Sphynx Cats: An NFT Project Inspired by Egypt’s Ancient History
Ancient Egypt is undoubtedly a historical hotspot for anyone who’s ever been interested in our collective past.
The Egyptians were the first to successfully develop their language into a codified form of writing. They also mixed vegetable gum, soot, and bee wax to create black ink – something that we take for granted in our contemporary reality.
To name but a few of their other achievements and contribution to the modern world, we can’t overlook the pyramids – archeological miracles that have specialist bang their heads against a wall, trying to figure out their structural integrity and building methods.
Those who are aware of ancient Egyptian history, however, also know that cats were broadly represented in their social and religious practices for more than 3,000 years. In fact, several Egyptian deities, including Mafded, Bastet, and Sekhmet, were sculptured and depicted with cat-like heads. They represent justice, fertility, and power, respectively.
On the other hand, there’s also one of the most popular historical sights and tourist attractions in the world – the Egyptian Sphinx. It’s a monument sculpture with the body of a lion and the head of a human.
Fast forward a few thousand years, a team of passionate tech aficionados and an artist with a flair for the unusual bring together ancient history, modern technology, and cats into an original non-fungible token project called Sphynx Cats.
Sphynx Cats: an NFT Project with a Vision
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken center stage in the cryptocurrency industry and have exploded in popularity over the past year. Interestingly enough, there are little to no signs of this trend slowing down as many proponents argue that they are amongst the best use cases for blockchain-based technology.
However, with the ongoing hype, we also saw the emergence of many derivative projects, some of which turned out to be downright scams. This further pulls away from the concept of originality and uniqueness that NFTs are all about.
On a mission to introduce original and appealing art, the team behind Sphynx Cats creates a collection of 9,099 NFTs, each one of which with different traits than the other.
Sphynx Cats is not a derivatives project – it draws from the sheer coolness of cats and couples it with their glorified nature back during the times of Ancient Egypt. Back then, it was thought that this one creature could make the world safe, and the team wants to put this into perspective, believing that they can now do the same – become the heroes of our time.
The Tech Between Sphynx Cats
NFTs employ blockchain-based technology as a rule of thumb, but Sphynx Cats want to take this a step further.
The rarity of the non-fungible tokens in their collection is assigned using machine learning estimated likability. Using ML-based grading, the team generated their collection three times and compared the results. The features selection was as follows: background, skin, face, body style, mouth, ears, head, eyes, and the frames of the NFTs – they represented the likability score.
Put in Laymen’s terms, the team is hopeful that their NFTs would be appealing to users not just based on scarcity and likability but also based on individual taste and subjectiveness. After all, what is art, if not subjective? This seems to be a concept constantly overlooked in the current NFT environment, where everything seems to be about 1/1.
And while the team acknowledges that their approach is not yet perfect, they try to do the necessary to improve it. For example, there’s an exciting roadmap planned for those who participate. The team will be giving away trips and vacations to Egypt with the opportunity to physically gaze upon the greatness of the Pyramids while also distributing 10% of the sales back to Sphynx Cats holders.
Last but not least, they will also give away a new Tesla Model 3.
