A virtual on-chain pet died moments after its birth when speculators on Crypto Twitter spammed it with care, only to discover that its smart contract was riddled with bugs. 

The botched launch of the project, WAGMIGOTCHI, shows how its creator, Dom Hofmann, the creator of runaway NFT hits Loot and Blitmap, is so popular that people will ape into his experiments to avoid missing out on the next big thing—even if doesn't quite work yet.

WAGMIGOTCHI is a single on-chain virtual pet that is kept alive by anyone who sends gas to its smart contract. Call the functions, clean(), feed(), play()or sleep() and you can spend gas to boost the pet’s stats and keep it alive. “If needs are unmet it can die,” wrote Hofmann when he introduced the project on Twitter last night. 

WAGMIGOTCHI no. 2

- on-chain virtual pet for all of us- clean() feed() play() sleep()- needs gradually increase- some activities affect others (play() causes hunger)- caretakers get +1 LOVE - if needs are unmet it can die

"we all gotta maintain it"

— dom (@dhof) September 10, 2021

After the pet died, Hofmann quickly released a second iteration of WAGMIGOTCHI, V2, which is still alive. In just over 3,000 transactions, people have spent $52,318 in gas fees to tend to the pet. Hofmann clarified when launching the project that caretakers receive “nothing in return” besides LOVE tokens. 

Hofmann released WAGMIGOTCHI without any images attached to it—like his popular NFT Loot, imagination is what drives value—although NFT engineer Sam Mason de Caires quickly spun up an interface for the project that depicts the pet as a pixelated ghost. 

Traders have spent $8,149 to send the WAGMIMOTCHI to sleep 528 times, $24,797 to play 921 games with it and $35,913 to clean the formless pet 719 times. The average transaction cost a trader $17 and one person spent as much as $380 on a single transaction. 

*prepares to ape, somehow, anyway*

— gremplin (@supergremplin) September 10, 2021

When Hofmann launched the project, he warned: “friends, u really dont get anything from this. its an experiment. dont do it unless u want to take care of the pet for nothing in return. if u dont get it, dont do it. dont do it. do not do it. thinking about doing it? do not do it. not audited.”

Still laughing at crypto twitter collectively playing the role of Lenny in "Of Mice and Men"

— Top Tick Crypto (@toptickcrypto) September 11, 2021

Traders that missed out on Loot, the adventure game NFT experiment that sold out in a couple of hours and made early investors very rich, can be excused for their itchy trigger fingers.