All you need to know about Yats

Y.at is the newest player in the Crypto/Tech Space

“Own your one of a kind emoji username”

Here is a video from the creators, followed by my breakdown and analysis:

In summary — you are allowed to “own” an emoji through the y.at address. The theory is to replace names on social media, payment platforms (venmo), website urls and one main draw for crypto enthusiasts — redirect to your digital currency address. They stress the ease of use and endless potential adaptations.

Currently in Generation Zero there are 447 emojis in the Yat universe (more expected to drop eventually) with a maximum of 5 emojis per y.at. Next generation Yats will include “skin tone modifiers”, “multiple gender” and more.

The “score” of a Yat is calculated by:

1. Generation — indication of the time period, Generation 0 being the earliest
2. Rhythm — based on Length, Popularity & Pattern — the higher the rhythm score, the rarer the Yat

1 or 2 emoji Yats are the “rarest” so they are purchased through an enquiry on https://emojis.y.at/yat-request with a minimum offer of $25,000 in increments of $25k. The auction of the “rarest” Yats can be found at http://destiny.y.at (I explain the auction at the end of the article). 3 emoji Yats price range anywhere from ~ $100 to ~ $700, depending on the Rhythm Score.

You do not need an invite code to have your own yat, follow the steps on discord.com/invite/yat to get started :).

Creators of Y.at:

Riccardo Spagni @fluffypony & Naveen Jain

Screenshot from Y.at Auction

Potential use Cases:

1. Web Page — currently with ownership of a Yat, one can redirect to a URL & Create a Yat page, with “Get paid at your Yat” coming soon
2. Pseudonymity— Yat owners will be able to use their Yat as an identity on social media and other various outlets
3. Crypto address replacement — Yat creates the emojis, so they could be used instead your long wallet address (replacing the headache of checking your address multiple times)
4. Brand — some rare emojis can be identified with a brand, however this would imply large brands buying in on the Yat market (i.e. burger king)
5. Monetary Gain — Initial buyers may think of creative and unique Yats that higher net worth individuals would be willing to pay for in a secondary market
6. NFT — Yats may eventually be compatible with ETH or BTC so they could be issued as actual NFTs and be “tokenized”

Naysayer arguments:

1. No marketplace for resale (besides twitter or discord “trading-floor”) — currently there is no set marketplace for resale and there may never be
2. Competition — A competitor could create their own version of Y.at, which ever project has the best adaptation and backing would prove to win in the end. Currently @ensdomains is a major competitor which runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
3. Initial lack of pseudonymity— currently you pay for a Yat with USD in form of a credit card. Hence losing the anonymous factor, with knowledge going to the y.at creators.
4. Adaptation — For Yats to be widely accepted the potential use cases would have to come to fruition and be adapted by many
5. Lack of decentralization — Each Yat can be considered a subdomain of the y.at address, therefore much of the power is left with Yat creators

My Take:

Yats have entered the crypto community with tons of hype, mainly over the past week. Along with major accounts tweeting and sharing their Yat creations, other smaller accounts have popped up generating tons of buzz. The discord has 6k+ members and very active channels, demonstrating the community is strong and growing.

Time will tell on the potential use cases and implementation of Yats. I see this as a rapidly growing space in which the best team & community adaption will rise to the top. In terms of timeframe, I do think it will take a some time for Yats or something similar to form complete adaptation. However, Yats are creating a new market product with ease of use and anonymous features, which in the crypto world is much needed and appreciated. When compared to NFTs, Yats are currently very inexpensive which is a plus. Creativity with Yats is what gained many early users & believers, and I can attest it is fun creating unique combinations of emojis knowing that I am the sole owner.

For now y.at is very early on and has the potential to gain attraction similar to NBA Topshot and NFTs. Currently we are seeing a drop off in value with NFTs, I do not necessarily see the same situation with Yats due to the inexpensiveness and better potential use cases.

Some Characters in the Yat game:

1. Yat — @whatsyouryat
2. @TheMadYatter — https://twitter.com/TheMadYatter (loomdart)
3. Other major purchasers: Keyboard Monkey — @KeyboardMonkey3, Hedgedhog — @hedgedhog7, Cryptogainz — @CryptoGainzy

Tips for Creating Yats (Free Alpha)

1. The higher the Rhythm score the better — outside of the expensive 1–2 emoji length, 3 emoji Yats with start and end characters being the same, or repeating sequence emojis are your best bet
2. Yats with emojis that can be re-created using another combination of the same emojis will hold less value
3. Keep in mind the next generation Yats, so look to pick emojis that are one of a kind and can represent a phrase or slogan
4. Using more popular emojis will gain more attraction i.e. stock & crypto symbols (rocket, moon, gorilla, diamond, charts, lock)

Auction Recap:

The first auction was held on Friday, April 2nd with “18 of the most wonderful, beautiful, valuable, and iconic Yats” sold in a virtual live auction. In order to partake in the auction, one must hold 1 of 500 Prism Keys. Prism Keys are currently sold out on store.y.at at $200. The 500 holders of Prism Keys were able to receive 2 Yats worth a total of $300 or more based on Rhythm Score. Based on the Yat website, this was the only release of Prism Keys to help with the initial Yats and this process will not occur again.