MoonCats, the long-dormant collection platform rediscovered earlier this month, now has a problem in its hands – collision trading.
MoonCats collectibles depict 8-bit cats living on the moon that can be traded or ‘adopted’ by users. The project was launched on August 9, 2017 by developer Ponderware, with a hard limit of 25,500 MoonCats to be created through a process similar to Ethereum mining.
However, the MoonCats community is now afraid that the upcoming release of the last 160 Genesis cats could be hijacked by trade bots, and users are complaining that Mooncats have been overrun by bots programmed to kill new cats at the moment they can buy word.
MoonCats was rediscovered earlier this month amid growing growth in the NFT industry. When collectors recently became aware of the project, it was reported that MoonCats NFTs cost between $ 50 and $ 200. Since then, however, prices have risen rapidly, and MoonCats now trades on average for 1 ETH.
The most sought after breed of space cats is ‘Genesis MoonCats’ – characters that are one of the first 256 mined on the platform. A Genesis MoonCat was sold for about $ 100,000 for 100 ETH earlier this month.
With the last 160 Genesis cats currently awaiting release and the MoonCats community fearing they could all be bought by bots, Ponderware wants to move on to the MoonCats community.
On March 17, the developer launched a smart contract poll for MoonCats users asking, “Should MoonCatRescue developers destroy their private key so that no future Genesis MoonCats can ever be released?”
A “Yes” outcome will prevent Genesis MoonCats from being released in the future, as the private key for the wallet containing the cats will be removed. With a ‘no’ outcome, the private key will be preserved and further discussions between Ponderware and the MoonCats community to establish a ‘fair’ method of distributing the final Genesis cats. The developer set:
“A fair distribution of those cats may be technically, socially and / or economically impossible. We will work with the community to meet the challenge, but it is likely to be a complex and protracted matter.”
At the time of writing, the poll shows that 72% of respondents are in favor of the destruction of the private key, while 28% are against it.
Collisions have been causing problems in the NFT space for many months. On February 26, NBA Top Shot was forced to delay the launch of their Premium package due to high levels of bottle activity on the platform. Dapper Lab CEO Roham Gharegozlou addressed the delay, pointing out that the firm is not interested in fast-selling bots.
every decision has a compromise, and we will always prioritize real fans – I’m sorry for the delayed drop today, I know 100 000+ of you were very excited, but for many it’s their first rare engagement @nba_topshot – we did not want a super fast but unfair sale https://t.co/6npaHKbd92
– Roham (@rohamg) 25 February 2021
In March 2020, the Ethereum-based collectible game Axie Infinity sought to discipline bottle activities by issuing a 30-day ban for any accounts related to the use of bots.