Slonks: An NFT project that will actively disappear

Author: 798.eth, creator of the web3.devmeebits Chinese community
There’s a Merge Lab on http://slonks.xyz. Open https://slonks.xyz/merge-lab to see a peculiar screen. On the left, we have Slonk #608, a regular male punk avatar, slop=15. On the right, Slonk #645, a standard female punk, slop=3. In the middle is the combined result, with black hair, blue eyes, and yellow hair fragments mixed in, slop=161, +146 slop.
Consider this image as the gateway to Slonks economics; it's 100 times more intuitive than reading the whitepaper.
Mechanism
Slonks is an NFT collection that reconstructs CryptoPunks using an on-chain neural network model. Each Slonk corresponds to a CryptoPunk source, with the model rendering the reconstruction using a 24×24 pixel + 222 color palette. The model isn’t perfect, and the pixel difference between the rendered image and the original punk is what defines this Slonk's slop value. Slop ranges from 0 to 576, as the canvas has a total of 576 pixels.
The core mechanism of the $SLOP token scheme I'm writing about is called voiding. Holders send Slonks into the void contract, and the contract mints the corresponding amount of $SLOP based on the current slop value. A Slonk with slop=15 voids 15 $SLOP. A slop=400 voids 400 $SLOP. The $SLOP cap is 5,760,000, which is equal to 10,000 × 576, the ultimate limit for each Slonk to be completely wrong.
Merging is another path. One Slonk becomes the survivor, while another acts as the donor, which is permanently destroyed. The survivor upgrades to the next merge level and receives a new embedding. The new embedding renders a new image, re-evaluating the slop value against the survivor's source.
Regarding the logic of increased slop post-merge, there was a misunderstanding, and a mechanism detail needs to be corrected (thanks to jef's reply): the increase in slop isn't random, nor simply due to the hybrid model's simulation capabilities diminishing; it's determined by the morphological differences (DIFFERENCE) between the two source punks. For instance, pairing a hoodie big-head type with a female small-head type has the largest shape difference, causing the post-merge slop to skyrocket. Therefore, to achieve max $SLOP yield, find the largest morphological differences; buddies can try it out at Merge Lab.
Merging itself does not mint $SLOP, but after the merge, voiding can mint more $SLOP. This path wasn't explicitly stated in the whitepaper, but it holds mathematically. In the example of #608 + #645, originally, both could only void to mint 18 $SLOP, but after the merge, #608 alone can mint 161 $SLOP. The cost is the permanent loss of #645.
Data and deflation: the level is the scar of destruction.
Slonks deployed on May 1, and 5 days have passed. The current totalSupply is 9,505, with a cumulative mint of 10,012 and a cumulative burn of 507. 5.06% of Slonks have permanently disappeared from the chain.
Daily burn numbers: Day 1: 0, Day 2: 79, Day 3: 175, Day 4: 60, Day 5: 69, Day 6: 124. The 175 on Day 3 was a community surge in testing merges, and the jump to 124 on Day 6 was triggered by the $SLOP whitepaper, sparking strategic interest. The merge rate is accelerating, not slowing down.
It's worth noting that voiding hasn't started yet. The $SLOP contract hasn't been deployed, and all burns happening now are purely merging actions, with players already strategically consuming based on slop values before the $SLOP launch.
Destruction keeps Slonks continuously deflationary, and the Slonk's level (mergeLevel) is the scar of the destruction.
In the entire collection, those with a mergeLevel greater than 0 should be less than 5%. The mergeLevel is a strange field within the contract. The tokenURI shows it, and it can be filtered on OpenSea, with each Slonk on-chain recording its level number, but no view function in the contract exposes it, nor does any mechanism rely on it for rewards.
Its only hard constraint is same-level merge. L0 can only merge with L0, and L1 can only merge with L1. This means that to level up, you must destroy 2x the same-level Slonks. L1 burns 2 L0, L2 burns 4 L0, L5 burns 32 L0, and L10 burns 10% of the total collection of Slonks. The theoretical limit is L13, requiring 8,192 L0 to exchange for one, a level the entire collection can't sustain.
Upgrading comes at a geometric cost but offers no geometric reward. It's completely the opposite of traditional games; in Slonks, upgrading means tossing one identical Slonk after another into the furnace. The level number doesn’t record how many times you've won, but how many similar ones you've burned. The mergeLevel is currently an empty trait. The team has kept its interface for future potential economic incentives tied to $SLOP, but it's still uncertain. However, the merged visuals show that the level reflects the traces of burned similar Slonks.
Dual Valuation
At this point, the factual layer is solidified. Slonks doesn't have a single valuation logic; it has two conflicting valuation logics.
The first valuation looks at the rarity of the source punk. In the CryptoPunks community, 9 Aliens, 24 Apes, and 88 Zombies are recognized as rare. If a Slonk's source is Alien #2890 or Ape #5275, no matter how well the model renders it, it can't eliminate the rarity premium of the source itself. The lower the slop and the higher the fidelity of such a Slonk, the more it can maintain the visual recognition of that Alien's green face or Ape's face. Low slop is the core value of these Slonks.
The second valuation considers the number of $SLOP that can be minted from voiding. The higher the slop, the more $SLOP voided. This valuation is completely unrelated to whether the source punk is rare. An ordinary male punk with slop=400 will void 400 $SLOP. An Alien with slop=15 will void 15 $SLOP. In terms of $SLOP price, an ordinary punk with higher slop is worth much more than an Alien with lower slop.
The two valuation methods directly conflict in the merge decision.
If you hold a low slop Slonk with an Alien source, merging will do two things.
First, it gives it a new embedding, and the rendered image no longer faithfully replicates the Alien's green face.
Second, it destroys a donor Slonk.
The result is that you end up with a Slonk that has increased slop, but visually it no longer resembles an Alien. It doesn't look like an Ape, a Zombie, or any rare punk. The scarcity premium assigned by the CryptoPunks community vanishes.
What's gained is just the future voiding potential of minting 100 $SLOP. $SLOP hasn't launched yet, so the price is unknown, but the market value of Aliens is documented in the secondary market. This trade has a negative expected value for those holding rare source Slonks.
For those holding ordinary source low slop Slonks, merging has positive expectations. This type of Slonk lacks source rarity and $SLOP quantity value, placing it in a valuation valley. Throwing it into merge to transform it into high slop is the most valuable thing it can do.
Evolution
If you extrapolate this logic to the entire collection, it paints a Darwinian picture.
Models that render poorly are the survivors. They have high slop, naturally becoming a gold mine for voiding; no one will merge them, allowing them to survive.
Models that render well are divided into two layers. Rare source Slonks survive; no one dares to merge them since it would ruin visual recognition. Ordinary sources are recycled, concentrated as donors for merging, helping other Slonks level up.
The final collection will evolve into two coexisting categories. One is high slop 'perfect failures,' where the models render these punks unrecognizable but have high voiding value. The other is low slop 'rare faithful reconstructions,' where the source is Alien/Ape/Zombie, maintaining visual recognition with low slop, having high secondary market value.
Slonks in the middle ground continue to disappear. Ordinary source ordinary slop Slonks have no valuation advantage and are natural donors for merging. They contribute to two classes of survivors while permanently exiting themselves.
5 days, 5%. This rate will continue to rise as merging tools become more widespread and the $SLOP launch approaches. Slonks is a project designed to actively disappear as an NFT. Its scarcity isn't a fixed number like 10,000 at launch, but the result of every merge decision in the market.
Wrapping up
Slonks and unipeg are both playing the scarcity game but in opposite directions. Unipeg accumulates dust to make integers hard to match, with NFT numbers fluctuating around 6,000. Slonks are directly destroyed, with over 500 fewer in just 5 days, and the rate shows no signs of slowing down; it's irreversible.
The merge process is described in the whitepaper as a neutral mechanism. On-chain, it's not. Merging is a method by which Slonks achieve collective valuation optimization through self-consumption. Each merge is a market vote, permanently removing a specific Slonk from the world in exchange for upgrading another's slop.
Five days ago, the number was 10,012. Today it's 9,505. $SLOP hasn't launched yet, but the elimination has already begun.