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Balthazar Research Report: Psychedelics Anonymous
Written by Nicholas Korsgård, Chief Gaming Officer, Kim Bjerkeli, Sigurd Thomassen and Heidi Anette Laugsand Johansen, Game Strategists, Balthazar Alpha Team
Contents
Introduction
Mute days descend into tired months – the repetition of existence. Only the shroud of night offers salvation, the blackened blanket staving off the apocalypse of isolation. When everything feels like a punishment and struggle, even the gift of life itself. What could the next step possibly be?
Psychedelic drugs are highly controversial, but some research implies that they may help treat PTSD, depression, anxiety, and more. What happens when Psychedelic treatment and NFTs are mixed? You get the project Psychedelics Anonymous for starters. This project aims to donate and financially support organizations that provide psychedelic-assisted therapy (CPAT). How, you might ask? Through selling NFTs, auctioning, and eventually, through IRL and virtual P2E challenges. The creators aim to strategically invest in research regarding CPAT and furthermore offer and create support networks, social gatherings, and even fitness clubs for their holders in the future.
In this research report, we’ll dive into an NFT project that, after our immense research, truly has deserved our confidence. We’ll take a look at the project itself, their core values – the four pillars, everything about their NFT assets, artwork, team composition, and more. How does this project work and what exactly are they trying to do? This is among some of the topics we will be researching in this report. SPOILER ALERT! It’s good.
From the looks of it, Psychedelics Anonymous seems to reach for a future where treatment is accepted, regardless of form. Does the treatment come from a mushroom? So be it, as long as it treats the patient. Whether or not you are a believer in this topic, hang on and let’s get into it.
Background
In the following section, we will present what we consider to be Psychedelic Anonymous’ lore, which is present on their website in the “We Are The Night” section. Since this section is uniquely written, we’ve chosen to showcase it as is and provide our expanded thoughts and interpretation below. However, before jumping into the enigmatic rendering of reality, we recommend starting with this teaser trailer video from Psychedelics Twitter to set the mood.
We like to imagine the entire text read out by the male distorted voice from the video.
Lore
You made it this far; have you awoken yet? Suppose this all seemed like cryptic and incoherent mumbo jumbo. In that case, we’d try to enlighten you about what we believe the Psychedelics Anonymous team is trying to convey through this artful and creative text.
Eloquence aside, if you don’t have your dictionary next to you and you’ve never watched a fungi documentary, the text might just feel interesting to read without telling you anything. But either through a bit of searching or innate knowledge, you might immediately connect with the riddle-like story being told.
We Are The Night
The first part, “We Are The Night,” is very likely referencing the never-ending status quo that many can recognize. Your entire life is an endless cycle of “Eat, Work, Sleep, Repeat” just to survive your day-to-day and week-to-week needs, but you are never able to escape the pattern. For many, crypto has been the first real opportunity to a greater life and enlighten their understanding of the economic powers and possibilities in the world.
The possibility of controlling our own economy and seeing our money’s potential to grow instead of being buried under ever-increasing inflation has opened our collective eyes to the illogical interest rates banks offer and how indoctrinated our entire world population has become to accept them.
There is also the beneficial usage of psychedelics angle here, which is also very likely based on the project’s support for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies. A psychedelic trip can be a transformative experience “Largely because these substances break down the brain systems involved in rigid, negative thinking. They evoke a mystical experience: a sense of oneness with the Divine, God, or the Universe.” In other words, a psychedelic experience might show things from a new perspective and help the user see the bigger picture. “The psychedelic experience is one of ego-dissolution, unity, and oneness. It allows us to see the bigger picture, without the restraints of our ego. We see every being as equal and possibly begin to question our worldview.“
The Connection
The second part, “The Connection,” further references the general population’s heavy indoctrination with their “routine grind.” In order to break free, a revelation is necessary, in this case through a “Psychedelic Anonymous” guide offering to show you the way down the rabbit hole. Entering this trip might be through the use of Psilocybin, which is the psychoactive principle of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Further references to the fungi world include the description of the mushroom’s mycelium, the network of threads called hyphae from which mushrooms grow. Once awakened and with new perspectives, we can be connected to each other by utilizing the masks hiding our true identity allowing us to be interconnected with all others who have opened their minds.
The Shared Dream
The third part, “The Shared Dream,” illustrates a potential future with a new, open-minded, collective consciousness, which is eerily reminiscent of the effects of a psychedelic trip as described above in the “We Are The Night” section. It reads to us that it is only truly possible to see how beautiful life can be once we’ve abandoned the draining indoctrinated grind of life most of us are stuck within. The shared dream also speaks of the individual’s potential to find their place in the bigger picture future as we unite to solve the bigger issues in the world.
Divinity
The fourth part, “Divinity,” describes the point in time where we’ve achieved open-mindedness and have fully broken free of our old restraints with the final step of letting go of our ego. If we make yet another reference to going on a psychedelic trip, this last part is the peak of the ride. This is when you’ve lost all inhibitions and you can finally see and think clearly to experience the world’s magic properly. The final sections speak of a spiritual experience, achievable only once cleansed and re-borne. The ones that have achieved and experienced this are now able to share their story onwards and help others see the light themselves so that they may also become a part of the collective.
Project Process
Psychedelics Anonymous is pushing for a change. They want a different way of doing things in the NFT space, and they lead by example, practically implementing new ideas hoping that NFT projects and collections will follow suit.
They claim that they set themselves apart with two main points:
- Their willingness to do the hard, tiring work, day after day, until they achieve their goal.
- Their team, experience, out-of-the-box thinking, history of long-term success, and demonstration of short-term executions.
They claim to have a collective of 85+ years of design, creativity, business operations, financial understanding, commercial know-how, and idea generation in their team of 7 individuals.
We’ll look further into their claims in our team’s section of this report.
The Four Pillars
Psychedelics Anonymous wants to keep everything as transparent as possible, and they try to accomplish that by providing context to their decisions and thought processes. They explain their four pillars; Scale, Utility, Pricing, and Foundations.
1. Scaling
Their first pillar, Scaling, is about how they’ve looked at other competitors and seen that a bigger community is one of the main things needed. Their reasoning is simple; a bigger community will make a bigger difference. They argue that the NFT space is growing at a pace we cannot fathom and that rapid growth is all but guaranteed. By focusing on utility that will let Psychedelics Anonymous grow its community, they will be more prepared for anticipated growth.
2. Utility
The second pillar is the utility. Psychedelics Anonymous have seen how the trends in the market have developed, and they feel it’s been remarkable to watch. From “heat” around tokens, everyone rushed to make “the next Metaverse” or social events with several restrictions because of COVID-19. Psychedelics Anonymous states that they’ve learned from these trends and are separating their utility and making them more accessible to everyone.
3. Pricing
Next comes pricing. As the third pillar that Psychedelics Anonymous refers to, they state that they want to make their NFTs reasonably accessible. They mention the importance of balancing their ability to raise funds and allowing everyone to participate. This is why they’ve decided to split their NFTs up into several collections so that people can buy the NFT that suits them best.
4. Foundation
Lastly is the Foundations pillar. Psychedelics Anonymous is aware that a collection with solid foundations reduces risk. They emphasize that this is one of the essential elements when people are researching whether or not they’re going to invest in the project. Furthermore, they state that “Any project aspiring to be a long term success needs a tax and legal foundation.” Psychedelics Anonymous makes it a point to be as transparent as possible regarding their legal and tax structures. With their NFTs, they want to stay on top of everything coming and try to make sure that everyone invested in the project is confident that they’re on top of whatever needs to be done and might come.
Psychedelics Anonymous seems to have taken a lot of the critical key elements of running a collection of NFTs into consideration. They aspire to be transparent and gain confidence with their community members, investors, and alike.
NFT Assets
As of writing this research report the following NFT collections are available within the world of Psychedelics Anonymous:
Genesis, Metaverse Pass, In-real-life Pass, Component #1, #2, #3, The Psychedelics Anonymous Printing Press, also known as PAPP, and the presently launched Psilocybin.
Genesis
The original collection, with 9595 Unique Profile Picture NFTs, with an original mint price of 0.088 ETH.
Stats from time of writing pulled from https://looksrare.org/collections/0x75E95ba5997Eb235F40eCF8347cDb11F18ff640B:
A holder of a Genesis Psychedelic Anonymous NFT get’s exclusive access to:
- Limited edition genesis merchandise.
- Limited edition genesis metaverse wearables.
- Support services (both performance, business and mental health).
- Web3 accelerator access.
- VIP metaverse areas.
- VIP areas at IRL events.
- Future staking and DAO allocation.
Metaverse Pass
A part of the original collection with an original mint price of 0.06 ETH and a total 9595 NFTs.
Stats: https://looksrare.org/collections/0x22674fd4CE74765C211EeC01698fda36f57A650A
This pass grants holders the access to all psychedelics anonymous metaverse events, which include:
- Access to all Psychedelics Anonymous Metaverse events, spaces, and clubhouses.
- Access to mint all future ‘Metaverse Pass’ wearable drops.
- 1 x Metaverse wearables pack, redeemable free of charge.
IRL Pass
A part of the original collection with an original mint price of 0.06 ETH and a total 9595 NFTs.
Stats: https://looksrare.org/collections/0x92AA4c9A4f54Fe95d0e799687D1Da12A7EBca538
This pass grants holders access to all IRL psychedelics anonymous events, which include:
- Access to all IRL Psychedelics Anonymous events, experiences, and partnership events.
- Access to ‘IRL Pass’ merchandise drops in the future which will not be open to the public.
- 1 x set of IRL Psychedelics Anonymous merchandise, redeemable free of charge.
Component #1, #2 and #3
Components are required to participate in the Psychedelics Anonymous mini-game experience. Rewards include physical items, cryptocurrency, limited-run merchandise, limited-run wearables and more. Which includes:
- 1 x required mini game access component.
- Access to staking, specific to the mini game experience.
NOTE: The Component has a burning mechanism built into the contract
Component #1 was a part of the original collection with an original mint price of 0.045 ETH and a total 9595 NFTs.
Component #2 and #3 were released later as a free claim to set holders with a total of 6497 editions of component #2 and 6523 editions of component #3.
Component #2 Stats: https://looksrare.org/collections/0xA7B6cb932EEcACd956454317d59c49AA317e3C57?queryID=d232a4332b9756c70cdae933d2728b11&queryIndex=prod_tokens
Component #3 Stats: https://looksrare.org/collections/0xc8Cc20febE260C62A9717534442D4E499F9DE741
PAPP
The Psychedelics Anonymous Printing Press (PAPP) is a utility NFT for the PA-verse which was released as a free claim to set holders and a total 6859 NFTs.
NOTE: This Utility NFT has a burning mechanism built into the contract.Stats: https://looksrare.org/collections/0xC8E1de8Dc39a758C7a50F659b53F787e0F1398BD
Psilocybin
Recently holders of all three components have had the opportunity to create Psilocybin NFTs, each requiring the burning of one of all the three components.
Psilocybin is an NFT required to participate in the Psychedelics Anonymous mini-game experience.
Rewards include physical items, cryptocurrency, limited run merchandise, limited run wearables and more.
It includes:
- 1 x required mini game access NFT.
- Access to staking, specific to the mini game experience.
NOTE: This NFT has a burning mechanism built into the contract.
Stats: https://opensea.io/collection/psychedelics-anonymous-psilocybin
Market Performance History
The best place to get a holistic view on the current situation of the “Full set” or entire “PaVerse” is here: https://psychedelicsanonymous.com/paverse
If you want a bigger overview of how the project has fared, you can find the daily floor overview on Dune, which is a great way to understand the entire performance journey post-release. Dune has a full overview over many of the different collections and a lot of great information and historical insight. https://dune.com/0xa/Psychedelics-Anonymous
If you want more performance metrics we’d recommend checking out: https://www.niftyprice.io/collections/psychedelics-anonymous-genesis
There, you will get a lot of quick stats and 1d – 7d, and 30d statistics alongside floor price, supply, volume, and owner history.
Considering the entire world market performance over the last few months PA has faired quite well and is pulling good volume across the board on all collections, which is a healthy sign of a good project.
Artwork
Following, we’ll look at Psychedelics Anonymous’s unique and interesting artwork and design decisions.
Undoubtedly, one of the first things you’ll notice when looking at Psychedelics Anonymous is the glitchy, mysterious, dark figures. It’s literally the first thing you see when loading the website, and they look great.
Psychedelics Anonymous has chosen a few different styles divided over the different lineups of NFTs they offer. The fantastic lineup includes the mysterious figures mentioned above, their genesis collection, passes, components, PAPP, and Psilocybin collections. They’ve also produced some great artwork on their Twitter, in terms of posters, animations, and videos.
Genesis Collection
We’ll start by taking a look at their genesis collection. These are the mysterious, dark figures and possibly Psychedelics Anonymous trademark, which makes them most recognizable.
In our opinion, this collection is simply stunning. The realism is great, the creativity is superb, and we get the feeling that they’re able to convey a certain message well in their figures.
Looking at OpenSea, we’re able to sort all the NFTs by certain aspects, which also gives us some good ideas on just how different all of these NFTs really are and how customizable they’ve been made – from the background color to clothing, masked or unmasked, and details such as ties, lapels, pins, and sweatshirts, depending on if your NFT has a suit or a hoodie. All these options cater to the uniqueness of the NFT and make sure that you can really find something to suit your wants.
As mentioned, the NFTs come in both masked and unmasked forms. The masked forms offer diverse looks, from the plain gas masks to variations of gas masks in metals and other materials. There are masks with horns, too.
Visually, masks have options like thin translucent material that covers their faces, half masks to masks that seem to be made out of something that came out of the Windows Media Players visualization mode, aka, truly abstract.
On the other hand, you have creative unmasked figures that are truly innovative as well. They can be solid faces or true works of art. Some have paint splatter of all colors, cursive text, and color swatches printed on them. Others seem to be solid, shiny gold in the shape of skeleton faces. From simple to complex faces, these NFTs shine when it comes to customizability and uniqueness.
Psychedelics Anonymous has also promoted their genesis collection in a 1-minute video posted on their Twitter account in late February 2022. The video’s name is “We seek out the machines – the ghostly shrines.”
It depicts the darkness and mysteriousness that Psychedelic Anonymous is going for. We see some of their masks in the video and, overall, find these kinds of creative ideas to work in their favor as they really set the mood for the entirety of their collection. The video in reference is found at the beginning of our Background section above in this article.
4K HD Genesis
Psychedelics Anonymous also has a neat feature: letting you claim and download your genesis NFT in 4K. This is done by connecting your wallet to their website to verify your Genesis NFT.
This is a feature we did not expect to see, and it just adds to the quality and attention to detail that Psychedelics Anonymous shows in their works. We feel that giving out their NFTs in 4K download is a testament to their confidence in their works and truly shows how high quality these NFTs really are.
Metaverse Pass and the IRL Pass
The Metaverse Pass and the IRL Pass designs seem to be inspired by credit cards. They have Psychedelics Anonymous’ logo printed in the top corner and also state the kind of pass it is. In the middle of the card, there is, assumingly, a blind type. The text seems to be static and the same on all the cards. Lastly, the pass states the NFT class and name of the pass-holder. There is an icon differentiating between the IRL Pass and the Metaverse pass.
Overall there isn’t much to say about the passes. They’re clean, minimalist, and an entry NFT into the Psychedelics Anonymous world, granting the holder access to their metaverse/IRL events.
Component #1-3 Collections
Components #1-3 are, like the metaverse/IRL passes, simplistic designs that are pleasing to look at while not being too much. All the Component NFTs are circles with some design inside them and of the same category. They all have the same design, meaning that all the Component #1 NFTs look the same, same for Component #2 and #3.
As with the passes, there isn’t really much to say in regards to the artwork that Psychedelics Anonymous has produced with these NFTs, either. They’re simple, clean, and minimalistic, all while looking good.
PAPP and Psilocybin
Compared to the two previous counterparts NFTs, the PAPP and Psilocybin NFTs have some interesting artwork.
The PAPP (Psychedelics Anonymous Printing Press) NFT is an animated NFT that includes sound. The design itself seems to be a workstation. The animations consist of an overhead light turning on and off, some spinning objects, a fingerprint security screen turning on, a Psychedelics Anonymous background turning on as well as some infographics below turning on and off.
Overall the PAPP design is a really unique and fun addition to their NFT lineup.
The Psilocybin NFT is also an animated NFT. It consists of a larger sphere with two smaller spheres orbiting around the larger ones. Unlike the PAPP NFT, the Psilocybin NFT does not include any sound.
The smaller spheres emit lights in the form of blue and pink, creating a beautiful light show as they orbit around. The uniqueness of Psilocybin is also represented in a Twitter animation that Psychedelics Anonymous posted in late April 2022.
Overall we find both the PAPP and Psilocybin NFTs to be creative, beautiful, and a great addition to their collections of NFTs.
The Contrast Between Genesis And Their Other NFT Collections
One thing to point out is the contrast between their collections. Their Genesis collection is dark, mysterious, and very moody. A mood that is represented throughout their website, their lore, and videos.
On the flip side, their other collections are the complete opposite. Their passes, components, PAPP, and Psilocybin collections are bright, colorful, and vibrant. Compared to their Genesis collection, this is a contrast we found interesting.
In Conclusion
Looking at the overall design that Psychedelics Anonymous has created, we can’t say enough about how intriguing we find their artwork. Giving this much detail to almost everything they do just increases the confidence we have in this project, as it shows that great detail and thought are given to all the aspects of their project. This aligns well with their objective to be as transparent as they can be and to make sure they learn from other projects out there.
Overall we find the artwork produced by Psychedelics Anonymous to be creative, detail-oriented, great quality, and just downright good.
Utility
There have been several promises of utility from the Psychedelics Anonymous team in the form of professional counseling for its community, fitness clubs, IRL and metaverse events, merch, future Play-to-Earn mechanics and also a big component here is PAs donations to organizations that offer psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Psychedelics Anonymous Website
We compared Psychedelics Anonymous’s desktop website to its mobile site to see how it measures up and if there were any changes that Psychedelics Anonymous could make to the site to improve it. Follow along to see our verdict. In this testing, we used a Samsung Galaxy S10+.
Desktop
The layout of this website was a little bit different from those we’ve seen previously. The team had removed the ability to scroll down on the main site, and instead, we could find a menu on the upper-right-side of the browser. In addition, we were able to see their Twitter and Discord information top-left of the website. However, there was no information on the main site saying that the user would have to open the three lines, which symbolize a menu. A simple improvement could be leaving it open for users to see right away. This simple step could make it easier for users to explore the website further. In addition, we felt like the bold background choice could benefit from a background soundtrack to match the mood even more.
In the background, the user could see different artwork of faces with varying sorts of masks or paintings, which were examples of some of the NFTs that were created by the team. By clicking into each of the sections in the menu, the user could discover more about this project, NFTs, core team, roadmap, and more.
The scrolling function is then reopened and usable when clicking into these sections. In the background, we were still able to see the NFTs with glitching effects, and for the sections where the glitching stops- NFT background had been removed, new and well-balanced color themes had been placed, such as the “roadmap” section, “IRL check” and “download portal.”
Although we couldn’t find any errors with the effects, we think this site could benefit from a typical scrolling function to view the whole site. During this testing, it was considerably more time-consuming to read through all the information because of this layout. However, we think that if the site were to do so, they would perhaps need more pictures to assist with the text.
Screenshot borrowed from https://psychedelicsanonymous.com/
Mobile
When checking the mobile site, the first thing we noticed was that the user could actually see more of the NFTs on the mobile screen than on the PC, even when we tried zooming out on the PC. The glitching effects worked well for the front page. There was no link to their social media on the main mobile site, but it was instead integrated into the “menu” option, which has the same three lines as a symbol.
The copyright, license, privacy, and terms that previously were on the bottom of the main site were also moved to the menu. The menu window filled almost the entire mobile screen, and the text looked somewhat cramped. When we clicked into each section, the menu disappeared only for the user to reopen it when continuing to the next topic.
The glitch effect continued whenever the NFTs were shown, which gave the site a theme that follows throughout. The information, however, fits nicely into the screen, but unfortunately, the menu option didn’t follow when the user would scroll down to read. Because of this, the user would have to scroll all the way up, only to open the menu again and continue browsing.
Since 7 out of 10 menu options require scrolling to read, this extra step is time-consuming, and honestly, we could see users becoming frustrated by having to repeat this step multiple times. A simple fix could be having the top menu stay permanently placed on the screen while scrolling, or perhaps only the symbol for the menu.
Screenshot borrowed from https://psychedelicsanonymous.com/ Mobile site to compare the NFT, background art, with the desktop version. Here the NFT is visibly bigger on mobile.
Screenshot borrowed from https://psychedelicsanonymous.com/ Desktop version to compare the NFT, background art, with the mobile site.
Screenshot borrowed from https://psychedelicsanonymous.com/ Desktop version to compare the NFT, background art, with the mobile site.
The Verdict
The Psychedelics Anonymous website has attempted to have a different layout than we’ve previously seen in other projects. This new, creative and innovative layout would be exciting if it only worked well. Unfortunately, there were several issues that we discovered by testing this site.
We would have liked the menu to have stayed open on the desktop version when entering the site. There is no text on the main site, and there isn’t any encouraging text to the user to continue browsing the site. However, they did promote their social media on the main page by inserting the logos on the desktop version. Then again, the menu was cramped and unappealing on the mobile site. When entering each of the sections in the menu, we discovered that 7 out of 10 required scrolling, and when we reached the bottom, we had to scroll all the way up to continue browsing.
We imagine that a simple solution could be that the menu symbol follows the site as the user scrolls it. We found the same issue on the desktop version. However, it’s a little more manageable to save time because of the scrollbar on the side. While it wasn’t the biggest issue, we would also advise the website designers to enlarge the scrollbar slightly. During this testing, it was a little thin, requiring the user to be precise.
While the artwork was exciting and of excellent quality and the effects were suiting, there was still another issue, or perhaps an easter egg, discovered. We found that the user could see more of the background artwork using the mobile site than on the desktop. We can see why the team would want a more unique and eye-catching website for a project like this, but after checking it out, we are left with the question. Would it be a better website if it was a standard “scroll till the end” site?
Blockchain
What Chain Is The Project Built On?
Psychedelics Anonymous have been launching its NFT collections on the Ethereum blockchain. As most know, Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market cap behind Bitcoin. Ethereum claims to be a technology that is home to digital money, global payments, and applications.
Our Thoughts On The Chain?
Ethereum is the most used smart-contract platform out there, surpassing the average of over 1 million daily transactions (to see more statistics on Ethereum, you can visit the Etherscan website). However, being the most popular blockchain for smart contracts also makes it expensive to use, as it still has its limitations in throughput. What has been Ethereum’s biggest drawback is the high cost of doing a transaction on the chain, also known as gas fees.
With the surge of popularity of NFTs in the past year, the transaction cost can often be higher than the actual price of the NFT. Obviously, This depends on the collection and initial price, but for “low cost” NFTs or NFTs losing their value, the gas fee will be a substantial part of the NFT cost.
Psychedelics Anonymous’ genesis collection has a floor price of 2.3 ETH at the time of writing, so for this collection, the gas at a reasonable price would be a small amount of the total cost. However, recently there were gas fees as high as 1.25 ETH or approximately $3,500. This was for a short amount of time due to a viral NFT drop which caused a lot of network congestion on the Ethereum blockchain.
Usually, Ethereum’s gas fees are at a “reasonable” ~$50. However, this could range a bit higher and lower. For the average Joe, paying $50 in gas for buying an NFT is appalling. On the other hand, gas fees are negligible on other blockchains like Tezos or Solana ($0.01 or less). Hence, the gas fees on Ethereum are one of its most significant points of critique. Since the gas fees are so high, one could also argue that the NFT projects have a certain “quality” and are reserved for the “high-end” community of deep pockets.To make NFTs mainstream on Ethereum, gas fees have to be dealt with. Luckily there are solutions that allow scaling for Ethereum, such as Polygon. Having projects mint their NFTs on a scaling layer such as Polygon would make transactions a lot cheaper than on Ethereum.
Team
Who Is On The Team?
Name, title/relation to the team, and relevant social media links TK
- Lewis Gale – Founder & Managing Director https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-gale-172120103/ – https://twitter.com/BAYC2745
- Managing Director (2015-present) at Voltura.
- Guest Lecturer & Workshop Leader (2019-present) at UNSW Business School.
- Marketing Director (2020) at ShineHub.
- Founding Shareholder & Marketing Director (2018-2020) at TONI&GUY Cosmetic
- Co-Founder & Managing Director (2017-2019) at FounderFindr.
- Marketing & Communications Manager (2016-2017) at Mobius.
- Account Executive & Management (2010-2016) at Sales Genetics Pty Ltd.
- Adam Sullivan – Creative Director https://twitter.com/bxneNFT
- James Manning – Advisor https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjamesmanning/ – https://twitter.com/mrjamesmanning
- Founder & CEO (2019-present) at Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc.
- Managing Director (2013-present) at Vertua Limited.
- Non Executive Director (2013-present) at Fiducia Property Group.
- Chief Investment Officer (2002-present) at Manning Capital.
- Executive Director, AU (2008-2019) at Carrington Forsyth Investment Limited.
- Executive Director, NZ (2013-2015) at Carrington Forsyth Limited.
- Nicholas Hughes-Jones – Advisor https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-hughes-jones/ – https://twitter.com/nick__hj
- Chief Commercial Officer (2021-present) at Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc.
- Senior Adviser (2016-2021) at Bell Financial Group.
- Institutional, High Net Worth, Family Office Equity Sales (2011-2016) at Southern Cross Group.
- Kate Mahoney – Event Manager https://www.thecorporatelife.com.au/
- Joshua Connelly – Creative Lead https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaconnelly/ – https://twitter.com/metabaser
- Creative Director (2017-present) at The Sound of Breaking Glass.
- Graphic Designer (2000-2002) at Quiksilver Europe.
- Art Director (1998-2000) at Penthouse Global Media.
- Matt Lim – Lead Developer https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsmlim/ – https://twitter.com/pencilflip
- Co-Founder (2021-present) at Formfunction.
- Software Engineer (2017-2021) at Meta Platforms Inc (Facebook).
Team Assessment
The team behind Psychedelics Anonymous (PA) seems to have its roots in the advertising agency Voltura, the parent company of Voltura Labs, which seemingly is the company behind the project. Lewis Gale, the managing director of Voltura, founded the Voltura Labs and is stepping down as managing director of Voltura to focus on the new venture.
Most of the team members are based in Australia. However, their lead developer, Matt, is California-based.
On the advisor side, there’s James Manning and Nick Hughes-Jones. They are financial experts from the NASDAQ listed Mawson Infrastructure Group. They’ll provide business planning, investment management, and general financial expertise.
Some team members were harder to dig up information on, such as Adam Sullivan and Kate Mahoney. Adam, the creative director, seems to have decades of experience in the brand-building industry. And an excellent storyteller. We’re still in the dark regarding his background and previous ventures, but based on PA’s storytelling, we can see that this person is of a certain caliber.
Kate is also a team member whose background is hard to dig up. We know she has been working on several projects in different industries from the PA’s web page. She also has her own webpage and brand, “The Corporate Life.” However, it seems little has happened there since 2020. We do, however, get a sneak peek into Kate’s business life and get the impression of a career woman with both the know-how and confidence of an Event Manager. Her LinkedIn is unfortunately closed to visitors, so the exact details of her previous ventures remain a secret.
Do They Have Relevant Experience?
In Web3 and the world of NFTs, it’s hard to say what exactly is the required experience. The industry is so new, and it seems just about everyone has a place in it. The PA team comes from a strong creative and advertising background. This looks like a perfect combination for an NFT project where the art needs to be exciting, and communities need to be built.
The team intends to build an app for the PA community. Voltura Labs doesn’t seem to have problems accessing talent within the creative field, with several graphic designers on hand from the Voltura company. Their lead developer, Matt, recently moved on to other projects, but two scrum teams, with a total of six developers, are currently working full time on the tasks at hand. PA is also in the process of hiring a CTO full-time.
Growth Implications
Getting the right people on board is something that could prove challenging in the Web3 space. However, from the past updates of the PA team, we can read that they’ve onboarded several web developers and creative resources to help with the projects at hand. With PA’s rise in popularity, it is hard to believe the project can’t attract the right people, so in this case, we believe the team can choose from a variety of applicants and find their match.
Roadmap
Game Developers Roadmap
Alpha Team’s Thoughts On The Roadmap
Psychedelics Anonymous has a somewhat different approach to the roadmap compared to other NFT projects. We find a horizontal scrolling chain of blocks on the web page, each representing the next milestone. No dates, no quarters, no estimates on when it is finished. The milestones themselves vary in character, as some are regarding donations, others deal with support, etc.
We can see one block that is not too far from the last completed objective. This milestone mentions games and says that IRL and virtual P2E challenges will determine your path in the Psychedelic Metaverse. Following this is “The Ascension,” stating that the chosen shall rise.
We assume this alludes toward a gamified progression of the project, where some, if not all participants, will ascend, as the following block again is “We are the night,” which focuses on merchandise distribution to the genesis holders. It all sounds like immersive interactive community building and a lot of fun to us.
Towards the end, there’s mention of a DAO, just before we’re all connected through the Metaverse. Psychedelics Anonymous have been forthright with its process, and reading into the roadmap, they’re clear about where they’re going.
Unfortunately, the timeline for when all this happens is not as clear. With most NFT projects, we see promises of things being completed for a particular quarter, or month, only to push it further down the line and underdeliver on promises. Psychedelics Anonymous doesn’t promise any date where this all would be done, which gives them the time to do things right. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Socialnomics
Social Media Followers Count
| Platform | Follower Count |
| Discord | 70,562 |
| 156,377 |
09.05.2022
Both the Twitter profile and discord server link can be found on Psychedelics Anonymous’s website.
As for the Twitter account, they do have many followers who seem to eagerly follow the project by liking and retweeting. The Twitter account was created in September 2021 and has had a rapid growth of followers and enthusiasts since. It seems like they are trying to post 2+ times a day, and on this platform, they share announcements, NFTs, and events which include auctions, to name one.
Psychedelics Anonymous’s Discord has over 70 000 followers, which includes a server for resharing Twitter posts, sneak peeks, and announcements. If this project has spiked your interest, it might seem like discord is the place to be.
Even though the main chat seems to be relatively quiet, the posts from the admins, creators, etc., have a fair share of reactions and engagement. In addition, the discord server has its own server dedicated to fan-art. In the Balthazar team, we do appreciate art and creation, so this creative aspect of the community is a really nice way to see engagement from the followers of this project.
Community
As we’ve mentioned above, the Psychedelics Anonymous community has an eager following on both Twitter and Discord, even though their project is relatively new. The community even has its own hashtag, which they use to connect to other supporters, #PAfollowPA.
When a user has purchased an NFT in the genesis collection, they are officially a part of the PA community. It seems like this hashtag is very actively used to introduce oneself and is supported whenever a user announces their support for the project through purchasing an NFT. The community appears to be strong and happy to greet new members.
Monthly Updates
The monthly updates are really staying true to the teams’ ambition to remain transparent regarding their business and direction. In the monthly updates, you can find the following topics to be discussed at length:
- Finance
- Game Theory
- Legal
- Team
- Development
- Events
- General
These sorts of transparent and clear updates are sadly very seldom in the NFT and GameFi space. We hope that Psychedelics Anonymous sets a precedent through these updates and paves the way for a new standard in the space. It adds strongly to the validity of the team, and the security one would feel being invested and a part of Psychedelics Anonymous. Which is ultimately another addition to our conviction in the project.
Speculations
Divine Entity
Within the Psychedelics Anonymous community and in the updates from the team itself, there is a lot of talk and speculations regarding Divine Entity or DE and DE MP. We still don’t know what the MP stands for. Some speculate it could mean Meta Pass or Mint Pass.
The lore “We are the night” and the roadmap lead to Divine Entities. It seems it is the goal of the Psychedelics Anonymous metaverse and could be the highest form of a community member. From the team’s latest update on the game theory, they announce the latest equation, which is as follows:
(Component #1, #2, #3) + Meta or IRL Pass + (Burn x 4) = Divine Entities MP > ?
They also started “the great burning” on the 12th of May. This is when holders could start burning their components to create Psilocybin, the most recent NFT, and what would fill out the first part of the equation. The (Burn x 4) part could indicate another burning event down the line. And holders could end up with the choice of having to burn their Psilocybin, Meta, or IRL Pass and some other assets to be discovered later, all to get themselves a DE MP. The chevron at the end there, does that mean leading to DE itself, or could it just mean that the DE MP is of greater value than something you could end up with if you don’t burn for Psilocybin? There are speculations where people believe component holders will end up with Synthetic DMT or Serotonin, which we don’t know will lead to DE.
To go out on a limb in our speculations, what is a Divine Entity? We know it most likely is the next collection from Voltura, but could it be something else other than an NFT philosophically, more of a result of the process itself? Psychedelics Anonymous has a lot of focus on burning the ego. We’ve seen this in the lore and the roadmap. After doing this, which is the final gatekeeper, leads to Divine Entities. In the updates from the team, they have informed the community on the wealth distribution following these new NFT drops and of the value it has. Will holders burn their NFTs given their current value, and will they follow the process to “ascension?” Burning the ego, could that mean that monetary value shouldn’t be a focus? That it shouldn’t be what motivates the Psychedelics Anonymous community members. We see that actions have consequences throughout all of their updates, roadmap, and lore. What if this burning leads to freedom from monetary chains and a shift in the individual’s focus to what truly matters. Having followed in the steps of the process, and had the chance on multiple occasions to keep their assets or burn them, the ones who “ascend” have burned their ego and their assets, knowing that actions have consequences and that they might not get anything in return (in the end).
Several components like components #2, #3, and the PAPP have been freely given to those who held on to their NFTs. Hence, increasing and distributing value throughout the community. Psychedelics Anonymous’s efforts are to promote and further psychedelic-assisted therapy through funding and eventually buying companies working on this. They’ve been raising money for this purpose and to build tools to help people with mental health issues. What if the final gatekeeper is for community members to let this wealth go, serve a higher purpose by burning their ego, and finally ascend, becoming a Divine Entity? Who knows. It is at least an interesting thought and a noble pursuit if true.
GameFi Viability Speculations
Is there a world where Psychedelics Anonymous becomes a real full-fledged game? Yes, we firmly believe a Psychedelics Anonymous game is viable. This is primarily because of the teams’ exquisite artwork and attention to detail, alongside engaging storytelling ability, showcased on their website, NFTs, and content media.
There have been several mentions throughout their NFTs and in interviews about mini-games and play to earn opportunities in the future, but whether these are fully-fledged games or just purely smaller mini-games is not clear. Our hope is that they take the leap of faith and produce a fully immersive game within the very intriguing universe we’d love to explore more of.
There is a real chance the entire game might become quite controversial, with or without NFT-utilization, just purely based on the fact that psychedelic-assisted therapy is not yet culturally accepted or understood. The thought that hallucinogenic drugs can be used positively to remedy PTSD and other psychological disorders is humbug for most.
The Alpha Team thinks that creating a game with this theme might just be the way of bringing more light, understanding, and knowledge that could be what is necessary for obtaining cultural acceptance. All PR is good PR, and it might be possible for Psychedelics Anonymous to utilize potential controversy to fuel positive discussion and enlightenment on the topic.
An augmented reality game might be perfect for Psychedelic Anonymous, and there are many options if they were to take this path. One path could be overlaying the “masks” of the Genesis collection over other players’ faces and hence anonymizing them. Another is being able to bring the Psychedelic Anonymous artwork to life with 3D models seen through our cameras on our phones.
What’s for sure is that when and if the day comes that Psychedelics Anonymous decide to make a game out of their art and universe, with or without implementation of their existing NFTs, we will be very eager to get our hands on it.
Conclusion
Psychedelics Anonymous is an NFT project that we have good confidence in. They have taken note of other similar projects before them and made efforts to improve upon previous projects’ mistakes while incorporating the successes in the space, as shown in their four pillars. They show a level of detail and attention to their project, which is extraordinary, and we cannot wait to see what more they’ll bring going forward.
Even as an NFT project, they manage to set a mood and tell a catchy tale and make us want to delve further into the project and its details. Psychedelics Anonymous has set out on a journey to educate people on a topic that is not yet culturally accepted or understood. We find it reasonable to assume that with the way they are promoting their project, they’ll be able to facilitate this education in an interesting and engaging manner.
The level of transparency shown by this team is something that is seldom seen in this space, and we have high hopes that the progress that the team at Psychedelics Anonymous makes will set a precedent and help lead other NFT projects in the future by setting a good example and leading thereafter.
We’re eager to see how the team continues forth with their project. With a community as engaged as the PA community is, we’re sure that we’ll only see more of Psychedelics Anonymous going forward.
Other Research Reports
Balthazar Research Report: Past the Singularity: Delysium
Delysium has ambitions with its “Multiverse.” In short, it’s an open-world MMO with user-generated content in the metaverse with a Cyberpunk’y feel. In this multiverse, players will play side-by-side with AI Virtual Beings. These AIs won’t only be NPCs but could be companions and independent entities with which players can hang out. More about the AIs later. However, the novelty of Delysium isn’t just semi-sentient AI players but decentralized game publishing. The Delysium core team is building a game publishing platform allowing so-called “Delysium Metaverse Operators (DMOs)” to make their own game universes within the Delysium Multiverse. Ready Player One, anyone?
Balthazar Research Report: Bear with us: Bullieverse
Bullieverse is an Open Metaverse developed for the community of players and creators. It is built for Web 3.0 citizens to have an immersive environment. As a result, gamers enjoy an out-of-the-world experience combined with a transparent and fair monetization mechanism that underpins our open player-owned economy. The result is a high-quality gaming platform where users can both play and earn, but more importantly, experience it.
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