A Letter From

Micah Johnson

Read the Letter

Aku : Powerful Character IP Born in the Web3 Space

Created by artist Micah Johnson, Aku was inspired by one boy's question: Can astronauts be black?
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Aku has four competitive advantages:  community, vision, creativity, and relationships.
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With a mainstream footprint and future, Aku made appearances at Disney and Google and forged partnerships with TIME and VISA.
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Aku's journey began with 10 Chapters, a collection of NFT video storyboards offering a glimpse into his world. Aku hit Christie’s and NYC Times Square during this series, and it concluded with a Bonhams x Nifty Gateway event.
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Micah Johnson envisions the future of Aku as “Building Worlds Around Dreams” with the Web3 community.
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The Akuverse is an expanding multiverse of stories and characters, some owned by the community with commercial rights. Akutars, unique Aku PFP identities built in 3D, serve as tickets to Akuverse exposure.
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The future is symbiotic: Grow the character of Aku. Build and Mobilize the Akuverse together. Empower, Encourage, and Educate each other.

What is the Aku Team Working On?

The Akuverse

Create and unlock the full potential of community-owned characters: development, related assets, and mechanics.

Character Development

Distribute timely, high-fidelity animated content in partnership with PHNTM and their new state-of-the-art volumetric stage.

A character doing good, not just standing for good

Build a program to distribute thousands of Aku backpacks filled with school supplies to kids across the country in August.

Website Experience

Empower comprehension and community collaboration with tools, iteratively clearer and more robust information, shareable, user-generated content integrations, and community spotlights.

Immersive Experiences

Research and develop oncyber Aku Worlds, Aku Cribs, avatars, and other immersion opportunities.

Strategic Apparel & Products

Apparel and products that can be enjoyed by both adults and kids.

What is the Aku Community Working On?

Information

Engage in Discord Q&A submission to iterate information clarity and robustness.

Content

Follow your inspiration across content platforms. Examples: To The Moon God Pod - produced by JWow and Love0x - and Twitter recap threads - by Akutar358.

Commercial Rights

Incubate ideas for the expression of MegaOG and future Akuverse character commercial rights. Example: MegaOG Pit Twitter Spaces - hosted by Roger Dickerman.

World Building

Display Aku 2D & 3D assets across mobile, web, and VR within oncyber Aku Worlds. An early alpha testing group is engaged in the longer-term development of Aku Cribs.

Take Action

Follow on Twitter
Join Discord
Enter the Ecosystem:
Original "Comic Book" NFTs
Aku Chapters
Unique Aku Identities
Akutars
Commercial Rights Akutars
Mega OGs
For Art Lovers
Aku's Art Collection
Oncyber Galleries
Aku Worlds
Aku Accessories
3D Visuals

The Fundamentals

Who is Aku?
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Aku is one of the world’s first-ever digital explorers whose confidence and ingenuity have him on a mission to prove that no dream is too big and no obstacle is too large.
Who is Micah Johnson
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Micah, the creator of Aku, understands the pursuit of dreams that others may consider too grand. As a former MLB player who surprised many by retiring in 2018 to follow his passion for fine art, Micah's dedication quickly paid off. Within just two years, he hosted his first solo exhibit at Art Angels Gallery and earned the title of NFT Artist of the Year. Micah consistently challenges perceived boundaries, embodying the belief that anyone can achieve anything through deliberate and methodical effort.
What is the Akuverse?
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The Akuverse is a multiverse of story worlds, each with its own creators and caretakers.

New story worlds are generated internally and/or incubated with outside creators. Each world is introduced through an interaction with Aku.

These characters are distributed in various manners to the Aku community as NFTs with commercial rights. This encourages community expansion of characters and stories with the shared ethos of empowerment, encouragement, and education.

The first new Akuverse character is scheduled for Summer release.

Aku Chapters

What are Chapters?
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Aku Chapters are animated video NFTs of Aku’s journey. They began on February 21, 2021 with Chapter I (titled Genesis.001), and concluded on February 21, 2022 with Chapter X.

There are 15,434 editions in total among 10 unique Chapters. To purchase Chapters, visit the OpenSea or Nifty Gateway secondary markets.

Chapter holders have a history of being rewarded for their belief in Aku. Chapter 4 was airdropped for free to owners of Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapter 8 was airdropped for free to owners of Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 (received two Chapter 8's) or Chapters 5, 6, and 7 (received one Chapter 8). Top holders have also enjoyed access to exclusive IRL events, and opportunities to contribute to creative decisions (e.g. creation of Aku’s friend Ady, and co-design of a limited merch drop for Aku World: Miami).

Chapter holders were also heavily rewarded during the Akutars release. For holding one full set of Chapters 1-10 during the release of Akutars, Chapter holders were rewarded with: 2 Akutars + 2 OG Akutars + 1 Mega OG Akutar!
What is a Moon God?
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Moon Gods are Aku Chapter collectors who own all 10 unique Chapters or 1 of the 10 original Aku statues.

Chapter III has the lowest edition count of 570, and is referred to as the Moon God “bottleneck”. As a result, there can only ever be 580 Moon Gods (including the 10 Statues).

Moon Gods carry special responsibility – as well as accompanying exclusive access and opportunities – within the Akuverse.

Akutars

What are Akutars
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Akutars are a collection of originally 15,000 unique, 3D avatars released in April 2022.

Unique Akutar types and traits include: Handmade (56), Mega OG (529), Partner Trait (1,502), and OG (2,527).
What are Mega OG Akutars?
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Mega OG Akutars are a 529 edition subset of the Akutar collection with a distinctive look and helmet that allows for collector commercial rights.

All Mega OG Akutars not bearing an Aku mark or a partner trait have extensive commercial rights (see terms).

In conjunction with the Mega OG Akutars, 5 Mega OG Chapters are being created to establish story and lore around the mystic character.
Why Are Akutars Called a Ticket?
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As the Akuverse expands, Akutars act as a “ticket”.

Akutar holders are considered to be trusted stewards of the values that Aku represents. As new characters and worlds are introduced into the Akuverse, many will come with an opportunity to own their respective IP.

Holders of Akutars will have full or partial exposure to each of these. Theoretical example of full exposure: the sole path to a new character is burning an Akutar 1-for-1. Theoretical example of partial exposure: xx% of supply is reserved for Akutar holders, with the remainder sold.
Who Holds Akutar IP Rights?
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Akutar IP rights - with the exception of Mega OGs - are held by Aku.

They follow Aku’s path of expansion, with an emphasis on awareness and bringing the identities to life in various immersive forms.As new characters and worlds are introduced, Akutar holders have optionality: retain and express their unique Aku identity or pivot to a character IP with rights.

As the Akuverse grows, Akutars become scarcer and inspired sub-communities form with control of new characters.
What Are Partner Traits? What Is Their Future?
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Partner traits are 1,502 editions of Akutars presented with traits co-designed by brands BBC, Ice Cream, Paper Planes, PUMA, Upscale Vandal, and Who Decides War.

This category of Akutar holders is a special tier with access opportunities to digital and/or physical collaborations. These opportunities consider a wide variety of brands - including but not limited to original partners - and exciting, relevant, one-off collaborations are prioritized.
What are Aku Cribs
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Aku Cribs are indoor/outdoor homes and advanced profiles for unique Akutar identities, built in Unreal Engine 5 - the development software of Epic Games.

Aku has traditionally been built alongside its community. Today Aku Cribs is in an early alpha test release to 50 individuals. Key features include 15,000 rigged identities and dynamically adjusted and saved environments.

Aku Cribs are part of a broader Aku mission: pursuing immersion and leveraging the 3D nature of Akutars. To achieve their full potential - mass distribution and gameplay - they will require an outside studio partner. Aku Worlds balance that longer-term process with the short-term (see below).

Aku Collections + Collaborations

What are yellow backpacks?
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Aku's Yellow Backpack serves as a vessel for goodwill and generosity in both the physical and digital worlds.

In the physical world, Yellow Backpacks will be used to change the lives of children for the better. Aku is rallying a network of game changers to help procure and distribute yellow backpacks to youth across the globe.

In the digital realm, yellow backpacks contain assets that can be digital, physical, or IRL experiences, and are acquired via sale, burn, or airdrop, depending on the release.
What is Aku's Art Collection?
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Aku’s Art Collection allows artists to express creative freedom with the Aku IP.

The genesis collection launched in February 2023 with 100 edition releases from Bryan Brinkman, Defaced, Shelby and Sandy, Terrell Jones, and Micah Johnson. Holders of all 5 genesis pieces will receive a free airdrop during season 2 of Aku’s Art Collection.
What are oncyber Aku Worlds?
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Oncyber is an Aku partner distributing an incredible digital gallery toolset. They allow for the display of both 2D and 3D assets and are viewable across mobile, web, and VR. New features are rapidly being deployed, including Chat GPT-4 integration.

Aku Worlds will ultimately be 10 oncyber galleries, each inspired by one of the original ten Aku Chapters. The first Aku World is based on the hallway from Chapter I and was distributed exclusively to those who burned an existing Aku Chapter.
Aku - Area 21
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