Azuki NFT Review: Team, Utility, Roadmap, And More
The Azuki NFT collection started off with 10,000 avatars, just like many other PFP projects in the space. From there, they blossomed into an elaborate ecosystem with exclusive drops and experiences. Together with the amazing community, they are now building a decentralised brand for the future. Here’s everything you need to know about Azuki.
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What Is Azuki All About?
The Azuki team set out to build a brand for the metaverse, by the community. These characters give holders an identity in the metaverse, and access to The Garden. The Garden is essentially a place where art, community, and culture come together, blurring the lines between the physical and the digital.
The Asian-led NFT project started with a small group of LA-based enthusiasts, but the real team is the broader global community, working together to forge the Azuki brand.
Who Is Behind The Azuki Team?
Chiru Labs, the creators of the Azuki collection, have abundant experience in crypto, gaming, and tech. They consist of several core members:
Co-founder: ZAGABOND is the main ‘Human Bean’ behind the Azuki project. He recently revealed his identity during Azuki’s NFT.NYC event.
Co-founder: HOSHIBOY was accepted into YCombinator twice and is in charge of design in the Azuki ecosystem.
Co-founder: 2PM.FLOW is an ex-Google engineer and YCombinator alumni as well.
Co-founder: LOCATION TBA is an ex-Facebook engineer, currently building the Azuki metaverse.
Throughout the journey, they have also onboarded other key talents to expand the Azuki ecosystem, introducing:
Art director: Arnold Tsang is the former art director for Overwatch and a pixel art enthusiast.
Artist: NJOO was an artist in the legendary Street Fighter comics!
Community manager: Daph has experience in esports and is now managing the Azuki community.
Product manager: DEMNA is an ex-product manager at Google, currently in charge of the Azuki products.
Azuki NFT Official Links
Azuki website: https://www.azuki.com/
Azuki Twitter: https://twitter.com/azukiofficial
Azuki Discord: https://discord.com/invite/azuki
Azuki Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azuki/
What Is The Azuki NFT Utility?
Holding an Azuki NFT will give you access to exclusive streetwear, NFT drops, live events, and many more. There have been several events in 2022 including the Azuki Garden Party and NFT.NYC. In addition, holders have also received different Azuki merchandise such as the Twin Tigers Jacket.
During April Fool’s Day 2022, the team announced not 1, but 2 surprise airdrops to all Azuki NFT holders. The airdropped NFTs opened up to be a pile of dirt, leaving some in the community thinking that it was an April Fool’s prank. Little did they know that their dirt sprouted into the Beanz collection, the trustee companions to each Azuki character.
Azuki NFT Roadmap
The Azuki roadmap circles around one essential component, the community. Currently, the team is providing various grants to excellent members with creative ideas. Azuki will empower them to use their skills to create more value to the community.
Besides, Daph and her team organise frequent community spaces all over Twitter. Forums such as the Red Bean Soup allow members to share heartfelt stories or simply have a cool hangout spot.
Currently, the team is executing a web3 experiment to fractionalize Azuki #40, Bobu. Basically, this NFT will be locked in a vault and its fractions will be owned by different people. Each fraction will give the owner a vote in the governance of the vault, which determines Bobu’s fate. An example of a governance proposal can look something like this: ‘Should the Bobu treasury be used to fund an animated short featuring Bobu and other Azukis?’
Apart from that, the team is exploring the idea of RPGs or Anime using the community’s NFTs. They are also looking at establishing a DAO and even a $bean cryptocurrency in the future. There are many ideas and even examples that already exist in the NFT space. However, if the team wants to do it, they will make sure they do it right.
How Much Do Azuki NFTs Cost?
Where To Buy Azuki NFTs?
You can buy Azuki NFTs on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and LooksRare.