Thread by @TheFVK

🐦🐦9th day of kanaria 🐦🐦

1/ #NFT on @kusamanetwork have been dropped 1by1, batched, airdropped, or mass minted..

But a very popular mechanic has been the surprise reveal, popularised by the #kanaria egg

What is it, why use it, and what happens when you don't open your egg👀

2/ The surprise reveal 😱😱

Surprise reveals are all the rage and involve the release of some generic placeholder NFT (like an egg), which is replaced with the real deal once the mint is sold out.

They serve a number of purposes..

3/ Purpose A- early capital 💸💸

They can act as a way for projects to secure early capital in order for them to complete their vision (not unlike seed funding) without being resource constrained

Of course a certain amount of trust is then placed in the project team's hands..

4/ Purpose B - Loot box psychology 🎰🎰

In addition they play on the same appeal a typical loot box might; a moment of anticipation followed by the reveal and release, which can lead to some early price discovery as collectors' imaginations run wild

5/ Purpose C - Buying time ⏲️⏲️

And sometimes, the creators aren't quite ready to release, but still want to keep the community involved and along for the ride.

For many projects it's a mix of all 3 reasons

6/ So who has tried it? ⚗️⚗️

Many projects across singular.rmrk.app and @MoonriverNW have or are using this mechanic to great success, with some of the more alternative methods including

@ApesAndArt and traps
@MummiesTreasure and portals
@DeadCanaryClub and coffins

7/ And then? 🥚🥚

And naturally, more bird eggs

8/ And then? 🥚🥚🥚🥚

And why stop at birds.. how about dragon, snail, dinosaur and robot eggs??

9/ Post-reveal 🦇🦇

In some cases the floors will drop post-mint, as those unhappy with their randomly assigned NFTs seek to swap out.

However, often the overall market cap might remain constant as rarer NFTs are priced up, with the spread of prices just diverging.

10/ (Forever?) delayed gratification 🤯🤯

BUT! What happens when you choose not to reveal..

and who would do such a thing.. and why?

11/ The Lost Robbies

One of the coolest examples of an unintentional no-reveal was the story of the lost robbies.

Out of 300 minted only 12 were claimed, with #NFT archaeologists later embarking on a treasure hunt to find the remaining 288

12/ Mutant Serum (1) 🧪🧪

The most high profile non-reveal would be that of the Mutant Apes, borne from combining an airdropped serum onto a @BoredApeYC..

13/ Mutant Serum (2) 🧪🧪

While last year you could buy an M1 serum for as little as 1/10th the cost of an ape, the ratio has now swelled to 1/4 the value..

SEP 2021:
BAYC 40 ETH
serum 4 ETH

TODAY
BAYC 100 ETH
serum 25 ETH

Those with patience have been richly rewarded 🚀

14/ Wax Packs (1)🕯️🕯️

And this extends to the real world too, with numerous examples of collectible basketball, baseball, Pokemon etc cards fetching huge prices with their packets intact...

allvintagecards.com/ebay/basketbal…

15/ Wax Packs (2) 🕯️🕯️

Although sometimes it's hard to know how legitimate the contents might be 😅😅

nintendoenthusiast.com/logan-paul-sca…

16/ Unopened Kanaria eggs🎁🎁

Which brings us back to our beloved #kanaria eggs.

As you might expect with 8,478 eggs, some owners either intentionally or unintentionally left their eggs hatched.. including 3 Founder Eggs..

..currently there are 2 Founders under 1500 KSM😬

17/ Stroke of Genius? 💡💡

It's hard to say.

As @DAOMouse's analytics show, limited edition unhatched eggs have sold for up to 20 KSM on the secondary market.

No rare or founder eggs have ever been sold, although there is one lone rare on the market for a cool 199 KSM🌀🌀

18/ Unshared art 🖼️🖼️

And shrewd move or not, tragically some secondary art created specifically for these birds was never used 🥲🥲

19/ The Future of Eggs

So what's next for the surprise box mechanic? Will we continue to see this used into the future or will alternative methods for NFT drops grow in popularity.

And more to the point.. would you ever consider not opening your egg?