The well-known NFT project Azuki will fractionalize #40 NFTs, experimenting with decentralized governance of intellectual property.

The well-known NFT project Azuki is renowned for its comic-style samurai artwork and the innovative ERC721A algorithm, which claims to reduce the cost of multiple minting. Since its release, it has also achieved great success in the secondary market, topping the trading volume rankings for several days, and is currently one of the top ten projects in terms of floor price on the OpenSea trading platform.

Today, Azuki announced the fragmentation of #40 NFT: Bobu in an attempt to govern intellectual property rights in a decentralized manner. The official statement indicates that the schedule for fragmentation and sale will be released in the next two weeks.

Bobu fractionalized for community governance

NFT Azuki #40: Bobu, a key character in the Azuki universe, will be placed in the vault of the fractionalization platform fractional.art. The vault will create ERC-1155 standard Bobu fractions, allowing owners to participate in collective decision-making for Bobu through relevant channels on Discord. However, it is emphasized that these fractions can be traded but do not represent ownership of Bobu, only governance rights.

Examples of governance issues provided by the official include:

• Should the ETH generated from the sale of Bobu be used to create related merchandise for fraction holders?
• Can the treasury of Bobu fund the production of animated short films for Bobu and other characters?
• Can Bobu sell coffee beans? Hire actors to endorse coffee beans on behalf of Bobu?

Breakthrough in NFT intellectual property usage

Discussions arose regarding CryptoPunks' failure to explain copyright and commercial use issues to owners of CryptoPunks NFTs. In contrast, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) boldly engaged in brand collaborations and expanded its market, with the floor price of BAYC surpassing that of CryptoPunks.

In past cases, Takashi Murakami's Flower Project clarified that owning an NFT does not grant copyright. However, CLONE X introduced clearer rules:

• Owners of NFTs without Murakami's attributes can use them for commercial purposes up to one million USD
• NFTs with Murakami's attributes cannot be used for commercial purposes

It is not difficult to imagine that in the open metaverse, as owners and their NFTs collectively increase in value and popularity, corresponding business opportunities may arise, such as individual projects centered around NFTs or endorsement opportunities.

Previous cases include PleasrDAO's fractionalization of the Shiba Inu meme image, while Azuki's initiative is a more proactive approach to govern the intellectual property usage through community as IP agents.