CryptOrchids is an NFT-based game where players must water their live CryptOrchid flowers exactly every 7 days. If a player misses their 3 hour weekly watering window, their digital flower dies, which prevents it from being sold.

Hi PH! Thanks for checking out CryptOrchids. I built this as part of the Chainlink 2021 Spring Hackathon and ended up winning a runner up prize. NFTs really blew up in the mainstream over the past few months, and like many I found myself a bit confused and not all that interested in the space. But it felt like something I should be interested in - I was always collecting as a kid - so I decided to dive in head first, learn more about the space and see if I had anything interesting to add. I found it disappointing how static NFT projects were. I really wanted to interact with things I could own, not just own them. I also didn't really like the idea that NFTs remain pristine forever - so much of our physical world is shaped by powerful forces that break objects down over time, and nothing really maintains its existence without love and care. At the same time I found the permanence aspect really powerful - I don't think an of the web apps I've worked on will be running in 10 years, but the idea I could write code that could still be running 50 years from now was inspiring. So with those ideas swirling around in my brain I came up with CryptOrchids. As far as I know its the first NFT that requires nourishment, or attention, that you can't just lock away in a vault and pull it out in a few years. Gaming folks would call this an incremental or idle game - the primary mechanic is the passage of time, and all you have to do is visit the CryptOrchids website once a week and click a button to water your flower. This updates onchain data, so it will be costly in transaction fees for players. Thanks for reading, would be happy to answer any questions! The project is live on Ethereum mainnet and has grossed over 12Ξ in a little over a week. I don't see a ton of crypto or NFT projects here, but this is definitely a product - it's a game, not static art. Our first "waterings" will be Monday when we will learn how much stomach players have for the weekly watering cost! EDIT: I should mention that you *can* play for free on the rinkeby testnet at https://rinkeby.cryptorchids.io - you'll need Rinkeby testnet ETH though, which can be challenging to find faucets for

Very unique way of using NFTs, I like it! It's like the next iteration of art: stone carvings -> drawings -> paintings -> photographs -> digital art -> NFTs

@matthew_brooks1 thanks Matthew! One other way I've sort of thought about this is that houseplants are essentially art that you interact with occasionally? I didn't want to break peoples' brains too hard. This is a tiny tiny step beyond 2d art NFTs that I hope starts to show people where these things can go

Seems cool! I'm too cheap to buy an orchid for .04 eth but :P Is the code open-sourced anywhere?

Ahh found the link to github! https://github.com/sbauch/crypto... I'm getting into smart contract development myself - do you have any suggestions for helpful resources?

@guamhat you should play on rinkeby! it's free! and yeah seems you found the repo, there's some others on my github. I would suggest just reading as much solidity as you can! the nature of this space is that contracts are for the most part source-available on etherscan. beyond that I used a github repo template that provided a lot of tooling that i came to love - feel free to DM me on twitter or join the project Discord and DM me there, more than happy to help and share what I've learned!

CryptOrchids

An NFT-based game to keep digital flowers alive

An NFT-based game to keep digital flowers alive

CryptOrchids

An NFT-based game to keep digital flowers alive

An NFT-based game to keep digital flowers alive

Do you use CryptOrchids?

Do you use CryptOrchids?

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