A Message from our Founder Echo — 🦧 Nervape is the next Black Myth: Wukong! 👑 🦍Sorry for the clickbait title, I bow in apology. 🙇🏻♀️I’m Here to Ride the Hype!“Black Myth: Wukong” has gone viral, and I’ve received all kinds of DMs:“Quick, ride the hype! ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ and Nervape are both about monkeys! Jump on the bandwagon now! What are you waiting for?“Drop some ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ related Nervape Gear, that way everyone can spam them all over Twitter!”“Yang Qi is your alumni from China Academy of Art, how can you not cash in on this?”“Airdrop some ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ video games to us!”…So today, I’m shamelessly jumping on the hype train of this little monkey.Btw, our community is currently doing a “Black Myth: Wukong” game airdrop. All you “chosen ones,” remember to join the event here: https://t.co/97bfctVobN [Note: this event has already ended]I don’t play video games, but I bought three copies. They’re just sitting there, so why not give them to some Nervape Fam? (A big thank you to our CTO Code who donated one, so I can personally keep one as a souvenir.) Why did I buy so many when I don’t even play video games? Well, after I watched their behind-the-scenes documentary, as a fellow content creator I was deeply moved. “There are still people out there doing sincere work, and sincere work still has a chance to be seen. The world isn’t as hopeless and terrible as it seems.” I’m really happy that I can show my support in a tangible way.There’s another reason that pushed me to jump on this trend — a colleague in our work group chat shared a screenshot, saying, “This last sentence is practically talking about us.” The screenshot was from an article posted by Feng Ji on Weibo, and the last sentence was: “Little monkeys will grow up, and so will you.” When I saw this sentence, I was instantly moved to tears. Nervape has been around for almost four years now, and although we’ve always said its Chinese name is 神经猿 (shénjīng yuán), literally Nerve Ape (in Mandarin it sounds like “neuron”), our community members often referred to Nervape as “our little monkey, our little monkey” (小猴子 xiǎo hóuzi). Over time, the name “little monkey” gradually became a nickname for 神经猿 within the Mandarin speaking community.The Story of the Little Monkey and the Third ContinentAt the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, by a twist of fate, we designed the 1st 3D prototype of Nervape. At that time, a friend suggested that I learn about NFTs and develop Nervape into an NFT project. I did some research but didn’t like what I saw in the NFT space; I felt there was a lot of hype and hot air, so at first I rejected the idea. However, I made it a point to look more deeply into the space. After studying for another three months, I started to like NFTs a little bit, but still not that much to be honest. However, I came across this concept, “a decentralized world should be one where anyone can write down something, but no one can easily alter or delete it.” This idea moved me. So, I decided to create Nervape.NFTs are an important part of Nervape, but they’re not the whole story. Nervape is a Web5 IP (Web3 + Web2). It may seem like a contradiction, however, I’m really convinced of this new direction.In 2021, our team only had three people, including myself, and all three of us were designers. We started recruiting developers and began collaborating with story writers based in the U.S. We started building the Nervape world, and we began writing stories that eventually formed the multi-chapter narrative the Nervape Saga. You can find the first two chapters of the story here: https://t.co/egfU3FXbTJ.Nervape Saga on the surface is a humorous and absurd tale, underlying the story is a courage we cherish deeply. As the story unfolds, a group of Nervapes, each imperfect in their own way, unwilling to accept the oppressive reality of the world they live in, embark on a journey to find “The Third Continent.” Along the way, some apes become friends, others become enemies; they fight various monsters and creatures together, and they resist powerful overlords. Where is the Third Continent? Is this place good or bad? How long will it take to reach it? Does this place even exist? No one knows. Neither you nor I can foresee the future.This is a beautiful, distant dream.When we were writing this story, we interviewed many people in the blockchain industry — investors, entrepreneurs, developers, researchers, whales, small investors, influencers… The diverse apes in the Nervape Saga reflect the diverse people we’ve met in the real world. The decentralized world is vast, very early-stage, primitive, wild, beautiful, but it’s also dirty and “messy.” Yet each person’s role within this growing space is important, each person a part of building and advancing this new world. You, I, and all these individuals are a part of it.Some people said, “You should hurry up and release assets! Why are you wasting time writing stories? No one will read them.”But we believe that stories are the foundation; they are the spirit of Nervape. A body without spirit won’t last long. Just like there wouldn’t be “Black Myth: Wukong” without “Journey to the West,” this is the power of IP (intellectual property). We wrote the Nervape Saga word by word, story by story, and our readership grew from 10 people to 100, then from 100 to a 1,000. Finally, one day, someone read the story and left us a comment: “There are many Satoshi Nakamotos in the world dedicated to building and searching for the Third Continent. We are not alone on this adventure.”Finally, we felt understood…that gave us the strength to continue to “BUIDL.”While writing the story, we were also designing characters and updating our Nervape figures. We released NFTs of characters from the story, built a cross-chain bridge, and simultaneously worked on fixing some lingering technical issues. Before we knew it, two years had passed. The market shifted from a bull to a bear, and we thought, “It’s okay, let’s just wait a little bit, things will get better when the market warms up.”So, we continued to BUIDL.At the beginning of 2023, the market turned from a bear market to a deep bear market, and no one knew when the bull market would return. Our grants were about to run out; we were on the verge of exhausting all of our resources. We had no choice but to pause the Nervape Saga stories and find any other ways to reduce expenses. By then, the Nervape team had grown from three people to seven, with members working remotely across the world — North America, China, Japan. I told everyone that we were running out of money and that they could choose to leave. The remaining funds would be just enough to compensate everyone for a few months.Or, the other option was we could all stay, take pay cuts, save on expenses, and wait for the market to rebound. I sent out a Google Form to all our team members to vote anonymously on which direction we should go. The result? Everyone chose to stay and take a pay cut. I heard their voice, “If we go down, at least we’ll go down together. Before that happens, let’s try everything we can. No regrets.”Alright then, let’s continue to BUIDL.From a Dot to a LineAt that time, we always hoped to create a PFP NFT that was customizable and easy to update, like an NFT Lego set where each user had the freedom to design their ape the way they want. In November 2023, when the CKB halving was approaching, we thought, why not give it a try and turn this idea into a real-time interactive mini-game? Our community members could freely choose and customize a Nervape, and then together, they could piece together a collaborative canvas. We spent a long time tinkering and refining this experimental idea. Although it won’t generate any revenue, I thought that perhaps this might be a final farewell present Nervape could give to the CKB community (https://t.co/WDpUcSftfx), a community that has supported us so much so far. If we could do it well, we’d have no regrets.We left 900 slots on the canvas. By then, the NFT/crypto market had dropped to its lowest point, and my goal was modest — I just hoped that users might fill half of the canvas by the time of the CKB halving (https://t.co/ZQC8JS5Iml). But word spread, and lots of people started participating in our event, Halve Ape Blast (https://t.co/DbfkOUnpz4). Even before the CKB halving took place, the canvas was completely filled, and the community even managed to piece together a rough CKB logo. Scattered across the world, adventurers from all different backgrounds, without any guidance from anyone, created a collaborative piece of art. How? It’s a mystery to me. But it was magical. It was beautiful.Though the market was freezing cold, our hearts were warm.I wonder if you, the reader, can find your Halve Nervape on the final canvas?However, it seems that things took a turn for the better from this moment on. By the end of 2023, people’s hearts warmed, and so did the market.Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.— From Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005.Looking back now, each square on the canvas was a dot, and every step we took, every action we made was a dot as well. At the time, we didn’t realize what these dots would form, but now, looking back, we see that these collections of dots led to the story that followed and gave us the ability to seize the opportunities that came our way.The Difficult Birth of a Little MonkeySo around this time (end of 2023, early 2024) more and more people were turning their attention to Bitcoin (BTC) and BTC digital assets. This was an opportunity for the CKB ecosystem and with the RGB++ protocol (which emerged as if from the heavens) created a lifeline for Nervape (https://t.co/DstUgB1QaM. Within a month, we traveled from the U.S. to Singapore, back to the U.S., then to Hong Kong, and then back to the U.S. again, all in pursuit of collaborations and spreading the word about what we were building. We worked through countless late nights with different teams debating over idea after idea and discussing different market strategies. Others helped guide the coding process, and still others assisted us with testing. The culmination of all this work was Nervape, the first DOBs (digital objects) using the RGB++ protocol (https://t.co/r44AlHITV1).Just a few months prior, our team was almost pushed to the brink of collapse. But with everyone united by an unyielding determination to see this project through, we knew that our little monkey would definitely come back to life.Early April 2024, while we were attending the Hong Kong @festival_web3, Nervape suddenly became a hit. We received hundreds of collaboration requests daily including requests from many investors who wanted to invest in us. The hype got so crazy that even a single Nervape Bonelist (our whitelist to purchase a Nervape) was being resold for an astronomical price of $5,000 USD. We returned home and at the end of April, we had our public mint which sold out in just six minutes (https://t.co/KqYnQxugZa). To be honest, the joy was short-lived — it was soon filled with terror and fear of disappointing everyone…fear that we couldn’t live up to the hype.Someone told me that releasing a new digital asset is like giving birth, and I think they were right. Before this “child” is born, I believe that our child will be a genius that will change the world. But…after one nerve-wracking complication after another for this “difficult birth,” all I hope for is that our child will be born safely and grow up healthy.We tested again and again, but when it came time for the official sale, we still encountered all sorts of problems — scammers trying to steal Bonelists, those who didn’t get Bonelists stirring up FUD in our communities, wallets with too much UTXO failing to mint, users that successfully minted but had their other assets in their wallet burned… Some people in our community groups were furiously cursing us, while others were desperately trying to reach out to me to offer solutions. For three consecutive nights — 72 hours — I cried over my keyboard as I answered a stack of customer service requests. It’s okay; in the end, all the issues were resolved. This is all a part of growing up— a part of our little monkey growing up, a part of my own personal growth, and eventually, this will all become a part of Nervape’s story.The Founder Took the Money and Bought a YachtMay 2024, we finally made some money and I breathed a sigh of relief — we got resources to pay back the team!The CKB community pulled us back from the brink of death, and our little monkey can continue its quest towards the Third Continent!We started budgeting and planning our next steps. The money wasn’t enough to buy a yacht…but it was enough for our team to survive for another two years — we need to stay alive first.Our vision hasn’t changed: we still aim to create a Web5 IP. Web3 and Web2 shouldn’t be in opposition, they can’t be in opposition. We need on-chain data and encryption technology, but we can’t narrowly focus on putting everything on the blockchain and turning everything into speculative assets. Web3 + Web2 is about virtual + physical, on-chain data + off-chain content. People are just people, so why separate them into Web3 people and Web2 people? We want to attract real people. Nervape DOBs on the blockchain should have practical utility beyond just speculative value.So, what practical utility do they offer?We’ll provide more detailed articles about this in the future, but to explain this in simple terms: Nervape needs to have a sustainable economic model. We need to continue lowering the development barriers for DOBs and develop a co-creation platform to attract more creators to join our DOB ecosystem. At the same time, we also need to start developing offline Nervape IP. The revenue generated by the IP will be shared with Nervape “shareholders,” and by shareholders, we mean our Nervape holders 🦍. Early investors who hold these assets (our Nervape DOBs) will accumulate Bonepoints based on the length of time and the number of assets held. These Bonepoints will determine the share of the revenue each holder receives based on immutable on-chain data. In simple terms: we hope that those who love this IP won’t just be “powered by love” (we love the love though ❤️) but will also receive tangible dividends through long-term contribution and participation. We’re still refining the specifics; our official team, Nervape Studio, will soon release a detailed roadmap so I won’t elaborate too much here.The Game is Not Over YetOur little monkey has cleared the first level, but there’s still a long, long, long way to go before finishing this game. The difficulty of the second level has obviously increased, so we need to find talented people to join us in leveling up and fighting the monsters on this journey. We’ve recruited a CTO and are expanding our marketing team. With our leveled-up team, we are continuing our adventure and working on three main things:1. Organizing and upgrading the DOB code, making it open-source, and lowering the development barriers and costs for other teams;2. Exploring sales and production channels for our IP.3. Making more friends, learning more from each other, and building a solid community.In June 2024, just a month after Nervape’s Bonelist & Public Mint, the market started to cool down again. Some say there will be a wild bull market by the end of the year, while others claim the bull is already dead. To be honest, I don’t know. I wonder if we’re in the Ice level of the game and have to find our way out or else everyone stays frozen. What can we do to get through this level? I think we can focus on honing our internal skills, using this time to refine our products, experiment, and increase our fighting strength 💪🏼. In video games, you can use cheat codes, but in the real world, there is no shortcut. You have to eat your meal one bite at a time, you have to face each challenge one after another. Whether we find the Third Continent after going through 81 tribulations or not (Journey to the West fans, you know what I’m talking about), each step we take along the way is invaluable.During this current market, I also received lots of private messages.Some messaged: “Quick, pump the price! Did you make all this money just to buy a yacht?”Some said, “Big sis, people are losing confidence. Think of something fast.”Others said, “Echo, don’t rush. Take your time; I’m not in a hurry.”I went from rejecting reading private messages to accepting them, and I’ve seen all kinds of suggestions. Regardless of the intention, I’m grateful that people are willing to spend time helping Nervape find a way forward. Many suggestions are beyond our current capabilities, but we’re willing to try what we can — you see, that’s why I’m here riding the hype =). All you chosen ones that have read this far, remember to like and share 🫣.Four years ago, when I was studying NFTs, I thought the technology was interesting but had a lot of potential for improvement. Today, I still think most NFTs are terrible, and crypto nihilism annoys me. Yet, this thought echoes in my mind: maybe we can do something to make the space a little less terrible. I hope with Nervape we can improve the NFT/DOB space, even just a bit. This is the Third Continent I’m searching for, this is the Third Continent that others will be willing to discover. Everyone is a chosen one; perhaps everyone wants to become a Great Sage, but not everyone is willing to embark on the journey to obtain the scriptures. Today, we see the explosive success of @BlackMythGame, but what we don’t see are the struggles the “Black Myth: Wukong” team went through to achieve this success. Even their behind-the-scenes documentary film only shows the tip of the iceberg.The Great Sage completed his journey to obtain the scriptures, but Nervape has yet to find its Third Continent. We’ll keep searching, and if you’d like to join us in seeing if our little monkey can grow up and find where the Third Continent lies, you can do something too.For example:* Hold a Nervape!: https://t.co/r44AlHITV1* Buy a Nervape: https://t.co/EygxxykEbJ* If you don’t want to buy, that’s okay — you can still join our Discord community here: https://t.co/viRB9wJP08.If you don’t want to join the community, no worries — you can still follow our updates on social media:🐦 Twitter: https://t.co/fvrXEpOGqo📹 YouTube: https://t.co/vX28gz4pwt📕 Xiaohongshu: https://t.co/ilXnq1lbYrIf you want to send me a private message, if you want to share a good idea, if you have distribution channels for designer toys, if you want to join us, if you want to invest in us, if you want to do marketing for us, if you want to become a Nervape, if you’re an independent artist and want to collab with us to release DOBs, if you’re a writer and want to help us continue the Nervape Saga, or if you just want to get to know me, DM me on Twitter here @Nervape77.I really hate these “short essays” on social media and yet here I am writing a my own “short essay” — once again, facepalm. 🤦🏻♀️Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.(From “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee)You rarely win alone, but with a community, you can increase your chances. Nervape won’t be the next “Black Myth: Wukong.” Nervape is Nervape. We won’t stop exploring and experimenting, we won’t simply follow existing patterns, and won’t confine ourselves to what should or shouldn’t be done. Whenever we see a possibility, we’ll give it a try. Without courage, we wouldn’t have made it this far. Our little monkey still has a long way to go, and we hope to find and awaken this courage in others to join us on this journey. Finally, I hope every one of you can level up and pass the challenges presented to you both in games and in real life, to rediscover your own “courage” and to find your own Third Continent!And at the very end, don’t forget to enter the giveaway — I hope you win a copy of “Black Myth: Wukong”! [Note: this event has already ended]Finally (I mean it this time!), before posting this short essay, I showed it to the youngest member of our team, a Gen Z-er. I asked, “Do you think this sounds too preachy?” After reading it, she said, “Not at all, this has the potential to go viral!” So, taking her words as a blessing, if this article hits 100k+ views, we’ll buy 10 more copies of “Black Myth: Wukong” to give away to everyone! 🦍👑- Echo(The above is an English translation of Nervape founder Echo’s post here: https://t.co/GqRBmma6ts. Translated by @nervape_james)
