EAPES is Building a Banana-Driven Ecosystem!

10 min readApr 27, 2023

Hi Tribe,

Welcome to the 6th Edition of our EAPES Update Newsletter. The past two weeks have been absolutely bananas for EAPES! We celebrated National Banana Day on April 19th with several key milestones. See below for a recap of our last two weeks and what’s coming soon in May.

1. Community Initiatives

Banana Points Program

On National Banana Day the Team rolled out the EAPES Banana Points Program, an initiative that was in the works since the beginning of the year. Banana Points are now fully integrated into our EAPES dApp.

All staked EAPES will receive daily Banana Points. Staked Prime EAPES will receive 5 Banana Points per day while staked non-Prime EAPES will receive 2 Banana Points per day.

What’s the utility?

Providing real and timely utility is a top priority! Although Banana Points will play an integral role in EAPES Islands, you don’t need to wait to start taking full advantage of your earned Banana Points. We will roll out exciting rewards and lotteries in the next few weeks just to get you started. All staked EAPES will earn enough rewards for holders to use every month. So get ready for:

Rewards — redeem for Merch accessories, custom animated banners and more

Lotteries — enter lotteries for EGLD, EAPES, Merch clothing & gift cards, Island Relics and token packages

Earn — create social content, organize and participate in events, complete challenges

Marketplace — buy and sell goods and services through a marketplace, creating a self-sustaining economy and ecosystem

Your individual EAPES work hard to earn you points. Therefore, Banana Points earned by individual EAPES are linked to that specific EAPE until you ‘EXTRACT’ the points to your account balance. You’ll need to sign a transaction to confirm that you want to extract points from an EAPE. Please note that if you extract the points from an EAPE, you can’t send them back.

However, points must be extracted from individual EAPES to your account balance in order to participate in future lotteries, giveaways and auctions involving Banana Points.

Therefore, if you sell your EAPE with a points balance, the Banana Points will be transferred to the new owner. If you buy an EAPE with a points balance, you will receive those Banana Points as well.

We suggest that you do not extract your Banana Points until we release more information about upcoming utility.

Staking EAPES is not the only way to earn Banana Points. There will be many opportunities to earn points through various events, challenges, social engagements and other initiatives that the Team has up their sleeves.

EAPES Explorer had been improved

We’ve introduced new features to the explorer. Now you can directly enter your EAPE number into the ‘Search by ID’ box, and the system will locate it instantly. Additionally, you can test the filtering system and share any feedback with us without hesitation. Don’t be shy to share your 2 bananas. https://app.elrondapes.com/explorer

The Ultimate Whale Collecting Contest

You have 3 days left to buy EAPES on the official marketplaces that will count towards The Ultimate Whale Collecting Contest for April. As a reminder, winners receive special Discord titles for the month in addition to some fresh EAPES merch.

Which title will you go for?

King Louie — The highest total EGLD spent in 1 month.

Ape Collector — The highest number of EAPES bought.

Big Banana — The monthly ATH single purchase.

Also don’t forget EAPES team member Hattrick77 has graciously decided to donate his limited edition EAPES hoodie he won for March to this month’s 2nd place Ape Collector winner, so there are more chances to win this month!

The merch is being designed and the previous winners will be notified as soon as they are ready!

Banana Sessions

Our second #BananaSessions with @DJ vAPED× is scheduled for Saturday, April 29th at 21:00 UTC. With positive vibes and heavy beats pumping, the chat will be lit from beginning to end. This is one that you won’t want to miss, with more tracks and exciting new giveaways for the Tribe.

The session can be viewed at https://www.twitch.tv/djvaped

Island Relics

The Team introduced a new and exciting complimentary NFT collection called “Island Relics” (RELICS-022f23) which is your golden ticket to Club Banana on Banana Boat, the first initiative for EAPES Islands.

Club Banana is a place where EAPES holders can elevate, energize and engage through live DJ events, parties, secret missions and immersive quests. It’s a community building initiative that rewards participants with amazing giveaways and prizes. Participate in The Lost Treasure of Blackbeard’s Revenge or the Island of Terror as a team to unlock more treasures and to experience the initial concept of what EAPES Islands may become.

In addition, each Island Relic has unique traits and are ranked according to the rarity of these traits. These will come into play at a later time.

The Golden Relics (Statues and Earrings) were airdropped to eligible Prime EAPE stakers on National Banana Day. Each staked Prime received one Golden Relic.

The second airdrop will be for any EAPES Whale who stakes (from the same wallet) 40 or more non-Prime EAPES in the dApp prior to the snapshot on May 18th at 19:00pm UTC. They will receive Platinum Bananas which will be airdropped starting May 19th, 2023.

The Island Relics collection also includes Platinum Earrings which will be airdropped to EAPES Whales who staked (from the same wallet) 25–39 non-Prime EAPES prior to a snapshot in mid June.

Lastly, there are 50 Ape Necklaces up for grabs through giveaways, contests and auctions! Stay tuned for how you can qualify for these upcoming airdrops and giveaways.

In the meantime, the Golden Bananas can be purchased and swapped on official marketplaces including:

We have great plans for the future of Club Banana and will host special events regularly. Stay tuned!

You asked for more sneak peeks and we delivered! Here are two more for you to enjoy:

Special Trait Staking Pool

Please remember that the Special Pool for staking rewards between April 18th — May 2nd is Diving Mask. If you have a Diving Mask EAPE, you will need to unstake and restake to the Special Pool.

Important Reminder: anyone who has staked in any old Special Trait Pool must unstake and restake their EAPES in order to continue receiving staking rewards. EAPES staked in old Special Trait Pools no longer receive WEGLD rewards!

2. Marketing Initiatives

Light Rebranding Campaign

Ready. Set. Live! We unveiled a studio produced intro video that we hope engaged your senses. We wanted to present our new logo in a more engaging way. Special thanks to yopsy for his time and expertise.

Ready. Set. Reveal! As you know, our new logo is an exciting and important step in solidifying the EAPES brand. It’s the visual representation of our project identity and plays an integral role in marketing, advertising and our brand value. We believe that our new logo compliments yet elevates our previous one with the use of our classic Ape head logo that is synonymous with our origins along with the new EAPES name which shows that we are evolving with MultiversX and our Tribe. This new logo accurately represents our brand and resonates with our target market. Simple, catchy and short, we believe our new name and logo will help us spread our brand more easily, quickly and efficiently.

Ready. Set. Dot.Com! We’re thrilled to present you with EAPES.com! Over the past month, the Team has been in careful negotiations to purchase the domain name. The initial asking price was $15,000 USD and through numerous interactions with the owner, we’ve settled on a final cost of 80 EGLD. We continue to secure online assets and properties for our EAPES community. Please note that our new website design is currently being developed and we’ll let you know when it goes live.

Ready. Set. Merch! The Tribe has spoken! We heard you and are committed to delivering quality products. The previous Merch Store was demolished and we started from scratch, researching and negotiating for the best products that we know you will love. We are sourcing only high-quality items and want to give the Tribe a wider selection of products that will cater to every community member and every budget. We’ve also added eco-conscious products wherever possible to align with our values and brand. We are reopening our EAPES Merch Store in early June (estimate). Stay tuned for more details!

We’re excited about our rebrand. How about you? Show us your support and enthusiasm by posting our new EAPES logo and intro video on your social media accounts!

3. Development Initiatives

Banana Points

There are multiple reasons why the Team made the decision to launch a points rewards system. One of the major reasons is that Banana Points is adding significant value to every EAPE. Other reasons include simplicity, flexibility, transactions costs and more (see below for more details). In addition, it will incentivize and engage holders, contribute to building an economic platform and expand the possibilities for our future plans. For these reasons we felt a Banana Points reward system was the smart option to take EAPES to the next level whilst building the foundation needed to carry out our long-term vision.

Simplicity: Reward points are simpler and easier to understand for holders who may not be familiar with cryptocurrency or blockchain technology. Tokens can be more complex to use and require additional knowledge and tools to manage, while points can be more intuitive and accessible.

Transaction Costs: There are no transaction cost. Since points are specific to the platform, transactions can be processed within the platform itself without requiring external blockchain transactions. No fees will definitely improve the holders’ experience.

More Control: Reward points will give our platform more control over the EAPES economy and ecosystem. The platform can have more control over how Banana Points are earned, spent, and exchanged. This can help to prevent fraud or abuse of the system, and also enable the platform to set rules and policies that are tailored to the needs of our community.

More Flexibility: Reward points can be used for a wide range of purposes within our platform, such as buying virtual goods, accessing premium content or earning rewards. This flexibility will make the Banana Points system more adaptable to the needs of the platform and our community.

While we are implementing a points system, it should be noted that we are not ruling out the possibility of introducing an EAPES token in the future. In light of many factors, we remain committed to exploring all possibilities that can add value to the EAPES community while ensuring compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

EAPES Islands

We will soon enter the Deep Concept phase for EAPES Islands, during which we will delve into several initiatives grouped under some important themes. Here are a few of them:

Sustainable Revenue Streams: Implementing a Self-Financing Strategy for EAPES Islands
Managing Development: A Comprehensive Plan for Development and Progress Monitoring Strategy
Building a Thriving and Engaged Community in EAPES Islands: Strategies and Tools for Social Interaction and Participation
EAPES Islands Marketing: A Collaborative Marketing Approach to Expand Awareness and Attract Visitors

4. Partnerships and Collaborations

Cyberpunk City

Here are some exciting new updates regarding staking rewards for WEGLD and $CYBER tokens. 1 | CYBER TOKEN REWARDS The positive momentum in the $CYBER token value is one of the bright spots in this bear market. EAPES distributed CYBER rewards on April 4th when the token value was $0.18. At the moment, it is trading around $0.23, up nearly 28% over the past 3 weeks alone (https://e-compass.io/maiars/chart/cyber/usdc).

For EAPE holders who staked their $CYBER rewards in the Cyberpunk City dApp, congratulations on taking advantage of the token appreciation as well as the high APY.

For stakers who have not yet claimed their $CYBER rewards, please connect to the staking dApp and claim them as soon as possible. These original $CYBER rewards will only be claimable until May 23rd (8 weeks after the initial distribution). Please note that after May 23rd, the SC will retrieve the remaining $CYBER tokens as these wallets will be considered dormant. FYI, unclaimed $CYBER tokens are held in the following SC : erd1qqqqqqqqqqqqqpgq575mqgaqe4f53rqc5ssczkxtsx4fs26l3azq9zwkaw

There are several possibilities for these retrieved $CYBER tokens that include:

Distribute to EAPE stakers at the end of June. The amount of $CYBER tokens you will receive depends on how long you’ve staked during the month of June.
Reward the community for raid initiatives, contests, Banana Point lotteries etc.
Add it to the growing $CYBER token pool that we continue to receive as a benefit to staking a portion of our DAO wallet with the CPC staking provider.
A mix of the above options.

Please stay tuned for more details.

Home X

The EAPES and Home X collaboration continues with the release of their Whitepaper, including the final Game Wiki, S01 schedule, Roadmap and Long-term vision. Mint date is expected to be announced next week.

The Whitepaper can be found at https://home-x.gitbook.io/whitepaper