Summary:
- HashMasks is one of the largest NFT projects on the Ethereum blockchain, selling for over $16 million the weekend it was launched.
- The project is based in Switzerland and had 70 artists participate in the making of the collection two years before it was launched in January 2021, featuring 16,384 unique pieces with varying rarity traits.
- What sets Hashmasks apart from other NFT projects is that each holder has the chance to contribute to the completion of the art piece by naming the Hashmasks they hold via the project’s token, Name Change Token (NCT).
The non-fungible token (NFT) industry produces hundreds of digital art collections daily on blockchains such as Ethereum (ETH), but very few can still retain a high floor price and a loyal community a year on. One NFT project, however, not only has demonstrated staying power but has its own token that serves a specific utility.
The HashMasks token, Name Change Token (NCT), allows holders to change the name of one of the 16,384 art pieces in their possession to any available name. The HashMask token has a circulating supply of 57 million tokens and a market cap of $150,000. It is currently trading at $0.025.
What Are HashMasks?
HashMasks is a digital art collection by Suum Cuique Labs, featuring 16,384 unique pieces that were created by 70 international artists over two years before it was launched on 28 January 2021 in Switzerland.
The HashMasks all bear the aesthetics of Tiki, the traditional art form of ancient Polynesia. The standout feature of the Hashmasks project is that each holder gets to put his or her personal touch on the art piece by bestowing a name to the Hashmask he buys. This way, the consumer of the art gets to incorporate a part of themselves into the art itself.
“Unlike traditional art, the baton of responsibility is handed over to you, who gets the right and privilege to add his or her unique touch to this ever-changing canvas,” states the project team in its manifesto on the website.
The token of the project, Name Change Token (NCT), serves one utility: To change the name of the art using smart contracts. This is how the name change process works:
- Each day, 10 Name Change Tokens (NCTs) are accumulated by each Hashmask and can be claimed by the current holder.
- As the holder accumulates the NCT token on a daily basis, they get the chance to choose a name for the portrait on the Ethereum blockchain.
- When a holder has accumulated 1,830 NCTs (about ½ years worth of NCTs), they can burn these tokens and change the name of their Hashmask on-chain. The underlying smart contract require each name to be unique, thus, creating an additional layer of scarcity within the artwork.
In 10 years’ time, the last NCT token will be burned and the art piece is complete.
The project has a built-in catalog on their platform where users can preview the collection with different traits, similar to the CryptoPunks marketplace. If we hover over one of the art pieces, we can see the name assigned by the owner:
Another notable point about the Hashmasks – buyers do not know which Hashmasks they are buying. “This is the fun part,” says the project team, whose members are all anonymous. Only after the initial reveal phase is over or the sale concludes, the artwork is assigned to the buyer’s NFT via an on-chain random mechanism. The sale is purposely hidden to prevent the founders or anyone else buying the rarest NFTs themselves, the team explains on the website.
Hashmask Rarity
If we head to the main catalog section, we can sort the HashMasks by rarity to explore the different traits and collections. HashMasks owners who own more than one NFT can create their own collection and display it for other users who can then vote on it. Opening any of the art pieces displays the traits, current owner, transaction history, and name:
HashMasks allows users to change the name of the NFT they own by burning NCT tokens, and they automatically accumulate 10 NCT tokes per day by holding their NFT without staking.
Each name change is assigned to a historic ledger that will remain on the blockchain records permanently:
For this particular art piece, we can se that there were 5 total changes. If a future owner wanted to change the name, they would have to purchase the NFT on the secondary NFT marketplace such as OpenSea.
Once they have the NFT, they can deposit NCT tokens in their MetaMask wallet and change the name of their NFT on the website. The name-changing process is done automatically using smart contracts if the token requirements are met.
What Are The Rarest HashMask Traits?
The two categories where we can discover the rarest art pieces in the collection can be found in the “Character” and “Mask”. On the contrary, the most common mask is an animal mask with a 12.5% representation and a pixel mask is rarer at 5.9%. However, these are still common compared to masks that only have a dozen or a hundred iterations, or sub 1%<.
If the trait is rarer, the NFT will trade above the floor price of the collection. This is evident in other collections like CryptoPunks where common bodies sell for a lot less compared to rarer “Alien” and “Zombie” bodies. For Hashmasks, male and female characters are the most common, but the Golden Robot, Puppet Robot, and Mythical are the rarest.
There are only 12 iterations of Mythical masks in total. The Aztec mask has 263 iterations and The Unique mask has only 10 iterations. There is only 1 iteration of an unmasked NFT in the entire collection:
The #3891 HashMask is the 1/1 of the collection, and this NFT was never listed or sold since the launch of the collection.
If we head to the “Name” section on the website, we can see the collection numbers and the names assigned to them by their owners. The following is a list of the collection numbers and their current names:
Currently, 7083 HashMasks were named by their owner which represents nearly 50% of the collection – indicative of an active community.
The HashMask Project Progressive Mint Tier
HashMasks officially launched on 28 January 2021 with a progressive mint tier starting at 0.1 ETH and all the way up to 100 ETH. The vast majority of the collection, or 10,000 pieces, were sold at sub 1 ETH, while only 3 had a price tag of 100 ETH.
- #0 – 2,999 were sold for 0.1 ETH
- #3,000 – 6,999 were sold for 0.3 ETH
- #7,000 – 10,999 were sold for 0.5 ETH
- #11,000 – 14,999 were sold for 0.9 ETH
- #15,000 – 15,999 were sold for 1.7 ETH
- #16,000 – 16,380 were sold for 3.0 ETH
- #16,381 – 16,383 were sold for 100 ETH
The NFTs were unrevealed for the first 2 weeks to build hype for the project, and users had to pay progressively based on how fast they sold out.
The interesting part is that these mint prices weren’t sorted by rarity, but by the time of purchase – this means that there was a chance that one of the early minters would be able to obtain a rare HashMask for the initial 0.1 ETH mint price.
HashMasks received praise and recognition in the industry during its launch for the unique approach it took. The collection minted successfully and has retained a relatively high price floor for over a year which is quite a rare feat in the NFT industry.
What Is The Name Change Token (NCT)?
The Name Change Token (NCT) is the official HashMasks coin released by Suum Cuique Labs in Switzerland. NCT’s utility is to allow holders to change the name of their NFT on the blockchain by burning NCT tokens.
The NCT token is currently trading at $0.025 with a market cap of $150,000. There are 57 million tokens in circulation and holding one NFT from the collection accumulates 10 NCT per day, or $0.25 per day in NCT tokens.
Holders can assign a name to their HashMasks NFT, but they must possess NCT tokens and burn them. The requirement to change a name is 1,830 NCT or $5 at the current market price.
During the initial mint days when the collection launched, all holders were airdropped 3,660 NCT (two name changes equivalent). Those who purchased during the 14 days pre-reveal also got an airdrop of 1,830 NCTs (1 name change equivalent).
The idea was to increase the rarity of the collection by assigning one available name, and also allow holders to participate in the project by making their contribution with a name choice.
There are restrictions on the names that can be changed based on the smart contract. Each name must be unique from other names – to highlight the uniqueness of the art.
For example, if one owner names his mask “John”, this can’t be repeated by another owner. The names can only have up to 25 characters, and non-alphanumerical symbols such as emojis are not supported. The only exception to the repetitive name use is if an owner decides to change their name, which makes the old name available.
The naming system is designed to increase the rarity of the NFTs, since only one name is available. If an NFT is called “John” and people want to own it for exclusiveness, they can only purchase it from that owner.
Hashmask NCT Token Price History
The NCT token performance over the last year was volatile, with an initial peak and then a correction at which point the token stabilized. The initial peak was due to the hype surrounding the project and the correction that ensued was possibly due to a large amount of NCT that was airdropped to holders, who sold for a profit.
What Is The Future Of The HashMasks Project?
The future of the HashMasks project is uncertain, but there are analytics and metrics that can indicate where the project is going. If we head over to “Analytics” on the HashMasks website, we can browse key metrics such as name changes and holder count:
The name change metric indicates that activity has leveled off, but this is likely because most holders who wanted to change their name already did over the last year. The holder count is one of the most bullish metrics on this project:
We can see that the amount of holders is increasing significantly as time goes on, which means fewer whales are hogging the supply and can suppress the price by selling their NFTs on the market. If a project has a high holder count, this is better for distribution and price stability.
Conclusion
The HashMasks NFT collection provides a unique blend of traditional and modern art that is emphasized by dozens of varying mask traits and combinations. There are hundreds of character traits and mask combinations in the collection.
The future of HashMasks is looking bullish with an increasing holder count, as well as the fact that this collection preserved a high floor price for nearly two years. The NCT utility token is one of the unique parts of the project, allowing holders to make their NFTs rarer with a unique name and involving them in the project simultaneously by letting them leave their mark on the collection.
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