SETTING SAIL: Jenkins The Valet And The Tally Labs Team Are Saying Goodbye To NFTs To Focus On Their New AI Storytelling App

It was a somber day around the swamp on Tuesday when Jenkins the Valet and the Tally Labs team announced their decision to move away from their NFT projects and focus on creating a new app called "The Avenue," which allows kids to become the main characters in their own stories.

After a Bored & Dangerous journey that began in the summer of 2021, Jenkins the Valet and his Tally Labs team are now pivoting to AI storytelling.

The past three years have been anything but boring for Jenkins the Valet. What started with the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s most famous service Ape sharing tales from the swamp evolved into its own project, a digital book co-written by Neil Strauss, and the Azurbala NFT collection, among other ventures. However, after 12 months of trying to bring mainstream IP to life, they are shifting gears to explore new tech.

“When I started writing as Jenkins the Valet, I never thought it would take me on a journey quite like this one,” Jenkins The Valet creator and Tally Labs founder Blake Chasen wrote. “I’m as optimistic as ever given the opportunity to help kids (and their parents) put themselves into content as the main character and build upon each other’s works to create a massive network of interconnected content where every contributor is rewarded fairly on-chain. At the same time, I still remain hopeful that a world may exist in the future where there are opportunities for our NFT IP to scale further.  For now, however, I truly believe that the most important thing is for Tally Labs to focus on building a business in a different direction so that perhaps we can reunite from a better vantage point in the future.”

As Jenkins and the Tally Labs team move away from their NFT projects to focus on their new Avenue app, they will be turning off all royalties on their NFTs, continuing to host the metadata for everything they have built, and keeping key channels in its community Discord server active.

Additionally, they’re leaving the door open to possibly return to NFTs at some point.

 

“I still believe wholeheartedly in the Jenkins/Writers Room and Azurbala IP, Chasen wrote. “I think there is a world where ETH NFTs come back and the early role that these projects played (and their vast lore) will make them enticing for new IP opportunities. I believe that in the future there may very well be opportunities for this IP that are beneficial for the company and the community. But that’s not the case today."

Apes can read Chasen's full message to the community here: https://tallylabs.co/a-new-direction-for-tally-labs/

The Bored Ape Gazette will continue to follow Jenkins the Valet, Chasen, and the entire Tally Labs team. We will keep you updated on their next moves and if and when they return to NFTs. Stay tuned for updates.