I was recently browsing the Crypto Coven collection, and I noticed something strange. While looking through witches with pearly skull earrings, I found a witch that had no earrings at all: bohrium the dismal (bottom right in the image below).
In case you need it, here’s a quick primer: Crypto Coven is a generative NFT collection, in which each of the nearly 10k witches is made up of a number of attributes: hat, eyebrows, earrings, mouth, etc. There are 21 attributes total, and each attribute has many possible traits. For the earrings attribute, a witch can have basic piercings, beaded tassels, or bone hoops, to name a few.
What’s odd is, bohrium the dismal technically has pearly skull earrings. The trait is present in her metadata, which is the code that represents her. But, her earrings are hidden. So, what gives?
This isn’t my first encounter with secret traits. A few months ago, I wrote about secret traits in the Chain Runners collection.
https://twitter.com/tallneil/status/1471223692537569283
There’s a rare trait in the Chain Runners collection called bot idle eyes, which are depicted as oblong, solid yellow eyes. I noticed that about half of the runners with this trait didn’t show their eyes at all. Half! That’s far from an edge case, so I figured there was more to the story.
The Chain Runners collection is fully on-chain, meaning the code and the art are one-to-one. Every trait in the metadata, represented as JSON, directly corresponds to a layer of pixels, represented as SVG.
Because each layer is represented as code, we can isolate each trait, and toggle it on and off. So let’s head over to the RunnerHub, where we can toggle traits in-browser, without needing to download anything. Below is the same runner with its VR headset layer toggled on and off.
By hiding the occluding trait layer, we removed the VR headset, revealing the runner’s eyes. Make sense? Let’s make our way back to Crypto Coven.
The VR headset creates what can be called a trait conflict, when one trait doesn’t play well with another trait. Nyx, one of the high witches (originators of the Crypto Coven project), recently wrote on this subject.
Nyx describes the rigorous process of generating and manually combing through thousands of witches to avoid trait conflicts, especially around hair, hats, and jewelry. The team even wrote logic into the art generator to set rules for trait combos. For instance, witches with hats are not allowed to have forehead jewelry, because those traits could otherwise clash.
Still, it seems that some trait conflicts slipped through, which is why bohrium’s earrings are hidden. But, I don’t see this as an error at all. Secret traits are a really special quality of generative NFT collections, on-chain or not. They show us that there’s so much more to an NFT than the art. Through the metadata, we know that bohrium is wearing earrings, even though we can’t see them. She’s choosing to wear them just for herself, and we love that for her.
https://twitter.com/Deadfellaz/status/1476765739444883458
So far, we’ve discussed traits that show up in an NFT’s metadata, but are hidden on the visual asset. There’s another type of secret trait that we haven’t covered yet, and for that, let’s turn to Deadfellaz.
In the Deadfellaz collection, certain traits are unlisted from the metadata, making them easter eggs for the community to find. One example is the 8-ball eye, shown below. The 8-ball isn’t present anywhere in the metadata, so it can’t be searched for.
Let’s recap. In Deadfellaz, secret traits are visible on assets, but not in the metadata. In Crypto Coven, secret traits are present in the metadata, but hidden on assets. And in Chain Runners, secret traits are discoverable through layer toggling, making them present in both the metadata and the assets.
I’m considering a follow-up post on the implications of secret traits. When there are conflicts between metadata and assets, what’s the source of truth? Should secret traits affect trait count? How do secret traits affect rarity? All of that will have to be for another day.
And a disclaimer: I don’t own any of the NFTs shown in this post. All images belong to their owners and their respective collections.