Ever since its inception, CC0 (C-C-Zero, not C-C-Oh) in NFTs has been an interesting concept to play with. The idea of NOT copyrighting an easily “copyable” digital artwork, ironically creating more value for the original artist, is indeed a fascinating phenomenon.
And hence we have been diving deeper into the CC0 NFT space. For those of you who have stuck around since the beginning, you should know about our very own CC0 project, Gnars, and how we drew inspiration from the OG of CC) NFTs, Nouns.
Now, a lot has happened since CC0 blasted into the NFT universe, and it’s not just Nounish Derivatives that are out there. In this article, we will be taking a broader lens on the CC0 space as a whole, and hopefully bring to light the best CC0 NFT projects which are making a name for themselves even in the mainstream NFT arena.
What Is A CC0 NFT?
A CC0 NFT is a piece of digital art on the blockchain which is purposely “un-copyrighted”, allowing creators or artists of the NFT to denounce their copyright.
This idea sprung from the endless debates between whether an NFT can be even “copyrighted” or not. The simple solution: Why not just un-copyright it?
This means that the NFT is now classified under the public domain, free to use for whatever purposes by ANYONE. People can legally copy, modify, and monetize the CC0 NFTs since their artists have decided to cast aside their exclusive rights to the artwork.
But why would any sane creator do that? Isn’t it just throwing their hard work down the drain? Ironically, making their work a CC0 NFT may not be detrimental, and instead beneficial for the artist. Do read this piece on why CC0 could be the solution to this copyright headache.
Sorry for keeping the rest of you waiting, now let’s get on to the list.
Nouns: OG CC0’er
Nouns are one of the first CC0 NFT projects, auctioning off one Noun every day since August 2021. The project was started by a handful of long-time NFT collectors, experienced devs, and “mini-celebrities” in the space, embarking on a CC0 experimentation in the NFT community.
To date, Nouns have been one of the most successful CC0 projects, with over 21.5K Ether in their treasury (or roughly $69 million). The Nouns community started Nouns DAO, a place to vibe and create proposals for where their money should be spent. Nouns DAO has sent a Noun to space, named a new species of frog, and was even featured on Bud Light in the Superbowl!
2/2 Each Bud Light N3XT NFT Collection HODLer will get to claim their EXCLUSIVE pair of very real Nouns-inspired glasses ⌐◨-◨
— Bud Light (@budlight) February 12, 2022
If you want a pair of these iconic glasses make sure to buy a Bud Light N3XT Collection NFT from https://t.co/ikjzSIndbm pic.twitter.com/1sqYXepfyh
Ever since, Nouns have been building up their Nouniverse, where others have made derivatives of Nouns. The way I look at it, Nouns is akin to the Ethereum blockchain. With a reliable core team heading the project and a decent reputation in the space, more devs will be drawn to build off Nouns, expanding the Nouniverse and bringing more attention to the CC0 space!
https://twitter.com/lilnounsdao/status/1505013032652615684
If (or more like when) CC0 NFTs take off in the near future, Nouns will definitely be one of the projects at the forefront of the Ethereum NFT space. Perhaps, even contenders to BAYC and CryptoPunks… who knows?
Mfers: Thriving In Disorganization
My first thought when I found out about Mfers… what’s this Degen project? There is no official page for Mfers; just an OpenSea page, a long-unusable mint page, as well as a rant from Sartoshi about the origins of Mfers.
However, its floor price sits at a healthy 3.2 Ether at the time of writing, and considering that Mfers is a 10K NFT collection which minted out for 0.069ETH, their floor is not bad at all!
Mfers was started by Sartoshi, a well-known NFT artist. After exploring the world of NFTs for a while, Sartoshi decided that it was time to create his own CC0 NFT project, a degen one indeed.
In essence, Mfers doesn’t have a real utility. It has grown out a fully organic community, with a member-run Discord, no roadmap, no marketing, and absolutely no strings attached. It strikes me how such a disorganized project, could have turned out so well in the end. I guess, some mfers just see value in an organic, community-run CC0 project.
Some are already hailing Mfers as the future “CryptoPunks” of the CC0 world. After all, Sartoshi made his break in CryptoPunks, and Mfers was inspired by CryptoPunks at least to a certain extent. In all, this is still a fascinating example of how CC0 NFTs can gain traction – as a community-focused initiative.
CrypToadz: Lore Galore
CrypToadz is yet another CC0 NFT that made its name in the general digital art space, being compared to projects like Weird Whales and other CryptoPunks derivatives. Launching its CC0 collection not too far behind Nouns, the project has seen immense success so far.
CrypToadz was conceived by Gremplin, a dedicated NFT-goer who has been experimenting with many projects in the space since entering it in January 2021. It is said that CrypToadz’s art style was found by pure trial and error.
One great aspect of CrypToadz is the presence of “Lore” on its official website. The idea of giving the NFT project a backstory, about the Evil King Gremplin performing a forced takeover of the CrypToadz, seemed to appeal to the NFT enthusiasts behind the screens.
Since the mint in September 2021, CrypToadz has soared from a mint price of 0.069 ETH to a floor of roughly 3.3 Ether, and it has 6969 CrypToadz in the collection. The team behind CrypToadz has made a separate collection MistleToadz, available to claim for CrypToadz holders.
I would say that CrypToadz is a pretty different project from both Nouns and Mfers. While the other two were created for purposes of experimentation into the CC0 NFT space, it seems that CrypToadz went on a more classic route of using lore to attract interested parties to the project. This goes to show how any NFT project can just put their artwork in the public domain… and everything can still work out as planned!
CryptoDickButts: WTF Meme
From the get-go, you already know we’re in another meme CC0 NFT project. CryptoDickButts, an NFT project with rather questionable art, has seen a bullrun comparable to the other NFTs on this list.
With a small collection of Series 1 and Series 2 CryptoDickButts, Series 3 of CDB was where the real sales were made. As per all other revolutionary NFT projects, CDB did not have any roadmap or utility whatsoever. Just pixel art in the public domain.
Their Series 3 collection was a 5200 NFT strong one, costing just 0.052 Ether a piece. CDB Series 3 NFTs currently stand at a floor price of around 1 ETH, where Series 1 and 2 (The OGs) are going for a minimum of 6.5 Ether. OG minters were also rewarded a Series 3 CDB for their early support of the project.
At the end of the day, CryptoDickButts is yet another meme in the NFT ecosystem. While it starts off just as a joke, you should never underestimate the power of a dedicated community… that can go a long way. And as for the art, it’s yours to enjoy!
Tubby Cats: Cute…
Tubby Cats is a huge collection of 20K Tubbies on the Ethereum blockchain, artwork fully under the creative commons license. Traits of Tubby Cats are hand-drawn, but randomly combined and generated by A.I., giving a massive collection of excellently-drawn Tubbies!
But 20,000 seems a little over the top, you may say. And yes, it was. But the hype for Tubby Cats was even greater. From the countless Twitter raids, to various influencers endorsing the project, and massive “whitelisting” of members from other popular NFT Discords, this secured enough hype for Tubbies.
On top of that, Tubby Cats’ core team executed it perfectly. In what they call a progressive reveal, details of the collection were released bit by bit, not a quick info dump all at once. This prolonged the hype, and enabled the huge collection to be minted out in minutes. The mint price of Tubby Cats was 0.1ETH, and the floor currently stands at 0.3ETH.
At the core of the project, Tubby Cats is just like another CC0 NFT collection. The art is great and it’s in the public domain, and the community is active, so why not jump on the hype train? That’s my thoughts as I’m looking through the project… plus Tubbies just being an iconic part of NFT history since they topped OpenSea sales at their peak.
Larva Lads: Larva Labs Derivative?
Larva Lads is an on-chain CC0 NFT project, a derivative of the famed CryptoPunks collection. Larva Lads, deliberately made to sound like the original creator of CryptoPunks (Larva Labs), minted in a more peculiar manner compared to other projects.
As a free mint through an Etherscan contract, it meant that all people had to pay was the gas fees to receive the Larva Lads NFT. As it stands, the current floor price of this 5,000 NFT collection is 0.1 Ether, not too shabby for a free mint!
Happy Tuesday! As always, tune in tonight to hear from our incredible hosts speak about their project! pic.twitter.com/DhTWH8Tb6r
— Larva Lads (@larvalads) March 15, 2022
Finally, Larva Lads much like Nouns who are also on this list, is an on-chain NFT project. On-chain NFTs refer to digital art in which its metadata, description, and artwork are all stored on the blockchain. You’d be surprised, many NFT collections store their NFT information off the blockchain, since gas fees to upload the collection can be costly. After all, you won’t want to own a “link” to an NFT, do you?
If you’re keen to find out more about on-chain NFTs and why they’re better, we’ve written a handy article on that as well, do check it out!
XCopy: Right Click Save As Guy
XCopy, little is known about the artist behind this insanely popular NFT collection. As one of the first NFT artists in the blockchain art space, XCopy’s dystopian and death-themed collection is one of the most well-known among NFT collectors.
Starting out on NFT marketplace SuperRare and shortly after Nifty Gateway, XCopy has made multiple NFT collections – all doing exceptionally well. It is estimated that the value of all his artworks totals a whopping 17,000 Ether, or 53 million dollars.
The most popular collection “XCopy“, currently stands at a floor price of around 6.4 Ether on OpenSea, with the most famous sale being to rapper Snoop Dogg, “Right Click and Save as Guy” for nearly $7 million.
https://t.co/YXZzIxRc7f pic.twitter.com/knxOtKlajJ
— XCOPY 🏴 (@XCOPYART) March 13, 2021
Most recently, XCopy announced that his NFT collection is listed in the public domain, in other words, a CC0 NFT. I guess prominent figures are starting to realize the potential of CC0 NFTs and the movement against copyright in NFTs.
Right-click save as: public domain 💾 pic.twitter.com/wU4ivQxegA
— XCOPY 🏴 (@XCOPYART) January 21, 2022
Gnars: Rooting For Extreme Sports Athletes
Finally… back to the Haus! For those who’ve been around, I know that we have been talking about Gnars a ton. So let’s not bore you out with this section… perhaps some sneak peeks for the future would seem fit? For those who are hearing about Gnars for the first time, do check out all about here on our Gnars DAO website.
Gnars was inspired by Nouns. But we didn’t want to be just another Nounish derivative, instead, we’re looking to have utility both in web3.0 and IRL. So from a charity project to support skateboarders, we have evolved into a community DAO to support extreme sports athletes. Essentially, putting the power of NFTs and the skill of IRL pros together.
With over $8000 donated to the Skatepark Foundation, our very own Gnarketplace (a Permissionless Gnars marketplace), as well as a retro-type skateboarding game Grinderz, owning a Gnar already has supreme utility. Further developments such as a Merchandise store and a Gnarnia MMO are underway, we ain’t sleeping on the project!
Furthermore, Gnars has solid engagement with the OG cc0 NFT project, Nouns. After our “Nouns Athletes” small grants proposal got accepted and led to the signing of our first athlete, aggressive inline skater Joe Atkinson, we haven’t stopped there. Have you checked out our successful 69ETH “Gnars x Nouns Athletes Proposal“? Hint hint, we ain’t stopping there…
Gnars DAO is a community of action sports enthusiasts and extreme athletes
— Gnars (@gnars_dao) March 25, 2022
Gnars NFTs are a #cc0 extension of @NounsDAO, fully on-chain and public domain
They’re used to help @NounsAthletes reach the people, places and things that bring out their best
🤘https://t.co/gfoCjZ6zHb pic.twitter.com/kYNElI8UZd
To say Gnars is a great project could be blowing our own horn a little, so I’ll just leave it as, Gnars is one of the Nounish derivatives with great utility, a great team, and great people in its community.
Parting Words
Wow, that was a long article! I hope this list was diversified and extensive enough, something of an extension to our previous article on Nounish derivatives.
All these projects we have mentioned above are certainly worth taking a look into, and do remember, this list is not exhaustive! There are tons of other CC0 NFT projects and collections out there which have the potential to soar as well, so do let us know if you find something fantastic out there!
And as always, DYOR before buying into any NFT project. Or at least, figure out whether it’s CC0 or not before apeing into it.
