Cardano NFT Column: ADA Ninjaz

Seeing the great interest in the Cardano SPO Column, we decided to start a similar segment about NFTs that live on this Proof of Stake blockchain.

This week’s guest on the Cardano NFT Column is a project that aims to be a world-leading multimedia and entertainment company that is highly interactive, story-focused, and community-driven: ADA Ninjaz.

Last week’s guest was a project developing a play-to-earn layer that integrates with existing games like Fortnite and Rocket League.

This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.

Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.

Cardano NFT project: ADA Ninjaz

Hi ADA Ninjaz, thanks for being our second guest on this column. Could you tell us a bit about your team, where are you from, what are your backgrounds?

Great to be here, and chatting with you! Well, Tommy and I (Zushan), the two co-founders, are based out of Canberra, Australia. I’m originally from Pakistan and have lived between Dubai and Australia all my life. Our team also includes our Chief Creative Officer, Ignacio, who is an Argentinian based in Germany and EJ, our Operations manager who is based in the Philippines.

We’ve got a pretty large team, which includes our amazing writers Allen Vale, Matt Grass, Nadya W and also our artists, Ardee, Juan, V, Apolla and Kate.

Then we’ve got our marketing and socials team – Dom, Michael and Mariel.

The team is also based around the world, including Poland, Indonesia, UK, US and India.

We also partner with the amazing teams at NFT Maker (backend development) LE4F Agency (frontend), Mirai Music (for our music production and composition) and Smokestab (Game development).

As you can imagine, sleeping at odd hours and having meetings in the middle of the night is something we’ve learnt to live with.

Can you tell us the story of your launch and the reason why you chose the Cardano ecosystem to pursue your vision?

Yeah! We’ve always been Cardano fans, and both Tommy and I held some ADA since we started in crypto. My introduction to NFTs was on Ethereum, and I definitely found the whole idea and its potential to be endless, in terms of what you can use NFTs for now, and in the future ie. the utility.

The biggest problem for me personally, was the gas fees on Ethereum. Paying double and sometimes triple the price of the actual NFT on gas, is, well, expensive. On Cardano, of course, dust is so affordable, it allows more of the every-person to enter into NFT trading, and buying projects. This was the first reason.

Secondly, I personally love that Cardano is so environmentally friendly. It is a blockchain I can work on, sell and develop on, while having a clear conscience. This is something I find important, and I know a lot of ADA and CNFT (NFTs on Cardano) holders do too.

Additionally, the CNFT community is amazing! I’ve met some incredible people, and can actually call these people friends, even though we’ve never met in person. Some of these people, I’ve now even met in real life. I actually haven’t gone back to ETH NFTs since I moved over to this space.

Essentially, these 3 were the key reasons why we opted for Cardano over other blockchains.

Cardano had NFTs long before it had smart contracts, how is that possible and what advantages do Cardano tokens have over other blockchains?

Well, the wonder of the API right? Being able to create NFTs before SCs is amazing. I’m not a very technical person in the space, so I can’t really expand on the backend development side of things. From what I understand, both fungible and non-fungible tokens on Cardano inherit the same security and functionality of the native token ADA, which means it doesn’t require costly and cumbersome smart contracts that result in more attack vectors. This is highly reassuring for content creators like ourselves, especially seeing the many hacks and exploits happening in this crypto wild west.

Obviously, the peer-reviewed development process is amazing and as a former academic, I know the benefits of having experts look over technology, and assess it, before it becomes available to the public. Not only does this allow you to receive criticism and a direct assessment of what you are working on, but it also allows you to improve it and make it the best it can be.

Cardano has a bustling ecosystem, with so much being created on it on a regular basis. Development before the skyrocketing of a cryptocurrency is also a very positive sign, which also reassures us “builders” and investors that Cardano as a blockchain means business!

Please tell us more about the ADA Ninjaz NFTs, their utility, the art and what is in store for the future of this project.

As some of the people reading this may know, ADA Ninjaz was a manga/anime NFT project on Cardano. However, we rebranded to a multimedia entertainment business earlier this year.

To date, we have sold out 2 collections of 8,888 NFTs, representing 2 of our 3 clans. Our 3rd and final season, is dropping on 21 May at 8 PM UTC.

The NFTs represent one aspect of ADA Ninjaz, they essentially enable the holders to help us build and create the story of ADA Ninjaz in manga form via voting, story writing, world creation and lore building. 

This of course has culminated into 180+ pages of manga, which can be found on our website. This includes decisions made by the holders, inside jokes and fun stories from within the community. We recently released 110 copies of the First Edition physical manga of our first volume: ADAn: Aramar Origins Vol 1. This is linked via NFT-L and has a chip attached to it, which will allow you to mint your NFT attached to the physical product too.

The NFTs will also be receiving an airdrop of our upcoming $NINJAZ Token, and be able to stake their NFTs to receive more of the token. Full details for the token and its utility (which I would like to emphasise is not about simply buying merchandise, customising your NFT or buying NFTs, it will have a genuine use case) will be announced on the 16th of May.

We have also created and released 2 songs (available on Spotify) “Another Day, Another Night” and “Aramar”. The latter of which includes members of the community receiving credits, for writing the lyrics of the song.

Every aspect of our project includes community-driven progression, whether it is the manga, music or NFT design aspects. With our announcement on the 16th of May, we will be bringing a whole new element to our multimedia business. So, stay tuned!

Thank you kindly for your time. Any final words? Where can people find you?

Thanks a lot for having me on to share the ADA Ninjaz story mate. I have to give a lot of love and shoutout to the ADA Ninjaz community and team. They are an amazing bunch of dedicated individuals who have put their trust in us, the founders, and we will continue to develop, create and innovate for them.

You can find everything about ADA Ninjaz on our website.

My personal favourite section is the manga with the page turner, because you almost feel like you’re reading a physical copy.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes only, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.