The Seattle Kraken’s collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) was supposed to drop at 9am on Monday morning, but due to what appears to be a slough of technical issues it has been delayed until Wednesday. The user response was about as good as the response to the initial announcement of the NFT collection — that is to say, not good at all.
We can’t know for sure the source of the issues here, but if I had to hazard a guess I would assume the fault belongs on the official NFT partners of the Seattle Kraken, Orange Comet. Orange Comet is a relatively new venture in the NFT business, and one of the main reasons the Kraken partnered with them was likely due to the fact that Orange Comet proclaims to be “dedicated to blockchain sustainability” and “run on green servers.” Though honestly they were probably just enticed by the co-founders Kurt Warner and Gloria Estefan.
NFTs consume a large amount of electricity because essentially they’re just giant servers that track who “owns” original digital property. And when I say large amount of electricity, I mean large amount. A single Bitcoin transaction (while admittedly different from the Kraken’s NFT collection) is estimated to use the same amount of electrical energy as an entire U.S. household over the course of 2+ months. These Kraken NFTs are not nearly that bad though, to be fair. They’ll utilize what’s called the “proof of stake” model, which lessens the energy consumption to about the equivalent of 46 US households per year. This is still introducing yet another form of energy consumption into the world and may potentially convince new users to explore some of the many other types of cryptocurrency — green or not. If that seems like the antithesis of the team that plays in Climate Pledge Arena, well, you’re absolutely right.
But the Kraken did do their due diligence, and in partnering with Orange Comet and the Avalanche (not the hockey team) blockchain, can legitimately claim a carbon-neutral NFT. How do they do this, you might ask? They bought a bunch of carbon removal credits. That means a whole lot of money went to projects dedicated to reducing and removing greenhouse gases. That’s good! And does keep in line with the team and the arena’s green worldview. Mostly, anyway.
The NFTs will be available soon, and with the semi-drop already done, we can actually take a peek at what some of these packages of digital art paired with real-world, in-game experiences will cost you. For the casual fan, there are a few hundred Kraken dubloons available for $32 — that is, digital 3D-renderings of Kraken dubloons. What will likely be the most popular choice is the Captain’s Box — where the box itself is an NFT and can be digitally “opened” to reveal 2 more gifs NFTs. There are 1100 of those available for $95 apiece.
After that we get into the real heavy-duty stuff. Fans can get a chance to see exclusive clues to the Kraken’s mascot ahead of its reveal. This NFT also comes with 2 tickets to a game and a Kraken jersey as well — two fungible(?) additions to this package. All that can be yours for under $4,000.
Finally there’s the white whale — the Icy Abyss VIP Experience. This one-of-a-kind NFT comes with an “animated tribute to the awakening of the Kraken.” And it’s got some fungible perks with it as well. The lucky buyer will also get:
This one will go to one rich lucky fan willing to shell out a full $20,000.
The Kraken are hardly the first team to join in the crypto-NFT world. But with any luck, this will be the last time they do it.
Leave a tip to support our writers and staff!