Our latest interview is with a project that has already had one drop and has a passionate community building around the project.
ADA Army has unique artwork and some interesting ideas to keep the community involved and excited about the future of the project.
Have a read below as we discuss the artwork, the team behind the scenes and the future plans for ADA Army.
Tell us a little about ADA Army, what type of artwork is it, what size drop?
The ADA Army is a limited 2000 NFT collection of 100% hand-drawn art. Our artist goes by the moniker “DankDoodles” and is a professional artist who loves to “doodle.”
We are a professional, qualified team able and eager to deliver on our plans with airdrops, utility, stealth mints, war (burn) mints and more.
These plans keep the project fun while giving value to our NFTs beyond the unique, grungy, degen style art. On top of this, we have formed an amazing community, on Discord, that we invite readers to join.
Where did the idea for the project come from?
ADA Army was born out of us investing in Cardano and collecting CNFTs.
As self-proclaimed “degens,” we bought into a variety of projects but saw in many of them an overwhelming lack of professionalism. We sought to produce a CNFT collection that both embodied the characteristics that we loved in other projects, as well as the ones we thought were missing.
What about the team behind the project? Tell us a bit about the team, what are your background(s) and what has lead you to start this project.
We have a large team with several of us working full-time for the ADA Army. I would say that our biggest assets are our professional artist “DankDoodles” and our professional lead dev Steve, who are the pillars of ADA Army.
The co-founders, David, Larry, Jordan, and I are all NFT enthusiasts and know exactly what collectors want to see in an NFT project, as well as how to create a quality community.
As a team, we work very well together and all bring unique skill sets. It also helps that we were all friends in real life before we got into NFTs.
How did the first drop go, was the sale as quick as you expected? Were you expecting to sell out?
The first drop was historic.
Here is a screenshot from our Discord in which one of our community members writes:
“First time in a long while that the gen chat was 100% positive during launch. Shows how much effort was put into building this community. Good sight to see.”
The drop was unlike any of us had seen before. While we did have an initial rush of demand (which, thanks to Steve’s first come, first serve queue and reserve system was handled smoothly by the network), it did slow down and ended up being a slow sell.
We began with a 4000 supply, however during our launch, the markets had crashed significantly and Yoroi was down, so we made the decision to reduce the supply to 2000.
While we couldn’t have had worse timing in terms of the climate during the launch, we also couldn’t have had a better response from the community. There was absolutely zero FUD and everyone banded together – it was an absolute blast selling out over the next few days and sharing in community members’ excitement as they posted all their cool mints! I’m actually going to miss it.
Having read your Roadmap the concept for The War sounds interesting with holders effectively sending in their NFT’s with the risk of them being killed/burned or, on the flipside, coming back with a rescued NFT. What can you tell us about this concept?
Yeah! Again – we wanted to create a project that as collectors we would be excited to be a part of. The “War” fits with our theme of being an “Army” for ADA, and is a unique twist on a typical burn mint.
We wanted to incorporate burn mints in our collection as we’ve guaranteed the supply will remain scarce so the Collection is valued. The War works like a regular burn in that you will send in your NFT, and in return, you will receive a random NFT from the new Collection.
The twist is, each NFT soldier you send in will either survive, or be killed, which will dictate how they come back – they might return in the form of a relic, such as a tombstone, or maybe as a zombie. We don’t want to give away too much, but different classes will also have different chances of survival. We will provide more details closer to the mint.
Also underway are two free airdrops, including a Christmas 2021 airdrop where every single ADA Army NFT holder will receive a token that will have utility to help in the War.
There will be a variety of utility NFTs randomly distributed and so far the “Gas Mask” and “Dog Tag” have been publicly revealed.
In January or February 2022, a 100% female force of unique paratroopers will be airdropped for free, and every ADA Army NFT holder will have a 25% chance of getting one!
To take part in these airdrops, you simply have to hold an ADA Army NFT! You can buy one for yourself at CNFT.io or Genesishouse.io (awaiting jpg.store verification).
For any developers or artists planning to launch a project on Cardano how important do you guys feel it is to get the marketing right and build a community around the project prior to a launch?
It’s absolutely critical to build a community prior to the launch.
We also took a different approach to building our community than many other projects we’ve been a part of – our community is small but tight. We’ve focused on building a loyal, strong community and fostering friendships, and a commitment to seeing the project thrive.
Our community isn’t concerned with short-term prices, and as a result, during the launch we didn’t see a FOMO situation where people rushed to mint believing they would be able to flip on the aftermarket for 2-10x their mint price. This has resulted in something special and has attracted collectors (as opposed to flippers) who believe in the long-term vision of the project.
What got the team interested in Blockchain and NFT’s?
Each of the ADA Army team members might answer this question slightly differently, but for all of us, we stand united in the idea of a decentralized blockchain that can provide real-world value and solutions like never before in history.
We chose Cardano (and formed the “ADA Army”) because of its environmentally superior setup, and the fact that it is an “underdog” of the major stable coins out there with huge potential.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far with this project?
The biggest challenge we’ve faced is being at the mercy of market fluctuations.
Cardano has dropped about 50% since its peak, which happened to be smack bang in the middle of our launch, and CNFT volume has been down around 40%.
hat being said, I believe the sincerity and strength of our community has really made this challenge an easy one to overcome.
As project creators yourselves how do you feel about the recent “rug pulls” or project abandonments?
Every time we hear of a rug pull or project abandonment it’s really sad. We always feel for those who invest their money or time into a project only to have it completely gone.
This was also one of the huge motivations behind us creating a project ourselves, as we knew we would fulfill our promises to the community. Revealing our identities and “doxxing” ourselves was also done with the goal of building trust in a space that so desperately needs it right now.
How do you see the NFT space evolving over the next few months?
I believe we will see continued growth in the NFT space: Just yesterday, Joe Rogan, one of the largest podcasters in the world, hosted “Beeple” as a guest on his show; Twitter is working towards implementing verifiable profile pictures, and Nike is preparing for the “metaverse.”
We are still very early and I think we are about to see NFTs become a staple of our new world.
What project would you ideally love to do a collaboration with?
There are a few projects we would love to collaborate with – Happy Hoppers Club is one that looks really promising and we’ve had Jub, a co-founder and their Community Manager, come and chat in our Discord a few times, so who knows… 🙂
Do you guys collect NFT’s too? What’s your favorite? Can we see it?
We definitely collect NFTs, in fact, we can’t stop collecting! Choosing a favourite, however, is way too hard.
My Spacebudz definitely has a special place in my heart as it was one of my first NFTs and my spacesuit doggo reminds me: 1) Let’s have fun (doggo)! 2. Let’s go to the moon (spacesuit)! and 3. Let’s stay grounded (Anchor)!
Thank you for reading, make sure you are following the ADA Army on Twitter.
If you missed any of our previous interviews, you can find them all here. If you are looking for details on what projects are minting then check out our CNFT Calendar.
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