Q&A: MachiBigBrother's Digital Art Movement AIP Is On The Ballot. Here's What You Need To Know:

MachiBigBrother's highly anticipated Ape Improvement Proposal, which aims to establish the 'Digital Art Movement' Collection and purchase $11 million worth of $Ape NFTs in an effort to push digital art forward, is on the ballot this week!

AIP-304 titled ‘Create the Digital Art Movement Collection to acquire Yuga Assets (BAYC, MAYC, BAKC, and Punks and other notable NFTs,’ is an ecosystem fund allocation proposal written by Bored Ape Yacht Club member and major $Ape holder, MachiBigBrother.

“Digital art remains underrepresented in the art world,” MachiBigBrother wrote. “I want to change this. I want digital art to be omnipresent. By creating and curating the Digital Art Movement Collection (aka “The DAM Collection”), we can proliferate appreciation for digital art worldwide thus leading to education and adoption. There’s no better group of people than ApeCoin DAO members to cement our place in digital art history.”

MachiBigBrother’s proposed DAM Collection will consist of Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, Bored Ape Kennel Club Dogs, CryptoPunks, among other notable NFTs and will controlled by the holders of the ‘DAM’ token, according to his proposal.

“DAM tokens will be a fair-launch project, with zero team token allocation. Initial token distribution will go to users that timelock ApeCoin for up to 5 years, decentralizing governance to the ApeCoin community. One ApeCoin locked for 5 years creates an initial balance of one timelocked APE (tlAPE), with the balance decaying linearly over time toward unlock. This means 100 ApeCoins locked for 5 years is equal to 500 ApeCoins locked for 1 year.”

If passed, the ApeCoin DAO will allocate 11,000,000 $Ape towards the creation of this Digital art collection and MachiBigBrother, along with his fellow team members and the community, will work to get the digital art in the DAM collection displayed in museums, schools, and galleries and begin arranging collection exhibits, and gallery showings, according to AIP-304.

To find out more about AIP-304, his NFT journey, and the DAM tokenomics, the Bored Ape Gazette reached out to MachiBigBrother for an interview. Check it out below:

1. In a sentence or two can you sum up your AIP?

“We are going to build the best NFT art collection ever and with it we are going to proliferate the NFT artist and our place in art history.

2. What inspired you to write this proposal? When did you know you had to put this up?

“I just felt like ApeCoin is not moving in any particular direction and I wanted it to. Then I asked myself, what’s the number one thing I want to see ApeCoin DAO do today and that came back down to art and that’s where this kicked off.”

3. Why are you and your team the right people to make this DAM collection a reality?

“I built billion-dollar companies, and the team is very experienced. We have some cracked Devs. We have a guy that literally owned an art gallery before. We have great project managers, one of the guys is from Uber. It's a team of professionals with a lot of experience and it’s a dream team. Plus, this team is willing to sacrifice their team for this. They aren’t getting paid. This is all voluntary."

4. How will getting apes and NFTs in galleries and museums help the Yugaverse and the DAO?

“Where is art currently appreciated? Currently at galleries. I have recently been getting into it myself and I don’t see NFT art in there. I don’t see screens. Why wouldn’t you? It’s almost like if you said there’s no canvases for oil paintings. How are you going to display these paintings? So, I believe that every art gallery in the world, including museums, needs digital displays today. Our day to day lives are on phones. So, I believe museums and galleries need screens and when they do, they will need the art to display on them and that’s us. That’s where we are today. I believe that the NFT technology will be a monumental shift in art, and this AIP is part of that movement.”

5. Will your AIP help galleries that are interested in showcasing NFTs but do not have the tech to display them?

“I believe early on we will have to help them display it. Early on we may have to rent some screens. In the future every art gallery though will have their own screens.”

6. How do you think AIP-304 will shift the public’s perception of digital art? Why is seeing apes/ NFTs in galleries important?

“They probably won’t see the art unless they run into me and my friends going look at my Ape. When I show people NFTs, they love it. They’re art lovers to begin with. And there’s no way they look at our art and go that’s not art. A lot of art is about stories and narrative. galleries need more narratives. Gallaries already have a clientele that is open to learning about new art and acquiring it. Also, the galleries themselves, they’re a business and they need to curate art for their clientele. And for this we are perfect. We come right in and we are the new story in town. NFTs have only been around for a couple of years and its very new to most people, they have never seen it, and this AIP will help them to see it."

7. You talked a lot about narrative and story. What is the narrative or story for the Bored Ape Yacht Club that galleries will be telling?

“These Apes represent degens. Hardcore degens. People who do no research and Ape into things and they’re pop culture. Bored Apes evolved from Planet of the Apes, Bathing Apes, Banksy got monkeys in his art. Apes are some people’s spirit animals, like me. When I buy token or see projects I Ape into shit. And these two guys, Gordon and Garga, came up with a story about these Bored Apes that made it and are now just chilling. And I was like dude I’m an Ape, I’m in, and it sparked a phenomenon. Eminem joined, I gifted the biggest Chinese and Asian celebrities in the world Apes and everyone was now part of this club. There’s a story there. Also, PFPs in my opinion are a super art. This art is digital, and what else is digital, social media. Art as a profile picture, and as an identity. Identity is very strong and resonates around the world. So when I’m pitching Apes to someone who cares about value, this is value. All the artists and paintings that I’ve been shilled recently; go check out their social media. They have like 6,000 or 8,000 followers. Compare that to the Bored Ape Yacht Club that has a million followers, not to mention guys that rocked the PFP. Everybody has seen Bored Apes. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is worldwide!”

8. I saw some post that asked why 11 million $Ape? So I ask you, why not 12 million why not 9 million, why not 1 million? Why is AIP-304 asking for 11 million $Ape?

“I feel like I want to make an impact. Guy Oseary asked for 1% of all the $Ape before and at that time I thought he was the best thing to ever happen to the ApeCoin DAO. It’s sad to see that he didn’t get to go to hard, I’m guessing its regularity issue. It’s like there is no other AIP out there that can do more impact and bring more value to the DAO than this. So, the 11 million $Ape was a number that was bigger than the 1% that was given to Guy Oseary, so I thought that 11 million or 1.1% would be a good number.”

9. Can you explain the DAM token to me in the simplest way possible? How do I, a typical ApeCoin holder, get a DAM token? How does locking the ApeCoin work and how is locking 100 coins for five years equal to locking 500 coins for one year?

“So, the quick disclaimer is no team tokens. No one gets these tokens for free. All the DAM tokens can only be earned by locking up your ApeCoin. Now instead of everyone just locking up their ApeCoin or staking it and everyone farming at the same speed, the more committed people deserve more. So, its linear. So, if you lock $Ape up for five years, you’ll earn five times more DAM tokens than me locking it up for 1 year.”

10. How many coins outstanding of DAM will there be?

“That number has not been locked in on purpose. If this does pass those details will come out and that’s part of the excitement of this proposal. We’ve tried to figure out if people want the really small numbers or the huge numbers. We will probably copy Doge’s number or Pepe’s numbers or one of those giant numbers. And again, the DAM token will be farmed out, that’s the only way you can get it. Also, I believe that the new meta is to not burn the minting function but to leave it open; and allow the DAO to decide if they want to mint more coins later.

11. Will DAM be tradeable on Uniswap?

“It will be a plain vanilla ERC-20 token. Yes it can trade on those things and that was brought up in the ApeCoin DAO Council questions. No, the 11 million ApeCoin nor the DAM Token be providing liquidity with the grant. But it can be organic. This AIP is as Web3 and decentralized as possible.”

12. Assuming this AIP is approved, how soon after this AIP getting passed do you think the DAM find buys its first Ape? And are there any traits you’re interested in getting?

“I think right away after we get the money in from the DAO into the multi-sig. We love to spend money on art. Let’s go! As for traits, I would love to see some grails but aesthetically pleasing NFTs is important to me. It will not just be based on rarity. Does it look cool? Is it a fun Ape? If it is then hell ya let’s get it! I would like to see at least one of every trait. There’s no trait we won’t have in the collection.”

13. Where do you see the DAM collection a year from now?

“I expect we will have a nice collection. I’ve already passed on a couple grails and thought let’s have DAM DAO go after those. Plus, those guys are being really hard on their pricing, they wouldn’t budge. I have enough Apes I got to stop collecting everything. DAM DAO will do the collecting for me now. So probably the personal collecting will slow down, and I’ll just have fractional ownership with everyone else in the community. There is a trippy Ape I have been looking at and everyone knows that Ape. It’s the trippy ape with the hip-hop clothing. It’s a bad ass trippy. If he’s agreeable I think we need to get that trippy ape in the DAM DAO. It’s going to be fun and I think it’s going to bring a lot of value.

14. What inspires you to do all this? What wakes you up in the morning and keeps you Coming back to crypto?

“it’s fun. It was a breath of fresh air from web2. Some of the comrade early on, like when I talked to Gordon and Garga back then. Then I got to remember the art attracted me. The Apes got me man! I minted my Apes and then I was like how I can help. Its magical and that’s why this story is magical. I love doing interesting things and I’m curious. I feel like that got me. Part of it also was to stay relevant and to hang out with the young kids. People my age when I talk about Bitcoin, ETH, and NFTs they are not paying attention. I remind myself of my age by hanging out with my high school classmate. I feel good being around young people and that energy helps me move and keep going. Also I’ve always been competitive. I’m not sure why I do some of the things that I do but I like the art and I like what I have.”

15. Last question, do you have anything else you’d like to add or say about your AIP?

“Everybody go out and vote for AIP-304. Do yourself a favor. It's good for the DAO, its good for you. Go vote for it!"

The window to vote on AIP-304 is currently open and ApeCoin DAO Contributors have until Wednesday, September 20th, to cast their coins and vote on this AIP.

$Apes can read MachiBigBrother’s full proposal here: https://forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-304-create-the-digital-art-movement-collection-to-acquire-yuga-assets-bayc-mayc-bakc-and-punks-and-other-notable-nfts-for-exhibition-and-donation-to-art-institutions/15737

The Bored Ape Gazette will continue to follow AIP-304 and will let you know how the community votes on this proposal later this week. Stay tuned for updates!