The Doge Pound & How It Stands Out in a Sea of NFTS

The world of NFTs can be overwhelming, to say the least: Millions of novel art pieces being generated, bought, and sold. Entire NFT drops exploding in value or crashing into the red.

In this space, if it’s potential growth that you’re seeking, it’s important to find stable projects that offer long term benefits. Of course, even then, nothing is guaranteed and it’s always best to opt for projects that you truly love.

If it’s entertainment and ownership you want, it’s important to find visually unique projects that cultivate a fun community. If you want both, look no further than the The Doge Pound (or Dogepound – as many say).

10,000 uniquely crafted art pieces centered around the internet’s precious Shiba Inu, this NFT drop is promising a lot of fun perks and interesting use cases for buyers.

According to their whitepaper, the creators feel that releasing unique art is just the baseline. To add more value to the project, they’re assigning each Shiba with a gender and the ability to “breed” to make Puppies.

On top of that, they’re developing a game around the “feeding” feature (we’ll cover both of these more in depth later). These, on top of exclusive perks for being a part of the “pack” add up to some real staying power.

The Story & Lore

Before we delve into the specifics, let’s hop into the lore of this project. In the alternate reality of the Dogepound, a vicious war has broken out between humans and a super intelligent race of Shiba Inus.

In the post apocalyptic ruins of this great clash, a ragtag group of Doges and Doggos survived to start an eclectic, cyberpunk community on the surface of the moon. This has given birth to all the complex designs we see in the art pieces.

Where to Buy Dogepound & Other Important Information

From punk-rock hair to diamond gloves (considered one of the rarer features), the look of the doges varies based on 8 categories: clothing, earrings, background, hats, fur, mouth, eyewear, and eyes.

Credit goes to the artist Crypto Babe for bringing so many crypto-culture elements (Dogecoin, to the moon, Elon, techno/cyber punk) into a cohesive visual package.

Next, let’s cover the technical side of the Dogepound. It’s set on the Ethereum Blockchain, using EIP-721 contracts.

This system makes it incredibly difficult to counterfeit and ensures that all the unique details of each asset are preserved.

The Doge Pound is also sold on OpenSea, so buying a piece is as easy as connecting a MetaMask wallet to the marketplace and claiming yours.

Perks

Beyond this, the Dogepound is planning on dropping a 3D model of each of the OG Doges, complete with personalized music from Steve Aoki and Trey Songz (who’ve hinted that owning a Doge may grant you exclusive entry into their concerts someday).

The current model shows a pretty cool revolving Doge with cel shading, but the team says they’re working on more ways to engage with and showcase your 3D model, including custom Dogepound apparel to wear in the Metaverse.

Another perk for buying in with an OG Doge is your ability to mint it into a Puppy. Think of it like a Russian nesting doll.

You start with your fully grown Doge and you can generate a little Pupper (their words not mine), who inherits the traits of its fully grown counterpart.

The only cost of minting your own little pup is the gas fee, which as of now, is usually around $90. Some of these Puppies however, have been selling at the equivalent of $700 in ETH.

A beautiful buy-in prize for the original adopters of the project. Once an original Doge piece is minted into a first generation puppy, it can never make another in that same process. 10,000 OG Doges with 10,000 OG Puppers.

You can, however, use the “Breeding” function to combine a Doge (male) and a Doggo (female) into a Puppy hybrid with randomized traits from each of the parents.

These Puppies are considered 2nd, 3rd, and so on generations, not to be confused with the original 10,000 OG Pups. There are limits to how often you can breed these hybrid Puppers, and certain OG Doges and Doggos become sought-after for the traits they can pass down.

Your Doge has a golden jaw? Consider that a golden ticket to keep earning long past your initial buy-in. People are going to be clamoring to have that trait passed down to their pups.

Creator, John Lemon, says the Puppies with the slimes on their heads are his favorite.

On top of this, the creators of the Dogepound are building an augmented reality game based around your Puppers. The first week of minting a new little guy, you’re tasked with feeding it, walking it, and supporting its favorite hobby. To find food, you’ll have to explore in the real world (think Neopets meets Pokemon Go).

There are things you can do to increase the likelihood that your puppy inherits valuable traits, like playing with it, walking it often, and feeding it food that’s specific to its favorite hobby (much like people, a pup interested in sports munches on different food than a little scientist pup).

After the week is up, you can see what you’ve earned in rare Puppy traits and/or Dogepound’s native token, called PND (details of which will drop in the future).

Strong Community

The Dogepound community is already thriving with over 50,000 Discord members and 100,000 Twitter followers, both growing very fast.

There are some cool community perks for being a part of the “pack”, like a Call of Duty tournament where you play with pros and celebrities who’ve bought into the community, competing for a prize pool of cash and exclusive NFTs.

Or the recent “Pimp Our Doge” contest where people submitted their own personalized Doges for people to rate, competing for similar prizes.

Wojak McDonalds Doge may take the cake here.

Outside of community events, which the founder John Lemon says he wants to do more often, the actual Dogepound community itself is supportive and refreshing.

They’ve done well in cultivating a fun loving atmosphere, similar to dogecoin communities where goofiness and comedy prevail.

There’s the Dogepound Flipped, a spoof site where an internet wise-cracker jokingly sells versions of each Doge flipped around to face the other direction (true genius) and the endless Doge/celebrity mashups (seen below).

Subcultures often are a reflection of the art that they grow around, and the people who are a part of this subculture definitely show the funnest side of the NFT space.

Early Traction

Before we close out, it’s worth showing the absolute gains the Dogepound has been experiencing in terms of value, analytics, and attention. As of now (November 3, 2021), the floor price is 2.63 ETH or ~$12,000 with a market cap of $45 million.

This has been steadily rising with each new feature being announced and rolled out (the floor price rose dramatically before the launch of the Puppies). Many aspects of this project are still in the works and most people investing still consider it early days for the Dogepound.

It is the 3rd largest ETH PFP (at least on Twitter) trailing behind Bored Ape and Mekaverse and notable figures in the NFT space appear to be buzzing about the project.

OpenSea graph showing Dogepound’s growth since its inception.

The Dogepound team has continually said that they don’t want to quickly add surface level features for the sake of it, but thoughtfully build out features that add real value.

If Dogepound keeps to this principle and holds true to its white paper, it will no doubt continue to develop as a serious contender in the NFT space.

The emphasis on longevity, exclusivity, and perks for people who own these unique pieces make it a sound investment and a fun movement to be a part of.

It’s certainly worth keeping your eyes on the Dogepound; you never know, you just might follow it all the way to the Moon! As with any product, it’s important to do your own research to find out if it’s right for you, as the outcome is unknown.