Since publishing the first community-generative NFT book, Bored & Dangerous, Jenkins the Valet is embarking on its newest adventure.
The central character of the book, Jenkins, now finds himself on the other side of the Metaverse, deep in the jungle capital of Azurbala.
ONE37pm spoke with the Founders of Azurbala, Valet Jones (VJ) and SAFA, to learn more about the evolution of storytelling NFTs.
“The first version of the Writer’s Room was very transactional,” VJ said. “We sent you a question, you responded with an answer.”
The Writer’s Room is the proprietary tool the project created to facilitate the collaborative writing process.
“The next version of the Writer’s Room is a lot more transient,” says VJ. “It’s a place for folks to be creative, and there are frameworks in place where that creativity can end up in the official Azurbala story.”
The Azurbala PFP collection hasn't launched, but the community is already writing stories for the future inhabitants of this exciting new world.
Inspired by the lore crafted by Emma Needell, future Azurians have fashioned intricate backstories for their characters.
“They’ve created whole businesses around who their characters are,” says VJ. “There’s Bala the Baker. There’s House Vosace, a fashion house. There’s Uncle B’s Bar. There’s Azurbala Glassworks.”
There’s a sports league, called BalaBall. There are bounty hunters, bookies, and more.
“It’s an ambition of other people to contribute to the world and build their own side stories,” VJ said.
A fundamental difference between Web2 and Web3 is how intellectual property is dealt with.
Before blockchain and NFTs, customers were rarely given commercial rights or licenses to leverage a company’s intellectual property for monetization. If someone tried to put Mickey Mouse on a lunchbox and sell it without Disney’s permission, they were probably getting sued.
Web3 and NFTs have challenged this precedent, and in many ways, the standards and expectations have been flipped.
A16z, one of the largest venture capital firms and investors in Bored Ape Yacht Club and Jenkins the Valet, recently published “The Can’t Be Evil NFT Licenses.”
This NFT licensing framework hopes to standardize and codify the rights of NFT creators, buyers, and sellers so every party has a common understanding of the rights associated with NFT ownership.
The guiding principles served as a foundation for how Azurbala will treat their intellectual property.
Azurbala published their Terms and Conditions in alignment with the “Can’t be Evil” set of standards.
These Commercial Rights cannot be altered, unless required by law. No business transaction, acquisition, or partnership will allow them to revoke these commercial rights.
Many projects set a limit on the amount of money creators can earn from commercializing their NFTs. Azurbala has removed this ceiling, so the potential earnings for Azurians is uncapped.
“The PFPs haven’t launched yet, but hundreds of characters have already started to emerge,” says SAFA.
When you empower a community with the proper tools to unlock their creative potential, and immortalize an incentive structure to foster an army of entrepreneurs, the magic of Web3 is unleashed.
“People have made Twitter accounts for their Azurians. People have made businesses for them,” SAFA says. “They’re doing role-play Spaces in character.”
Some Azurians have created products and NFTs which have already been sold on OpenSea. An impressive feat, especially when you consider the fact we barely know what an Azurian looks like.
Jenkins the Valet finished building the first iteration of their custom, proprietary Web3 e-reader.
It is token-gated, so holders of the Bored & Dangerous book NFTs can see their genesis story come to life within this new platform.
“We have some easter eggs in the work, as well,” says VJ. “It’s not only a reading experience. We take the text and we manipulate it in fun ways.”
Soon, holders of the Bored & Dangerous NFTs will have to decide whether or not to exchange their books for an Azur Root, the token required to mint an Azurian PFP.
If the depth and detail of Azurbala is this profound prior to launch, one can only imagine the demand for Azurian citizenship will be strong.
“We’re the team that built a character inside someone else’s world,” said SAFA.
“Now, as the world owners, we feel equipped to provide the tools, resources, support, and creativity for thousands of characters to flourish within Azurbala.”
