Last week, a long-lost colony of colorful cats was discovered living on the moon! Nobody's quite sure how these lovable kitties ended up there, but one thing's for certain - this shocking discovery will go down in the annals of crypto and NFT hisstory!

MoonCat Mania

My first brush with Moon Cat Rescue happened on March 12th when I saw a post by Justin Trimble on Twitter. Earlier that day, someone had discovered a lost NFT project from 2017 and word was spreading fast. Suddenly, rescue teams began assembling in droves and collectively embarked on a quest to save and adopt the new-found furry felines.

The cats were completely free to mint and their rescuers were only tasked with paying standard ETH gas fees to send out lunar location transmissions. Moon Cat Rescue seemed like a fun concept, however, I brushed it aside because the project was so old that no front-end UI existed to claim the cats. With no user interface, I had no idea how to locate them. But it didn't end there...

Soon after, I saw another post from @CryptoCobain detailing exactly how to locate the cats and how to rescue them from the moon. I immediately began my search. The process involved scanning for the pixelated kitties on MoonCatRescue.com and then following the directions below to locate them with Etherscan. In the end, I was personally able to rescue six fluffy kitties of my own.

Why The MoonCat Project is Worth Paying Attention To

After doing a bit more research, it turned out the Moon Cat Rescue project was an old NFT experiment created by Ponderware and was officially launched on August 17, 2017. However, not much came of it and the project creators basically left it there to collect dust. Suddenly, on March 12th, the site experienced a flood of visitors as crypto-enthusiasts battled to rescue the remaining cats from the moon. Then, out of nowhere, the Ponderware Twitter account lit back up and the MoonCat website once again began releasing transmissions of its own.

I find this project to be interesting for a few reasons. First off, people like the idea of fair launches, and Moon Cat Rescue may just be the fairest launch ever. After all, these things were just sitting here for anyone to claim... for years. They were completely free to mint and all you needed to pay for were the ETH gas fees. For me, this was about $40 or $50 per cat. Secondly, due to the date this project was launched, the MoonCats clock in as the 2nd oldest NFTs on Ethereum! In fact, they beat out the previously held second place record of the famed Crypto Kitties which actually launched a few months after Moon Cat Rescue. That puts them right after Cryptopunks, which are now selling for tremendous amounts of money.

Another really unique part of this project was the ability to name your cats. Each mooncat you rescued came with the ability to input a name. However, this naming process must be logged on the blockchain and is irreversible. You read that correctly. Once a cat has been named, that's it. There's no going back. This added a whole new level of fun to the project, as the first rescuers and adopters had the ability to put their own mark on the project. Forever!

In the end, the story of this project, its resurrection, the archeological dig through ancient Ethereum code, and the "furvor" that occurred in the crypto community will likely all go down in history. Of course, only time will tell if there's a lasting marketplace for them. But I wouldn't be surprised. After all, this is NFT, crypto, and art history we're talking about. And with the price of their predecessors and successors in mind, it's reasonable to assume these 25,600 cuddly kitties will hold a special place in the hearts and minds of the community for years to come.

Until Next Time

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   - Gabriel Haines -