Now, one Bored Ape NFT holder (and yacht owner) plans to change that with the launch of a decentralized yachting club.
The Bored Yachts Club hopes to create a decentralized, NFT-gated yachting platform that lets members rent real vessels all over the world, with proceeds going to charity. The initiative will begin with "Lady Amanda," the si...
Wave said he also wants to help BAYC holders better understand crypto security, especially when it comes to protecting their precious NFTs. According to Dune data, 413 Bored and Mutant Ape NFTs are currently marked “stolen” on OpenSea.
“Holding these assets puts a target on your back to bad actors,” he said.
TheMiamiApe, 0xWave, 0xEthanDG, Negithenagi, Peterjfang, beijingdou, and SeraStargirl make up the BAYC Council. Image: Yuga Labs.
But how does the BAYC community feel about its newly-appointed council? Some are disappointed that they weren’t chosen—and maybe even a little bitter.
“I’m not mad I’m not on the official BAYC community counsel [sic] I just want to know what I’m doing wrong,” a Bored Ape who goes by Storm wrote on Twitter in response to the news.
“I would advocate for not seeing the current council as forever enshrined, but rather a first iteration,” Wave replied.
Multiple Twitter users also expressed surprise that Mutant Ape holder “ThreadGuy” didn’t make the cut.
Man @notthreadguy been repping that MAYC for the entirety of his Twitter career and didn't make the council
While the council members may be optimistic, responses on social media are mixed. One Mutant Ape holder applauded Yuga and declared that the council “is exactly what Web3 is all about.” Others, like tech reporter Asa Hiken, noted that Yuga has “personally selected who will represent the community, as opposed to a vote amongst holders.”
It is unclear what criteria Yuga Labs used in evaluating potential members of the council or how the final members were selected. Yuga Labs has not yet responded to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
NFTs have provided digital artists with new ways to monetize their work by introducing scarcity to the market, but other creative fields can also benefit, performance art duo Operator told Decrypt.
The performing arts have a “similar issue” to digital artists, explained Ania Catherine, who works with collaborator Dejha Ti as Operator. Prior to the advent of NFTs, Catherine said, “Digital artists were in a position of being in a service industry, working for advertising firms, the film industry,...
Yuga Labs is serious about refocusing on the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the Otherside metaverse game, and related projects.
On Friday, the crypto startup said that it had sold off yet another previously acquired NFT project IP, dumping the Moonbirds property that it purchased just over a year ago.
The buyer is Orange Cap Games, a young gaming startup that builds digital and physical trading card games. The firm's first game, the Pudgy Penguins-themed Vibes TCG, launched on Ethereum layer-2 network Ab...
OpenSea has ended the beta phase of its reengineered marketplace, dubbed OS2, bringing full token trading across 19 blockchains, a new on-chain rewards system called “Voyages,” and structural changes that hint at its upcoming token launch.
“OS2 is the foundation for the next generation of OpenSea,” CEO Devin Finzer told Decrypt. “We’ve rebuilt the platform from the ground up to become the best destination for everything on-chain, from NFTs to tokens, across chains and communities.”
The rollout r...