Although NFTs (non-fungible tokens) news have somewhat subsided from prior months, strong interest continues to sustain new partnerships and developments. Most NFTs so far have represented ownership of some collectibles that previously existed in the physical world (i.e., art, sports trading cards, music, etc.) or the digital world (i.e., tweets, videos, game items, etc.). Large projects involving well-known sports teams, musicians, and celebrities continue to dominate the headlines. However, we have found a small project that is doing an interesting take on NFTs.
CheekyCountries is developed by the CSquared Collective. It looks to combine on-chain ownership (NFTs), interactive social art, and gamification into one quirky package. Here are the details of how it works.
How does it work?
The website looks simple enough – a world map of countries (or CCountries as they call them). Each CCountry starts at a low price of $10. When you buy the CCountry (using Tether and BNB through MetaMask wallet), you have the right to upload your image to be displayed on the map and receive an NFT tied to the image and the CCountry. Interesting design here by CheekyCountries – although you will own your NFT forever, its right to display the image on the platform is only guaranteed for the first 24 hours. After that, the CCountry becomes unlocked, and someone else can buy it from you for the set 1.5x price multiple. The new purchaser will be issued a new NFT and be able to upload and display their image. There is no bidding process, no queue of buyers – it looks to be first-come, first-serve.
Gamification
Although not explicit within the website About Us and the detailed FAQ, gamification would likely be an integral part of CheekyCountries. The ability for a new buyer to “take over” a CCountry from the current owner after 24 hours could lead to image “battles.” Furthermore, the 1.5x price increase each time guarantees the current owner will make a 25% profit (platform takes a cut) each time a new purchaser takes over the CCountry. The simplicity of the purchasing price seems to be a design element, encouraging users to return and re-purchase their CCountry if desired. 1.5x price increase could take the initial CCountry price from $10 to a much larger amount quite quickly. What would be the “terminal” price of each of the CCountries? Would there be buyer’s remorse? We are intrigued to find out!
Is it art?
CheekyCountries is allegedly claiming that they are working on new features to be able to display all historical images of a CCountry. We do think it would be an interesting social experiment to be able to play the combined images of the CWorld in a time-lapsed video. The entire platform could be considered as a modern art piece created by participants around the world.
Some observations
The website is not optimized for mobile. The CWorld map and images do display decently on laptops and desktops. The image placement onto a CCountry seems tricky; however, we have found that if you upload the same image onto adjacent CCountries, they merge into a single picture. That is pretty cool – a “conqueror’s” effect of sorts.
More user details
Some more details. It looks like the CSquared Collective has mainly focused on the platform’s interesting conceptual ideas rather than on UI/UX. The platform runs on Binance Smart Chain to avoid Ethereum’s high transaction fees. Good thing that it works well with MetaMask, but you do have to add BSC Network to the wallet and transfer some BNB and USDT (pegged USDT on BSC). Luckily, the platform does not allow the user to send funds but query directly to MetaMask for the proper fund amounts and transfer addresses. The website’s FAQ (bottom section) does have a good step-by-step instructions on how to purchase a CCountry.
Conclusion
CheekyCountries definitely is one of the most interesting NFT projects that we have seen in a long time. It is still in the early stage of its launch, and we look forward to seeing how this “art and social experiment” will play out and how the world map will evolve.
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