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A single NFT was created using the last Ethereum block mined before the network moved from Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus, costing around $50,000. According to the founder of VanityBlocks, MonkeyOnTheLoose, the NFT is a vanity block developed by the VanityBlocks team. A purposefully significant transaction that takes up the entire block, leaving no capacity for additional trades, makes up a vanity block. https://twitter.com/VanityBlocks/status/1570307047371214849
The Last PoW Block
Like all VanityBlocks, the NFT is titled "The Last PoW Block" and features a pair of eyes looking out from a dark background. MonkeyOnTheLoose revealed on Thursday that the company had been working on this final-block project for over a month despite knowing it had a remote chance of succeeding. The final Proof-of-Work block also contained the text, "You make the commitment, and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream, and the world will not grind you under; it will lift you. This is the trick."
VanityBlocks - Expensive Technique For NFT Generation
An expensive technique to generate NFTs is via VanityBlocks. To mint the NFT, VanityBlocks paid mining pool F2Pool directly 31 ETH ($49,600) and 1.3 ETH in transaction fees (partly burned and partly sent to f2Pool). For this to happen, MonkeyOnTheLoose claimed they needed to raise 70 ETH from investors in just three days. In February, VanityBlocks' technique for capturing entire Ethereum blocks attracted some notice. Since the method slowed down the network for everyone else, it generated controversy. The Merge occurred this morning at 6:44 UTC as Ethereum switched from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, which improved the network's tokenomics and lessened its negative environmental impact.