Nicholas Dimes is a legendary NASCAR superstar, fashion icon, and one of the most beloved personalities the blockchain has ever seen. The only catch is - he's not real. He's a fictional character from a fake movie inspired by Days of Thunder. Yeah, there's a lot of layers to work through here.
That's why today we're going to do a small introduction and overview of Nicholas Dimes and why this AI-created character has had so much hype surrounding him. Put your seat belt on, grab your helmet, and keep reading. ⬇️
The Genesis 🟢
Dimes arrived on the scene on August 27th, 2022 when "94' WIN" and "DREAMS" were minted. The description that was used for this new collection was intriguing:
Inspired by the movie Days of Thunder, showcasing stock car racing culture from the 1990's through AI. These are the memories of Nicholas Dimes.
It was a simple, but compelling idea. It was a spoof, a tribute, a new level of meta, a compelling use of AI artwork, and also a commentary of the Web3 art scene all wrapped together by this fictional character Nicholas Dimes.
Misan Harriman, the curator for the Tezos Permanent Collection bought DREAMS at auction for 500 tez, which naturally placed a lot of eyeballs on this new creator in the ecosystem. It wasn't long after that all 100 editions of 94 WIN were sold out and there was a buzz surrounding Nicholas Dimes. What started as a parody of Days of Thunder was turning into lightning in a bottle.
Warming the vocals up. #tezos pic.twitter.com/Xie7iFktbN
— Nicholas Dimes (@nicholas_dimes) October 20, 2022
Pro Racer Moves 🏎️
Nicholas Dimes could likely be used as a case study someday on how to build hype. The way he interacts with people on socials, the meme games, the targeting of individual collectors to get them on board, it's all been done quite well. There's a lot of ways that these things can be done wrong, but I think Nicholas has done most of them in a correct way.
I'm not sure if many of you know but back in 1993 there was a special event where professional wrestlers got to choose celebrities as their tag team partner, and I got to fight alongside @Xer0x_NFT.
— Nicholas Dimes (@nicholas_dimes) October 15, 2022
One of the greatest memories
of my life outside of racing.. pic.twitter.com/n358aZinMB
He's also utilized some burn mechanics with his NFTs which tend to be interesting. Everyone who burned a copy of his 94 WIN genesis piece received a new piece called LOSER which proved to be a good move for everyone involved. His work is able to strike a healthy balance of accessibility and scarcity which is a challenge most of the time.
In a short span of time, Nicholas has managed to endear himself to the Tezos art community, find core supporters, and build a persona that people love. He's the charming hometown hero for a place that never existed, a synthetic and organic amalgam.
The Future 🚀
What's next for Nicholas? It's unclear right now, but he seems to be sustaining his success and the persona continues to evolve and grow. Nicholas will also evolve and grow as new AI tools come out - his story is essentially being written in real time and we're all able to watch and follow along.
“Surprisingly, although perhaps I am not cynical enough, many humans were convinced by this charade.” @Clownvamp explores the link between the personified truth and the viewer, which enables him to reach and fabricate public perception.
— Nicholas Dimes (@nicholas_dimes) October 21, 2022
Very happy to have acquired The President pic.twitter.com/DK2aXtQP5q
My personal favorite part of the Nicholas Dimes story is how layered and next-level it feels. It's a human using AI to tell the story of a fictional person from a fictional movie that's parodying a real movie. It's a very meta concept and the deeper it explores and exploits these layers the more interesting it becomes.
We don't really know where Nicholas Dimes will take us next, but we will certainly be along for the ride. 🏎️