Moonbirds made their comeback a few days ago by revealing their plans for Q1 of 2023. Long story short, the identity of every Moonbird NFTs holder is “The art collector’s PFP”. So if you got a Moonbird NFT as your PFP you’re saying loud and clear you’re one of web3’s digital art connoisseurs. After the disappointment of canceling the Proof of Conference and the tragedy of Kevin Rose’s wallet being drained, PROOF came back with a bang! Defybirds NFTs are the first stage of a long road ahead for the Moonbirds community.
Are Moonbirds rising from the ashes?
It’s one of the hottest NFT art collaborations this year and you don’t wanna miss it. Let’s cut straight to the point.
Introducing DefyBirds NFTs
The question for this collection is “What happens when a Moonbird meets a Monster?”. Defybirds NFTs is a collaboration project between renowned artist Deslucrece and nonother than our favorite Moonbird artist Justin Mezzel.
Here are some rapid-fire facts before we get into the narrative:
Collection Launch: March 9, 2023
Supply: 3,000
Mint Price: TBA
Open Time for Mint: TBA
Where to Mint? PROOF website
Mint Eligibility:
Exclusive for
-Nested Nudebirds on March 8 (1,498 total Nudebirds)
-Selected Des Lucréce holders (1500 from raffles)
Defybirds Narrative
“Proceed w/ Caution as you enter the moonlight that shines upon the Monsters, Oddities, and creatures of flight. What happens when Des’ Monsters collide with the world of Moonbirds?
A Moonbird morphs with a Monster. Fear the monster and proceed into the moonlight with great caution. The night is full of whispers, Oddities, and creatures of flight.
One last question… what happens when you burn a Defybird (or eight)? ”
The resulting marriage between proceed w/caution and Moonbirds gives the Defybirds NFT series 8 species(each with a distinct color from Lucréce’s palette) with 375 supplies of each(total is 3,000). If you burn one of each color of these 8 Defybirds species you can claim an extra 8 “Glitch Defybirds”.
What Are Nudebirds?
Nudebirds NFT holders will be eligible to mint a Defybird NFT. Basically, ‘Nudebird’ is a nickname given to a Moonbird NFT without any traits, so zero headwear, eyewear, or clothing whatsoever.
There are 1,498 Nudebirds in Moonbirds’ 10k supply collection. You can check out the 1,498 nudebirds and the eligible members (list of Nudebird Moonbird NFT holders) here.
This is definitely a smart move from the founders, to give a special little something to the holders of Moonbirds PFPs that weren’t that expensive or rare. Definitely leaves a mark on the NFT rarity versus art debate.
Defybirds Artists: Des Lucréce and Justin Mezzel
Justin Mezzel needs no introduction as he has given us Moonbird’s mesmerizing pixel art! The collaborating artist on Defybirds NFTs is Des Lucréce, the creator of Monsters and Proceed w/ Caution, two ground-breaking NFT projects with a message.
Who is Des Lucréce?
Norwegian-born Vietnamese artist living and working in the US. His work delves into his experience of having “No Home Center”
His “No Home Center” concept stems from the segregation he faced being a second-generation Asian immigrant. Especially since he felt like not really belong anywhere, too Asian for Westerners and too Western for Asia. In his own words:
“This, coupled with being called a foreigner in the places I’ve lived, has created a rift between me and the places I’ve called home. In essence, “No Home Center” is a disconnect between our sense of belonging and identity.”
Lucréce’s NFT Concepts: Monsters, Proceed w/ caution, and Defy
His first project Monsters is born out of creating portraits of the types of personalities he saw spreading hate online about his mother’s Salon business during Covid and Asian people.
Lucrece’s most recent collection, Proceed w/ Caution, launched on January 18, 2023, and minted for 0.06 ETH ($98 USD) a piece. 8,408 items were minted within a 15-minute open edition window. This raked in 504 ETH ($818K USD) in sales proceeds.
Lucrece explains that the collection’s name, Defy, stems from the “Obey” movement which legitimized graffiti as a form of art. Defy intends to do that with digital on-chain art.
Why Defy?
🟦🟩🟨🟧🟪🟥 pic.twitter.com/RpQpsLGTzs— Lucréce (@DesLucrece) January 24, 2023
Moonbirds Rise From the Ashes
The Defybirds NFTs upcoming burn mechanism and nudebirds staking is not the first time PROOF use this method. Nesting is just Moonbirds’ fancy word for staking. Staking and burn mechanisms are being highly used by NFT projects for so many reasons.
The main reason for:
Staking → to ensure liquidity and diamond hands
Burning → to make tokens scarce (thus price will increase)
What the Moonbirds’ founders are trying to do is pull back the community to them. This collaboration with Des Lucréce has long been teased by Moonbirds since February 14 when they announced the Day 1 nester’s special background.
Moonbirds: *Proceed with Caution*… it’s *Day One* for the two latest additions to our collection of in-chain backgrounds! pic.twitter.com/CZB9MIAXR7
— Moonbirds (🦉, 🎨) (@moonbirds) February 13, 2023
The Day 1 Nester Background is not an airdrop or an NFT that you can sell, but rather a status that distinguishes you as a supporter of the Moonbirds project since day one. It’s a gift to the community on top of creating the Lunar Society DAO.
Things are looking really good for Moonbirds, and their future is very promising. This year we still got Mythics, Coins, and Highrise to look forward to. The wise owls are working really hard, and their community is happy again. Can we say trust is restored?