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These included a large amount of funding, new NFT initiatives, and plans for a token. Kevin Rose, who started Digg, was one of the people who started the company.
The company just announced that it has already raised $50 million in Series A funding, led by the big VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.
It comes after a $10 million seed round from Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, was announced in April after the successful launch of Moonbirds.
Seven Seven Six and True Ventures, where Rose is a partner, Flamingo DAO, Collab + Currency, SV Angel, and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk's VaynerFund, all took part in the Series A fundraiser. There was no mention of a price.
Also, Rose confirmed on today's stream that Proof is making a utility token for its community, which has been hinted at recently.
For now, there aren't many details, but Rose said on the stream that "designing and launching a token is both a technical and a legal challenge." Proof's token initiative will be shown in full in the first quarter of 2023.
Rose said, "We know very well that the world doesn't need another token for speculation." "So, when we do something, it should be something that only we can do, that has real use, and that we think pushes the limits of what is possible in new and exciting ways.
Why would we do it if that wasn't the case? There's really no reason." It's not clear if Proof could be like ApeCoin, which is a token built on Ethereum for the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT ecosystem.
ApeCoin was released in March by the ApeCoin DAO, not by Yuga Labs, the company that created the Bored Apes. It seems that this decision was made because of rules.
Proof also talked about plans to release a spinoff collection of Moonbirds called Moonbirds Mythics. It will include 20,000 NFTs and come out in early 2023.
Mythics is the third NFT profile picture project from the startup, after Moonbirds and Oddities.
In contrast to the pixel look of Moonbirds, the new Moonbirds Mythics collection will look like it was drawn by hand, according to early samples shown during the stream.
Proof will start them off with a model that lets owners of Moonbirds "nest" (or "bet") their NFT to get a Mythics NFT as a reward.
Oddities owners can also burn (or otherwise destroy) their NFT in exchange for a Moonbirds Mythic.
An NFT is a token on the blockchain that proves ownership of an item, such as a profile picture, a piece of art, or a collectible.
Based on data from CryptoSlam, Moonbirds is one of the most valuable profile picture projects on the market. Since its launch in April, it has made more than $588 million in secondary sales.
Proof will also put the original Moonbirds NFT artwork entirely on-chain so that the Ethereum project's smart contract code that follows set instructions won't have to call any external servers.
If a player has both a Moonbirds NFT pass and a Proof Collection NFT pass in the same wallet, the owl avatar will automatically have a unique background.
Also, the company announced a number of other upcoming NFT projects, such as collaborations between artists called "Proof X" that use smart contracts in unique ways and a brand called "Curated" that lets well-known creators release work from some of their favourite artists.
At the same time, a brand called "Genesis" will release the first NFT projects from well-known traditional artists.
Decrypt recently talked to Rose about the creation of Proof and the launch of the Proof Collective NFT-gated community, the popular Moonbirds launch, and the controversial decision to give everyone commercial rights to Moonbirds and Oddities.
