This NFT Project’s Unique Minting Strategy Can Put an End to Gas Wars

The Project URS used a unique raffle draw method to distribute NFTs to its potential buyers. It reminded me of the typical IPO (Initial Public Offering) subscription process where you decide the number of shares (in lot sizes) you wish to purchase. The buyer then submits the payment, and the shares are allotted based on the subscription size. If the subscription exceeds the total number of shares available, the shares are allotted using a random draw.

The team achieved this seamlessly through their website and communication on their Discord channel.

They provided a pre-sale option to all the “Mint Pass” holders. One could buy a Mint Pass for 0.08 ETH or win one through community participation, contests, and giveaways. A Mint Pass allowed users to mint up to 5 NFTs and was opened about 9 hours before the main public sale.

For the public sale, they allotted a 24 hours time window for everyone to participate in the raffle draw. All you had to do was select the number of NFTs (tickets) to purchase and make a transaction to deposit the corresponding value in ETH. I had the budget for three NFTs, so I deposited 0.08 x 3 = 0.24 ETH for three entries (tickets) into the raffle. The fee for my transaction (gas fee) was ~$15 in ETH.

Post completion of the public sale window, winning tickets were drawn programmatically. All you had to do was make another transaction to check how many NFTs a user could claim. Accordingly, users could mint their NFTs at their preferred time when the gas prices were lower. Unfortunately, none of my tickets won, so I could not mint any NFTs.

I was initially sceptical about their refund policy. However, the process was seamless. As soon as my transaction was completed, 0.24 ETH was deposited back to my Metamask Wallet. The fee for my transaction (gas fee) was again ~$15 in ETH.

Even though I did not get the opportunity to claim my NFTs, I was happy that it helped avoid gas wars and the users had the peace of mind to mint NFTs at their own pace. The overall process on their website was robust and easy to understand, even for beginners.

The team deliberately did not limit the number of entries (tickets) a single wallet could purchase during the sale period. As a result, a significant number of wallets applied for 100+ entries, leading to a total of ~115k tickets for ~5000 NFTs available during the pre-sale.

It reduced the winning probability drastically, and a large number of people were unable to claims NFTs. However, the team anticipated this and here is what they have explained in their Discord FAQs:

The raffle format does not remove the advantage for whales, as they can simply deposit more to get more chances. However, we believe that:

1. We have organically built a very passionate and large community rather than marketed towards whales who are looking for a quick flip, and
2. Having a certain amount of whales on board will help the project’s value in general, and it is always a balance. If they have the confidence to put in a high deposit, that will show others the value of our project and ultimately help you out as well.

They probably did not expect such an enormous response and therefore decided not to limit the number of entries.

If it were up to me, I would limit the minting to a maximum of 10 per wallet. It may not stop the whales from using multiple wallets, but it will surely make their job much harder. And hopefully, reduce the number of entries significantly.

Some people who paid $30–40 transaction fees were unhappy as they could not mint the NFT. However, this was a small amount compared to what people have lost in failed transactions in the past. As the Ethereum network evolves, this fee should come down significantly.

Gas wars have been prevalent during new NFT project launches lately. The raffle draw method adopted by The Project URS may be the solution to this problem until the Ethereum development team introduces measures to eradicate this issue.

The end-to-end process on their website and the Discord communications were seamless. Even though I could not claim my NFTs, I was impressed by the overall experience. The NFT space is continuously evolving, and we need more innovative approaches like these. I hope the upcoming NFT projects learn from them and implement a similar strategy for minting.

Source: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/this-nft-projects-unique-minting-strategy-can-put-an-end-to-gas-wars-185fa6c65f3?source=rss——-8—————–cryptocurrency