Inspiration

NFTs were a concept that came quite easily to me. Being a crypto native, I was already quite comfortable with blockchain technology and storing wealth cryptographically. I also consider myself a collector. I collected Pokemon and baseball cards growing up as well as graffiti stickers and sneakers. Sneakers especially made me aware of Veblen goods, and I had a knack for obtaining and reselling highly sought after sneakers during my high school years.

So naturally, I was fascinated with NFTs from the very beginning, with NBA Topshot, Zed Run, and Bored Ape Yacht Club in early 2021. It brought all the collectible aspects online, and reduced the friction from collecting physical goods. I knew the technology was unique, so I started participating in the NFT space on Twitter and Discord. I ended up collecting, flipping, and investing in various NFT projects and eventually made a name for myself, accumulating over 25k followers on Twitter.

In July 2023, I decided to embark on a more personal NFT journey and launch my own NFT collection. But I wanted to do it the right way. I had seen too many scammers, false promises, and negligence the past couple of years. So I knew exactly what not to do, and I could be honest with myself on what I could promise my NFT collectors and why I wanted to launch Ohayo.

Vision

Ohayo started with humble beginnings. AI Art was taking off and I had free time to experiment with my own prompts and dataset images. I began sharing Anime characters that I created on Twitter every day, and many people enjoyed the aesthetic of them.

Eventually, I realized I had enough support to launch my own NFT collection, something that has always been on the back of my mind. It would be quite an ambitious task, as I considered myself a Solidity novice. However, I was confident in my Front-End programming skills as well as the art I was creating, so I figured I may as well learn solidity to complete the trifecta.

1. Improve my programming skills and learn solidity

As a programmer, I am always looking to level up my skills and stay up to date with new developments. I figured creating an NFT project would help improve my front end skills and be a great introduction to solidity and smart contract development.

On the front-end side, I decided to use Next.js and Tailwind to create my website. The website would include a home page, FAQ, art page (everydays), and a mint page. I also needed to connect web 2 to web 3. I decided to use Wagmi Hooks and Rainbow Kit to connect web 3 wallets to my website. This was imperative for users to be able to check their whitelist status and mint NFTs.

Now on to solidity. This would be my first time creating a smart contract, and it was important for me to understand every piece of code I wrote and make sure everything functions properly. Since Ethereum is an immutable ledger, any single error could have grave consequences. During my time writing the contract, I kept the failure of the Akutars mint in the back of my mind, where they accidentally butchered the smart contract logic which locked over $20+ Million in ETH in their smart contract.

It was important for me to write the smart contract from scratch so I could really understand all the intricacies of smart contract development. I read plenty of solidity documents, watched multiple YouTube walkthroughs, and asked ChatGPT to explain the more difficult concepts in order for me to confidently write the Ohayo smart contract. Once I was done, I reached out to a few smart contract auditors to review my code and make sure everything looked good.

I can confidently say I know how Solidity works now and am comfortable connecting web 3 and web 2 together!

2. Create aesthetic anime art that I would use as a PFP

Being asian myself, I have a deep affinity for anime art. Up to this point, Azuki was the only true anime NFT project, and they were going for over $10,000 already. The other anime collections seemed lazy and boring, and none of them really spoke to me.

I don’t necessarily consider myself an artist. I have experience creating street art and have photoshop skills, but am a terrible drawer. However, with the release of AI art platforms I started experimenting with art prompting and editing. Slowly but surely, I noticed I was getting better and better at generating anime art, and more specifically, in the NFT style.

I decided to combine some rough sketches and AI algorithms that I created to help generate Ohayo NFTs. I promised I would only release an NFT project if it looked good enough that I would change my profile picture, and it seemed like I was on the right track. Upon sharing it with others, I noticed a lot of Twitter influencers were in support of my endeavor and resonated with the art as well:

This was enough proof that I was onto something, and I decided to pursue this project further

3. Keep it simple and build an NFT art project

I know my limits. I don’t know anything about game development. I’m not the best programmer in the world. I’m not an economics nerd that can create ponzinomic liquidity pools and farming platforms. I don’t have any special connections with celebrities or major publishers.

NFT projects are often run by inexperienced plebs who have no idea what they’re doing. They promise you the world, and end up building nothing.

As the sole founder of Ohayo, a normal mid-twenties guy with humble beginnings from the midwest USA, there isn’t much I can promise. There is no game. I don’t have connections to make a manga or anime. This is not the next Bored Ape Yacht Club.

This is an art NFT project. A low supply, low mint collection whose sole purpose is to be used as a beautiful, aesthetic PFP on Twitter. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’m a builder at heart. I intend to be in the Crypto and NFT space my whole life. So owning an Ohayo may have certain benefits down the line. But probably not. Don’t buy on speculation.

4. Make my mark on NFT history

I truly believe NFTs are a revolutionary technology and that we are at the beginning of a special asset class. Being so involved with NFTs already, I have been cautious to not associate myself with any project that I felt was not genuine. I passed on multiple opportunities to help work with or launch NFT projects throughout the past few years.

Eventually, I realized I couldn’t really trust anyone online. If I attached myself to a bad actor, I would be under scrutiny too, and it was nearly impossible to separate the good actors from the bad. I knew that if I wanted to build something, I would have to take responsibility and do it my way, the right way.

I’m proud that I did this entire process alone. I made all of the art. I coded the smart contract from scratch and built the entire website. I used my connections on Twitter to market the project and build a core community. People think this is easy. It isn’t. I learned a lot of new skills and more importantly I learned a lot about myself.

When we look back at NFT history, I want my name to be there as one of the early adopters, who did things the right way and was proud of what he built.

Post Launch

I’m proud to say that Ohayo sold out! 600 NFTs were minted raising over 21 ETH ($60k+) at the time of mint. Our contract was deployed without a problem or bots attacking it. And our Twitter gained over 7k followers!

The reveal went smoothly, as the metadata was correct and we were able to permanently store the NFTs on Arweave. The community was extremely happy with the output and I made plenty of new friends who became huge fans of the Ohayo art. A lot of new PFPs where changed to Ohayo, including yours truly!

Overall, I am extremely happy with Ohayo and the hard work I put in to complete a successful mint. Being the programmer, artist, and marketer helped me realize that I was truly skilled and could be relied upon for many things. It helped broaden my skillset and now I can say that I know what it takes to build and launch a successful NFT project.

Ohayo has really given me a lot of confidence to pursue even more projects in the crypto space. I truly look forward to building more and bringing the Ohayo community along for the ride. I have also created an exclusive Twitter groupchat where I will share future projects and builds and where the community can meet and connect with each other. Feel free to DM me on Twitter to join!

Exactly what is next, I can’t say. But I intend to experiment with new blockchains and protocols and network with like minded individuals to brainstorm new ideas that we can implement into the crypto community. I truly am incredibly thankful and grateful for everybody who has supported me on this journey, whether it be directly or from afar. You all give me the motivation to keep going and to be a better version of myself everyday!

Ohayo, forever <3