whoomp is building a web3-powered system for “emotes” (an evolved version of emojis/gifs) featuring unrestricted ownership and unparalleled interoperability. we empower unique self-expression throughout a growing infrastructure of games, places, and platforms, and whoomp’s value will grow exponentially through the network effect. and for web3 users, whoomp BYONFT (Bring Your Own NFT) emotes feature their prized avatars/PFPs and enable them to fully embody their digital identity within home communities

some core value props we’re bringing to the table:

partners:
* new ways to engage and retain your community
* build perceived & actual value for your NFT collection
* elevate your community’s brand through implementing a cutting-edge web3 integration
* gain new interest and users through whoomp’s network of cross-promoted partners

all users:
* whether words aren’t an option in the game you’re in, or they just won’t do your emotion justice, emotes let you express yourself in priceless ways
* benefit from true ownership of digital collectibles; users buy, sell, trade, or gift emotes to each other without restriction
* your curated collection can be used wherever you go in a growing network of virtual worlds, games, and communication platforms

web3 users:
* use your prized assets from a collection to celebrate and participate in the communities you call home
* add new utility to (+ flex) your rare and valuable NFTs

our plans for continuous content through new partnerships will be released in seasons; each season will be fixed in size, but new seasons will ensure we reach the masses. extremely rare variants will satisfy discerning collectors with opportunities to flex, but free mints and consistent seasons will help provide everyone the opportunity to own and use whoomp emotes

our short-term plan is 100% wallet-less; our bot + platform works without emotes living on chain and does not validate ownership of the subject NFTs attached to them. we believe this will get us maximum feedback and let us gather valuable learnings during the bear market; this will help us find the ideal path forward to monetization during the next bull run

for our purposes, “emote” is a catch-all term to describe non-verbal + non-text communication. traditionally, emotes have been most often seen in games where text or verbal communication might be limited.

whoomp was born out of the vision to be a cross-game emote system, but gathering user + partner feedback revealed the huge potential benefits of making these expressions available beyond just games. Discord- a platform for written + verbal communication- doesn’t fit the traditional definition of a place where emotes would be implemented… yet users utilize gifs, stickers, and emojis there constantly. this largely comes down to a “fun factor” that text/voice can’t accomplish

we see the opportunity for emotes- this “fun” version of communication- as extremely valuable and highly applicable on many platforms. check out the “why emotes?” blog post for additional context on how/why whoomp landed on emotes as a prime opportunity for web3

key aspects:

• 5 seconds long
• feature transparency for native look/feel within Discord and beyond
• aesthetic variants to ensure each emote is 100% unique
  • standard
    • rarity + frame style (common/bronze, rare/silver, epic/gold, legendary/diamond)
    • frame highlight color
    • background color
    • animate in/out
  • emote-specific variants
• 4:3 aspect ratio (Discord maximum embed size)

standalone emotes:

• your standard emote – does not require the attachment of a secondary NFT
• primary emote type for decentralized emote creation + partner community concepts
• check out the Vibe Pod Showcase for a deep dive into a single concept mocked up for our friends at Project Eluüne

BYONFT emotes:

• emotes that leverage your preexisting NFTs to be featured as the subject of an emote
• we’ll be working on constantly onboarding new collections for utilization within BYONFT emotes, and they’ll also be released in seasons
  • each season’s set of emotes will have full interoperability with that season’s PFP collections
  • we’ll aim to have backwards and forwards compatibility beyond each season (old emotes + new collections, new emotes + old collections)

Discord bot is built!

• full functionality to attach wallet via slash command –> connect.whoomp.io
  • necessary component for eventual NFT based emoting
• generate BYONFT emotes (as a simulated NFT) for three concept mockups: “yee,” “elmo fire,” “party parrot”
• attach NFTs from Neo Tokyo Outer Citizen, Axie Infinity, or Project Eluüne: Aurahma* to feature these NFTs as the subject of the BYONFT emote
• send emotes to the server
• view emotes (yours or another user’s)
• quick select + send related emotes through context menu on other users’ emotes
• generate “discord avatar” dynamic output for use in profile

give it a whirl in the whoomp Discord server!

the world of web3 is all about community, and we want to make emotes that matter to the communities we serve. for a given community, we’ll be enlisting everyone’s help to generate emote concepts + art.

• part one: concept pitches + voting to determine the concepts we’ll move forward with
  • concept pitches will be attributed to the first community member to pitch it
  • similar concepts may be combined together, and contributors will share credit for the concept (likely an even split of credit amongst them)
• part two: art assets + voting to land on the art we’ll use for each of the concepts

each emote has 1% of its creator fees up for grabs; the concept contributor(s) get(s) 0.5%, and asset creator(s) get(s) 0.5%

there’s a common web3 misconception: if an NFT lives on chain, its appearance should be immutable as well. we disagree. example: a BYONFT emote. what does this look like without a subject NFT attached? hint: [[something like this]], which is lame.

but even for PFP collections, why should that NFT be locked in appearance? if i owned a Bored Ape (note: i don’t), i’d want a version that is ready to be used as my animated Discord avatar, a version i could print on a 8’x12′ canvas, themed variants i could use for communities i participate in (an Ape decked out in Chelsea gear, for example)… but none of this is a thing.

all of whoomps emotes will be available as dynamic outputs that are resized+reconstructed to fit the requirements of the context they will be used in. primary proven use case for the moment is Discord Avatars:

• frame and animate in/out are hidden
• the background is repositioned (so more transparency is visible in a smaller focus area)
• core elements are re arranged to fit within the circle frame (like the text within “yee” emote)

next up is Discord Banners – but we’re keeping our eyes peeled and options open for use cases beyond that. check out our gifs blow blog post for more details on how/why dynamic outputs are a big value prop

the whoomp founder’s mint is a win win win win

• win for whoomp:
  • help support us to move from concepts + mockups to a genuine ecosystem
• wins for founders*:
  • perpetually share in creator fees for all future whoomp mints
  • get exclusive mixed emoji emotes in a extremely limited quantity mint
  • first access to our NFT-backed emoting within discord
  • help shape whoomp’s vision and strategy and get access to exclusive opportunities through founder channels
    • including asking for + executing on introductions to your favorite communities
• wins for partner projects:
  • funds will let us hand craft emotes (based on your + community feedback) perfect for your favorite projects, increasing engagement + utility there
  • creator fee split on these minted collections gives them a new residual revenue stream with zero cost to them and no impact to their core economy
• win for my therapist:
  • my anxiety if whoomp will be successful or not lessens so we’ll now have time to discuss my childhood (for the 1000th time) like she wants

* THIS IS NOT AN INVESTMENT CONTRACT, there is no implicit or explicit agreement that you will recoup funds spent on a founder’s token. Plan on NOT getting your money back.

our growth strategy is 100% dependent on partnering with new communities.

• standard emotes: all core concepts + artwork tailored to the communities we work with
• BYONFT emotes:
  • need sign off on using those NFTs as the subjects of whoomp emotes
  • will need programmatic access to layered assets (see normalizing assets blog post for more details)
  • could use community-specific concepts as BYONFT emotes (while enabling non-community NFTs be the subject of the emote)

vertical growth on Discord will necessitate integration of the whoomp bot on an increasing set of servers, so these partner communities will be the natural place for the bot to be installed. the bot will be made publicly available for unofficial integrations as well.

for in-game emoting, vertical growth will occur through installing the whoomp plugin/SDK in an increasing set of games. again, partner games will be the starting point, but public availability of these plugins/SDKs will allow for additional growth.

we currently have built out full support within Discord, but other platforms we’re aiming for include:

• games + virtual worlds
  • Unity plugin
  • Unreal plugin
  • universal SDK for custom built games
• content creation platforms
  • Twitch
• messaging apps
  • iMessage
    • via “stickers” that can be dragged directly onto pictures or messages
  • Slack

we have big plans for things we want to build on chain:

• distributing residual revenue from creator fees via smart contract paid out to holders of tokens (instead of wallet addresses)
• DAPP for whoomp mints
  • pricing: starts at a ceiling and decreases over time
  • traits: some available to select from, some random (like rarity)
    • traits still follow frequency distribution, and specific variants will become unavailable once allocation of that trait is minted
• decentralized rendering

for selection, we’re aiming for a blockchain that can facilitate transactions with minimal gas fees

• this is especially important for creator fee distributions – we will have more than 1000 distributions of fractional creator fees due to founder token holder payouts
  • if this proves to be non viable, intermediary wallets can receive aggregate creator fees, then warranted fractional distributions can be sent on recurring basis
    • ideally, the logic of this intermediary wallet + its distributions could be housed on chain as a DAPP
• minimal friction during minting and selling will help achieve our vision of any+everyone acquiring whoomp emotes (whether at time of mint or on secondary markets)

a first-party marketplace will take advantage of features unique to whoomp

• BYONFT previews utilizing the viewer’s owned+desired NFT as subjects
• dynamic output previews
• to encourage maximum trading:
  • no marketplace fee
  • opportunity to partially or completely waive whoomp’s portion of creator fee
• sellers can specify the payor of creator fees + gas (buyer, seller, or shared)

render processing

currently:

• render jobs are executed within After Effects with extensive plugins
• each job is wholly fulfilled by a single instance
• all machines are owned and operated by whoomp

aiming for:

• jobs executed by open source image/video manipulation libraries (like Blender, Graphics Magick, etc.)
• users can sign up their machines as render nodes (including one click installs for all necessary components to execute jobs)
• jobs can be fractionally split for concurrent processing by several machines
• jobs are made available and executed on chain
  • contributors compensated for successful completion of jobs
    • TBD: compensation comes from whoomp, or from the initiator of the render request