Tech Glitches Cause Hiccups in 'Quantum Cats' Bitcoin NFT Sale

• Technical Difficulties Plague Sale of Quantum Cats Collection by Taproot Wizards
• Sale Postponed Due to Server Overload
• Project Financials
• Live Session Apology
• Plan for Continued Sale
• Ordinals Protocol Creates NFTs on Bitcoin

Technical Difficulties Plague Sale of Quantum Cats Collection by Taproot Wizards

The much-anticipated sale of a debut collection of Bitcoin$42,260 -0.64% engravings, dubbed Quantum Cats by the Taproot Wizards' Ordinals project, experienced significant technical difficulties on Monday. The goal was to sell approximately 3,000 digital felines, all designed to pay tribute to a known Bitcoin improvement proposal referred to as OP_CAT.

Sale Postponed Due to Server Overload

The selling window, initially scheduled to open at 17:00 UTC Monday with a two-hour whitelist period, had to be pushed back to Tuesday as a result of the difficulties. The high demand for the cats resulted in server overload, as they were incapable of handling the number of users attempting to mint. As per a statement by Taproot Wizards on Platform X, 30% of the cats, or approximately 90 BTC ($3.9 million), were sold before the technical issues arose.

Project Financials

Each piece from the collection had a selling price of 0.1 BTC ($4,300), implying a potential total fundraise of 300 BTC ($12.9 million) if all units were sold. This marks a turbulent start for Taproot Wizards, who had successfully raised $7.5 million in seed funding back in November to further their Ordinals-centric initiatives.

Live Session Apology

During a live session on the social media platform X, Udi Wertheimer, one of the co-founders of the company, expressed regret to potential customers. Despite acknowledging the unanticipated glitches, Wertheimer admitted that the experience fell short of what customers had expected.

Plan for Continued Sale

In the wake of the two-hour whitelist period, there was a plan to halt minting for an hour before the remaining Quantum Cats were to be made available for general sale. However, various complaints surfaced on the project's Discord channel on Monday, with one user dubbing it one of the worst mint experiences I've ever seen.

Ordinals Protocol Creates NFTs on Bitcoin

The Ordinals protocol enables data inscriptions into satoshis - the smallest units of Bitcoin - essentially allowing for the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Bitcoin network. The protocol, which launched at the beginning of 2023, has sparked debate within the Bitcoin community. Critics argue that these NFTs are unnecessarily overloading the network.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker