Is it an exclusive club? Yes. Is this virtual club a flashy status statement? Absolutely. Are there really Apes involved? You bet your bottom crypto dollar.

It may sound crazy, but we’re here to explain exactly why people are going bananas for the Bored Apes.

What Is The BAYC?

In short, the BAYC is a digital art collection of 10,000 Ape avatar NFTs complete with around 170 traits such as clothing, headwear, and facial expressions. Each NFT Ape is stored on the Ethereum network and has grown into a highly sought-after commodity that’s being collected by the likes of Steph Curry,

Jimmy Fallon,

Paris Hilton,

and Eminem.

So, what does owning a Bored Ape mean for you? Joining the esteemed ranks of Bored Ape owners means you have the freedom to use it as a brand logo, make it the face of your business, and even earn royalties off its use for purposes outside of your own. This is fairly standard for NFTs, as these purchases give you rights to (and full ownership of) the artwork.

But with Bored Apes, it’s gone a step further. People are spending hundreds of thousands in order to get their hands on one, even going so far as to sell their supercars and lakeside houses – which is completely bananas, don’t you think?! So what makes the Bored Apes stand out above other NFTs?

What Makes the BAYC So Special

The biggest difference between the BAYC and other NFTs is that the Bored Ape Yacht Club consists of two parts – the Bored Apes (the visual NFT) and the Yacht Club.

Each Bored Ape token gives you entry into… you guessed it: the Yacht Club… sort of.

It’s not actually on a yacht, and no, you don’t need a boat. Although, there have been real-life yacht parties that would only allow Bored Ape holders aboard.

Once admitted to the BAYC, owners gain access to the BATHROOM – sounds glamorous, right? Basically, the BATHROOM is an exclusive wall of graffiti (not really that far from the scrawlings you’d see in a dive bar bathroom). The main difference is that users can’t freely draw in real-time. Instead, Ape owners can paint, write, and express themselves – at the speed of one pixel every 15 minutes.

The speed may be painfully slow (and possibly..definitely frustrating for some) but it also creates a really unique space that forces you to think about what you’re saying or doing. A fitting metaphor for the value of investing time and effort into something, and how your perspective changes over time. What you started with may not be the same thing you end with. Although even the creators of the BAYC are “pretty sure it’s going to be full of dicks”.

The main area of the BAYC is known as The Swamp – likely a stark contrast to what you’d typically picture for a Yacht Club. It’s the general Discord channel where everybody can have a look around.  But the Yacht Club is only available to those who can verify that they actually own an Ape. So if you want some access, it’s time to Ape up.

Who Is Responsible for the Ape Madness?

The collection was created and launched in April 2021 by Yuga Labs, a group of 4 anonymous users—two of whom were doxxed by BuzzFeed—known as Gargamel, Gordon Goner, Emperor Tomato Ketchup and No Sass. They named the project “BAYC” as a way of representing a club for people who “aped in” – invested heavily in something that had an uncertain future – a tantalizing temptation when you’re quite literally bored to death. Hence, the website’s ape skull logo.

So why a Yacht Club? This was the creators’ ironic nod to the fact that this quite exclusive club centers around a communal swamp.

Is the BAYC Worth the Hype?

So, are the Bored Apes really worth it? Let’s take a look.

Pros:

Bored Apes are – like any NFT – a way to provide revenue to artists in an environment that was less giving to them. It provides a way to create something which is of value where it may not have succeeded before. Aside from this glimmer of artistic hope, it gives the average joe the ability to invest in something of which they can take complete ownership.

You see, NFTs are basically like dressing up your crypto (like a Bored ape in a hat). By aping in, you immediately change the value of that NFT. Why? Because the purchase of an Ape coincidentally increases the value as people speculate over the price.

NFTs are also entirely unique, giving the owner of any Bored Ape bragging rights and the ability to say that their Ape (and its value) belongs solely to them. Aside from the monetary value, Bored Ape ownership has another huge pro – being part of an extremely exclusive club rife with popularity and celebrity members.

The perks don’t end there though. Yuga Labs’ mission is to give Ape holders the best bang for their buck. What does this mean? Full IP rights are granted upon the purchase of an Ape, including an unlimited and worldwide license to use, copy, and display your Ape for commercial reasons.

That’s right! You can slap your Ape on a hoodie and sell it on your Etsy store with no legal repercussions. How cool is that?

Cons:

NFTs (BAYC included) are something that, at the moment, are only very popular within a specific niche. Let’s be honest – a huge portion of the world has no clue WTF an NFT even is. Meaning, that as of right now their value could theoretically turn to absolutely nothing if their popularity tanks.

Also, given the fact that they’re not necessarily as secure as crypto, they can be subject to a phenomenon known as “sleepminting”. If you have no clue what sleepminting is, let’s clarify. Sleepminting is the process by which an artist unknowingly signs away authorship of an NFT (as if they’d simply dozed off and unconsciously signed away a potentially million-dollar piece of art). 

To understand sleepminting, we should first talk about what minting an NFT means. This is a rather straightforward process by which an artist is registered as the piece’s creator – kind of like an artist’s signature. This act of registration means that the artist will be forever engraved in the data of the blockchain network.

So, where does sleepminting come in? Made famous (or infamous) by an artist known only as Monsieur Personne, sleepminting allowed this cunning user to mint NFTs between wallets, transferring ownership back to himself and leaving artists none the wiser. A process through which he was able to hack a $69 Million Beeple – bad dream no doubt!

How To Get Your Hands on A Bored Ape

In order to begin buying or selling Bored Apes, all you’ll need is some ETH and a Metamask wallet. If you’re unfamiliar with crypto wallets, they act as a virtual storage space for cryptocurrency as well as any NFTs you may purchase. You can get started with a Metamask wallet immediately – it’s simple! Just head on over to metamask.io,

click “Download” and install MetaMask for your browser.

Once you’ve added MetaMask to your browser, you can either set up a new wallet, or import an existing wallet.

From your wallet, you can then buy, send, and swap cryptocurrency. If you select “Buy”, you are given the option of depositing ETH through Wyre (which allows you to make deposits from your debit card), through Transak (which accepts debit deposits and bank transfers), or direct deposits of ETH from existing crypto you may have.

Once you’ve got your Metamask wallet and purchased some ETH either directly through the options provided by MetaMask or from sites like Coinbase, Gemini, Venmo, or PayPal, it’s time to head on over to the Bored Ape Yacht Club on Opensea.  

Here, you’ll see the list of available apes – take your pick and place your bid! Once the purchase or trade has gone through, the Bored Ape will be stored in your wallet, and voila! The Ape is all yours, as is your entry to the BAYC.

 The Future of Bored Ape Yacht Club

With any investment, it is always helpful to look at its future potential. For Bored Apes, it’s really only the beginning. Since their launch, we’ve seen the Bored Ape Kennel Club, which gave Ape owners the chance to adopt a dog with all royalties donated to various charities. We’ve also seen the introduction of serums, which (depending on the type) allow the owner to mutate their ape and join the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). What’s next, a full zoo?

The BAYC is the perfect example of what the future holds for NFTs as a whole. By taking something collectible and tying in a membership feature, the BAYC serves as a revolutionary idea that has created history for the NFT world. It’s undeniable that this 4-man project has built more than a successful collection of NFTs – they’ve created a community and the beginning of a new era for non-fungible tokens.

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