Natcats
About
Natcats is the first digital art collection generated by the Bitcoin blockchain. Each Natcat is a collectible cat produced from Bitcoin block data. New cats have the potential to be introduced autonomously by Bitcoin over the next 100+ years.
Deployment
Natcats is deployed to Bitcoin Ordinals using Digital Matter Theory (DMT) and TAP Protocol, and pioneered the DMT Unique Non-Arbitrary Token (UNAT) standard on its introduction. The first 8064 cats were offered as a free mint to the Ordinals community in February 2024.
Supply
Natcats are generated only when certain properties occur within Bitcoin blocks. These properties are rare and have occurred only 8064 times across the 870,000+ blocks mined to date.
Supply Properties
A Natcat is generated for a block when the block contains the pattern “3b” in its Bits field. Bits represents mining difficulty and adjusts every 2016 blocks.
124991
0x1a6a93b3
Yes
124992
0x1a44b9f2
No
Supply History
The 8064 cats in the collection today were generated from blocks across four distinct ranges in Bitcoin’s history, each referred to as a distinct Natcats "generation".
1
42,336 - 44,352
2010
2
122,976 - 124,992
2011
3
622,944 - 624,960
2020
4
828,576 - 830,592
2024
Future Supply
Because Bitcoin blocks are mined continuously, Natcats supply is dynamic. Future occurrences of “3b” will introduce a new generation of Natcats. These occurrences are unpredictable: the next generation may be introduced in one year, in 50 years, or never.
Traits
Each Natcat has traits determined by its Bitcoin block number (aka Block height).
Color Traits
Special Traits
Dynamic Rarity
Because Natcats supply is dynamic, the rarity of a given trait is also dynamic. A trait's rarity may increase or decrease relative to other traits as new supply is produced. Some traits occur zero times in the current Natcats supply. These traits are considered unreleased and may be introduced for the first time at a future date. There are 30+ unreleased traits in the collection, spanning both color traits and special traits.
Autonomous Evolution
Natcats’ story unfolds on the blockchain—not as fiction, but as a narrative shaped by emergent on-chain facts. This creates an experience in which both the community and the creator are witnesses to its autonomous evolution. This process will span a significant time scale—potentially outliving the project’s creator, initial holders, and even extending beyond the mining of the last Bitcoin (approx 2140).
Deployment Documentation
Natcats is deployed on-chain to Bitcoin Ordinals using the Digital Matter Theory (DMT) Unique Non Arbitrary Token (UNAT) standard and TAP protocol. Deployment inscriptions can be found at the following inscription IDs:
3b supply element inscription
Deployment inscription Reinscribed on 2/19/24 to deploy UNAT standard
Art render inscription
Sample mint inscription Genesis mint inscription provided as sample
Credits
Last updated