Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders can buy new merchandise items from Yuga Labs, but they can only use the newly released ApeCoin to do so, according to an announcement on the BAYC Discord server. Yuga Labs, which has a large stake in the organization that supports ApeCoin, will gain more ApeCoin (and more control over the organization) as NFT holders pay for their merchandise.
That is, assuming they can. Continuing the trend of “money but worse” cryptocurrencies, users complained that they were having trouble paying.
Hi everyone, We are aware of Coinbase Commerce issues during checkout in the merch store. They are working on a resolution now. If you had problems with the payment, we will follow up with the next steps soon.
— Bored Monkey Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) March 28, 2022
“Total shitshow,” said one user.
“I’m not fucking around and I’m a happy owner, but this is a very small online event in regards to building a metaverse,” said another, referring to the planned development of Other side, a game aimed at connecting NFTs. “I would like to see much more extensive testing and seamless experiences for customers before bigger drops occur. Just my .02.
The merch drop highlights something odd about ApeCoin, which, until now, has been used as in-game currency for benji bananasan Animoca Brands set. ApeCoin is also a way of voting in ApeCoin DAO: DAO is short for “decentralized autonomous organization”, although, in this case, the decentralized and autonomous parts they both look pretty, huh, debatable.
Members who pay in ApeCoin are essentially returning their ApeCoin DAO vote back to Yuga Labs, further cementing Yuga Labs’ control over DAO. The company has received 150 million tokens, but they are locked up for a year. Yuga Labs founders get 80 million tokens, which are also locked for a year. Also, Yuga Labs owns seven boring monkeys and 10 mutant monkeys. The release of the merchandise, and the transfer of tokens to Yuga Labs, comes with two days left to vote on the initial DAO proposals.
To access the BAYC Merchandise Store, users must possess a BAYC or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT. Based on screenshots on Discord – I don’t have a BAYC NFT so I can’t see the store directly, items appear to be priced in dollars. They include hoodies, soccer jerseys, caps, sweatpants, and blankets. Token holders who pay Yuga Labs in ApeCoin essentially hand over their DAO votes to Yuga Labs.
Yuga Labs initially announced the merchandise on Friday at 1:57 pm PT. After Yuga Labs made its announcement, ApeCoin rose from $13.83 at 2pm PT on March 26 to $15.13 at 12:33pm PT today. according to Coinbase.