Natcats surged tenfold in a week, what exactly is the DMT small image?

Author: Cookie, BlockBeats

In the past week, in a relatively unnoticed corner, a small image project in the Bitcoin ecosystem has skyrocketed 10 times without officially listing on any Bitcoin NFT trading market. The current OTC floor price has reached 0.08 Bitcoin, and this is Natcats.

Natcats

A few days ago, Natcats 829999 was sold for 1.3 Bitcoin, becoming the highest single transaction price for a Natcat so far.

Just yesterday, two small image projects related to the DMT concept, NATTRIBUTES and Natdogs, were listed on Magic Eden and immediately made it to the daily transaction volume leaderboard. NATTRIBUTES had over 11 Bitcoin in daily transactions, while Natdogs exceeded 5 Bitcoin.

What is a DMT concept small image?

DMT Theory

The well-known Bitmap is an application of the DMT theory. This theory can be quite obscure in documentation, but in simple terms, there are many types of data in the Bitcoin blockchain, such as block hash values, block sizes, block heights, block target difficulty, and so on. The goal of the DMT theory is to create specific digital assets based on this data.

How does everyone utilize the data from the Bitcoin blockchain to create specific digital assets? This process of mining the value of Bitcoin blockchain data is akin to discovering chemical elements in nature. Multiple "elements" can be registered under the same data type, but elements cannot share the same name, meaning that there can be various uses for the same type of data.

The first registered and named "element" is DMT, which utilizes the Bitcoin block target difficulty data. Natcats, NATTRIBUTES, and Natdogs all use this "element," specifically leveraging the Bitcoin block target difficulty data to create small images. So how exactly does Natcats use this "element"?

The Creation Process of Natcats

First, the DMT small images you see are the results of code rendering. If you check the collections of NATTRIBUTES and Natdogs on Magic Eden now, you will find it looks like this:

This is because Magic Eden has not yet supported DMT small image rendering on the front end. Similar to "recursive inscriptions," most Bitcoin small images you see now are actually the results of layered pointer calls and rendering based on the code.

The image above shows, from left to right, the rendering code for the Natcats image (encoded on-chain in JavaScript), the Natcats deployment inscription, and the Natcats minting inscription. The "dep" field in the minting inscription points to the deployment inscription, while the "id" field in the deployment inscription points to the on-chain inscription containing the image rendering code.

You can understand it this way: based on the data pointers on-chain, Natcats generates images according to a specific script, but additional work is needed to display the results of the code execution, as Bitcoin itself does not perform this task. We usually refer to this process as "indexing." For example, to display the balance of BRC-20 in front of you, the work of an "indexer" is required to show the correct results on your interface.

Now let's explain how Natcats utilizes the Bitcoin block target difficulty data to create small images. Similar to Bitmap, one Natcat corresponds to one block, but Natcats imposes a restriction on the block data requirement—only if the Bitcoin block target difficulty data (hexadecimal field) contains "3b," will the Natcats minted from that block be considered valid.

The Bitcoin block target difficulty data is adjusted every 2016 blocks (approximately every 2 weeks), and "3b" has only appeared 4 times in Bitcoin's history, each time over 2016 blocks. Therefore, the total supply of Natcats is currently 2016 * 4 = 8064. As for whether such blocks will appear in the future, it remains uncertain; new "3b" blocks may emerge, allowing for new Natcats to be minted.

The above only determines whether Natcats can "be born," while the "genes" of Natcats (i.e., what they look like) are determined by the block height of the block from which they are generated. For example, if you "occupy" the "3b" block at block height 123008 (i.e., use that block to mint a Natcat), since that block height contains "00," this Natcat will have earrings.

The rules for generating features can be quite complex; for instance, the color of the earrings varies based on the third digit of the block height, but the underlying idea remains the same. Consequently, some features have not yet been generated; for example, a Natcat with a block height containing "00000" will have an alien crown. In summary, since the appearance of "3b" blocks is unpredictable, their block heights are also unpredictable, leading to unknowns in series supply and feature rarity. Therefore, Natcats are also referred to as "generative art based on Bitcoin block data."

The logic of NATTRIBUTES and Natdogs is generally the same as that of Natcats, but there are differences in specific rules, which will not be elaborated here.

Conclusion

Finally, I would like to remind everyone once again that Natcats has not yet officially listed on any Bitcoin NFT trading market. Although there are collections on Ordinals Wallet, it is clearly incomplete, and most transactions are currently conducted in OTC form on their official Discord.

Meanwhile, NATTRIBUTES and Natdogs have already been FOMOed on Magic Eden. Investing carries risks, and everyone needs to be extremely cautious.