Mecca. Bethlehem. The Wailing Wall. And now: Doge.
Zealous followers of Kabosu—the wide-eyed Shiba Inu featured within the unique Doge meme, whose fluffy visage adorns the widespread Dogecoin cryptocurrency birthed in that web phenomenon’s wake—now have the chance to make the pilgrimage to the canine’s earthly residence in Sakura, Japan.
The journey comes courtesy of Own the Doge, a Doge-oriented NFT group backed by Doge DAO, a doge-focused decentralized autonomous group (DAO)… itself born from PleasrDAO, a group of NFT artists and collectors who pool their funds to accumulate culturally related digital artwork.
“We consider Pleasr as The Louvre of the web, and of Doge as her Mona Lisa,” tridog, a pseudonymous core contributor to Personal the Doge and PleasrDAO member, instructed Decrypt.
Tridog, himself a strict adherent to D.O.G.E. thought (Do Solely Good On a regular basis), visited 17-year-old Kabosu and her “hooman,” the Dogemother Atsuko Sato, an area kindergarten instructor, in Japan final fall. Ceaselessly modified by the encounter, tridog is now thrilled to be sharing his non secular catharsis with choose members of the Doge group.
“This pilgrimage… will discover the genesis of one of many best legends of web historical past, and supply a once-in-a-lifetime alternative to return to [Kabosu’s] roots in and round Tokyo, a spot identified for its wacky and fantastic happenings,” tridog stated.
The journey, set to happen from Might 3 to 7, will characteristic visits to dog-themed temples and statues within the Tokyo space, go-karting on metropolis streets, and a Geisha efficiency dinner. In fact, it would additionally embrace a visit to the small metropolis of Sakura, the place fortunate journey individuals will meet the Doge, stroll the Doge, pose for meme-reenactment photographs with the Doge, and go to the longer term website of a bronze statue of the Doge—for which Doge DAO beforehand raised $100,000 to erect within the metropolis.
Additionally becoming a member of revelers on their non secular journey might be honorary pilgrimage visitor Kyle Craven, aka Bad Luck Brian, topic of one other iconic 2010s meme. Although Craven’s face will possible be on show for many of the journey, these company wishing to anonymously bask in Doge revelry might be offered “Doge huge heads,” or Doge-themed masks to put on in the course of the length of the journey. (“We’ll def make this journey ‘anon-frenly,'” tridog stated.)
Anybody is ready to apply to hitch the journey, although per Personal the Doge, area has virtually run out. On the journey’s application, would-be pilgrims are requested to disclose their true motivations for making the trek. To snap a photograph with the Doge? To dine with the Doge’s human, Atsuko? Or maybe to “shake the hand of Atsuko’s husband (finger featured in meme)”?
One fortunate raffle winner, although, may have their $4,200 base journey price plus airfare (as much as $1,500) coated by Doge DAO. To enter, contestants should personal not less than one Doge Pixel NFT. What’s that, you ask? In 2021, PleasrDAO purchased an NFT of the unique Doge meme from Atsuko Sato for $4 million (a lot wow), then fractionalized it into billions of DOG tokens.
Particular person pixels from that photograph can now be owned for roughly $48 value of DOG tokens apiece. And the extra Doge Pixels an individual owns, the upper their probabilities of successful the Doge pilgrimage raffle (though such fractionalizing and reselling of NFTs has been deemed probably unlawful by even vocally pro-crypto regulators).
Final month, PleasrDAO auctioned the sofa from the unique Doge meme to lift funds for humanitarian group Save the Kids. The sofa fetched a value of 21 ETH, value simply shy of $35,000 on the time.
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