CryptoUniverse Community AMA: Recap

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Blind Boxes

7 min readMar 31, 2021

The buzz around Blind Boxes is growing and this was evident in the AMA with CryptoUniverse Community on their Telegram group on March 29, 2021.

Our CEO Anita Moore loved the questions that were asked. While it was impossible for her to get to all, here are some that we picked which we felt would be the most informative for the community and readers who are just discovering our platform.

Can you tell something more about the team behind this project?

I’m Anita CEO and Co-founder of Blind Boxes. I was raised in NYC where I studied engineering at Columbia University. My early career was in the arts, healthcare, consulting in finance. During business school at Yale I discovered blockchain technology. I began investing in crypto in 2015 and joined my first blockchain start up in 2017. I have been interested in the NFT space since 2018 when Suzanne Lee (our current CMO) introduced me to Cryptokitties.

Flash forward to 2020. The pandemic hit and I found myself in Berlin. Here I saw so many artists struggling to survive through the pandemic. Meanwhile, I saw DeFi and crypto overall exploding. I started to brainstorm. Could it be possible to bring the efficiencies of blockchain to the world of art and creatives? During that time, I also read about the IPO of PopMart, a wildly popular mystery box toy maker in China. The intersection of these ideas is where the idea for Blind boxes was born.

David Shen, our CTO is a tech veteran who has spent his career building innovative products. He brings to the table 30 years of coding experience, plus 10 years of team management and leadership. He has worked at Viacom, Facebook, and Huffington Post. David leads our team of developers and has the unique ability to bridge from the technical to creative worlds.

What are Blind Boxes? How is it different from other NFT projects?

Blind Boxes are individually sealed packages of high-quality, limited edition NFTs. The NFTs are distributed randomly, one at a time, from curated collections. Our goal is to boost sales and distribution for creators, while allowing collectors to unbox and discover rare digital assets.

Unlike massive marketplaces, where NFTs can sit for months without being discovered, Blind Boxes allows independent creators and brands to sell to a captive global audience during “drop events”.

Decentralized curation is at the heart of our platform. So, unlike other platforms, where a secret committee decides which artists get to be displayed, with Blind Boxes the curators are public.

For collectors, Blind Boxes is an exciting, gamified, and curated place for them to grow their NFT collections. By presenting them with assets in mixed-value collection, the platform allows the collectors to discover rare assets at approachable prices.

OK so do collectors get both — NFTs in the box as well as $BLES tokens?

Yes, our mining mechanism is unique. Of the 100 million $BLES ever minted, 50 million will be set aside as a mining pool. By opening Blind Boxes, users mine $BLES. So yes, you get an NFT plus $BLES. BLES tokens can also be used to purchase boxes.

Why would creators include their art in Blind Boxes rather than sell directly on any NFT marketplace. How does your project provide opportunities for the creators?

One major issue we are addressing with Blind Boxes centres around discovery and promotion for artists. So often, creators put in the hard work (and money) minting their art and listing it on huge exchanges. Yet, their work never gets discovered. Unless they are already famous, they must still rely on heavy self-promotion to get people to even notice their work.

For creators, Blind Boxes increases direct sales for their portfolio. Since the curator receives commission from the sales of the entire collection, curators are incentivized to promote their own collections until they sell out. This mechanism significantly boosts the probability that a creator’s work gets sold. Also, once their work is sold in a blind box, creators also benefit from ongoing royalties for their portfolio.

There is also the sour issue of wash trading in existing auction marketplaces. Wash trading is a market manipulating practice that is rampant in the NFT space. With wash trading, users bid on their own items to increase their prices in an auction. Apparently up to 40% of transactions in typical auctions are linked to wash trading. Our unique mechanism of selling prevents wash trading which benefits the overall community.

Can anyone become a curator on the platform or are there any restrictions or regulations?

Anyone can be a curator! Think of us as an Airbnb for tastemakers and art lovers. Our platform enables anyone to host Blind Box collections, and monetize their ability to be a scout in this NFT space. If you think you have a good eye for art, go for it. Create a collection and invite your artist friends to join. Since curators make 5–30% commission on the sales of an ENTIRE collection, the monetary benefits of organizing a collection can be quite nice. 😊

Brands can be curators as well. This is why we are gearing up to announce a series of exciting brand partnerships within art, music, gaming, fashion, and crypto.

Have you partnered with creators already?

Indeed. I just checked our roster of onboarded artists. We now have over 120 creators. We are keeping the pool diverse, so we have digital artists, musicians, and gaming creators. The cool thing about the platform is that it can accommodate both well-established artists and emerging artists.

When we first started designing the concept we wanted to be different from the platforms that only focus on the biggest names. Yes, we will have headliners, yet we will also carve out space for talented artists who are not household names yet. Through our advisors we are also entering into the fine art world. Building relationships with Blue Chip artistic organizations will be another that we differentiate.

Can you tell something about Blind Box foundation grants?

Blind Box Foundation grants are a feature I am really excited about. This is our way of supporting emerging creators. Through this mechanism, artists have the ability to apply for grants to support their career while they grow. Grants will have a transparent application process and decisions will be made by a committee of advisors who are key opinion leaders in the arts.

Can you tell something about Blind Boxes launchpad?

Through the Blind Boxes Launchpad, creators host decentralized crowdfunding campaigns. This framework enables creators to sell customized ERC-20 tokens to support their artistic journey. For example @harsharock45 you could sell HarshaCoin during an event that is something like an “IDO for NFT creators”.

The goal of this event is to raise funds to support your future NFT projects. After the sale is done, HarshaCoin holders unlock royalty rights (a small percentage) to your future NFT work, for ~ 2–5 years. For collectors, this feature allows them to be early investors and direct supporters of creators. It also enables them to earn passive income from the sales of the creator’s future work. So we see it as a win-win situation.

When can we expect Blind Boxes to go live?

The Mainnet soft launch will be April 10 and the official mainnet launch will follow soon thereafter. Before that, as in, this week, we start announcing partnerships as well as exciting competitions. The competitions are open to anyone. So if you are an artist, stay tuned!

Can you guys please speak to token utility? Why are people incentivised to holding bles?

Only a fixed number of BLES will ever be minted. While BLES can be bought and sold on exchanges, these tokens also have advanced utility with respect to DeFi. For example, token holders earn passive income by staking BLES. We believe this ability to earn yield will be attractive to users. Curators will be incentivized to stake BLES in order to unlock special promotional features for the collections that they hold. Curators also have the option to accept BLES as payment for Blind Boxes. BLES token holders also have the ability to vote and earn mining rewards during contests. These competitions will have high stakes, so we anticipate that users will want to participate here as well. Finally, since we are a DAO, BLES holders can vote and play an important part in the governance of the platform.

Are all Blind Boxes priced equally, and do they all come with just one NFT plus BLES tokens, or do they come with different numbers of NFTs?

Each Blind Box has one NFT per box. Each collection has multiple Blind Boxes. Our algorithm sets the price of boxes based on the NFTs that comprise the collection. All Blind Boxes in a collection will be sold for the same price. Well-designed collections, will be a combination of high quality items that are around the same value PLUS 2–3 Easter Eggs (items of exceptional value). This distribution will make collections appealing to buyers.

There’s loads more in store and various new partnerships and announcements coming up so we would encourage our awesome expanding community to follow our social channels and watch this space for more.

About Blind Boxes

Blind Boxes is a gamified curation platform and launchpad for NFTs (non-fungible tokens). This highly scalable dApp enables brands and creators to diversify their revenue streams, increase the liquidity of their creative assets, and to become leaders in decentralized global economies, while engaging fans and buyers to discover and collect rare, limited edition NFTs.

Via the Blind Boxes Marketplace, buyers get to experience the thrill of time-released white-labeled blind box series, where a collector can draw from and unlock sealed packages of exclusive items, curated by tastemakers across the arts, music, & entertainment sectors. Curation is at the core of our value proposition. The platform offers a commission structure that incentivizes independent contributors to produce bespoke blind box collections that feature top-tier talent and emerging artists and designers from around the world.

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