From near bankruptcy, this couple changed their lives in just 6 hours: All thanks to selling NFT

More than a form of speculation, NFT has opened up new opportunities for artists in today’s digital age. The couple’s success story below is a prime example of this.

After Thorne Melcher lost her job as a software engineer in February 2021, life for her and girlfriend Mandy Musselwhite began to take a hit. While some of Musselwhite’s artwork may cover some of the costs, they may not cover their home loan costs.

Melcher and Musselwhite own a home outside of Atlanta. In 2019, the two put all their savings into this $300,000 property, with a small garden where they keep 6 ducks, 2 geese and several other animals.

Fearing that they might lose this property as interest payments approached, the two together created Dastardly Duck, a 10,000 NFT collection of cartoon ducks with 100 different lines, in the hope of being able to raise money. The collection launched last Wednesday and sold out within six hours, bringing in the artists $120,000.

It is worth noting that before that, both of these people were unknown in the field of NFT. But fortunately, a small group of their supporters helped draw public attention to this collection and helped it sell out faster than expected.

This project seems to be the perfect match for the talents of these two. As a programmer, Melcher learned Solidity, the programming language that helps develop smart contracts running on the Ethereum blockchain, while Musselwhite, a graphic artist, designed each image in the Dastardly collection. Duck.

The two started creating this collection in early January and less than 2 weeks later, it was completed.

An important part of its creation was environmental sustainability. The two were previously aware of criticisms of NFTs’ environmental impact, as their creation process often consumes a lot of computing power.

So, Melcher programmed the smart contract to accommodate the mass generation of NFTs. This makes it possible for buyers to trade and mint a pack of 12 Dastardly Ducks, using less energy than if they were to do so one by one.

Besides, this collection is also more affordable, helping to drive public interest in it. At the time of release, each image in Dastardly Duck cost 15 USD, and if you buy a pack of 12 pictures, it will cost 120 USD.

The $120,000 raised from the sale of this collection came just in time. At the time, the couple owed the bank $35,587 and if they didn’t transfer the money by last Thursday, they would have to go to court this weekend. But the proceeds from the sale of the NFT collection came to their rescue in time.

“Our lives changed overnight.” Melcher said.

Before the sale of this NFT collection, their bank accounts were less than $1, not enough to buy food, let alone pay the mortgage on the house. They wouldn’t even have the money to deploy smart contracts for the aforementioned NFT collection – without the help of a friend with this problem.

Now the future is brighter for them. Even though this collection has been sold, both still own its name and style. Therefore, they hope to continue to maintain the Dastardly Duck brand and create new projects in the field of NFT.

In addition to collection proceeds, they also earn royalties from the secondary market, where trading volume is bringing them around $6,354 on OpenSea.

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