The AMA (How’s SWAGGA Doing Recently?) was held in Twitter Space on 26th October 2022.
Yucee: Hi everyone, welcome to SWAGGA Twitter space and my name is Yucee. I’m head of communications with SWAGGA and I’m your host today. So for today’s AMA will talk about Oniversary. Onimaru has come into our lives for one year and we actually decide to celebrate more for this Onimaru anniversary so we come up with this adorable name, Oniversary. and will also update you on a few recent events and so some future plans also I see a lot of people asking me about the use of Onimaru on discord and on other social media. So I’m going to also restate its utility. So, for today, we have Mickey. Our CMO of SWAGGA. And we have Graham, one of our community volunteers as our guest speaker. So I will now invite you to introduce yourself, please. Mickey do you want to go first?
Mickey: My name is Mickey. I am the CMO of SWAGGA. I’m happy to be here to introduce what SWAGGA’s all about and share our great news about our announcement of latest update.
Yucee: Alright, thank you. How about Graham?
Graham: Good afternoon. My name is Graham, otherwise known as MultiBags, and a community member for SWAGGA. And I’m pleased to be here, so thanks for the invite.
Yucee: Thank you for coming!
Yucee: Mickey, can you introduce SWAGGA and tell everybody what SWAGGA is and also announce something exciting?
Mickey: So I’d like to talk about SWAGGA. SWAGGA is the phygital fashion metaverse. We call it phygital, and we use the word “phygital” a lot in our world, that is actually a coined word that is combined the physical and digital. So what we’re aiming for is to combine the real-world object and the digital world content and services together, and also as an immersive e-commerce platform for fashion lovers with high entertainment values, we do want to continue to develop it based on the concept, that, to swag to earn, so that’s basically what it means is swap your likes into value. Our metaverse also contains a lot of games and that’s what we have been working on so far.
In the beginning that Yucee talked about the Oniversary so it has been a year since Onimaru landed on Earth. Onimaru’s been traveling all the way through the blockchain to the Internet, and all the way to our planet, Earth. To celebrate, we have several things going on right now. One of them is the Onimaru web AR photoshoot. This one is already ongoing. I believe some people have already seen or tweeted it. What you can do is you can start by creating a memory of you with Onimaru by scanning QR code with your mobile phone. Or you can access to one of our links that is on our Twitter. So you choose the Onimaru that you like and then you can actually take photos or videos with Onimaru AR. So that’s how you can actually show Onimaru in your favorite places, with people and views, or wherever you like. And this submission session is actually from the 21st to the 30th, which is Sunday.
And I just want to let you guys know the rules. The rules are to follow SWAGGA on Twitter, then you tweet about the photo and video that you took with Onimaru, and, Please remember to #HappyOniversary and then you submit a tweet link into your work from the Google Form. And for this will have a voting session that is from October 31st to November 6th. So this will be processed take place on SWAGGA DAO and under this will have prizes for everyone. The community’s choice prizes, the top 3 will win each of $100, $50 and $30 of BUSD and the top 5 will win a voucher. So all these actually there’s another surprise for everyone that all devoted worked that will win a presale whitelist spot for the next new NFT collection and also additionally of 2000 NEG.
There is also some stuff in social media. That is one that we just mentioned about Twitter or on Instagram. You can do the #HappyOniversary and then also mention @SWAGGA_Meta. You can send a message if you know this core as well. Those are things that you can do for our Oniversary. And back to you, Yucee.
Yucee: Yeah, so happy Oniversary! I’m gonna continue with the apartment because we actually have a very big news that we will start apartment beta testing tomorrow. Because we actually would spend a few months developing our metaverse, and it is time that we are able to show all the users something that will be in the metaverse as an iconic building, where you can actually customize your own avatar using the dress-up system, and also you can decorate your room by placing furniture in your bag and also network and interact with fellows. And also you can invite your friends over to hang out in the future.
We will start the first round of beta testing from October 27th, which is tomorrow, 12 PM UTC time. So it’s going to be a 4-day testing and one hour for each day because we have 4 different rooms — Deluxe, Premium, Luxury and Backstage.
Also I want to make sure as many people as possible actually participate in this testing. Some people might have this and that, and sometimes be occupied on certain days, but this 4-day testing is possible for everyone who is interested in joining.
This round we mainly focus on trying out the gestures, the moves, for example, you can walk and run, you can jump and try out all the moves. And contacts, you can say hi, good morning Gm & GN and also use emotes. Everyone is welcome to participate in this testing. Just check it out and it’s going to be cool. If you go there and you actually find some major bugs, you might get some kind of rewards from us as well.
Because a few people might not fully understand the utilitys of Onimaru, and also I see we actually have a lot of new friends here. I think it’s really important to restate the use and utilitys of Onimaru. And for all the Onimaru holders, you can actually start to stake your Onimaru once you open your mystery box. You just go to our official website and look for this taking page and simply just put your Onimaru in the capsule, and wait for the new NFTs to be generated. Each Onimaru got different hash power, so the logic behind is the rarer your Onimaru is, or the more Onimaru you stake, the higher hash power you get, and then the faster you can stake out another in NFT.
The outputs could be another for example, another mystery box, but everything already sold out right now, so there are no Onimaru mystery boxes left. But most likely you will get wearable NFTs, for example, clothing, accessories, sneakers, maybe chokers, classes and also. Those NFTs can be used to actually customize your avatars. And also you can get for example, items NFTs, for example, furniture, and home appliances, and you can use to decorate your room, your apartment or in the future, if you have a land. And of course, you can trade them if you don’t want them.
To be noted, only Onimarus are allowed for staking so this is also kind of like a privilege for Onimaru supporters. You can start earning revenues once you get yourself Onimaru, and we also empowered Onimaru with various rights. For example, you have community governance with DAO voting rights and then you can actually get to decide a few critical events, or some future plans for us. And also you have access to Land pre-sale if you have R and above, and even get airdrop of land if you hold SR and above. and also the co-branding Onimarus would have a few other rights as well. For example, particularly our TGC collection holders have entitled the access to apartments. So if you hold one TGC co-branded Onimaru, then you can swap the Onimaru into a Backstage apartment room. It means that if you own one Runway collection Onimaru, and you actually own an apartment room, and also maybe you get airdrop of Land fragments if you have R and above. So there are few other fashion-related rights, like VIP tickets for the in-metaverse special events will be provided as well. So there is actually a lot of things that you can get from the Onimaru if you purchase one.
So the good thing about it is you can start speaking at the time you get one Onimaru, and to actually generate revenues. Speaking of getting a Onimaru, I have one question for Graham. So what’s your experience of getting your first Onimaru? Can you share your experience with us?
Graham: Ok so and it must have been around a year ago, where I was on Binance and I was looking for a decent GameFi platform to invest and that’s when I came across the finance bad kids. I bought my first one, and the feeling I had when I unboxed it was amazing as it was an lippy FP. I’ve got on at the moment, it was actually an Indigo Kid. And at the same time, I was also collecting and toys for one of my daughters and reminded me of those, and so for me it was kind of like a happy accident where everything felt really good. And I was buzzing after buying the first one, and then when I realized there was a whole collection. And that got me really going so I just kept buying and investing in them and but yeah, so my very first one was an Indigo Kid.
Yucee: Cool, so how many do you have right now?
Graham: Yeah, I currently have 200. And they’re all staked and farming away and they are really nice NFTs. The other day for example, with my vouchers and I got some SSR gas clouds, which was the final set for the 3 SSR shoes and so I was really, really happy when I got those ones. Can’t wait to get them on in the metaverse!
Yucee: Yeah, so you must be very excited about the apartment testing, and you actually own a Runway collection right? You have one?
Graham: Yeah, I’ve got a few of those.
Yucee: Those, yeah, then you can start placing everything, the item NFTs and also the wearable NFTs later on when the apartments actually open. And also I wanna ask you and Mickey, we have come up with something really exciting which is the AR experience, so we just scan a QR code and then use your smartphone and have a physical, but not really physical AR Onimaru. Then you can actually display it in your real life. That’s kinda cool and then right now, we actually received a few pictures right now with the Onimaru besides the Lamborghini, the Onimaru or 3 Onimarus in one street, so I’m just wondering what your thoughts on AR hardware, for example, the headsets and also the AR VR devices?
Mickey: Oh, so I guess I can go first. So for the AR VR devices. I think right now they are. I mean, compared to before they are a lot lighter, and are a lot easier to just kind carrying around and to have them to actually enjoy the VR experiences. For us, definitely for SWAGGA, I think most people who have seen the products and have seen Onimaru, and our metaverse overall is going to be a very high-quality metaverse. And then our NFT is totally 3D high-quality collectible NFT. In terms of that, I think definitely it’s we want to bring everything closer to the real world.
For the AR and VR right now, we’re doing the AR for Oniversary, and that would be something for a first step into AR. And then for the virtual reality part, I think this is something that we would like to try. But first we want to focus on developing our metaverse to make it a better place for us, then we will work on the VR. So for the devices, I think it will be much lighter and much better in the future. So I think by I think we will get there by then. And that’s my thoughts. What about you Graham?
Graham: Yeah, I’m myself looking forward to the VR. I’ve seen in other projects adopted AR thing and they seem to be doing really, really well. And with the AR, it seems very likely to get, I should say it would rely on system, and but it’s easy for games for example, Pokémon Go. I think AR is fantastic for that sort of thing, but it’s the VR thing that I’m I’m really looking forward to in the future.
Yucee: Sure. Because I can see right now the VR technology is less mature than AR technologies because AR actually has been kind of massively used in the real estate industry, for example, for house rentals, and also in tourism industries, and a lot of companies are actually using them already. So how close are we to mass adoption of AR and VR devices? What are your thoughts?
Graham: And I would say certainly within the next sort of 5 years, we will have an enormous leap to VR, and within 10 years, tt should probably be quite a common experience for most people, whether that’s just buying food online or playing games or meeting people and socializing. I think that’s essentially where we’re going to end up.
Yucee: Yes, because this is also like our first tryout tiptoeing integration of AR experience or applications. I think let’s see the technology in 5 years from now, it might be really primitive nowadays, but I expect a lot, that the time AR experience and VR experience is fully integrated into metaverse. I can’t imagine how cool and fun that could be.
Thank you for this little discussion, it’s really interesting. And also I want to officially announce the launch of our new Onimaru collection because we’re going to release a New Onimaru collection on November 11th. So this collection is co-branded with NYLON JAPAN, a Japanese pop culture and fashion magazine. It is an extension of the American magazine NYLON. Is one of the best magazines in Japan and also it includes art, music, beauty, design, celebrities and also travel and technologies. And our collaboration collection is named the Trendsetter Collection, which means ready to set the trend for fashion enthusiasts.
We’ll launch a total of 500 collaborated Onimaru NFTs, so there will be a total of 500, very limited. 480 on SWAGGA official website, and 20 on the Gate NFT launchpad. So this time, we collaborated with Gate as well, and 20 will be on the Gate NFT launchpad.
The public sale price is 150 BUSD and it goes from November 11th to 12th at 12 PM UTC time, and we’re going to have a limited pre-sale time, which is one day before the public sale and this is something really different. Because before we actually didn’t have any kind of limited pre-sale time or a whitelist spot. But this time, we’re going to have whitelist spots for limited pre-sale, and it’s going to be from November 10th to 11th, 12 PM UTC time. The pre-sale price is 125 BUSD, which is 25 BUSD off from the public sale price.
Listen really carefully now. I’m going to tell you how to get the whitelist spots and save you 25 BUSD. First of all, if you are Onimaru holders, you automatically get whitelist spots, so you don’t have to worry about anything, just get whitelisted. And second, lucky winners chosen through participating in Twitter and Oniversary tasks will be given whitelist spots. So do remember to join our Discord, in order to participate in our Oniversary tasks. I think it’s now in the middle of the event tasks, it’s going to finish next week. So, if you wanna join right now or you wanna join after the AMA, that’s fine. But remember to join and also participate in Twitter Oniversary tasks. Lucky winners will be chosen for whitelist spots.
But if you think actually you’re not really lucky enough or you don’t have any Onimaru in hand, it’s OK. Here’s a way that for sure you’ll be granted a whitelist spot. If you go to the NFT shop in the navigation bar on our official website, and look for the purchase page of NYLON JAPAN collaborated Trendsetter Collection. You can see an invite link, if you share the link and successfully create 2 valid connections, which means that 2 wallet addresses are connected to our website through your link, then you will get whitelisted for sure for the pre-sale and have a discount of 25 BUSD. Once again, it’s going to be 125 USD for pre-sale and the pre-sale time is November 10th to 11th, 12 PM UTC. The public sale is going to be one day after pre-sale, it is going to be from November 11 to 12 and 12 PM UTC. The reveal time is one week after sold out.
So this collection has 5 different rarity levels. Normal, Rare, Super Rare, Superior Super Rare, & Ultra Rare. Except for speaking, Onimaru Trendsetter Collection holders will get additional wearable NFT airdrops which is from their owned Onimaru NFT. So there are glasses, hoodies, pants, cameras and also the helmets. You will receive the airdrop of one of these wearable NFTs depending on which Onimaru you actually revealed. So they can be used to dress up your avatars anytime if you enter the SWAGGA metaverse. I think I’ve made myself very clear, and then if you have any questions, let us know. Ok, so I think that’s it for NYLON JAPAN Collection, it’s really big news next month. And I’m going to invite Mickey to share with you some of our recent updates.
Mickey: Yeah, sure so there are some updates that I have here that would like to share with you.
One is last month in September with the join a hackathon, which is a Tokyo Web 3 Hackathon, on September 28th. There are 36 projects competing and then we actually made it to top 18. This time after top 18 they have announced that we will be there in the screening of trying to figure out who will be top 9, so we don’t know if we’ll make it enough, but I hope so, because I think we did pretty good. We’re actually got invited to the Tokyo Web3 Sakura Summit next year in March, so this is something that we’re looking forward to. That is something that I think also actually made the good milestone for us to join one of the Hackathon. It was a really great experience for me and I think it’s a good experience for SWAGGA as well.
Another thing that I would like to talk about is Japan. We SWAGGA have been leading another collection. Other than NYLON JAPAN we have several collection going on. Our design team in our tech team are very, very busy, the schedule is all the way down till next year already.
Another collection that we’re working on right now is called Japan Dream Collection. The reason why it is called Japan Dream Collection is that we’re working with 12 different Japan NFT IPs and 12 different projects in Japan, so all these cool projects are working with us right now. For us, SWAGGA, as a fashion entertainment metaverse, we’re making all the Onimarus. We’re making all 12 different IPs’ Onimarus into a collection so this will also be out somewhere early next year. So we’re working on those, and then this is something I think is very exciting because of those projects, I’m just going to run down the names. The first one, is Love Addicted Girls, number 2 is ASAGI, 3 is Neo Samurai Monkeys, and TheMafiaAnimals, KawaiiGirlNFT, NEO TOKYO PUNKS, Flower Lolita, and there’s a very unique one VeryLongAnimals is also one of very interesting NFTs, we have SPACE CROCOS, おっさんパラダイス, which means old uncle’s paradise and another one is called NEO STACKEY, so these are the 12 IPS are working with right now. We’re leading the project and I’m looking forward to it, and I hope everybody’s looking forward to it.
Yucee: Thank you Mickey. I think that’s it for our updates and all the announcements. So I would like to actually ask both of you, what do you reckon is the future of metaverse? What do you think of the future of metaverse?
Mickey: Ok, I’ll go first. You know I’m working on a metaverse as a CMO, I think the metaverse is really bringing out the world where I think the timing is overall with covid hit, and pandemic, everyone is kind of having all this lockdown. No one can travel anywhere, and then there he comes that you know remote working. And also like you know school stop you have been online. Graham, you mentioned you have a daughter so maybe your daughter was studying at home. So all this becomes kind of like, where do you go? What kind of world would it be? This is where metaverse really hits, and really fits in. When people just like if we cannot go out or wanna see a more different world, how are we gonna see it? We tend to stay in front of PC a little bit more. We maybe stay in front of our phones little bit more. But also we need to have interaction. We want to socialize. So metaverse is a place where you can actually socialize, you have a place where you can have to enjoy entertainment and a place where you can share your hobbies. But also with the metaverse with NFTs, this is where you have the NFTs that have actual values. When it comes to phygital, they also have the actual value in the physical items. So those are a lot of things really combined in the metaverse. I don’t think there is a thing, like the metaverse is better or the real world is better. Metaverse is becoming part of our life, and is something that we can embrace to make our lifestyle, because you can enjoy more different things and then see the world differently.
For our metaverse, we have a lot of different functions other than the game in the future. I think some people already know we do have our roadmap. We have a bigger game coming in and also you can do shopping online, we do have the NFTs to wear. For phygital, if you purchase, for example, some of our ideas that I cannot say it’s confirmed but some of the ideas kind of for example, such as that if you go with the e-commerce, it is like if you go to a metaverse, you go shopping in your avatar. You purchase something, as a wearable NFT, but with this NFT, you can exchange or you can possibly get the same item in the store and will be shipped to your home. This is something we call immersive e-commerce. This is something that people enjoy, because there is not a lot of friction there, it would be easy for you to see. It’s not imagination, but I think it will give you more space to expand what you like to do. And that’s my thoughts. So what about you Graham?
Graham: Yeah, I agree exactly with what you’re saying there. I think sort of like e-commerce will be a big hit when metaverse is fully functioning, and the purchasing of goods, socializing and meeting up with people and friends, and it could also be adapted into the workplace or workplace meetings, instead of having zoom calls for example, and you would all meet up in a metaverse function room.
And going a little bit further you could probably do some sort of dating sort of things. So we’ve got these dating websites, which are quite popular and again that could move into the metaverse to make things a little more interesting. So I was saying to Yucee the other day that when you look at movies like Ready Player One, and obviously the buying and owning an NFT, in that case, would be what you wear, what you look like and how you will go about. And I think you’re exactly right when you say that it’s where we’re heading, but I think the commercial use eventually is where we are going to go with metaverse.
Mickey: Yeah, I definitely agree with that and then you mentioned something about dating, I think that’s definitely something that would be interesting in our metaverse because we did have some ideas about that, too.
Yeah, it can be something exciting. I think because also in the metaverse, what we’re trying to do is not only about like, we can shop here, you can do things here. Also, you mentioned remote working, like metaverse working. And then also their part where you can do something, for example, a lot of different clubs for people with the same hobbies. It’s not only where you do online chat anymore. This is something you actually have people walking around. You have a wearable NFT count as membership cards, so you can actually walk into the club room for whatever hobby that you have, and then you enjoy. It is something that really connects the world. It actually makes the world smaller because sometimes you don’t really have to travel to meet everyone. I mean I prefer to meet in person because I feel more connected that way, but I also like it in the metaverse, you still have that connection. I really think you know like the world of the metaverse is really blending into our world now, and then this is something that everything comes naturally to become like, everything’s gonna be all immersive e-commerce.
Of course, the metaverse’s becoming part of our life, but right now, it’s still new, it is still fairly early. But I’m sure this is something definitely coming into our world, into the industry.
Yucee: Yes, there is definitely something really cool in the metaverse, and also I think there is one point that is really good when Graham mentioned Ready Player One, the film. I think a lot of you watched it before. I think that’s kind of like my imaginary metaverse in the future, because it feels like you can meet someone in person, you can actually feel it if you shake hands, touch their faces and get hit or if you drive a car. That’s so cool about it, so that’s why we wanna also integrate AR & VR technology and everything, because it makes you feel like you feel that you are in the Internet atmosphere, but also you actually feel whatever you can feel in the physical world. That’s super super cool and I think that’s my perfect imaginary future metaverse.
For SWAGGA, my team members, a lot of them are saying that our ambition is not to simply develop a metaverse platform as everyone else does, but a metaverse ecosystem to benefit users, the industry, and the world. Users no longer to be shackled to your gender, race, or nationality, you can just connect with anyone you want and also you can express yourself. Just live another life. you can be a totally different person in the metaverse and you can be totally different to the other “You” in the physical world, so that’s pretty cool.
And also want to ask you because it has been a very long time, especially this year as it's been a long time since the bear markets, and then, everyone is kind of like not in the mood and really down. Not only the crypto industry, but also the NFT industry got some kind of affected as well. So, do you have any recommendations or suggestions for the newbies, for the new friends, who just got into the crypto or NFT industry? What do you suggest they to do right now?
Mickey: Sure, I have been industry for about 5 years now and then I have seen the up and down several times already. Bear market is definitely not fun, and a lot of people will be in a bad mood. You might lose some friends but also I think a bear market is kind of the time for you to focus on your work. It is a time for you to focus on what you really want to do. For example, for us as a project, because of the bear market, it’s not like, oh the market is bad, and we just don’t want to do anything. It’s more of, oh the market’s bad, but right now, we are focusing on developing, and that is something we’re going to focus on.
As an individual, I think coming in the crypto world when you actually come in as in a bear market, it’s when you buy something today and then the next day the price is dropping, and that’s when you just cannot leave, you would keep looking into your wallet and they check the price and everything. That is something please do not do, because you would just lose your sleep time, it’s gonna be hard. Crypto never sleeps, it’s 24-hour. It’s not even a full-time job, it is 3 times a full-time job when you actually look into Crypto.
But what I would say is, it’s important to not only enjoy the metaverse and NFTs, but also enjoy your actual physical life. I do like to focus on my work when I do remote work, and I like to do some workout, or something leaving your phone like for 4 hours, just staying away from PC’s for some time is also something really good for your brain, your body and your mind as well.
I think for the newbies. Don’t worry too much about the price, but there are a lot of scams out there. When I actually joined the industry, I thought it was probably 90% of scams, that’s how I see it. And then but when the bear market comes, one good thing of bear market is a lot of scam will disappear because there’s no money here, so it is kind of a cleanup time, and where all the good projects with legit people are staying and keep on developing, building the good things. So it is a good time to focus on yourself. It is a good time to focus on your work, but also don’t focus too much on the price and the up and downs, unless you’re trading just to make profits.
But if you’re just interested in blockchain technology, if you’re interested in looking more into crypto, always remember, do your own research, don’t just believe whatever people said and just invest it in, because it’s never financial advice. So we should remember that always do your own research. Never show people your private key, that’s a very important part so those are just the simple stuff.
Graham: SWAGGA kind of started towards the end of the bull cycle, just as we were entering the bear market. And I was looking for somewhere safe to hold value, and with the money that I had or the crypto I had, so I exchanged it and that’s why I bought so many, ’cause I knew this was a safe project. And I’m in it for the long term so I’m not looking for quick profits. That is entirely why I essentially aped into SWAGGA.
For the new guys looking to get into, certainly, the Tokyo Girls Collection (Runway Collection) would be somewhere, I would start if you’re getting on, an apartment with that. And I have noticed the prices of those NFTs are really decent at the moment on the secondary markets. And so that would be potentially how I would go forward with SWAGGA at the moment.
Yucee: Yes, thank you. You are such a supporter! And also because I think all the people in the crypto industry or in web3 industry. You can actually receive a lot of advice like doing your own research and then also there’s no financial advice. I want to say that first of all in bear markets my suggestion is to be patient. You cannot rush. You cannot rush because of the market itself. Whatever you do, you cannot change its up and down. So you have to be really patient and wait for it, even though right now is the bear market. It has happened before, especially in 2017, so always be patient.
If you actually have a true belief in something, then you just need to be patient because you believe that is going to go up. It’s going to be up later, but when is that? We don’t know. But it’s going to be up right. Then also never spent more than what you can afford to lose, because you don’t want to end up under a motorway bridge with a family of cats around you. So always do not borrow or not lend anything in order to just invest in something that you have no idea about, especially in a bear market.
You know survive is the first thing to do, survival in this market is very essential. Because people are getting really sceptical right now and thinking projects might be rug pulls and it’s true. As Mickey just said, there are a lot of scams. So just remember that, you have to survive first in order to to be up later on.
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