NFT stands for non-fungible token. These are certificates that essentially state that the asset/digital work possessed by the user is unique and one of a kind. There can be NFTs of anything digital, like memes, tweets, pictures, videos, art, game equipment, etc. It has caught the eyes of many investors, collectors, and creators as it is too good of an asset to ignore.
NFTs provide the advantage of
- Easier to trade when compared to traditional systems
- Gives artists complete control
- Smart contracts compatible
- Completely digital, secure, and fast
- Immutable
- Copyright protected.
As of the time of writing this article, NFT sales have generated over $148,791,005 and it is only increasing with the sales of trending Cryptopunks, virtual lands, Hashmasks, cryptokitties, and art.
What are Hashmasks?
Hashmasks are digital assets which like any NFT are unique one of a kind art and are rare. There exist only 16384 Hashmasks in existence in the whole ecosystem and are majorly made by compiling different characteristics like mask type, eye color, background, etc by an algorithm.
Besides the distinctive characteristics of Hashmasks like varying masks, eye colors, items, and other attributes, they are unique cause they allow consumers to have some more involvement in the art. This is due to the feature of Hashmasks that allows collectors to rename the Hashmask. This is possible due to its Name Change Token (NCT) which if available to the collector, the collector can change the name of the Hashmask NFT.
This creates 2 levels of scarcity to the Hashmask NFT. The name of the Hashmask can be interchanged with other users of the ecosystem and needs to be unique and one of a kind. For the collector to change the name, the collector should own 1830 NCTs. These NCTs can be traded from one account to another and each collector gets 10 NCTs every day. The NCTs will reach their limit in the next 10 years, that is in 2031 in February, and then this will eventually create a rarity of the asset.
This does not mean that the Hashmasks don’t have value in the present time. Far from it. The first sale of all the Hashmasks resulted in a total sale of $9 million. These Hashmasks were sold in slabs of price ranging from 0.1 ETH to 100 ETH. Only after 3 days of purchase, Hashmask 1 was sold for a whopping 100,000% profit, being sold for roughly 100 ETH (then $130,000 ). Hashmask which was the most expensive sale of the lot is named “SEX” and owned by Danny Secure, and was bought for a whopping $636,346.
The Top 10 Hashmasks ever sold are,
Hashmask Attributes:
More than 70 artists all over the globe have contributed to making Hashmasks. They individually designed different aspects like masks, characters, eyes, different elements and colors, background, etc. Then the by using an algorithm, most of these works were randomly compiled to make art out of them. Only 20% of all the existing Hashmasks are manually designed.
The best part of Hashmasks NFT is that it gives full unlimited, worldwide, exclusive, license to use, copy and display the purchased art for commercial use. The value of these assets will appreciate with time as they are bound to become rare with the coming time and as more and more notable collectors own the art and name them.
Explicit characteristics of the Hashmasks help the art to be organized in a hierarchy. Some explicit characters include characters, masks, eye color, skin color, etc. These factors are essential to price the Hashmask NFT appropriately. For example, The character of the man will be much common when compared to the character of a robot and hence will be valued less due to comparatively less rarity.
Hashmasks And Its Implicit Rarity
Hashmasks, just like any other art, are enigmatic and hence can mean whatever the heart wants to understand. It will change from person to person with the change in the person’s perspective. This aspect cant be accounted for and understood with the use of explicit characteristics like the masks and the color. Implicit characters leave the interpretation of the art to the consumer and especially to the collector and thus define it. The NCT helps the collector to best express its views about the art after Interpretation by naming the Hashmask.
On the highest level, there are 14 different types of masks. 12.5% of all characters wear an animal mask and only 5.9% wear a pixel mask. At first sight, pixel masks may seem more exclusive, but upon further inspection, you realize that there are only 13 Hashmasks that feature a unicorn mask, which is much more exclusive than the rarest of all pixel masks. Other examples of implicit traits with varying degrees of rarity are backgrounds, shirts, hairstyle and colors, and many more.
What Makes Hash Masks so Valuable?
Hashmasks in all, to date, has been sold for an amount of $57 million, with it recording $34 million in sale value in February. This is because the asset of Hashmasks is unique in many aspects.
The value associated with the Hashmasks depends on:
Character: The characters are explicit characteristics of the Hashmask and dictate the rarity of the piece. For example, The character of the man will be much common when compared to the character of a robot and hence will be valued less due to comparatively less rarity. Hashmasks consist of Male, Female, Golden Robot, Mystical, etc. pieces which are in different numbers and different rarities. The rarest of the above list is mystical Hashmask of which there only exist 12 pieces and hence is priced the most.
Mystical characters are even the most valuable Hashmasks NFTs according to cytoplasm.
Item: Every Hashmask is a combination of different attributes like lineage, eye color, skin color, and the item possessed by the art. There can be 6 different items possessed by the art, toilet paper, book, mirror, shadow monkey, and golden toilet paper. However, the majority of the Hashmasks characters don’t hold any items.
The item of golden toilet paper is the most expensive item according to the list. However, this is not the only factor while deciding the cost of the Hashmask. There has been an instance in which masks having no items being the most expensive of all the Hashmask and got sold for $650K.
Masks: Masks are the prominent feature of any Hashmask. They dictate the overall interpretation of the art and its rarity plays a vital role in valuing the mask. On the highest level, there are 14 different types of masks. 12.5% of all characters wear an animal mask and only 5.9% wear a pixel mask. At first sight, pixel masks may seem more exclusive, but upon further inspection, you realize that there are only 13 Hashmasks that feature a unicorn mask, which is much more exclusive than the rarest of all pixel masks. Unicorn masks have an average selling price of $390,000, while pixel masks have an average selling price of $2741.
There are different types of Eyes in Hashmasks. Some of them are Mystical, Heterochromatic, Painted, Green, etc. Mystical eyes are rare and hence are valued more ($215,385) in the list of all the Hashmasks.
Skin Types: There are 10 different types of skin of which transparent types of skin Hashmask are the rarest ones with only 2 of them existing. Then there are other types of skins like mystical, Gold, wood.
Combining The Attributes: All these attributes play a vital role in the painting. However, the value of the overall art is valued by all the attributes in the art and not just one attribute. A combination of the different attributes can create a rarity of its own. For example, a female holding regular toilet paper is a rare combination that’s only been found 8 times, while 43 female Hashmasks are holding golden toilet paper. Men holding normal toilet paper aren’t that special, as those make up for a total of 276 versions. Therefore the discovery of value is still an ongoing process.
Due to all these features and attributes, some attributes tend to be rare and very unique. Meaning for example, Hashmasks such a Unicorn Masks tend to sell for a higher price than others. While, rarer the attribute, more valuable is the Hashmasks.
Because of this, people sometimes go far and beyond, just to own these set of masks and sometimes, they spend their entire savings on claming some of hte hash-masks with certain attributes. As, whatever assets are rare in the Hashmasks world, the price is bound to explode.
