In a bid to prevent, what it calls “apocalyptic gas wars” while also encouraging a broad distribution, the Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse project will not conduct the Dutch auction for the NFTs.
Otherside said, “NFT Dutch auctions are actually bulls**t” and will instead employ a new mechanic wherein the sale price will remain flat for the duration.
“Faux Dutch Auction”
According to the newly published blog post, BAYC creator’s blockchain-based virtual world stated that the NFTs will be sold at a fixed price of 305 ApeCoins (APE). A total of 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs will be available for KYC users to purchase. It has also postponed the actual sale event after heeding the community calls for additional time to set pre-approval for APE. The event has been pushed to 9 PM ET, April 30.
The post read,
“NFT “Dutch auctions” are actually bullshit. They do not successfully mediate demand, nor do they really negate gas wars in highly-anticipated mints. This is especially problematic when you consider that the Otherdeed mint may be one of the largest scale, high-demand NFT mints ever. All the usual problems with NFT gas wars would be exacerbated by the sheer number of NFTs to be minted, which could result in a gas war of historic proportions.”
Dutch auction-style sale is a bidding technique where the price is determined after considering all bids to reach the ceiling price at which the total offering can be sold. The collectors are informed before the auction and allowed to bid for such items. Previously, Yuga Labs planned to carry out a Dutch auction for land sale in the Otherside metaverse but canceled later.
Otherside said the main objective to move away from a Dutch auction style is to ensure as broad a distribution as possible and to prevent a massive gas war. The project also revealed an enforced limit of 2 NFTs per wallet at the beginning of the sale.
With the continuation of the minting process, the number of NFTs that can be minted per wallet will also go up. It clarified that if the gas war persists, it will not lead to loss of ETH due to failed transactions and expects the Otherdeed mint to achieve the status of “most widely distributed in history.”
$450 Million Funding Round
Yuga previously secured $450 million in a seed round last month for developing the Otherside metaverse. As reported earlier, the funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, which valued the firm at $4 billion. Other participants include Animoca Brands, Coinbase, and MoonPay.
