For more blockchain books, see the Best of Crypto Books page »
What is a mooncat? Just another cryptokitty? How are they selling for so much?
Mooncats are scarce and verifiable. You can bring a mooncat anywhere in the world, airplane or boat, proving itself to be a truer store of value than gold itself.
Only 25 thousand mooncats. 21 million bitcoins. Do the math.
Oh my god I want so much a mooncat. How do I get a mooncat?
Bought a mooncat! Really happy to be a part of this historic moment. Poor things were stranded on the moon for 4 years.
Bought my first mooncat, happy to have joined the club and I'm HODLing.
Mooncat prices steadily rising ... people on the sidelines in disbelief.
Spent over $20,000 on mooncat id 0xff0b000ca7 ... one of the first genesis batch.
Changed my profile to a mooncat I bought.
Mooncats just overtook hashmasks in 7 day volume ... less that 24 hours after the first sale ... crazy!
Donated some mooncat profits to the local cat shelter, if you've made money off of digital cats please help some real cats too.
Someone took Jeff Bezos crown today [as the richest man on earth]. Top mooncat holder owns 1,144 cats. LOL.
I can right click and save a mooncat [pixel image for free].
Cryptocats hold more weight but hype is low because smaller amount of owners who are HODLling. So many more mooncat owners creating hype. Long term value is in cryptocats [only 625 cyrptocats. 25 thousand mooncats. Do the math.]
-- March 13, 2021
25,600 MoonCats on the Blockchain - World's 1st On-Chain (Verified) Generative Crypto Art - An Insanely Cute Rescue Operation
MoonCatRescue is an exploration of user-discoverable blockchain assets. Users "mine" for MoonCats in their browser. After MoonCats are "mined", they can be put up for adoption, adoptions can be requested, they can be given away, and they can be permanently named.
Launched in August 2017 by Ponderware with 25,600 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to rescue, pre ERC-721 standard.
Note: Genesis cats (256 max.) are not "rescued" but rather "released" by the contract owners. If those original project owners re-emerge, they'd have the ability to release more Genesis cats.
The project died after a bug in the contract that locked ("burned") the raised funds via genesis cats releases / adoptions mid 2017.
Learn more @ mooncatrescue.com, twitter: ponderware, reddit: MoonCatRescue
Lost cat: found.
Since the front-end interface of MoonCatRescue.com had long been defunct, dedicated non-fungible token (NFT) fans had to manually interact with the contract using Etherscan to rescue the cats. It didn't take long before detailed instructions were circulating...
Mooncats look like the 2nd oldest¹ NFTs on Ethereum...
How to claim for free?
- Find Cats https://mooncatrescue.com/scan.html
- Record seed and ID
- https://etherscan.io/token/0x60cd862c9c687a9de49aecdc3a99b74a4fc54ab6#writeContract
- Connect @MetaMask
- RescueCat() enter seed
- Pay Gas [Should be like $25-35 else it is wrong.] HODL Your Mooncat
2nd oldest digitial collectible on the (ethereum) blockchain rediscovered after four years and 100% rescued ("mined") during 4 hours of craze today.
MoonCats rescued by year:
| Year | Count |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 3365 (13.23%) |
| 2018 | 2319 ( 9.12%) |
| 2019 | 71 ( 0.28%) |
| 2020 | 3 ( 0.01%) |
| 2021 | 19682 (77.37%) |
Resulting in 19 681 MoonCats (77.36%) rescued on March 12, 2021 - if you compare to 492 (1.93%) rescued on August 10, 2017 - the launch day - and 412 (1.62%) on launch day+1, and 229 (0.90%) on launch day+2.
The Mooncat could get rescued for "free" on March 12, 2021 - paying only the transaction gas fee about $25-35 at the time resulting in a gold rush for miners raking in about $600 000 in a couple of hours.
¹:
- CryptoPunks - June 12, 2017
- MoonCats - Aug 9, 2017
- CryptoKitties - Nov 28, 2017
Note: Since Mooncat Rescue Day - Friday, March 12, 2021 many more older digitial collectibles have been (re)discovered incl. Curio Cards, Etheria and others.
MoonCatRescue has been added to the Non-fungible Token Wikipedia page. MoonCat is the 2nd NFT collection to ever exist on the Ethereum blockchain, it was only discovered 10 hours ago after being forgotten about for nearly 4 years.
Ponderware Update
twitter: ponderware
First Update Since 2017!
Attempting to re-establish contact with the moonbase. Stay Tuned.
Four Year Later on March 12th, 2021 MoonCatRescue Reborn!
MoonCatRescue, an exploration of user-discoverable blockchain collectibles is now live. Come rescue a MoonCat at MoonCatRescue.com!
-- Aug 11, 2017
Crypto Explained Commentary:
MoonCats have taken the NFTs market by storm in the past 24 hours.
A project that was created back in 2017 "rescued" over 20,000 cats in a matter of [four] hours and less than a day later had the 4th highest trade volume on the opensea market [via Wrapped MoonCatsRescue (WMCR)].
Outside of the ~0.025 ETH gas fee, these cats were free to mint
this meant there was nothing preventing a user from minting as many cats as they wanted
immediately after all the cats were rescued, there were people in the new mooncats channel looking to scoop up cats for 0.1-0.2 ETH
these transactions had to be done through the contract as the wrapping solution (so sell on opensea) hadn't been created yet
after a few more hours, a wrapper contract was created. Which allowed people to sell their cats on opensea
the floor price quickly solidified at 0.2-0.4 ETH (Personally saw bots sending out hundreds of offers at these prices)
as of this very moment, the lowest "buy it now" cat price is 0.86 ETH
if we assume people paid roughly 0.02 ETH to mint these cats, then everyone is currently up 4000% on their initial purchase
Mooncats are off to a good (re)start I think... floor hit 1.7 ETH in like 2 days showing us what's possible.
Moon, cats, pixels, colors... what could go wrong?
Big support line at 0.4 ETH broke, we are finding new local lows at 0.3, but there is no convincing strength in reaction here either. Could go lower, levels like 0.2 or 0.1 are now possible.
Ponderware updates:
As for the remaining 160 genesis cats. We are trying to work out the best course to maintain the ethos of the project, and maximize the enjoyment of all mooncat rescuers. Note: we don't receive any compensation for new genesis cats. We were supposed to but, well, check the FAQ. -- March 14, 2021
Etherscan
- MoonCatResuce, see contract address
0x60cd862c9c687a9de49aecdc3a99b74a4fc54ab6
For more see Inside the MoonCatRescue Blockchain Contract / Service »
Wrapped MoonCats Rescue is an unofficial ERC721 wrapping of the MoonCats Rescue contract.
Etherscan
- MoonCatsWrapped - Wrapped MoonCatsRescue (WMCR), see contract address
0x7c40c393dc0f283f318791d746d894ddd3693572
For more see Inside the Wrapped MoonCatsRescue (WMCR) Blockchain Contract / Service »
Markets
- Wrapped MoonCatsRescue (WMCR) @ OpenSea -
wrapped-mooncatsrescue
The Mooncat developers (Ponderware) write:
Here is the tool we wrote and used to generate the MoonCatRescue pixel art. There has been some interest in knowing how we drew them, so we figured we might as well release it. Prepare to be underwhelmed! => mooncatrescue.com/pixeleditor
A little tip if you try it out online - there are 128 original mooncat pixel drawings / designs
(all encoded in the original source code in a single-line string - see designs.rb for a "word-wrapped" more readable
source of the original example.
Yes, you can read in the design into the pixel drawing tool online (reformat required - every pixel row must be on its own line and all (color) numbers space separated). Example for design 0:
0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 5 3 1 1 1 3 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0
1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0
1 3 3 1 3 3 3 1 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 3 1
1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 0 1 3 1
1 3 3 4 3 5 3 4 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 1 0 1 3 1
1 3 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 3 1
0 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1
0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 0
0 0 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 0 0 0
0 0 1 3 3 3 3 3 1 4 4 4 1 3 3 3 1 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 1 3 3 1 3 3 1 4 1 3 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 3 1 1 3 1 4 1 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 5 1 1 5 1 1 5 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Paste the text into the box below the pixel grid canvas and click on the read button. Now you should see the mooncat pixel design.
And for some more fun here's the design 3 reformatted - ready to copy'n'paste:
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 1 3 3 3 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 3 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 1 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
0 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1
1 3 5 3 1 1 1 3 5 3 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 1
1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1
1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1
1 3 3 1 3 3 3 1 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1
1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 0
1 3 3 4 3 5 3 4 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 1 0
1 3 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 3 1 3 3 4 4 4 3 3 1 0
0 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 4 4 4 1 3 3 3 1
0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 1
0 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 3 1 1
1 1 3 3 3 1 3 3 1 1 1 1 5 3 1 1 3 3 1 0
1 5 3 1 1 1 5 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 5 3 1 1 0
1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0
An Ancient Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Project Called MoonCats Is Eating Up Ethereum By Tim Hakki, Decrypt, Mar 13, 2021 - A seemingly abandoned NFT cat project from 2017 has now been totally mined. And no: it's not CryptoKitties.
One of the oldest sets of digital collectibles ever contracted on the Ethereum blockchain has been rediscovered and snapped up by feverish crypto hoarders in a matter of hours.
Virtually nobody had heard of MoonCats until yesterday... [...] In the world of crypto-collectibles, factors like historical significance and scarcity affect the desirability of an non-fungible token. With a maximum cap of 25,600 discoverable pixelated cats, MoonCats easily fulfilled both criteria for a potential goldmine.
Digital archeology: long-dormant MoonCats project rides Nonf-Fungible Token (NFT) mania to the moon By Andrew Thurman, Coin Telegraph, Mar 13, 2021 - The second-ever nonfungible collectibles project on Ethereum sees new life.
As the profusion of new algorithmically-generated nonfungible token projects drives down the premium on digital rarity, digital history and being among the "firsts" has become a more reliable source of value. As a result, long-forgotten projects are being unearthed by on-chain sleuths, and yesterday they might have struck gold on their biggest find yet.
mooncats.csv - 25 440 MoonCats by ID with Pattern, Pose, Facing, Face, Fur and Colors in RGB and HSL (Hue, Sat, Lum)
Mooncats dataset in comma-separated values (CSV) format
in blocks of a thousand cats each
(e.g.
00.csv incl. 0x0000020886-0x000a05b9ac,
01.csv incl. 0x000a0a11c8-0x0013b68a2f,
02.csv incl. 0x0013b72770-0x001e26e929,
and so on).
The data records for cats
incl. id, palette, pattern, pose, facing, face, fur, colors in rbg and hsl (hue, sat, lum), row and mint serial number,
and more.
Example - 00.csv:
row, id, palette, pattern, pose, facing, face, fur, color, ... mint
0, 0x0000020886, Normal, 0, Standing, Left, Smile, Solid, Sky Blue, ... 2679
1, 0x000002f63e, Normal, 0, Standing, Left, Smile, Solid, Green, ... 13869
2, 0x000004683b, Normal, 0, Standing, Left, Smile, Solid, Lime Green, ... 24457
3, 0x0000048998, Normal, 0, Standing, Left, Smile, Solid, Cyan, ... 22386
4, 0x000006ce5d, Normal, 0, Standing, Left, Smile, Solid, Green, ... 7933
...
For more see /mooncatrescue »
You can download all 25 440 MoonCats
in a 2400×6120 image (~ 6 MB) for free.
See mooncatrescue.png ».
Note: The mooncat listing order follows the mooncats.csv dataset, that is,
ordered by (5-byte hex string) ids
e.g. 0x0000020886, 0x000002f63e, 0x000004683b, and so on.