Eponym: A Symphony of AI and Community
Eponym is a community-driven decentralized NFT collection, created with the help of a generative model developed by the AI experts at EpoLabs.
The name of this digital series is derived from the ancient term "Eponym," used to describe ideas that emerged from the names of people, deities, or objects. An example is the word "guillotine," which originates from the name of the French physician Joseph Guillotin, who, during the French Revolution, proposed converting an existing device into an execution tool.
As per the NFT collection developers, several years were devoted to creating a specialized AI model capable of generating images from textual prompts. The Eponym minting platform was launched in October 2021, offering anyone, regardless of skill level, the opportunity to generate a unique image and convert it into an NFT.
There was no limit to the number of attempts, but the entire collection was capped at 10,000 tokens. The EpoLabs team refrained from further involvement in the minting process, resulting in an NFT series that is rich in both stylistic and thematic diversity. Moreover, every Eponym owner retains full commercial rights to their image until they choose to sell or burn their NFT.
Eponym Collection. Source: Official OpenSea Website.
As per OpenSea data, the collection consists of 7,127 original NFTs (with the rest burned), featuring diverse traits such as color, style, and more. The collection has earned community recognition, with trading volume topping 4,805 ETH ($12.8 million). The current floor price for an Eponym NFT is 0.04 ETH ($106), plus a 7.5% royalty fee.
Soon after the first digital series was released, the developers rolled out the second version of the collection, Eponym Gen 2, more widely recognized as EpoStory (primary version). The minting of this series came with new rules: aside from paying in ETH, collectors had to burn two Eponym NFTs. This effectively turned the collectors into curators of the new collection, which was limited to 5,000 NFTs.
EpoStory Collection. Source: Official OpenSea Website.
EpoStory consists of 1,396 unique NFTs (as per OpenSea data), without any specific traits. As of the article's publication, a single token is valued at around 0.04 ETH ($106), with a 7.5% royalty fee. Unfortunately, the collection hasn't achieved the same level of success as Eponym, accumulating only 107 ETH ($284,000).
Alongside their two NFT collections, the developers unveiled a platform where users can generate regular images through three models: Eponym, Stable Diffusion, and EpoHero (the latter being the neural network from another digital series, EpoHero, that is no longer accessible on OpenSea for reasons unknown). NFT owners have the perk of generating images for free, whereas others need to pay 0.01 ETH for every 100 images. The platform also offers the ability to view all your tokens and create or expand your EpoStory..
It seems that, regrettably, the EpoLabs team has stepped away from the project, as their social media activity has dwindled to almost nothing. Consequently, it's wise to approach their centralized services with caution. That said, the previously released NFTs are still flourishing and remain appealing to collectors
