Set your NFT budget at a billion dollars and it still wouldn’t guarantee a successful NFT launch. Just ask top brands like Gucci and Adidas, which have had to battle with the reality of NFT drops in recent times.
Even for the most tech-enabled company in the world, the NFT space is still a new foray where standards are not yet cast in stone, thus creating an avenue for bots and scams to take place. Still, escaping these two is not the end; you still need to be watchful for potential crashes.
Bots
Whether driven by FOMO or greed, the reality is that some individuals deploy bots for their own greedy purposes. Essentially, they use bots to acquire new drops in such large numbers that it becomes impossible for members of a project’s NFT community to collect any. This then leaves a project with disgruntled community members.
This was exactly the situation for Gucci during two phases of its three-phased SuperGucci NFT drop. The collection itself was meant to be purchased solely by members of Gucci’s Discord and Superplastic NFT holders. While a bot was able to acquire twelve NFTs, many Discord members were met with sold-out inventories before ever gaining access to the drop.
Scams
NFT drop scams can manifest in one of two ways; it could be through a mirror website or stolen art.
While you are basking in the euphoria of launching a new NFT collection, a scammer might have created an identical website to yours, even encouraging collectors to connect their wallet, mint an NFT, and get exclusive access and rewards…all in your name. Scammers could even steal your art and list it on an NFT marketplace. Opensea came out recently to declare that up to 80% of the art in its marketplace are adulterated.
Crashes and Gas Wars
Even when you have successfully evaded the caprices of scams and bots, it is still possible to fall prey to the unforeseen. A massive outturn could also be a mixed blessing in itself, eventually leading to a failed drop.
A large community outturn to mint NFTs could drastically lead to a surge in gas fees. This is especially true for NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. In a bid to scale through, collectors then resort to a gas war - one where they might end up paying more in fees than for the actual NFT.
A huge pressure on the minting portal could also lead to a crash. Just ask Adidas how its Adidas Originals NFT drop went. 59% of the drop mints failed due to congestion resulting from a pause in NFT mint.
Conclusion
Launching a successful NFT drop goes beyond creativity. It is important to have the right measure in place to curb potential pitfalls that could have huge consequences.
