The Unknown Secrets Of Pak's "Merge" (And How To Take Advantage Of Them) [1/2]
“Merge” was sold for $91.8M making it the most expensive artwork sold by a living artist. However, most people don’t know that “Merge” is much more than other NFT projects. It's a Game Of Extinction..
Yes. “Merge” is actually a game, which means that the ones who understand how to play it will increase their chances to win. In fact, I’ll reveal the strategy that I’m personally gonna use to maximize my chances of winning, and explain why you should use it too.
But just like any game, before we start to play - we must understand the moving pieces.
What the **** is Merge?
“The most expensive artwork sold by a living artist.”
Merge is a piece of digital artwork that utilizes NFT technology.
Like most NFT projects, Merge has a visual component. However, unlike many other projects, the visuals and properties of the NFT are constantly changing.
Every Merge NFT (token) has a mass property that can change. The NFT will visually become bigger as you acquire more mass.
How?
The only way to acquire more mass is to buy another merge token and let them merge… The new mass will be the sum of the 2 tokens’ mass…
Merge(100) + Merge(20) = Merge(120)The bigger NFT will absorb the smaller NFT’s mass (and the smaller NFT will “die”).
This means that the supply is constantly decreasing.
If you know basic economics - you know what happens when supply goes down… ;)
So…
How do the NFTs merge?
The Merge Contract
If you want to understand Pak - you must first understand what’s an NFT contract.
This topic might seem a bit scary and complicated, but I’ll do my best to make it as simple as I can for anyone to understand.
An NFT contract is simply a piece of code that cannot be changed and lives on a blockchain. The contract controls the NFTs’ ownership, properties (visuals, title, etc.), and much more.
Basically, the contract is everything.
Think of an NFT contract like the Rules of a Game and the NFTs (tokens) like the Pieces of the Game (pawns, discs, etc.).
The game’s pieces must behave according to the game’s rules.
But unlike traditional rules, the contract’s rules are automatically executed and enforced on the blockchain.
For example, the Merge contract won’t allow anyone to hold more than a single Merge NFT in their wallet. The contract is designed to automatically merge the tokens that are in the same wallet into a single NFT with the combined Mass of the 2 tokens.
This is only one example of what smart contracts are capable of. The options are endless and are only limited by your imagination…
And this is why Pak considers the NFT contract itself as the actual artwork and not the NFT token itself.
A Shared Artwork
Most NFT projects (e.g. CryptoPunks, BAYC, etc.) are in a way similar to Pokémon Cards. Every Pokémon is unique and has different attributes, but the only thing that ties them all together is the fact that they’re all a part of the Pokémon collection.
Merge is different.
Think of Merge as a huge bubble gum that exploded into many small pieces. All the small pieces are a part of the huge gum, however, they can now be owned by many people.
To put it simply: Merge is not a collection of many different artworks. It’s a single artwork shared by many collectors.
Just like gum, if you’ll connect two Merge tokens together, you’ll get a bigger merge. However, you will never be able to split them apart ever again.
So theoretically, all the small pieces can eventually merge and become the original “huge gum” once again.
The most expensive artwork by a living artist
“A single book can be many pages.
A single mosaic can be many pebbles.
So a single digital artwork can be many tokens” (Murat Pak).
Some critics say that Pak’s Merge $91.8M sale should not count as a single artwork, making it ineligible for the crown. On the other hand, Pak treats the entire contract as the artwork. So… who’s right?
Well… I don’t think anyone will be able to answer that question, nor do I think it really matters. I’ll leave you with the following questions as a brain teaser and let you decide:
Is art all about visuals or can it be abstract? Either way isn’t the contract’s code visual?
Can the contract itself be considered a piece of art? If so, isn’t Merge a single creation “shared” among many collectors?
Merge tokens are merging (more details below), theoretically, we can end up with a single Merge NFT. Will we look back in retrospect and consider it a single artwork?
Does Pak have a point?
Merge: The Drop that broke all records
Here are a few statistics that will help you understand how remarkable Merge’s initial sale was:
$91,806,519 in 48 hours for a total of 312,729 mass.
~$51M within the first 30 minutes.
28,983 collectors bought an NFT (last mint transaction).
And this is what NiftyGatway tweeted a few hours after the sale had started:
No doubt that these numbers are impressive.
Very impressive.
But for me, the most impressive thing is that 28,983 NiftyGateway Users participated in Merge’s drop.
This number is unheard of in the NFT space, and no other artist ever came close to it.
Many of you may think that Merge has peaked…
The funny thing is: it literally hasn’t even started.
A Game Of Extinction
“More than a plain Circle with different colors… A lot more!”
Merge is more than a static artwork, it’s actually a game.
Pak himself (or herself?) describes Merge as a Game of Extinction. By leveraging NFT technology, Pak is constantly pushing the limits of what we think of as art.
So what is Merge? it’s an artwork… but it’s also a game…
But before we focus on how to "play" Merge, we'll first need to understand the properties of the NFT.
So, let’s take another deep dive.
Merge: The Visuals
“What you see isn’t what you get…”
The NFT’s visuals are intentionally oversimplified and represented through a 2D circle surrounded by a rectangular background.
The background & circle might have different colors, and the circle’s size changes according to the token’s Mass.
For example, below you can see some of Merge’s NFTs, including the “normal“ ($300) and the “rarest“ (>$250,000) - can you guess which one is which?
Your NFT will have different size and colors according to both the amount of mass you own and your position in Merge’s leaderboard at the time of the public sale (the more mass a Merge NFT had at mint the higher it ranked).
The leaderboard colors are as follows:
An exception to that is “The Alpha” which is dynamically changing according to the leaderboard.
For example, let’s say you own a Merge token and you just bought another one. After they have merged, your rank has changed to #1 according to the leaderboard. Your circle’s color will now change to Black - “The Alpha“.
But it isn’t permanent.
For instance, if another collector performs a merge and his NFT’s mass becomes larger than yours, he will overtake your position as The Alpha. According to that, your circle’s color will change back to “normal“, and his circle will now become black.
The only tokens that aren’t related to Merge’s leaderboard are the “Blue tokens”:
The “Blue tokens” were randomly distributed at the beginning of the game to 50 collectors.
Other than that, the logic is simple.
The more mass you have the bigger the circle is (regardless of the color).
Merge has a lot more utility than meets the eye.
Some of the contract’s utility is known while some still remains a mystery until Pak (or the contract) decides to reveal it…
Fun Fact:
Did you know that 24 “Blue tokens” were murdered by other collectors?
Merging Mechanism
Yes, merge also allows you to kill someone else’s NFT.
This is done through the merging mechanism.
What’s the merging mechanism?
Well, Merge isn’t a “normal” NFT contract. Unlike other NFTs, you can’t hold more than a single token in your wallet.
The contract is designed to merge the tokens that are owned by the same wallet into a single Merge Token with the combined Mass of the 2 tokens.
How do you kill a token?
When merging, the token with the bigger mass survives.
So if you’ll send a bigger token to another’s wallet you’ll “kill“ the smaller token.
But why would you send someone else an NFT?
Imagine that you’re the owner of a “blue token” of which there are only 50.
Another “blue token” owner can send a bigger white token (i.e. cheaper) to your wallet and murder your precious “blue token”.
Now, their blue token is rarer as there are only 49 left.
But what happens when the tokens have the same mass?
That’s easy…
The token that was originally in your wallet will survive.
The Contract & NFT
This part is a little “dry“, but it’s important to understand it if you want to “win“ the game.
Merge token has 5 properties that are computed at runtime.
Mass – the amount of prescribed mass, or hypothetical weight, of each token (updated on merge).
Merges – how many times this token has “absorbed” another Merge (i.e. merged).
Class - a constant number 0-99 that’s derived from the last 2 digits of the token’s id (id<1032> → 32, id<874> → 74, id<9> → 9, etc.).
Alpha – a dynamic number 0 or 1. If the number is 1, congrats, you are “The Alpha” and you own the collection’s largest mass. Else, your number is 0.
Tier – number 1-4 that determines the circle’s color (except “The Alpha” which is always Black):
You’re White.
You’re Yellow.
You’re Blue.
You’re Red.
Fun Fact: Merge isn’t a “JPG“.
That’s right, you can’t “save as“ the image - try it yourself (Merge on OpenSea)
Merge token is completely on-chain, which means that the token’s metadata (token’s picture/video, properties, etc.) are stored on the blockchain and not in an external file storage such as IPFS (on-chain NFTs explained).
Specifically, Merge attributes & “JPGs” are computed and represented in SVG format (Scalable Vector Graphics), which is an XML-based language for describing 2D graphics.
Below you can see how Merge’s “Alpha“ (collection’s largest mass) is generated.
Now you can understand why the “JPG“ doesn’t need to be stored on IPFS - it’s just 3 lines of SVG and can be easily be stored on the blockchain itself (try it yourself).
Turn your Mass into a Rare NFT
To understand Merge utility, you’ll need to know the following:
Pak created a fair launched token $ASH and it’s actively traded on different exchanges.
Some of Pak’s creations can be “burned” and turned into $ASH tokens through
burn.art website.
If you burn a “burnable” NFT you’ll currently get 640ASH (~$13,000). Basically, ASH creates liquidity in an illiquid market (you don’t need a buyer). Moreover, it helps maintain supply and demand balance. Every time an NFT is “burned“ the supply decreases.
After that, understanding the utility is simple…
What?
With Merge tokens, you will be able to claim NFTs that can be burned in exchange for ASH ($13,000), but only if your token fulfills a certain criteria (e.g. amount of mass, belongs to a specific class etc.).
Where?
Mass.black is an NFT Marketplace created by Pak. There, you will be able to claim “burnable NFTs” with your Merge token.
When?
mass.black Marketplace will be activated on Q1 or early Q2 of 2022 (April 2022).
If you’ve found this blog post useful and want to learn more about Merge and Pak’s work in general - follow me on Twitter @tweezers0xfff.
Next… Part 2! How to win the game.
Merge is a game of extinction, but can YOU “win” the game? I don’t know…
Can you increase your chances? Most definitely….
Now that you know the basics of Merge we can explore the hidden parts of the Game.
Let’s dive into the blockchain…
If you want to get early access to Part 2 so you can use these strategies before everyone else:
Send me a DM and Retweet the tweet below 👇
Great. Very curious about the second part of your excellent article.
Great work. I/m sitting on an M(18) with 7 merges. How can we DM you?