Creating a fair NFT drop for TIMEPieces
We implemented a raffle system to ensure the NFT minting in the TIMEPieces drop was entirely random, transparent, and decentralized.
We teamed up with TIME to help them create and launch their latest NFT drop for the TIMEPieces initiative.
To ensure a fair minting process, reduce the use of bots, and discourage gas wars, we implemented a raffle system that automatically picked the wallets that would be able to purchase the NFT artworks from the collection.
The solution we developed leverages blockchain technology to ensure that the selection process is entirely random, transparent, and decentralized. In this article, we are going to give you an overview of how this system works.
You can also check out the TIMEPieces NFT drop and the amazing collection of artworks from featured artist Nyla Hayes here:
The issues from the previous drop
In September, we helped TIME launch the TIMEPieces Genesis collection, an NFT Drop featuring 4,676 NFT artworks made by 40 artists from all over the world.
The drop included a batch minting function that allowed users to purchase up to 10 NFTs in a single transaction, reducing gas costs by 40%.
However, given the large number of people who wanted to mint an artwork from the collection and the limited quantity of NFT available, many users opted to set up high GAS prices to ensure a successful transaction.
The GAS prices in the Ethereum mainnet skyrocketed in no time, and the entire collection sold out in a matter of seconds. As a result, many users ended up very upset for not being able to mint an NFT from the collection due to the high fees.
To compensate those users who attempted to mint one of the artworks and got a failed transaction, TIME airdropped a special NFT asset called TIMEcat NFT.
Working on a solution
Our main goal was to prevent this from happening again in the new TIMEPieces drop. We wanted to implement a solution that discouraged buyers from increasing the GAS price and reduced the use of bots.
Together with TIME’s team, we decided to implement a subscription system to ensure a fair drop by randomly assigning the minting spots to 1000 users through a raffle-like selection process.
To avoid the possibility of users abusing the raffle by registering many wallets, we also defined a series of conditions users had to fulfill to be able to subscribe for the drop.
Those requirements were:
- Hold a Genesis, Inspiration, or TIMECat NFT artwork from TIMEPieces collection in their wallet
- Have claimed a TIME POAP from any of TIME Town Hall events
- Have entered the raffle within the time frame announced at https://nft.time.com/
How the system works
Once selected for the raffle, users had 24 hours to mint their NFT. This way, we ensured people had enough time to mint, which discouraged increasing the gas price to speed up the transaction. Users were able to purchase only one artwork per wallet.
The 1000 spots were chosen randomly by a custom smart contract we developed for this drop.
Through the smart contract, we created a list of all eligible wallets registered to the raffle. This list was stored in IPFS, making it immutable, and it couldn’t be modified or altered in any way.
To ensure the selection process was entirely random and transparent and couldn’t be predicted, we created a seed through the smart contract using three variables. These variables were:
- The address of the wallet that mined the last block in the Ethereum blockchain
- The exact date and time that the last block was mined
- The difficulty value of mining that block
The smart contract then utilized a mathematical function to request the seed a number between 0 and 999 to fill all the spots. The raffle logic also verified that no wallet address was repeated in the whitelist.
The users who didn’t make it to the 1000 spots of the whitelist were placed on a waitlist. If a user from the first round decides not to mint their NFT, that place will be assigned to the first user on the waitlist.
If you want to, you can check out the smart contract of the raffle right here:
https://etherscan.io/address/0xb96480aB05514B4d507401B15217E7EE6a9155E7
It’s important to mention that the IDs of the NFTs were randomly assigned, so there was also no reason for the users to mint an NFT sooner with the hope of getting an artwork with a low ID number.
About the TIMEPieces NFT Drop
The TIMEPieces drop included a collection of 1000 artworks created by the 12-year old digital artist Nyla Hayes.
Nyla’s Long Neckie Woman collection features 1,000 unique art pieces of 100 renowned women through history. Each piece was priced at 0.125ETH (as an ode to the artist’s youth!).
The 100 women featured in this drop include Coco Chanel, Amelia Earhart, Anna May Wong, Eva Perón, Frida Kahlo, Billie Holiday, China Machado, Dolores Huerta, Gloria Steinem, Indira Gandhi, Tu Youyou, Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna, Michelle Obama, and more.
