Doodles: Goodbye Ethereum, Hello Flow

Written by: Odaily, Azuma

On January 25, the leading NFT collection Doodles released an open letter to the community, previewing some key developments for its new series Doodles 2.

It is worth mentioning that, unlike other NFT collections that have achieved great success on Ethereum, Doodles has chosen not to continue launching "sequels" on Ethereum, but instead decided to migrate Doodles 2 to the Flow blockchain for release.

Doodles 2: A New Attempt at Composability

The plan for Doodles 2 was first officially announced last June.

Unlike the original static Doodles series, Doodles 2 will be a "dynamic" new series. Specifically, Doodles 2 will allow users to freely choose the body shape, skin color, hair color, expressions, and other features of the base NFT, and then use "wearables" with different rarity levels to customize the appearance of the NFT, ultimately sharing it on social media and other integrated real-world activities.

This high degree of freedom in combination means that Doodles 2 users can create countless unique NFTs, laying the foundation for "bringing more people into the Doodles world." This is also why the team stated when they first announced the Doodles 2 plan that the series would expand from the initial 10,000 avatars to millions.

According to the content of the open letter, the chapter of Doodles 2 will kick off on January 31 this year. At that time, the Dooplicator tool airdropped to all Doodles holders last year (which needs to be claimed manually, and some holders have yet to claim it) will be activated, allowing users to "extract" wearables from the original Doodles that can be used in Doodles 2, which will also become some of the rarest wearables in Doodles 2.

About a month later, another tool called Genesis Box, which was sold through auction last year (final price 0.508 ETH), will also be "opened," minting the second batch of wearables.

It is important to emphasize that all users of Dooplicator and Genesis Box will receive a Doodles 2 Beta Pass, which will be the ticket for users to participate in the early testing of Doodles 2. Currently, the floor prices for Dooplicator and Genesis Box on OpenSea are reported at 1.2 ETH and 0.265 ETH, respectively.

Why Flow?

As early as last June when the Doodles 2 plan was first announced, the team clearly stated that the new work would not be built on Ethereum, but did not specify which blockchain it would be.

By the end of last year, Doodles founder Jordan Castro (Poopie) stated in the community that after exploring other blockchains and Layer 2 networks over the past year, they had found the perfect home for Doodles 2, but did not reveal more information at that time.

It wasn't until the release of the open letter that the community finally learned that this "perfect home" refers to Flow.

However, the market does not seem to be particularly receptive to Doodles' choice. Data from Blur shows that after the release of this open letter containing important announcements about Doodles 2, the floor price of the original Doodles actually experienced a certain decline, and although Dooplicator saw a slight increase in trading volume that day, it could not stabilize or amplify the trend.

In addition, some community users expressed their dissatisfaction in the comments below the tweet announcing the open letter. Some pointed out that the NFT trading volume on the Flow chain is even lower than that of Cardano, and others bluntly stated, "This is the worst news I can think of."

In response to these community concerns, Poopie addressed on his personal Twitter that the choice of Flow was mainly based on three considerations.

First, Flow offers a very smooth onboarding experience, which helps more users easily access Doodles. New users can register for a wallet using Gmail, and with just a few clicks, they can use a credit card to purchase NFTs. The success of NBA Top Shot is an excellent case in point.

Second, there are no transaction fees on the Flow chain (in fact, the platform bears the costs), and the vision for Doodles 2 is to encourage users to try more combinations and create more. This characteristic of Flow means that users can completely disregard transaction costs and combine and create without limits.

Third, Flow's programming language can help Doodles 2 achieve fully on-chain "wearable" devices.

It is for these reasons that Flow has become the "perfect partner" in the eyes of the Doodles team.

It is worth noting that the open letter emphasized that the choice of Flow for Doodles 2 does not mean that the project will completely abandon Ethereum. In the future, Doodles will continue to invest in its ecosystem on Ethereum, and the original Doodles, Space Doodles, Dooplicator, DoodleBank, and other undisclosed content will still be core elements of the Doodles roadmap.

Perhaps an Opportunity for Both Sides

The NFT bear market has lasted for quite some time, and as winners of the last bull market, blue-chip NFTs, including Doodles, have never stopped their development efforts to consolidate their leading positions.

However, due to multiple reasons (such as the barriers to entry for operations on the Ethereum chain, and even the entry barriers after the value of NFTs has risen), all NFT projects face significant obstacles when trying to reach a broader audience. Against this backdrop, Doodles 2's approach of leveraging Flow to reduce costs and expand numbers is a unique attempt to break through. Conversely, for Flow, which has been waiting for the next blockbuster application after the gradual decline of NBA Top Shot, the entry of Doodles 2 will also be a significant opportunity for its ecosystem.

Whether this collaboration can lead to a "win-win" situation will become a special point of interest in the future NFT landscape.