Who is Pak? 😶‍🌫️

GM from Decentra Daily, the web3 newsletter for newbie moms, degen sons, and Uncles who hold $300 worth of crypto.

A new “twist” in a project from one of the most influential, mysterious NFT artists is about to happen – but what's the project, and who exactly is this anonymous artist?

Today’s stories:

• Who is Pak?

• What is Lost Poets?

• Decentra Daily x Lost Poets schedule

Who is Pak?

• The Banksy of web3? 🧑‍🎨

• An OG NFT innovator?

• A single person or a collective?

🙈 Murat Pak is a completely anonymous NFT artist. Some people think Pak might live in Istanbul, and others think it’s more than one person, but nobody really knows anything about them.

Despite (or because of) this mystery, Pak is considered one of the most innovative creators in the space.

They’ve been producing abstract, high-art NFT projects for the last few years, generating reach, reputation, and revenue that’s comparable with some of the world's most famous artists.

Through blockchain mechanisms, Pak’s creations merge, morph, split, burn, and evolve – changing their form depending upon when and where you see them, and how many of them you own.

Pak facts

• Sotheby’s calls Pak “an artist at the forefront of digital art”

• They use a voice modulator when speaking over the phone

• Pak’s sold over $300 million dollars-worth of NFT art

• Pak introduced Beeple, another famous artist, to NFTs in 2020.

• Founder of the Undream design studio

• Creator of AI social media channel Archillect

• Frequently posts big-brain philosophical tweets:

Pak’s whole vibe speaks to core web3 principles:

It’s accessible. Pak projects give buyers the chance to be a small part of the bleeding edge of art & tech.

It’s gamified. Pak’s projects feel like adventures or strategy games.

And, Pak encourages collecting. Projects are set up to keep the sales coming.

So are we talking about a modern-day artistic genius or Ponzi-schemer? Could you ask the same thing about Damien Hirst?

Past Pak projects

• The Merge

Merge consisted of hundreds of thousands of dots, known as "mass". They could be bought and collected over a 48-hour period.

Owning multiple mass units made them interact dynamically, merging together and reducing overall supply (until, in theory, one person could hold the entire mass).

Over 300K mass units were sold to nearly 30K Pak fans. This generated $91.8 million, leading some to claim that Pak now holds the record for most expensive work by a living artist.

• X

One of Pak’s first NFT collections. It used a time-based instead of a volume-based scarcity mechanism, changing the way many NFTs are now sold.

• The Fungible

The Fungible’s Sotheby’s auction generated $16.8 million in sales across 6,156 NFTs over two days.

• Censored

Pak raised over $18 million through sales of Censored NFTs to help fund Julian Assange's legal defense.

Pak innovations

⏰ Open editions -

Pak pioneered the idea of open edition NFTs, where items for sale are limited by a time frame rather than a set quantity.

🔥 NFT burning -

On Pak's platform burn.art, You can submit NFTs to be destroyed or "burned" in return for $ASH – Pak's cryptocurrency. Holding ASH confers benefits such as early or free access to future projects.

Burning, where NFTs are destroyed in return for other benefits, is now commonplace.

What turned out to be a $69 million conversation between Beeple and Pak!

What's the deal with all the mysteriousness?

Pak's too-cool-for-school vibe can be annoying to some people.

But there's no doubt that Pak's luminary status helps generate hype and discussion around new projects. Pak also says that:

"Artists should not self-identify. It’s like saying ‘I’m a genius’ when asked what you do for a living.”

So maybe Pak's anonymity is also about resisting definitions – of themselves, their work, and NFTs in general.

Are Pak's projects art? Does it matter? Do we need to define what's happening, or just enjoy the ride?

What is Lost poets?

Pak’s current project, Lost Poets, has been running for around a year now.

Like everything in Pak’s ecosystem, Lost Poets is a mysterious thing that’s resistant to definitions. You could describe it as:

• The world’s biggest open display of poetry

• A strategy game

• An NFT project

• A global interactive artwork

Lost Poets is inspired by the trippy, metaphysical Borges' short story Library of Babel, where a vast library contains books with every possible combination of letters.

In Pak's project, "dusty shelves" in one room of this library contain "65536 poets that [are] all waiting to be discovered ab aeterno."

ab aeterno is Latin for "from an infinitely remote point in the past."

Lost Poets is split into 4 acts:

Act I 📄

Act I in Pak's new project saw fans snapping up 65,536 "Page" NFTs in just two hours.

Act II 👩‍🎨

After the sale, holders were given a choice: keep their pages or exchange them for a poet. They had to make a decision by October 9th.

Poets are AI-created faces with "hidden rarities that will come to light over time." Decentra Daily owns two:

Act III ✍️

We're currently in Act III, which comes to an end on November 1st. In this stage, holders can name their poets and make them write "poetry" by burning Pages.

We called one of our poets Ada Lovelace after the foremother of programming – we want you to name our 2nd! (scroll down for details).

Act IV 🌪

After November 1st, Lost Poets enters act four – The Twist.

We don't know much about what will happen when the twist kicks in. Knowing Pak, we could see Poets merging, developing new features, or something entirely out of left field.

All the Lost Poets website says is:

"At the "The Twist" stage of the game, a new mechanism will be introduced, which will alter the collection's value structure."

...? 🤷‍♀️ Whatever happens, Decentra Daily will be there to let you know!

Essentially, Lost Poets is an NFT project with art & game elements on top. If you play it (if you invest in it), you get the chance to earn collectibles and go on one of Pak's sought-after adventures.

Maybe it’s not quite hanging out at Studio 54 with Andy Warhol, or drinking absinthe with van Gogh in Montmartre. But it still feels cool to interact with one of today's most influential artists.

Decentra Daily x Lost Poets schedule

With The Twist fast approaching, Decentra Daily is ready to fight against the hype and FUD to bring you the real news and discussion!

Here's what we're planning:

Twitter Spaces

• Tune into Decentra Daily's Twitter Spaces next Friday 11/04, where hosts Wiggles and Villainsky will discuss Lost Poets alongside other headlines of the day.

Wallet giveaway & Poet naming

• Decentra Daily owns 2 poets! We've already named one after the OG programmer Ada Lovelace – but what should we call the other? Reply to our tweet with a name suggestion to be entered into a future giveaway...

The Decentra Daily Twitter page is the best place to stay updated on everything we've got going on. Come join in! 🫂