Auto-feed Monsters or The Value of NFTs

In the previous two posts about monsters (Collect monsters and Exchange monsters) I talked about how monsters can be non-fungible tokens(NFTs). This post is more directed to the users of the monsters game or NFTs in general.

Auto-feed

There are a few requests in the monstereos channel, how to feed monsters while on vacation or away from the internet. Ideas mentioned were monster caring services or handing over private keys. Both is not recommended - you never know who is on the other side.

When buddy.works, a continuous integration service announced support for EOS it was clear that this could be the solution to the feeding problem. So, I created a new EOS account noctambulist and transferred around 1 EOS, enough to run the monster actions.

In the online service https://apps.buddy.works do the following:

1. Create a new project
2. Add a new pipeline, choose a name, select recurrent, choose every 12h
3. Add a new action from Blockchain, choose Build EOS
4. In the Run commands text area past the following lines, replacing the pet_id 3673with your monster id and the account noctambulist with your account name.

cleos wallet create
cleos wallet import --private-key ${PRIVAT_KEY}
cleos -u https://eu.eosdac.io push action monstereosio feedpet '{"pet_id": 3673}' -p noctambulist 

Finally, go back to the pipeline page and add a new variable PRIVAT_KEY with the private key of the account (use the active key, not owner key). Make sure that encryption is enabled! Note that during the execution the private key is never shown. However, while pasting the private key into the text field I felt reassured that only 1 EOS is held in the account.

Now, you just have to wait for 12h or hit Run pipeline button to see it work.

Warning

Many things can go wrong! There is no guarantee that the monster is fed. The buddy.works service could break down, the transaction could be lost due to network problems, etc. As a user you are not notified. Furthermore, the warnings that are usually given about the monster already being fed, or not awake or so are not shown.

Having said that, the monster #3673, named Sleepy1 is still alive and happy at the time of writing.

Value of NFTs

This leads to the question how to determine the value of NFTs. In some games it is scarcity, in others it is time based or money invested, or all it. For collectables like NFTs, in most cases the value is not rationally justified.

In monstereos, there is only a time-based aspect of it as creation is free and no shops are available yet. With the introduction of auto-feeding it becomes even more unclear, how to determine the value of monsters. If auto-feeding is against the rules is still to be discussed, and if so, how this can be detected as the chain does not distinguishes between actions from humans or bots.

Conclusion

It is easy to setup a feeding service, if you are prepared to enter your private key into a web site.