Opepen is NFT's art collection of 16,000 evolvable pieces. The NFTs artwork changes over a series of drops and reveals.
What is opepen
Jack Butcher, a multidisciplinary artist, designer and writer, is the visionary behind Opepen. Drawing inspiration from Pepe the Frog, Jack Butcher didn't set out to monetize the hype around memes.
One of the most enduring symbols in the world of cryptocurrencies is Pepe the Frog, the iconic 2005 cartoon character created by Matt Furie. Since its creation, Pepe the Frog has become one of the most recognizable (and misappropriated) memes on the Internet. On Web3, he appears in everything from NFT projects based on the character to the memecoins cryptocurrency of the same name.
Inspired by Pepe's meme culture, Opepen also drew inspiration from the geometric works of digital artist batz, whose series of works using only squares and circles caught Butcher's attention. Butcher decided to create his own version of batz's style using only rectangles and ellipses. He named the project Opepen, a portmanteau of “open” in open edition NFTs and “Pepe,” the controversial frog meme ubiquitous on Web3.
Evolution of Opepen
Opepen launched on January 8, 2023 as a 60-minute open NFT drop. But this was no ordinary open release. For one thing, the NFTs themselves were not revealed all at once, but over a series of drops that occur periodically (on dates that Butcher determines at random).
Moreover, each drop includes 80 Opepens out of 16,000 (and a total of 200 sets went into the project). Each Opepen owner must subscribe to the illustration previews they like (by signing a message in their cryptocurrency wallet) to get the full NFT (which will only happen if a proposed metadata change gets a 200 percent rejection rate).
Some drops are similar to art prints, meaning everyone in the set will receive the same artwork. Others include slight variations or even 1/1 works. However, even after subscribing, the distribution of artwork will be randomized.
For a 200 percent opt-in to occur, at least 160 opt-ins are needed for an 80-NFT drop. So far, the demand for drops has far exceeded this limit, sometimes reaching over 10,000 percent.
Butcher plays with the concept of abundance in art and how that affects collectors' choices. In creating Opepen, he also wanted to develop a sense of community among his collectors, allowing them to participate in the discovery process and influence the outcome of each drop.
