When you click on this article, you might have a reaction—did David mistakenly type? However, the story David wants to tell you is entirely consistent with the title, this magical story happened last Sunday.
Last Sunday, November 3, at 5 AM, the founder of Ordinals & Rune protocol @rodarmor published a tweet with only three short sentences.
Before he provided further hints, many players in the comments had realized that this was a limited-time 8-hour puzzle game, which is also the last sentence of the tweet. And the prize is precisely the first sentence of the tweet 'cactusseeds'.
Let's first introduce the prize. 'cactusseeds' is one of the sub-collections of the 0th inscription (the first inscription since the Ordinals protocol was born) in the 'Dia De Pixales' collection. 'Dia De Pixales' is an art series created by Casey, and we can see 'Dia De Pixales' displayed on Casey's personal webpage.
It can also be said that 'cactusseeds' is a sub-sub inscription of the 0th inscription, that is, a grandson inscription. From the image below, we can see how the 'parent-child inscription' mechanism is completely built on-chain without smart contracts to create an NFT collection in a decentralized manner.
The topmost inscription here is inscription number 0, which can also be a TXT text inscription to indicate the name of the collection for other projects. The second-level inscription can be the logo of the collection, and here the second-season inscription is actually a GIF animation, rotating to display the 9 'skulls' of the 'Dia De Pixales' collection, while the bottom layer of the inscription is the specific NFT content images. Through this hierarchical connection, even without a trading market for the collection, an NFT collection can be very intuitively organized and presented to users on-chain.
As for why this grandson inscription is called 'cactusseeds'? You’d have to ask Casey. However, we can also see how to name specific individual NFTs in the collection, that is to intentionally find coins with corresponding names.
Returning to the main topic. The question arises, what is the second sentence of the riddle, '25138 / 29746'? Six hours later, at 10 AM, Casey provided the answer:
The answer is already revealed here—'25138 / 29746' is a set of Minecraft coordinates to find Casey in the 2b2t server! Casey himself also clarified this point:
The first one to find me, 'cactusseeds' is yours
This is not a simple task. 2b2t, known as 'the oldest anarchic Minecraft server'. Established in December 2010, this server is famous for its lawlessness and highly destructive subculture, with extreme destruction brought about by complete freedom, making 2b2t a 'beautiful hell'.
For new players entering 2b2t for the first time, just leaving the 'spawn area' is quite difficult, let alone heading to the coordinates specified by Casey. These difficulties include but are not limited to—
'Spawn area' has been seriously damaged, filled with traps left by old players.
Reaching the coordinates specified by Casey requires collecting enough resources, or else one will starve to death long before halfway.
'Spawn area' might see old players continuously ravaging new players.
Take a look at the rendering of the 'spawn area' below. This image is already 4 years old, the 'spawn area' is filled with lava, and resources are extremely scarce, it can be called 'hell'...
Almost an hour later, the winner was born, @Rhynohowl1 became the first person to find Casey in the 2b2t server, and Casey immediately transferred 'cactusseeds' to him.
In fact, the time this player took to find Casey might have been even shorter, because it is certain that prior to this, he did not know what Ordinals was, and may not have even been a Crypto player. These conclusions and inferences are drawn from his tweet content, because after he referred to the 'cactusseeds' he received as 'NFT', Ordinals players corrected him in the comments—this is not NFT, it’s an inscription! Additionally, his past tweets are also very few, and none are related to Crypto.
He even specifically tweeted in response to Ordinals players' comments—sorry, not NFT, it's Ordinals.
How did such a person know that Casey was sending such an important inscription? Is it 'insider trading'? No, because the information reached a streamer specializing in playing the 2b2t server, riths.
So why did this information reach a 2b2t streamer who only streams on Saturdays and has a relatively small fan base? Because the co-founder of the Bitcoin NFT project INK, @Brunno_UTXO, went to this live stream to convey this information, and he expressed in the stream to @Rhynohowl1 that he was willing to immediately pay 1 BTC to purchase 'cactusseeds'.
This is also why, after the event ended, everyone generally believed that @Rhynohowl1 directly earned 1 BTC. In fact, @Rhynohowl1 listed this inscription on Magic Eden for 10 BTC, and the highest offer received so far is 0.33 BTC. He might list it for 10 BTC, likely because Casey mentioned this in a reply:
'10 BTC, or broken'
Ordinals' another KOL @cbspears also mentioned in his video that he is willing to pay 5 Bitcoin for 'cactusseeds'.
Life is always full of surprises and unexpected events. For @Rhynohowl1, before things happened, it might have just been an ordinary Saturday (our timezone is Sunday). He opened his computer, launched Minecraft, entered the 2b2t server to play, while watching and chatting in riths' Twitch live stream. Suddenly, he received a message and began searching for the founder of the Ordinals & Rune protocol in the virtual world of Minecraft. When this prominent figure from another virtual world appeared before him in what might seem like an ordinary Minecraft avatar, he received 1 BTC.
(This is not a screenshot from @Rhynohowl1 discovering Casey, but 'subdiffusion' is Casey)
Since the release of the rune 'MEMENTO•MORI', Casey has become more active, making attempts to promote the rune ecosystem. After this puzzle game ended, yesterday morning, Casey published a long tweet expressing that he doesn't want to shout one specific coin after another like the 'chief sales officers' of other ecosystems, and hopes to hear everyone’s opinions on some good ways to help promote the rune and even Ordinals ecosystem.
After Casey's statement, 'MEMENTO•MORI' saw a peak increase of 45%. The rhythmic BlockBeats previously introduced this rune (related reading: Did the founder of the Ordinals protocol release a new rune, was it expected?), as the rune personally released by Casey, saw its market value briefly drop below 10 million USD after minting, leading players to jokingly say—Casey is too weak, 'not as good as' Vitalik's dog. After Casey's statement, players' views on 'MEMENTO•MORI' also warmed up significantly with the price recovery.
Will the rune get better? Time will tell. And this story of 'earning 1 BTC by playing Minecraft for 1 hour' is not yet concluded. Similarly, time will show us how much 'cactusseeds' will sell for as the ecosystem and even Bitcoin develop.
But now, this story is already quite exciting.
If you want to seize this round of bull market, learning on the fly will definitely be too late, it’s best if someone can quickly guide you.
I am David, welcome to communicate!
#YGG、ADA、ENA解锁 #SOL #DOGS #UNFI
