Explore Web3's First Multi-Franchise: Pixel Vault Community Marketplace is Live

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One of the most optimistic future visions for NFTs has been called “decentralized Disney”, or “decentralized Marvel”.

The concept is simple: If you took PFPs or other NFT art and extended the IP into additional media formats, you could have a community-owned media franchise. Meaning everyone in the community gets a say as to how the ecosystem grows and develops.

Imagine if you owned Darth Vader, your Discord friend owned Master Yoda, and you decided to put the two in a head-to-head battle. Sounds crazy and cool, right?

Our newest zero-fee community marketplace partner Pixel Vault is building exactly that. Check out their new platform at market.pixelvault.com.

Founded in 2021, the team launched what they describe as “the world’s first multi-franchise web3 media development platform”. Here’s how they describe their vision:

“Pioneering the intersection of crypto, culture, and community, Pixel Vault aims to elevate crypto-native assets across television, movies, NFTs, video games, and sports.”

After a year, Pixel Vault’s ecosystem is now so vast it spans across over a dozen different collections and thousands of NFTs—so if you’re someone who is not familiar with their project, you might be wondering: “Where do I even start?”

We asked the Pixel Vault exactly the same question. And they were ready with an easy break down:

  • If you’re a comic fan, the PUNKS Comic ecosystem makes a great start.
  • If you are a fan of superhero worlds, the MetaHero Universe offers several entry points.
  • If you enjoy having exposure to the entire ecosystem, then the Founder’s DAO token may be for you.

They also recommended watching this community-generated video for a good summary of the ecosystem.

Now let’s dive a bit deeper. So as we learned, Pixel Vault has two core worlds; PUNKS Comic and MetaHero Universe. Let’s discuss each in more detail.

How Pixel Vault Wants to Decentralize Media Franchises

Today, Pixel Vault has created NFTs across 16 different NFT collections.

Remarkably, they got their start with just 16 NFTs. But those weren’t just any NFTs. They were 16 CryptoPunks.

The idea was to tell the stories of these 16 Punks, bringing them to life. As Pixel Vault team told us:

“PUNKS Comic gives names, bodies, backstories, and a colorful narrative to some of the metaverse’s most beloved NFT collections”

And that’s how issue #1 of PUNKS Comic came about: A comic book that tells the story of 16 PUNKS. It was created by Chris Wahl, an illustrator who’s worked for DC, Marvel, Hasbro, Lucasfilm and more.

In true web3 fashion, the comic minted as a 10k NFT collection, while the Punks themselves were fractionalized into 100 million ERC-20 tokens that split between Pixel Vault, the Founder’s DAO and those who stake their PUNKS Comic Issue #1 NFT.

Because of its success, PUNKS Comic has now grown to 3 main issues and Origin Stories, which is Pixel Vault’s first deep-dive into individual characters and how their stories weave together across time.

And we'll see even more NFT-based storytelling coming from Pixel Vault: According to their team, while currently the PUNKS Comic collection primarily consists of PUNKS-themed comics, it will evolve to include other collections such as PFPs and gaming.

But PUNKS Comic isn’t Pixel Vault’s only successful property.

How the MetaHero Universe Aims to Transform Gaming

While the PUNKS Comic IP is inspired by CryptoPunks, MetaHero was created by Pixel Vault from the ground up. The goal: Create a gaming ecosystem delivering blockchain-native fun.  

Powered by its native token $POW, the MetaHero Universe is "a decentralized and community-governed social gaming platform with experiences spanning nine planets and one moon", as Pixel Vault puts it. While the game is still in development, the NFT collections that form the backbone of the upcoming gaming ecosystem are already live:

  • MetaHero Identities will be playable characters in the game.
  • MetaHero United Planets let holders govern the interactive planets within the MetaHero Universe

Because the rest gets more complex, we’ll hand the mic to Pixel Vault to explain what collections form the MetaHero Universe. According to them, there are several collections within this world, including:

MetaHero Identities - the Core and Generative PFPs that will be usable in the upcoming gaming experience.
Planets - 10 tokens that represent the nine planets and one moon where the MetaHero characters exist. Each token also represents one vote for planetary governance in the MetaHero-themed social gaming platform.
MintPasses - A MintPass 1 can be burned for a MetaHero Generative Identity. MintPass 2 will be used in the future to create DOTs, which will be usable in the upcoming gaming experience.
Gear Pods - A gift from the DOTs, Gear Pods will provide power-ups in the gaming ecosystem.

By now, you’ve heard a bit about Pixel Vault’s most popular properties. But you might be wondering: How does community factor into this? Why is this more decentralized?

“Tying everything together are the DAOs being stood up at the moment – the Founder’s DAO and the UPDAO,” says the Pixel Vault team. And if you want to learn more about the PixelVault DAO structure, we recommend checking out this recent Medium article. If you want to join the DAO, get a Fvckrender-designed ERC-721 tokens entitling you to DAO governance rights here.

Essentially, instead of management making top-down decisions on the IP, the DAO structure lets you to have a say in what happens within the ecosystem.

Explore the Pixel Vault's new zero-fee marketplace and list your NFTs

As you can see, Pixel Vault is at the forefront of decentralized IP building— their recent partnership with the WME talent agency to expand the IP into animated series, movies and podcasts seems to fit perfectly into that strategy.

That’s why we’re happy to provide the infrastructure for their free community marketplace and help them to surface the most relevant collections from their unique NFT ecosystem.

Want to dive right into it? Check out the net zero platform-fee marketplace here to list your Pixel Vault NFTs or join the community by getting one!