Creative Commons Zero has been an interesting concept in NFTs. The idea of not having the copyright of an easily “replicable” digital artwork, ironically creating more value for the original artist, is an interesting phenomenon.
Since CC0 NFTs exploded in the universe a lot has happened and will continue to happen. In this article, we will take a broad lens over the space as a whole, and discuss the best CC0 NFT projects and how it has helped Mfers to grow.
What is a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) NFT?
Creative Commons Zero means that the creator of the artwork or content does not hold any intellectual property (IP). This happens by default after a certain period of time, but it can also happen if the creator decides to give up their intellectual property. You’ve probably heard that there’s something “in the public domain,” which means anyone can use that intellectual property to create content, and CC0 is another way of saying it.
For example, all of Shakespeare’s original works are in the “CC0” or public domain. That means you can go to this site and download, print, frame, and sell the image below, all within your rights. You don’t even need to mention the original author’s name if you don’t want to. This freedom of content commercialization is permitted by law, as the work falls under CC0.
A Creative Commons Zero NFT is part of the blockchain’s digital industry that is intentionally “non-copyright-free”, allowing NFT creators or artists to deny their copyright.
NFT is now classified under the public domain, free to be used by any person for any purpose. People can legally copy, modify and monetize CC0 NFTs as their artists decide to take away their exclusive rights to the artwork.
CC0 creates an open-source intellectual property, but not every NFT project is CC0. NFT projects, including CC0, allow people to create derivative projects and businesses using original project artwork.
The NFT Parent Project promotes its derivative project, while the Derivative Project promotes the parent brand – creating a flywheel effect.
Some notable and best CC0 projects are given below:
Mfers:
An unknown, pseudonymous, Meme-artist called Sartoshi has started Mfers. Sartoshi has explored the world of NFT for a while. After exploring, he decided to create his own CC0 NFT project which is known as Mfers.
Mfers don’t have a real utility. It has no website or no roadmap. Some mfers only see the value in an organic, community-driven CC0 project.
NounsDAO
Nouns are one of the first CC0 NFT projects, they are being auctioned regularly since August 2021. A handful of NFT collectors started this project.
Nouns at the moment have over 26.000 ether in their treasury which has turned it into one of the most successful CC0 projects. The noun community has now started nounDAO.
CrypToadz by GREMPLIN
CrypToadz was born out of a fusion of social criticism and meme culture, and it has grown in relevance much beyond its collection of toad-themed JPEGs. Gremplin’s amphibious collection has gotten plaudits from some of the most renowned NFT collectors and investors worldwide, following in the footsteps of legendary memes like Pepe the Frog and Dat Boi.
Since the Mint in September 2021, CrypToadz has grown from 0.069 ETH to about 3.3 ether (top floor price) and its collection includes 6969 CrypToadz.
How did the mfers community embrace the cc0 license?
The mfers community has rejected the recent NFT trend of projects with strong roadmaps and notable artists, and today it has become a leading NFT project – all without any official controversy, official roadmap, and no official publicity.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, and the “Cryptopunks” spirit have inspired the creator of the mfers NFT series – @sartoshi.
Sartoshi has taken a bold step by creating these NFTs in the public domain. He essentially relinquishes the intellectual property rights of creation so that anyone can use it as they wish, creating their own mfers NFT derivatives such as MFERS by Redi, Mferpunks, creating mfers clothing, etc. This has played a key role in the success of mfers.
However, this innovative method was initially seen as a tug of war by some members of the NFT community. They thought it was an excuse for the creator not to work on the project.
But some active holders have always supported Sartoshi’s vision since day one. They’ve created a lot of mfers memes, mfers jokes, and even mfers songs, they are slowly gaining traction on the biggest social platforms, forcing many people to re-examine the benefits of decentralization projects. Zero-to-one is a difficult process without a roadmap, but mfers are showing their own success.
Mfers were officially sold at the end of November last year (2021). The mint price was set at 0.069E, and the first time sartoshi mentioned the project to anyone was in a tweet the day before mint, with a link to the minting page at mfers.art, there was no whitelist, no honoraries, no paid promos, nothing.
For the next two months, it was at an average price of 0.2 ETH to 0.4 ETH. As of February 2022, with the rapid growth of the community, the trading volume of mfers has skyrocketed, and the average price has reached up to 6+ ETH.
Although the mfers community began as an endless stream of memes, it quickly evolved into a sub-community, created entirely by mfer-holders and self-sustaining.
Without a roadmap and full-time employees behind mfers, project holders took it upon themselves to create a community that people actually wanted to join, which gradually but surely increased the demand and value of the project. A truly grassroots approach to the biggest challenge of every NFT project.
On June 9th, sartoshi announced that he will close his account permanently and let the mfers community grow without him. He chose to hand over the mfers smart contract to the mfers community via the unofficial mfers multi-sig wallet, which would get the biggest share (50%) of the mfers creator royalties going forward for the community to do whatever it wishes. This was the “end of sartoshi” and the beginning of mfers next era as he called it.
Conclusion:
CC0 NFT projects relinquish copyright ownership to benefit the community. The community has always been a driving force in NFT circles, but now creative project holders can actively participate and benefit financially from their favorite CC0 projects.
Hi, my name is Brandan Henry, and I’m an NFT, Blockchain, and Research enthusiast, as well as a content writer for NFT-onomics. I’m deeply passionate about exploring the potential of NFTs and blockchain technology. My mission is to educate people on the capabilities of non-fungible tokens and their applications. I stay up-to-date with the latest NFT news and trends, and as a full-time writer, I excel at generating creative, out-of-the-box ideas surrounding NFTs.