WHAT HAPPENED
In November 2021 a jeweler's name went on a set of pixel chains, and the chains went onto Ethereum — where they still render today, straight out of the contract. Seven weeks later a post in the project's Discord announced a prize for the fifty rarest: an authentic custom chain. In March a budget was put to it — $82,352 — with the tiers marked “MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE — waiting on confirmation of pricing.” The race ended April 30, 2022; fifty winners were named and thirty-one sent in addresses. A year later the company behind the platform announced it was shutting down, and in the messages we've found since, holders are still asking — none reports receiving one. Below is the whole thing in order, each step tied to the original post, the transaction, or the archived page. Read it, then go check it yourself.
Mint night — and the first failed transactions
Notables launches "Ben Baller Did The BlockChain." Whitelist opens 4 PM EST, public mint 9:30 PM. The contract fails during the mint; it is paused and restarted, and holders are told to post failed transactions in two channels for refunds. Months later the team would say those refunds cost $76,000 — and that Notables, not Ben, was the one paying for the chain rewards.
WE ARE ALL SYSTEMS GO … Whitelist is from 4-8 PM EST. Reserve signup is from 8-8:30 PM EST. Reserve minting is from 8:30-9:30 PM EST. Public mint starts at 9:30 PM EST
We are pausing mint for the moment to improve user experience. We will be back on momentarily!
The 10 ETH chain
Three weeks after mint, BlockChain #2348 — Flawless clarity, a Round Canary Diamond, on a rose-gold Mariner chain — sells on OpenSea for 10 ETH (≈ $38,600 at that day's Coinbase close). Those traits are read straight from the contract. The buyer is a wallet using the ENS name quandefi.eth. Quandefi, per its own archived website, is the studio that called Notables "Quandefi's first blockchain product", and the BallerChains metadata was served from api.quandefi.io. In February 2023 the wallet moved the token to a fresh address, where it remains as of August 2026.
| WHEN (UTC) | WHAT | FROM → TO | PAID | PROOF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-11-23 | Minted (3 chains in one tx, 4 BallerBars burned each) | 0x0 → ogshaft.eth | — | tx ➜ |
| 2021-12-14 | Sold on OpenSea (block 13,805,946) | ogshaft.eth → quandefi.eth | 10 ETH | tx ➜ |
| 2023-02-27 | Moved to a fresh wallet, in one bulk transfer with seven other NFTs | quandefi.eth → 0xf5B1…9fA4 | 0 | tx ➜ |
| 2026-08-25 | Still there. That wallet has made 3 transactions in its life and holds exactly one BlockChain: #2348. | 0xf5B1…9fA4 | — | holder ➜ |
Quandefi | a Web3 studio and incubator … Notables, Quandefi's first blockchain product, is a highly-curated marketplace pairing the world's best NFTs with the most seamless…
The prize: 50 real chains
A post goes up under the BENBALLER account. The top 50 rarest BallerChains will win an authentic custom chain; #1 gets "something truly unique." The race itself had been running since December 24; now it has a prize, and the post points holders to the gems still available to climb the leaderboard.
I am proud to announce that the top 50 rarest Baller Chains will win an authentic Ben Baller Did The Block Chain custom made chain, but the holder of the #1 MOST RARE BallerChain will receive something truly unique.
The budget, the tiers, the molds
February: the community manager relays a phone call with Ben — Notables' budget is still being worked out, and if a new mold is made (about 6 weeks' extra work) the chains "will be unique to this project only." March: a budget is announced, with the tiers marked "subject to change" — the manager says $32,352 of Ben's royalty share is being reinvested, plus $50,000 from Notables, for $82,352 total. Gold prices, holders are told, cut the tiers from four to three. Holders are invited to design the molds themselves. Ben "may" need about two months to craft them. The race deadline is set: April 30.
Notables collected only 15% profits from initial sales. They reimbursed $76k from failed transactions stemming from original contract & also paid new devs to fix the contracts.
…this would require a new mold to be created which would ultimately take more time to deliver (6 weeks is what he mentioned…); however, the chains will be unique to this project only.
Ben earned $32,352 that is completely being reinvested back into the chain rewards. On top of that, Notables will be contributing an additional $50,000 to the chain rewards. Thus, resulting in a total of $82,352 for these custom chains to be crafted.
Gold is apparently at a premium price currently, so there will be budgeting issues if we have four total tiers … from four tiers to three tiers. THE NEW TIERS MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE - waiting on confirmation of pricing and all. — Top 3 Chains / Chains 4-25 / Chains 26-50
Now here is my personal favorite part, @BENBALLER wants YOU GUYS to design the molds of the chains …
Ben mentioned that it may take around 2 months to get these chains crafted, keep in mind he needs the designs to even get started which we won't have until 3/27/22. With that being said, the Chain Race will conclude on 4/30/22.
The race ends. 50 winners are named.
A snapshot of holders is announced for 4 PM EST. The winners are congratulated on their "IRL chains made by @BENBALLER." Two days later a revised ranking is posted after holders point out discrepancies. In all, only 191 of a possible 500 BallerChains were ever forged, burning 1,910 Gems.
…the Chain Race will be concluded this week on 4/30 (Saturday) with a snapshot of holders being taken at 4pm EST … Everyone is looking forward to the conclusion and the delivery of the chains. I know Ben is!
Chain Race has concluded. Here is the official ranking. Gratz to all winners on your IRL chains made by @BENBALLER !!!
Please see the revised new and improved leaderboard list here- we apologize for any confusion and thank all the members who brought up discrepancies.
Winners sign up. The wait begins.
Winners are asked to fill in a form "so we can expedite the rl chain delivery process." In the same weeks the community lead discloses that the Notables–Ben contract is ending — while saying Notables "would still be held accountable for making good on promises." A June 25 close is set for sign-ups. On June 29 a "finalized" list is posted: 31 winning wallets that had submitted addresses, with one winner still being chased for theirs. Then the announcements channel goes quiet for ten months.
If you are one of the well earned winners from the above list, please fill out this premint so we can expedite the rl chain delivery process.
wen chains — Later than you will like is my guess, but I have been assured they will go out- Notables will do whatever it takes. (May 27)
contract end — … Currently the project has Ben's name on it, ergo we need Ben. … Notables would still provide the same future integration, for holders, and still be held accountable for making good on promises. (same post, May 27)
Please see below for the finalized discord list for the winners for the IRL chain. (Jun 29 — 31 wallet addresses follow; not republished here)
Notables shuts down
The next — and last — message ever posted in #announcements. Notables LLC will close on May 15, 2023. The community lead says he'll keep trying to get the chains made, unpaid. One week later, on the shutdown date itself, the contract-deployer wallet moves the team's remaining reserve tokens — the team's own NFTs, not anything belonging to holders — into the contract-owner wallet.
This will come as a sudden surprise to many: Notables LLC will be shutting down business on the 15th of May, 2023. I will continue to work with Ben to procure chains pro-bono. If anyone would like to step forward as a candidate for leadership of the community, please reach out to me.
Still waiting
A search of the server for "chain" since the shutdown returns 87 messages from 24 accounts; about two dozen of them, from holders other than this page's author, ask where the physical chains are. None of them reports receiving one. A few, with dates — handles withheld; the search string is below so you can read them all:
"I'm still waiting for my chains"
a holder · Oct 3, 2023 · #general"man that would be wild if chains actually happened, like all of them"
a former moderator · Jul 12, 2023 · #general"where are our chains lol"
a holder · Nov 21, 2023 · #general"#2 and #10 overall chains here, waiting.... lolololol"
a holder · Oct 4, 2023 · #general"I don't think the winners got their chains"
a holder · Jan 2, 2024 · #general"We all lost savage amounts of money trying to earn physical chains."
a holder · Dec 11, 2024 · #general"Still waiting for chain"
a holder · Jun 18, 2025 · #general"Wen chain ben..."
a holder · Jan 26, 2026 · #general“Welcome to the BlockChains.”OPEN ORIGINAL ➜
IF YOU WERE ON THE LIST — KEEP YOUR OWN COPIES
If your wallet was on the April 30 / May 2, 2022 leaderboard, keep your own record — links on other people's servers can disappear. This is just what's worth holding on to.
2. Your Premint confirmation for the "BBDTBC RL Chain Information" form, if you submitted one (the form is still live; log in and screenshot it).
3. Your wallet's Gem and BallerChain purchases between Jan 11 and Apr 30, 2022 — an Etherscan export of your address is enough.
4. Any DM or message with project staff about delivery, with the date showing.
5. The public exhibit pack below, so you have the announcements and transactions even if the server goes away.
CHECK IT YOURSELF
Unofficial fan page, written by a holder of BlockChains and BallerChains, not affiliated with or endorsed by anyone involved in the project. Quotes are from the project's own public #announcements channel, reproduced with links to the originals (ellipses mark omitted text); on-chain facts link to the transactions; supply figures come from the contracts. Wallets are identified only by their public ENS names or truncated addresses — no individual is named, and no wrongdoing by any party is alleged; by every public account the people involved were spending their own money trying to finish it. Holders' statements are their own. Winners' wallet lists are deliberately not republished. Dollar figures marked ≈ are approximate.