GC Update — SalsaDAO NFTs

GeniusTeam
6 min readMay 13, 2022

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Enter the SalsaDAO Universe!

Hello Geniuses! This article is all about NFTs and the new tech that we’ve created to support SalsaDAO Ecosystem NFTs.

Over the past year, GC has been laser focused on pushing forward Tezos DeFi by releasing SpicySwap (DEX) and Matter DeFi (Farming Platform). We’ve also been focusing on building out SalsaDAO Governance and upgrading the Gaming Hall.

We haven’t had the time to show NFTs some love. That’s about to change.

NFTs Overhaul

Exploring TzTacosV1

Welcome to the new home base for SalsaDAO NFTs. Visit SalsaDAO to find this new page!

Our upgraded indexer and interface show all SalsaDAO NFTs in one place. This means that the original TzTacos are now back and brought up to speed. All versions, including the special PermaTaco collection have been integrated into SalsaDAO NFTs. We will be working to improve this interface with more filters and display options in the near future!

We’ve also upgraded the SalsaDAO home page to include overall statistics for all SalsaDAO-affiliated projects. This page is easiest way to get a quick overview of the SalsaDAO ecosystem.

V2 Dynamic NFTs

The humble TzTaco

Back in March 2021, before the formation of Genius Contracts, FounderJabba released the first generative NFT project on Tezos, TzTacos. This is the project started it all, and it is very important in the history of Genius Contracts.

Since releasing TzTacos, we’ve gained a massive amount of experience and support by bringing new projects to life on Tezos. Our redeveloped V2 Dynamic NFT contracts are the result of the past year’s experience.

Our new Dynamic NFTs bring even more “Tezos-first” features to the community. First and most importantly, our new Dynamic NFTs are still stored fully on-chain, with no dependency on IPFS. This means that your SalsaDAO NFTs have first-class security due to the forkless nature of Tezos.

We’ve updated our contract storage architecture, taking clues from established generative NFT projects like Avastars. The one major design choice we made was to use on-demand rendering for these NFTs. By using on-chain views, the full image data for Dynamic NFTs can be retrieved at any time.

Isn’t that slow to load, and difficult to integrate?

Previously the answer to this question was “yes”, but we have found a solution to this issue.

To briefly explain, consider indexed blockchain data: internal software scans the blockchain and stores enriched data in off-chain databases for quick and easy retrieval. Indexing is key for high-performance blockchain-based interfaces.

With our solution, we are essentially indexing the image data by serving the data from off-chain webservers rather than loading from chain data or using IPFS. GC has purchased and registered sdaoart.xyz for 10 years to be used as the long-term rendering base for SalsaDAO NFTs.

The final step to first-class Dynamic NFTs is making sure they can be integrated into established software. We spent hours testing out different configurations, and successfully found a storage structure that allows our Dynamic NFTs to load automatically in wallets like TempleWallet and Kukai. We think that this will make it far easier for established NFT marketplaces to integrate our NFTs for trading and auctions.

MTTR Atoms

Dynamic Matter DeFi PFPs

MTTR Atoms is the first drop that uses the V2 Dynamic NFT contracts. These are randomly generated Matter DeFi logos that come in three rarities: Common (1xtz), Rare (5xtz), and Unique (10xtz). Like TzTacos, higher rarities will have more dynamic colors and have different cards when exploring SalsaDAO.

MTTR Atom Relics

We’ve also created a new rarity tier called Relic, that contains any “named” items in the SalsaDAO Universe. MTTR Atoms will have 10 Relic-tier items that will be used for future giveaways. Other Relic-tier items include a few named TzTacoV1s and all of the PermaTacos.

Unique and Relic-tier items will be important for the upcoming utility that will be launched to support the SalsaDAO Universe.

Dynamic NFT Utility

At Genius Contracts, our mission is to push the boundaries of smart contract technology as far as it can go. We are bringing this same energy to our NFTs.

This first drop is really the start of something new, and bigger than before. Our new Dynamic NFT contract is built to be composable, which means that token metadata is accessible and visible to future contracts. This is one major benefit of having no dependence on IPFS, a file-system that is not visible to smart contracts. We’ve created an NFT standard for the SalsaDAO Universe. The possibilities are now endless.

The first major feature we’d like to offer is royalty staking for SalsaDAO NFTs. This means that items purchased can be later used to earn residual income from secondary market sales. Our contract upgrades make it easier than ever to integrate SalsaDAO NFTs to any marketplace, and we will be actively working publicly and privately to get these integrations done.

Further, since all the metadata is fully available on-chain, we will be providing bonus staking power to higher rarity NFTs. Relic-tier NFT holders will receive major boosts.

Next, we will be building out new personalization features for SalsaDAO interfaces. For now, we’ve dropped the NFT Equip system. Any NFT from our SalsaDAO collections can by equipped to your global name-tag. The rarity of the equipped NFT will change the background of your SalsaDAO tag. We will be integrating the global name-tag into SpicySwap and Matter DeFi, along with a set of leaderboards to highlight our biggest supporters!

Royalty staking and personalization will be available for all future SalsaDAO NFTs. Lets dive into the perks for holding higher rarity NFTs.

Unique and Beyond

The key to unlocking SalsaDAO NFT composability is to purchase and hold Unique items. Unique-tier holders will be able to participate in future composition events. A quick example would be a split and fusion system where the colors from your original item are applied to a new item. The possibilities don’t stop here, there are many different ways to integrate existing NFTs into new projects and drops.

We are excited to explore these possibilities and partner with artists who would like to collaborate with us. Some future NFT drops will only be available to Unique-tier holders, and those left out may be stuck buying at a premium on the secondary market. We want to reward users who invest in the SalsaDAO ecosystem and stay a while; building exclusivity systems is a major aspect of accomplishing this goal.

PermaTacos

Relic-tier NFTs are the pinnacle items in the SalsaDAO Universe. These are hard to get, have custom names, and do not drop randomly. Relic-tier items are desirable for the major royalty staking boosts they provide, and the exclusive profile background when equipped. To start, we will be running a few giveaways to distribute MTTR Atom Relics. As we monitor market demand, we will be offering more ways to get Relic-tier items. A user will usually have to own a series of Unique items from different collections to obtain a Relic.

As of right now, the MTTR Atom sale is open for the next week. After 7 days, the sale will close forever. Head over to SalsaDAO to check it out! Be sure to check the Buying Guide, as the process is different than TzTacos.

And as always, thank you for the continued support. We will keep working relentlessly to keep pushing the boundaries on Tezos. Look forward to more details about our next major project, SpiceWorld!

GC

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