Art Blocks Curated
Art Blocks Curated
Ep. 2 - The History and Future of ArtBlocks, Generative Art Curation, NFTs, W/ Erick AKA Snowfro
Overview
Art Blocks is a first-of-its-kind storefront for genuinely programmable on-demand generative content that is stored immutably on the Ethereum Blockchain.[5]
The user picks a style that they like, pays for the work, and a randomly generated version of the content is created by an algorithm and sent to your Ethereum account. The resulting piece might be a static image, 3D model, or interactive experience. Each output is different and there are endless possibilities for the types of content that can be created on the platform.[10]
A generative script (p5js) is stored on the Ethereum blockchain for each project launched on Art Blocks.
Using an initial unique “seed”, the user can be sure that every iteration is random, generative, and one-of-a-kind.
Each block panel is a little generative art piece with numerous random settings that has their own life while also contributing to the overall composition. This represents generative artists who are unified by the concept of Art Blocks.[11]
The Creator of Art Blocks (Snowfro)
Snowfro came up with the idea when they were claiming Cryptopunks back in 2017, and they thought it was unfair that they got to claim a bunch of zombies. Over the next few years, he sold over 20 zombies to fund the development of Art Blocks.
Project releases on the platform, like sneaker drops, happen at different periods and feature different artists.
Collectors then go to the project page and mint the tokens there, with no idea what they're minting until it's done.
On record, 13 curated projects and six uncurated projects have been released so far.
Snowfro ultimately sees Art Blocks as a platform where artists can do a drop that would be affordable for collectors that might otherwise be priced out of the artists’ work.[12][14]
How Art Blocks Works
The Art Blocks platform hosts generative projects for the production of verifiably deterministic outputs.
A generative script (using p5js for example) is stored immutably on the Ethereum blockchain for each project.
When a user wants to purchase an iteration of a project hosted on the platform, they purchase an ERC721 compliant token, also stored on the Ethereum blockchain, containing a provably unique "seed" which controls variables in the generative script.
These variables, in turn, control the way the output looks and operates.
Each "seed", also known as a "hash string" is a hexadecimal string generated in a pseudo-random manner at the time the token is minted.
Each character (0-9, a-f) represents a value from 0-15 and each pair of characters ("aa", or "f2") represents a value from 0-255.
For Instance, the y-coordinate of each point in a squiggle is dictated by the value of a hex pair in the seed.
Hex pairs in the seed also control the starting color, rate of change of the gradient, amount of points in each squiggle, plus some surprise features that make some squiggles rareR than others.[8]
Every time a squiggle is drawn using a specific "seed" the result will be identical.
This means the project is "deterministic".
Art Blocks projects are required to have a deterministic initial state and therefore your token, which represents a specific output of the algorithm stored for that particular project, is guaranteed to be unique.[7]
When a project is deployed on the Art Blocks platform, the artist has the ability to tweak and modify the script and settings until he or she is comfortable and ready to "lock" the project.
Once a project is locked, attributes like max iterations (the maximum number of iterations that will be allowed to be minted), scripts, project name, artist name, and a number of hashes generated will be permanently frozen.[5]
Platform Fees and Additional Payees
The Art Blocks platform charges a fee for projects listed on the platform of 10%.
At the time a token is purchased, 10% of the purchase price is transferred to the Art Blocks address with the balance immediately transferred to the project creator.[10]
Project creators can optionally designate an additional payee for each project.
The creator will indicate the receiving address and % of the purchase price that will be sent to this additional payee instantly at the time of purchase.
This feature will enable established platforms to monetize the representation of a creator on their platform or create an automatic method for a collaboration of creators to split the proceeds of a sale.[12]
Chromie Squiggle by Snowfro
Chromie Squiggle is the project by Snowfro, the creator of the Art Blocks platform. It is the largest project currently on the platform, the 10,000 mints was a number he felt would be good for a long-term project’s health and community. During an interview section, he stated that he was fascinated with color in general and loved that the squiggles could capture multiple cycles of a spectrum or a very limited segment of the spectrum. The shape of the squiggle itself was created to provide enough randomness so that no two pieces could be the same.
Minting ended to the public in early January at around 9,000 mints, with the rest of the mints to be used as a reserve fund for marketing in the future.
Currently, the only way to buy them is through Opensea.
Notable Sales
On August 23, 2021, Fidenza #313, an NFT from their drop with artist Tyler Hobbs, sold for 1000 ETH ($3,3M).
On August 27, 2021, Ringers #879 from the drop with Dmitri Cherniak sold for 1800 ETH ($5.8 million).[18]
On August 30, 2021, Ringers #669 from their drop with Dmitri Cherniak sold for 400 ETH ($1.2 million).[19]
On September 16, 2021, Fragments of an Infinite Field #216 from their drop with Monica Rizzolli sold for 100 ETH ($356,000).[20]
On September 26, 2021, Chromie Squiggle #7583, an extremely rare ‘perfect spectrum‘ squiggle, sold for 945 ETH ($2.8M).[21]
On September 30, 2021, a buyer purchased a trio of highly sought-after "Ringers" NFTs for a total of 1600 ETH ($4.7M).
The next day, the buyer continued their spending spree and made a further purchase – Fidenza #77 for 950 ETH ($2.75M).[22]