From the archives (2019): This aged well. What you described is now the backbone of token-gated presales and proof-of-work minting in multiple chains. Truly ahead of its time.
Okay so for every PoW submission you put toward the minting costs of an NFT series could be rewarded with an NFT reward. Then you trade in the NFT rewards for a temporary address whitelisting. After half of the NFTs are minted, the mint fully opens.
