For the Culture: The "Crazed Trend" starting from the custom-designed Opepen by ThreadGuy

Original:For the Culture: Jack Butcher's Custom ThreadGuy Opepen Edition Goes Viral

Author: Langston Thomas, nftnow

Translator: Odaily  Aya

NFT this particular "internet subculture" has gone through several evolutions. From market cycles to controversies, the terminology, priorities, and overall atmosphere of Web 3 in the blockchain community have been fluctuating, much like the token prices that drive it.

However, one thing is certain, and that is no matter how speculative it may be, NFTs have a deeper significance than art and money can bring - the NFT space has formed a unique culture, mostly composed of goodwill and friendship, despite the presence of fraud and selfishness.

And recently, the diverse artist Jack Butcher reminded the entire metaverse what the true power driving this culture is. By launching an open version of the prolific NFT commentator ThreadGuy, Butcher has sparked a frenzy that has swept the NFT space.

Now, the slogan "For the Culture" is sounding again, and the story begins like this:

From Checks to Opepen

Those who have spent time on the NFT race track have surely heard of Butcher's Opepen project. Launched in January 2023 as a sequel to Checks, this 60-minute NFT was eventually released in batches and became a significant work in the rise of the open edition NFT track.

Since then, this collection inspired by the frog Pepe has become popular and has continuously improved its complex mechanism and accumulated influence over the next few months. Eventually, driven by enthusiastic fans, this project became one of the top projects in the NFT market.

During that time, a collector named Bored Elon (B.E.) became the number one holder of Open NFT. As a loyal supporter of Pepe and Jack Butcher, this big brother, who transitioned from KOL to Builder, firmly believed that Open is an important component of NFT culture.

On July 11, 2023, Elon made a trade proposal to ThreadGuy using his original version of Open (which many other Open NFTs are derived from) in exchange for the highly influential MAYC owned by ThreadGuy.

However, ThreadGuy did not accept the trade. Considering that this mutant ape has become synonymous with his personal image, he rejected this proposal as well as subsequent proposals from BE and others. But discussions began in the Web 3 community regarding whether ThreadGuy would change his long-used PFP avatar, and this KOL did not confirm or deny changing his avatar to Open.

After a few days of back-and-forth discussions, as the topic continued to gain popularity, Butcher, the creator of the Open NFT, made a custom Open image for ThreadGuy, completely changing the situation.

Trolling Version

On July 13, Jack Butcher commented on a pirated Opepen x Mutant Ape PFP posted by ThreadGuy and showcased a custom Opepen image designed specifically for ThreadGuy. This Opepen adopts his unique geometric style, with color scheme inspired by ThreadGuy's Mutant Ape and redesigned to fit the format of Opepen. Needless to say, this whole stunt led to ThreadGuy changing his mutant monkey PFP and organizing a Twitter Space with 3,600 participants to celebrate the moment.

This event has sent the NFT community into a frenzy. Now, Butcher offers a third option for the dilemma between ThreadGuy and B.E. to "switch or not to switch" (ironically triggered by Butcher's art), shifting the focus of the discussion from speculation on potential major transactions to Butcher's mischief spirit and the inherently humorous and friendly nature of the NFT sphere itself.

Since then, countless derivatives have emerged. Given the attention Butcher's work has received, numerous other creators and collectors want to participate and create their own Opepen-style versions. Among them, the most noteworthy is the various unique pieces created by Jalil, an artist and developer who has collaborated with Butcher on Visualize Value and other projects.

Of course, the story doesn't end there. On July 16, when the custom Opepen craze reached its peak, Butcher launched an open edition series called "Opepen Threadition," which includes tokenized versions of the custom PFPs he made for ThreadGuy.

Each OpenThreadition is priced at 0.001 ETH (approximately $2), offering everyone a chance to get involved and enjoy the fun.

(But the mint also has a generous side. All proceeds from Opepen Threaditions will be distributed to ThreadGuy as a way to "redirect some economic energy" and thank him for constantly injecting value into the Web 3 community.)

For the Culture, For the Meme

After the release of Opepen Threadition, it was discovered that the significance of the events between Bored Elon, ThreadGuy, and Jack Butcher far exceeded people's expectations of simple harmonious relations. The magic of friendship has spread, and even Beeple joined the discussion about this event, followed by Butcher creating a custom Opepen for him.

The slogan "For the Culture" began to trend, and discussions about the benevolent nature of the NFT space started to resurface. Many people recalled how NFTs used to change their lives almost every day and were excited to refocus entertainment at the center of attention, even if it was temporary bliss.

Meanwhile, the benevolent aspect of Opepen Threadition started to emerge. At the time of writing this article, Opepen Threadition has accumulated over 32,000 mints, generating more than 32 ETH (about $60,000) in revenue. Similarly, Jalil's eight versions of the artwork (also returning funds to ThreadGuy) raised about 7 ETH (about $13,000), bringing the total raised to over $70,000 worth of ETH. The impact of Threadition extends even to OpenSea, where they changed their profile pictures and usernames on Twitter to pay homage to this trend.

In short, the efforts of ThreadGuy have been given monetary value, and the development of NFT culture also drives the Web 3 community's keen memory of the true meaning of NFT and the necessity of fair compensation for creators.

Although artists of Web 3 have found that they can sustain themselves through their creations, commentators and supporters of blockchain culture often rely on collection and trading in seeking balance. Of course, this situation may be changing with the emergence of new revenue channels such as Twitter ad revenue sharing. However, after Opepen, people clearly recognize that in the NFT community, a little bit of friendship magic can improve the situation of peers.