The daily burning amount of ETH exceeds OpenSea, what exactly is the NFT project Space Poggers?
Learn about the gameplay of the newly launched NFT project Space Poggers and the reasons for its popularity.Author: Qin Xiaofeng
Editor: Hao Fangzhou
Source: Odaily Planet Daily
Early this morning, a project called Space Poggers conducted an NFT sale.
The project reached its target in less than 20 minutes after launch; the massive user volume also caused Ethereum network Gas fees to soar (rising from 50 GWei to 625 GWei within 5 minutes). As of the time of writing, Gas fees have returned to 40 GWei. Data from Ultrasound.money shows that the project address has currently burned a total of 570 ETH, ranking first, surpassing the OpenSea address (473 ETH).
In the ever-evolving NFT market, why is Space Poggers so popular? Today, Odaily Planet Daily will introduce the gameplay of Space Poggers and the reasons for its rise.
Gameplay Introduction: NFTs as Tickets to the Space Ark
According to the official website, Space Poggers is a collection of animals in NFT form based on Ethereum, with each Space Pogger being a cute and unique animal character.
Space Poggers has designed a background of interstellar adventure: a certain alien civilization residing in the Artemis galaxy faces an accident that threatens its extinction, with the remaining 12 tribes gathering on a spaceship (The Space Ark) to embark on an adventure in the unknown universe.
According to the setting, Space Poggers NFTs serve as tickets to board the Space Ark. Each tribe has 1000 Pogger NFTs, resulting in a total of 12,000 NFTs (Note: the current total in the smart contract is 11,686).
Users holding NFTs can also represent their tribes in events or competitions to earn ETH rewards. Additionally, owning Space Poggers NFTs grants other benefits, including exclusive membership experiences, NFT airdrops, and branded merchandise; Space Poggers will also actively collaborate with creators in the NFT community to develop the Space Poggers universe through various artistic mediums (including animation, music, and artwork).
If users wish to purchase NFTs, they can use decentralized wallets (such as MetaMask, Portis, or WalletConnect) to buy them, with each NFT priced at 0.07 ETH (approximately $210); if they want to buy multiple NFTs at once, the (wholesale) price can be reduced to between 0.05 ETH and 0.07 ETH.
According to the official roadmap, certain features will be unlocked when the NFT sales reach specific thresholds:
At 10% of total sales, community writers, animators, and musicians will be hired to begin building the world of Space Poggers;
At 25% of total sales, a limited edition of the 13th Pogger tribe will be announced, and a space portal will be established to reward community members who collect all 12 Poggers by August 15;
At 50% of total sales, the first tribal event will be launched, where NFT holders will team up as a tribe to compete for ETH and more Poggers;
At 75% of total sales, a members-only merchandise store will be launched, offering limited edition gear as rewards for token holders;
At 100% of total sales, all token holders will be invited to participate in a competition—the grand prize is a Tesla Model 3; additionally, the team will donate $100,000 to selected charities.
In the future, Space Poggers will also launch liquidity mining pools, hold Space Poggers conferences, provide accelerators for NFT creators, and develop supporting applications, among other initiatives.
A Hot Launch, but with Continuous Issues
Early this morning, Space Poggers officially conducted its NFT sale. According to the official announcement, the project sold out in just 20 minutes. "We sold out in less than 20 minutes! Thank you for your support; we will do our best to embark on a glorious journey with the Space Ark."
The massive user volume also caused Ethereum network Gas fees to soar, rising from 50 GWei to 625 GWei within 5 minutes; as of the time of writing, Gas fees have returned to 40 GWei.
Network congestion also led to increased transaction costs for users, with some reporting that although the NFT was priced at 0.07 ETH, their Gas fees exceeded 0.08 ETH. As shown below:
Data from Ultrasound.money shows that the project address has currently burned a total of 570 ETH, ranking first, surpassing the OpenSea address (473 ETH). On the OpenSea website, the current lowest transaction price for Space Poggers NFTs is 0.19 ETH, which is 2.7 times the initial price; within less than 24 hours of launch, the total trading volume reached 405 ETH.
It is worth noting that currently, Space Poggers NFTs cannot display their styles on major platforms (they appear like blind boxes), and only the rarity parameters of the related NFTs can be seen. The root cause is that the project encountered a malfunction before launch, preventing the related NFTs from being displayed.
The official announcement indicated that Space Poggers originally planned to reserve three special NFTs as surprises, but when they recalculated the rarity distribution and re-exported the images, a malfunction occurred, requiring them to re-export the entire series and re-upload it to IPFS.
"Unfortunately, this error means we may need up to a week to showcase your Space Poggers. We considered delaying the official release by a week, but we felt that would be worse and an additional harm to those who stayed up late. We hope you will continue to support the Space Poggers team as we work overtime to resolve this."
In addition, during the official rush to buy, Space Poggers experienced another malfunction, with errors in the Tier3/Tier4 trading frontend causing users to lose ETH. However, the official team has compensated those users. "We are tracking 274 transactions and have also tracked transactions that incurred losses due to Gas fees after sales ended, resolving issues through refunds. We have issued the first round of compensation and refunded over $1.5 million to community members who lost ETH due to errors in our Tier3/Tier4 trading frontend. Additionally, we will airdrop Space Poggers to those affected."
Despite the numerous issues during this sale, Space Poggers is attempting to gain user understanding through transparent and prompt handling. Users have been leaving supportive comments below their tweets.
Why the Sudden Popularity?
The popularity of Space Poggers (primarily due to the spike in Ethereum transaction fees) inevitably reminds people of the scene when CryptoKitties launched, but the reasons for their popularity are quite different.
As the pioneer of ERC-721, CryptoKitties opened up new use cases for Ethereum in 2017 when applications were lacking, and it also reaped the early NFT dividends. In contrast, the rise of Space Poggers today is more due to the celebrity effect of its founders.
"This project originated from NiftyWhale and some like-minded NFT advocates in the social audio app Clubhouse. We share a common vision: to build an iconic brand on the blockchain that attracts, entertains, and educates a broad audience. Our goal is to accelerate the adoption of NFTs together, realize their full potential, and form a lasting community that celebrates creativity," the official announcement stated.
From the team members' perspective, the Space Poggers team is led by NiftyWhale, with NateBear serving as the art director.
A key figure is NiftyWhale, a well-known collector, writer, and speaker in the NFT space, who has 22,000 followers on Twitter, with a highly engaged audience primarily focused on the NFT sector. He frequently shares his thoughts on NFTs on Twitter, garnering a significant number of likes and comments.
NiftyWhale once wrote a self-introduction that briefly outlined his background: he is a serial entrepreneur who became an angel investor after achieving financial freedom; since November 2020, he has been collecting NFTs and founded Nifty Whale in March 2021 to support artists, creators, and the NFT community, having spent a total of $10 million on NFTs.
Two weeks ago, NiftyWhale began previewing the Space Poggers NFT sale on Twitter. The influence of this prominent figure laid the groundwork for the project's popularity.
Of course, for more ordinary users, the relatively low pricing of Space Poggers also played a significant role in stimulating participation enthusiasm.
On one hand, well-known NFTs often cost dozens or even hundreds of ETH, with limited liquidity and not suitable for ordinary users; on the other hand, lesser-known NFT replicas may have lower prices but also lack recognition, failing to meet investment expectations. In this context, the combination of celebrity endorsement and a low price (0.07 ETH) makes Space Poggers seem like a good choice.
The interplay of multiple factors contributed to the rise of Space Poggers this morning.
