Vine’s founder Dom Hofmann has launched a new virtual pet called Wagmigotchi onto the Ethereum blockchain.
As explained by Hofmann, for Wagmigotchi to stay alive, users – or Caretakers - must play with the virtual pet, feed it, clean it, and ensure it sleeps. In return, they receive one ‘love’.
The first Wagmigotchi died within minutes after just 73 transactions, with a lack of sleep the likely cause of its demise. After some slight adjustments to the smart contract, Wagmigotchi No.2 was born just after 8 PM UTC on September 10. After nearly 3000 transactions at the time of writing, it remains alive.
Wagmigotchi Virtual Pet Released On-Chain
Transaction fees for the on-chain pet range from around 0.002 ETH to 0.006 ETH – between $6-20. Currently, Caretakers have spent over 13.16 ETH ($44,478) in transaction fees while caring for the Wagmigotchi.
You can view Wagmigotchi’s status from the contract address here. Alternatively, engineer Sam Mason de Caires created a more user-friendly front-end for Wagmigotchi.
In his announcement of the Wagmigotchi No.2, Hofmann stressed that users should not expect to gain anything from this project. He said:
Friends, you really don’t get anything from this. It’s an experiment. Don’t do it unless you want to take care of the pet for nothing in return.
Hofmann’s project has already spawned virtual pets on other blockchains, with one creator launching a WagmiPet contract on Polygon.
Wagmigotchi is Hofmann’s second blockchain-based project in under a month. In late August, he released Loot, a collection of NFT loot bags containing randomised adventure gear.
The Wagmigotchi project is not the first cryptocurrency venture to be inspired by the Tamagotchi genre of virtual pet simulation. In March 2021, Pixelcraft released the play-to-earn game Aavegotchi that allows players to collect Aavegotchi’s as NFTs.
Read More: New NFT Games: Upcoming Cryptocurrency NFT Games Launching in 2021
[Image via Tomasz Sienicki]
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