Unique Robot Avatars: The highs and lows of the Vogu NFT Drop

The Vogu NFT Collection featuring 7,777 Unique Robot Avatars sold out quickly despite several technical difficulties. It was a total roller coaster ride for the community because of the gas wars, the issue with the smart contract and the Metamask glitch which delayed the Drop. 

The Vogu NFT Collection features 7,777 Unique Robot Avatars in the Vogu  Metaverse. Credits: Vogu

The NFTs have narrative significance to the project’s lore that’s why demand was very high. The lore introduces an expansive fictional universe that is the basis of future stories, characters and art. Simply put, the robot avatar is the ticket of NFT holders into the greater Vogu Metaverse. 

Vogu revealed that 50% of the proceeds would go to charity while 50% will go to the artist. 

Vogu NFT Drop’s Shaky Start 

The project did so well – in terms of lore and art – that it it attracted over 9000 members on its Discord channel before the launch. The NFT Drop was originally scheduled on July 26, 5 PM PDT. However, users experienced issues accessing the website and minting the tokens. 

One of the main selling point of the project is the level and quality of the art. Credit: OpenSea

The project quickly reassured the community and released a statement on Twitter. The tweet reads, “We apologize for the delay but we are still having issues with Metamask. We are postponing the drop until tomorrow, July 27th at 5 pm PDT.”

Explaining the cause of the issue, the project shared that, “​​When the server went live, many people were hitting Metamask from our website. It seems as though they thought we were trying to Denial of service attack their system. We are routing the requests through a middle server in order to send requests to Metamask.”

Vogu gave a quick update saying, “Just keep you all in the loop. We are making sure that our Metamask connection is 100% before we go live. Thanks for hanging in there with us.” Clearly, the team was trying to pacify the community.

Some community members quickly shrugged off this incident as part of the ebb and flow of coveted NFT Drops. However, there were also strong sentiments on the Twitter comment section. There was a buzz that the project didn’t do enough stress testing so the issue is not really with Metamask. Plus, they should have anticipated high volume given that the Discord channel has 9,000 members, a feat for new projects. 

NFT Action During the Auction 

The final auction ended with 900 new owners of the 7777 NFTs. Due to the demand, the gas wars ensued which peaked at +700$ just to buy one NFT. The NFT space hasn’t seen gas prices like that since DeFi Summer. The root cause of the imbalance is that the project allowed interested buyers to mint 17 NFTs per wallet. Some felt that having 9000 people on the Discord with a project count of 7777 is a telling sign to update the mechanics. 

Only 900 community members scored Vogu NFTs.               Credit: OpenSea

After selling all the NFTs, the project faced another ordeal. Some users reported that they were charged gas fees and did not receive the NFT Tokens. 

Vogu quicly investigated the issue. In a tweet, they admitted that “there was an issue with the contract which would allow it to continue to process transactions past the 7,777 limit. We stopped it manually at the end, however, some may have paid without receiving tokens.”

The team asked the affected users to fill out a form because they will review the cases individually. On July 28, the team said that the issue had been resolved. “Just wanted to let everyone know that we have sent out the ETH. Apologizes again for this.”

Where does the project stand?

The community is currently divided over the NFT Drop. There are only 900 NFT owners vs. the 9000 members in the community so a lot missed out on the drop. The other criticism is that the gas fees are so high so the NFT drop is built for the whales, not really the community. Furthermore, the gas fees really hurt those who wanted to support the project. 

Youtube Creator “kingmakerETH” chimed in the discussion since he supported the project from the very start. He said that he was disappointed because obviously, the project did so well in the lore and the art. However, the execution was poor.

On the other hand, the price of the NFTs continues to rise on the secondary market. The trading volume is already at 3000 ETH or $7 Million just 2 days after the Drop. Meanwhile, the price floor is pegged at 2 ETH or $4600. Despite the technical highs and lows, the interest of the community didn’t fan out. 

One avid supporter shared, “My 700 Gwei opener didn’t get the job done (yeesh the gas wars!), but got a total of 3 on secondary. Excited to see where this goes. BAYC + Vogu love.” In essence, the cost to buy in the secondary is triple the minting cost. Clearly, the technical problems didn’t affect the firepower of the project.

One of the things driving the interest is the Bored Ape Yach Club / Kennel Club for Vogu Trade. 2 days ago, on June 29, the project tweeted that they completed the first BAYC/BAKC for Vogu Trade. “Our first BAYC/BAKC for Vogu Trade!? This was a big one! Matching Ape/Dog pair for DIAMOND Hands!! Shout out to @swolfchan for facilitating the trade between @Malthorin and @tmouffe!”

Vogu’s first BAYC/BAKC for Vogu Trade.  Credit: Twitter (@the_vogu)

The excitement over the project is still at an all-time high because Vogu announced that a Sandbox Asset Airdrop is coming. “There is a Sandbox asset airdrop coming. We will be taking a wallet snapshot tomorrow morning for the airdrop! The snapshot is per wallet. No set time at this time.”

Partnerships between BAYC and The Sandbox will certainly boost the confidence of the community that from here on, things will be smooth sailing. Both BAYC and The Sandbox are NFT powerhouses and can bring along their engaged community and followers to the Vogu Metaverse. 

More about the Vogu Lore and role of the Robot Avatar NFTs

The year is 3648. It has been 300 years since humans migrated to the stars. Humans now live on Life-Sustaining Environmental Emulation Drives. SEEDs for short. So from the safety of one’s SEED, a person can experience life on earth through the robot avatars featured in the Vogu NFT Collection. Once patched in, users can fully control these bot surrogates and enjoy life on Earth.