When it comes to NFTs, weird, satirical, and comical most often become ridiculously popular. The cartoon apes and pixelated punk rockers that we’ve grown to love were once not-so-well-known.
Last year, a Dallas software developer rode this wave to create a line of NFTs that were used to fund a charity. The NFT’s theme? Wait for it. Toilet paper.
Enter Joshua Lapidus, whose day job is at Denver-based Opolis, a technology company that helps manage health benefits and payroll for independent workers.
The theme—unique even among the more far-out themes in the NFT space—was created in a group chat between Lapidus and some friends who were blockchain experts & enthusiasts.
“We were making jokes about how bad the landscape was, with people selling anything to make money,” Lapidus said. “And we thought we should have people buy our thing and give some to charity.”
Thus the inception of the Rainbow Rolls NFT project, which started in October 2021 with the NFT theme being something as ridiculous as Lapidus and his blockchain buds could imagine: comical toilet paper rolls.
These toilet paper rolls wipe away debt
What might be more shocking than the theme is that the majority of the money—69%—being raised by those zany, wacky toilet paper rolls is being used to fund charities, including one that wipes out (see what we did there?) medical debt for low-income families.
“63% of funds raised go directly to funding public and social goods organizations like Giveth, Gitcoin, RIP Medical Debt, and more.” To that end, Rainbow Rolls sold NFTs worth 19.42 ETH which it donated to RIP Medical Debt.
RIP Medical Debt converted the crypto to cash and used it to pay off over $7.3M in medical debt for over 5300 people in 16 states. RIP Medical Debt turned the ETH into cash in early December 2021, when it was worth around $90,000. It then used that cash to buy up bundled portfolios of medical debt on the secondary market and wiped out the $7M of debt for pennies on the dollar.
Kyle Stargarden—one of the minds behind Rainbow Rolls—stated the purpose of the cartoon toilet paper roll NFTs: “(1) Poking fun at the cryptobros version of NFT culture, (2) Create an opening for dialogue, prompt a conversation about what NFTs can and should be doing, and (3) Legitimize NFTs as a force for positive change.”
The backlash
As with seemingly every venture today, even one with a charitable purpose such as this, the project was not immune to criticism. People took to the web to complain. They weren’t angry about the debt relief; they were angry that NFTs were used to do it.
The reaction was extreme, with some calling the donation “blood money” and others threatening to stop donating. Much of the backlash revolved around growing accusations against NFTs like Ponzi schemes, environmental issues, wash trading, and cash grabs.
Both RIP Medical Debt and the group behind Rainbow Rolls were surprised by the public’s reaction.
Stargarden explained that Rainbow Rolls exists to “satirize” cash grabs in the NFT space and do some good with it, and he stressed that similar problems plague the real-life art world as well.
Looking ahead
While this NFT toilet paper roll has almost run out (again, see what we did there?), this won’t be the end of things for its creators. Lapidus says his group plans to launch a second project around April and may register as a nonprofit. Despite the public pushback, the group once again plans to partner with RIP Medical Debt.
