Ghoulish NFTs Will Haunt the Blockchain This Halloween

In crypto, where nothing is scarier than FOMO, there’s no better time for an extremely limited release of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) than Halloween.

Take Decadent founder Olive Allen, for example. She’s using Oct. 31 to sell her first edition of 13 digital collectibles using a pop-up store on her website.

“Thirteen is a great number,” she said. “Thirteen has some spookiness in it.”

There will only be one NFT of each of the 13 tokens in the first edition, but other editions of the collection may come down the road. If the business model shows promise, Allen plans to do more digital pop-ups (and maybe physical ones) in the future. She said: “It’s not going to be the last one. Thirteen items is the first series. I feel like I want to do a series of follow-ups. Like a Christmas one. I want to tie the items to a certain date or a certain occasion.”

Though Allen wouldn’t reveal too much about what the NFTs would actually look like, she did show us the concept art for one. The CryptoKitties-inspired image riffed on Batman’s archnemesis, The Joker. Other NFTs will deal with things like net neutrality and decentralization.

“There’s this mix of current affairs and dark sensibility. And irony,” she said.

The shop will be open all day long when it’s Halloween in New York City, with each NFT being awarded to its highest bidder. One NFT involves a collaboration with an artist she wouldn’t name but that she said people would likely recognize. Spooky space ships

This seasonal spirit of dread is not limited to Decadent alone. Several other blockchain startups are letting a spooky mood settle over their product this season.

As Randy Saaf, the CEO of Lucid Sight, told CoinDesk in an interview: “Halloween is a very fun holiday for video games.”

Lucid Sight has been making games for some time, only recently adding a crypto element to its work. The company runs a game over Steam called Crypto Space Commander. It’s a grinding and crafting game where players mine the universe for resources and use them to make things or acquire resources for trade.

Last year Lucid sold three ships with unique Halloween-themed skins via a descending-price Dutch auction. The company sold a fixed number of each ship, for a total of 48 ships sold. The highest price fetched for any of them was 3.2 ETH (roughly $540 at today’s prices) and the lowest was 0.18 ETH.

Lucid will run a similar promotion this year – but there will also be ways to win themed ships. The event will be announced just before Halloween on the company’s Discord channel.

The art for three Halloween ships has already been released, but there could be as many as six, Saaf said. The company likes to experiment with different promotions. It previously brought licensed Star Trek ships to the game. Art for 2019’s Halloween CSC ships. (Image courtesy of Lucid Sight) SpookyKitties

Meanwhile, CryptoKitties announced a very different sort of promotion.

The game is giving users the recipe to breed a unique CryptoKitty. Remember, CryptoKitties didn’t just introduce the idea of collectible items to crypto, the game also introduced a unique mechanic: players could “breed” two of their cats and create a new one.

CryptoKitties create “events” where players have a shot at breeding a fancy for a limited time if they breed cats that have the right set of attributes.

So this Halloween, the game’s creator, Dapper Labs, floated a chance to breed “Jack” – a sort of headless horseman CryptoKitty. In fact, there was a chance to breed an extra rare “shiny” Jack. Unfortunately, someone had to do it by Oct. 5 and no one who tried got a “shiny” Jack before time ran out.

Now there will never be a Shiny Jack CryptoKitty among the 721 Jacks that were created on the ethereum blockchain. Maybe his ghost, though? (Furmione image via CryptoKitties)

Meanwhile, another fancy cat is available now: Furmione. She’ll be possible to hatch until the end of Halloween in the United States. To have a shot at her, the cats involved need to share the cattributes of “poisonberry,” “spangled,” “mallowflower” and “firstblush.”

The company has a few other rare kitties available for sale with Halloween themes, and at least one whole Halloween trait. Spooky cuties

Finally, Blockchain Cuties has a whole series of adventures planned for Halloween. Starting last week, players started getting benefits for exploring, breeding, beating mini-bosses and playing along in groups.

Last year the game released a set of NFTs called “Bone Dragon Army.” Several sets appear ready to go for this Halloween. A dragon bones Blockchain Cutie.

Just remember: Anything can happen out there on the blockchains this time of year.

As Decadent’s Allen put it: “Halloween is a great time for experimentation. And it’s believed to be a magical time, isn’t it?”

Olive Allen of Decadent image via Brady Dale for CoinDesk