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Elrond’s NFT space has been alive and well for over a year at the time of writing. Investors have been exposed to almost every scam or scandal imaginable at this point, leading to a strong and careful decision making process. Each failure in the space has allowed Elrond NFT investors over time to be less naive and more cautious with their purchases. An enormous factor in this decision making process is trust. We want Calileo to be a platform that users can trust fully and independently. The ETHOS collection made by Calileo is a direct representation of the trustworthiness that Calileo attempts to portray through all of its operations. We are in absolutely no position to be engaging in any form of malicious behaviour. The values embedded within Calileo go hand in hand with ETHOS. An NFT project of this scale will support Calileo whilst opening up our community to a completely new style of NFT. 

Elrond investors can no longer be tricked or taken advantage of like in some of the earlier days. We have gained valuable market knowledge which can distinguish legitimate projects from ones looking to make quick profits. Building Calileo is an expensive and ambitious venture, meaning funds are necessary to pay the design teams and developers, while building a strong foundation for the treasury.  The initial idea of raising money through a correlated NFT project is a solid idea, but it comes with its fair share of moral dilemmas.

In the grand scheme of things, there are two different approaches that Calileo could take. The first approach (and the less moral of the two), is to rush out a decent NFT with highly aggressive marketing. This means paying influencers and promoters to garner as much hype as possible to maximize immediate sales profit. The NFT can be subpar, rushed, uninteresting, but the marketing tactics and association with Calileo would allow for some form of success, likely through taking advantage of investors. The utility would still exist, but there would be no true attachment to the art of such an NFT. Our team could not stomach an approach in this manner, instead deciding to take the longer route. A specific quote comes to mind in the process of dealing with such a dilemma: 

“If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures. If you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures” – Musonious Rufus.

The team at Calileo decided, much like Elrond itself, it is most important to build a product that people will love, and let them explore it on their own. The ETHOS collection is one that has required hundreds of man hours of time and dedication, and we believe seasoned NFT investors will be able to appreciate this quality as soon as eyes are laid upon the collection. 

The most successful project on Elrond to date, Elrond Apes, had no product to back their design, only a community of believers. One thorough examination of traits such as the Samurai Jacket highlight the extreme attention to detail and hours of effort put into accomplishing such a perfect design. Their brand is built through beauty and elegance, not utility and hype. This goes to show the importance of a collection that takes their art seriously, with traits tailored to perfection. 

The success of Elrond Apes is inspiring because it shows what is possible through hard work and attention to detail. Even though the Calileo Social Platform will leverage our ETHOS collection, we wanted to combine this utility with the kind of effort required to build a collection that investors can truly appreciate. We want people to spend time observing the details and the easter eggs. We want something people will be proud of to don as their profile picture. An achievement such as this, in a saturated space, means only one thing: no shortcuts. If we want respect through ETHOS, it must be earned. 

The collection is so unique in countless senses. There are many traits that have never been seen before on Elrond. There is a hint of humour that has never been seen on Elrond. We want to release a project that has at least one trait that can resonate with anybody minting. 

The team at Calileo understands how sharply momentum can build. The ball is rolling but it is ultimately up to the investors to decide whether or not they love the art. In addition to the crucial list of utilities highlighted in other postings, we needed ETHOS to bring back exceptional art to the Elrond NFT space. The kind of art that one recognizes as luxurious; art which must have taken months to complete in its entirety. 

ETHOS is Calileo’s baby. We know how important an NFT project is when representing and supporting a company. To choose a base model, we needed to think of a character which could portray confidence, trust, and creativity. Instead of developing a new character from scratch, we believed the right choice would be a historical object instead. There existed ideas of a mythical creature or an alien, but David was the favourite choice of the team. Recreating Michelangelo’s David was not the easier option, but the statue itself carries centuries of emotions and meaning to millions of people. Creating a character from scratch makes their personality difficult to trust, whereas David has stood the test of time as a symbol of perfection and elegance. 

When making decisions for traits, it is of utmost importance to take community desires into perspective. If we ask ourselves what is lacking from the Elrond NFT ecosystem at the moment, the most obvious answers are: A humorous NFT, never before seen traits, and traits that resonate with people. We want to mix five different categories of traits: Funny, Meaningful, Unique, Classics and Memberships. With 180 total traits, this complex mixture would not be a problem. We want each and every David to have its own personality. It is abundantly clear that our community loves controversial, surprising and detailed traits. When we spend our precious $EGLD on an NFT, we are going to take the time necessary to study every single brush stroke. This is why every trait has been reviewed and audited by a minimum of 5 sets of eyes, as not to miss any details. In the process, the design team also implemented fixes and suggestions by multiple established NFT artists, in an effort to produce the highest quality hand-drawn collection on Elrond. 

In conclusion, the story of ETHOS is one that combines careful thought with hard execution. We can either present the community with a jpeg file, or a complex arrangement of pixels with a real personality. One is much harder to create than the other. Your David represents what you believe in, what you think is clever, and what you want to portray as a creator of Calileo. There is a trait for everyone, and more importantly, there is David for everyone.