The day is finally here! We know we said Christmas, but we couldn't wait any longer. You can now claim your NFTs if you were a supporter back when Axo was Maladex.
You might have recently noticed Mal hasn't been up to his usual mischief. That's because he's been very busy trading the bear market away and testing the Axo platform. The little maverick did quite well for himself in his exploits and has been traveling the world while he trades, as Axo offers institutional-grade tools without needing expensive servers or being bound to one location.
But who is Mal? Through diverse emotions and situations, Mal represents all of us. There is a trader in each of us, and we wanted the “Mal The Trader” collection to accentuate this point. The collection features a series of trading locations, desk arrangements, and outfits. The collection is filled with easter eggs related to Cardano and Axo – how many can you find?
If you're missing Mal while he's away trading his AXO, don't be sad, he's much closer than you think!
Mal is the embodiment of the community. He's playful, curious, and always ready for whatever happens. Mal is you and your friends when you share a meme, discuss a trading strategy, or want to create a better and more fair world of trading. He's all of us in all our unique ways.
In light of this, all the 42,000 NFTs are unique; each combination of traits can only occur once. As Mal The Trader is the embodiment of the community, each trait is special and almost as likely as each other (except for the easter eggs).
The utility is in the eye of the beholder. Axo doesn't offer any fancy farm boosts or such. Mal might be mischievous and daring, but he wants to trade in a fair way. However, profile pictures will be handy in the future when you want your trading account to LARP as Mal.
Why 42,000? 42 is a magical number to which we are yet to find a question. We must each give our own meaning to life and our trades. It is up to you, dear reader, to find out what 42 means to you.
In more ways than one, we're all Mal.
Within each NFT, there are two images. The first is a scene featuring Mal at his trading desk, and the second is the same Mal’s profile picture (PFP) without a background and ready for use on social media right away.
This is not just another NFT collection. It's an expression of what Axo is. It took longer than you might have expected, but at Axo things are done the right way and future-proof.
The images of all the NFTs are stored in two places to ensure Mal is with us for years to come:
IPFS
The Interplanetary File System is a way to store files on computers worldwide in a peer-to-peer manner. Any computer can download the IPFS software and start hosting and serving files. If someone runs IPFS on their computer and uploads a file to the IPFS network, that file can be viewed and downloaded by anyone also running the system.
This method is the primary means of storing most NFT data, as logging information on-chain is very expensive or impractical. By way of example, at the time of writing, a Cardano block is 88kb, but a Mal scene chosen at random, number 666, is 504KB, or almost six times bigger than a block.
This storage means is very impractical and costly, which is why most NFT collections are made with vectors to bring down the image size, or the images are stored on IPFS. However, this presents its own problems, as system operators can change files on that network, and you must keep paying rent for the server space the files occupy. Even then, you might be unlucky, and the image might go offline at some point in the future.
Most NFTs need to be future-proofed. Otherwise, they're a ticking time bomb, where sooner or later, you'll only have a string of text where the image once was.
Arweave
This blockchain is designed to store data permanently, with a one-time fee. The protocol connects people with extra space on their hard drives with people and organizations who need to store data or host content permanently.
Axo believes in redundancy and having a hedge for risk management, so it leverages this blockchain's unique traits to ensure that the NFTs are permanently available. Using all the tools at its disposal is what Axo is about. The protocol is designed from the ground up to benefit from the strengths of the digital asset space as a whole.
You can check your eligibility and claim your NFTs by going to the Rewards Vault on the Axo website. Once there, you can input your $handle, wallet address, or staking address. Alternatively, you can connect a wallet directly to begin the verification and claim process.
There are 15,217 NFTs to be initially minted by the early supporters. No need to run, but do not sleep on it either. You have until the end of Christmas 2022 to claim your presents, after which Santa will be gone.
Overall, there are going to be 42,000 NFTs in the collection. There are 3 special NFTs: front cover, back cover, and an easter egg. The remaining NFTs will be airdropped to people in the Axo community, such as the most active Discord users. Finally, all unclaimed and remaining NFTs before the collection’s policy locks on 2023–03–07 23:49:17 UTC, aka Cardano slot 86,666,666, will be removed, and minted to the collection wallet (and distributed at future dates).
There is also a 6.66% secondary market listing fee, with all proceeds going towards the creation of more Mal pictures. The more interest in Mal NFTs, the more Mal NFTs we will release.
Axo's attention to detail extends beyond just the composition of the NFTs themselves. How you claim the NFTs was also taken into consideration during design.
Many users have their funds in cold storage for security reasons, as it's safer to sign transactions offline than to have a browser extension hot wallet, which is convenient but much less secure.
Since Axo takes into account these, at times, conflicting priorities of safety vs. convenience, there are two ways to claim NFTs:
You can manually begin the claim process by sending 3 ADA to a specified minting address, after which you'll receive 3 ADA back, along with the NFTs you are eligible for. This method allows you to sign the transaction offline and never put your cold storage at risk.
You can connect your wallet and approve a prebuilt transaction by signing with your keys. This process will automatically send 3 ADA to the minting portal, returning 3 ADA and the NFTs you earned as a single UTxO.
Please note that transactions can take around 30 minutes as the airdrops are batched together to avoid network congestion and fees.
(Batching is a processing structure where transactions are grouped so that the outcome is the smallest execution possible, which in aggregate allows for faster and cheaper transactions than if you were to do each order separately. If you want more details on the subject, here’s an in-depth explanation of the batching mechanism used.)
The underlying design philosophy for Axo is to give you the freedom to make the choices that matter to you. Whether you value convenience and ease of use over security or vice versa, it should be your choice to make, even in something as simple as an NFT drop!
That is the spirit of Axo, and that is why Mal was initially chosen as a mascot. The devil is in the details, in the choices we all make on a day-to-day basis.
The future of digital assets holds the promise of creating an era where true freedom is possible by being able to choose any condition of how you interact with the markets. Axo offers the familiarity of the world that is with the potential of the world that is to be. You choose what you make of it.
Mal wishes you a happy, belated (and now early) Christmas and a cozy pair of socks for the crypto winter. Thank you for your support over this past year!
Further information regarding the AXO token release will be available closer to the protocol launch.
Collection name: Mal The Trader
JPG.store collection: https://www.jpg.store/collection/malthetrader
Policy ID: 6666666f2a796df09b5e3f16aff0112ed7caa5a4bbf6596fa414dc5c
Policy locking date: 2023-03-07 23:49:17 UTC, aka Cardano slot 86,666,666
Size: 42,000 (15,217 to early supporters, 3 special images, rest to be allocated at a later date)
Policy Script: https://pool.pm/policy/6666666f2a796df09b5e3f16aff0112ed7caa5a4bbf6596fa414dc5c