NFT Reveals Explained

You may have come across the term ‘Reveal’ on a Discord server at one point. ‘When reveal?’, ‘What time is reveal?’. You might have a vague idea that it’s the time when specific NFTs pop into existence. But have you ever wondered what actually happens during a reveal? Revealing a collection means making its metadata publicly accessible. This metadata (image and properties) can be published in two ways:

• Under a public URL that contains all info about a token. Prior to reveal that link will show data as ‘hidden’. Reveal is when that property is changed to its actual values (here’s an example of such a URL for Doodles)
• By uploading all metadata on chain. In this case, there is no external URL, but the size of the metadata is limited (which is why the images have lower resolution in on-chain collections). Chain Runners are an example of such collection

Collections usually trade the most directly after a reveal. At that moment many of those who acquire a token try to sell it. Some are selling out common rarity items and others snipe for high-rarity items that someone forgot to delist. In the chart below you can see what’s called ‘post-reveal dispersion’ — the typical rise in a collection’s trading activity following a reveal.

(source)

However there are some important things to keep in mind when it comes to reveals:

• The creator might not reveal all tokens at the same time. This could lead to a situation where the rarity is not accurate, as it has been calculated on some but not all of the tokens.
• Another reason for publishing the metadata early is the fact that it often takes a significant amount of time to go from 80% to 100%, especially when the collection is hosted on a slow API. Thus, the collection’s attributes are technically all visible, but the actual rarity is not.
• Sometimes hidden attributes may be included in the overall rarity ratings. Although there are examples of collections with many similar attribute combinations — and therefore the same rarity — that could also mean that the ‘hidden’ or ‘unrevealed’ description was calculated as an attribute itself, so the rarity is not accurate. In those cases reveal didn’t happen for all tokens at once, leading to some of them not having the metadata that the collection owners intended (for example empty traits).

Reveals on NFTNerds.ai

Now that you understand the mechanics of a reveal, let’s see how NFTNerds can help you get the most out of them. Obviously to maximize your sniping potential you want the best possible info as soon as possible. Since OpenSea is much slower at updating links, faster tools such as NFTNerds are better at calculating rarity. But what about the previously mentioned issues that could occur during reveals? NFTNerds has two counter-measures for those scenarios:

• What if not all metadata is revealed yet? The ‘Metadata fetched’ bar aims to solve the first two issues. It shows the percentage of all metadata revealed within the collection. So if, by design or due to a slow API, not all token attributes are revealed, you’d know that by looking at the ‘Metadata Revealed’ bar. Ideally for trading you’d want the bar to be at 100%, but that’s not always the case. We’ve concluded that 80% is often comprehensive enough to start sniping, but be very cautious when you’re relying on anything below 100%, because the final ranks will change. However, even partial rarity can still a huge advantage for sniping purposes.
• What if the hidden attributes were included in the overall rarity ratings? The ‘Ranks variety’ bar shows the percentage of tokens with a unique combination of attributes in this collection. Some collections have similar tokens by design, but they usually make it known. If they don’t, then a low percentage of unique tokens could indicate a mistake in calculation. We do our best to filter out such inaccuracies, but we also acknowledge their possibility. Again, be very careful when trading if the value here is not at 100%.