BasePaint is not just an application, it's a window into the onchain future. Drawing inspiration from Read Write Own, this post delves into the unique aspects of BasePaint and its potential to transform the space.
The onchain apps are here, they’re just not evenly distributed.
What is BasePaint?
BasePaint reimagines the world of pixel art through a unique onchain project that brings contributors together on a shared canvas. Artists paint every day, and the final result is transformed into a 24-hour open edition mint. 90% of the proceeds are distributed among the artists proportional to the number of pixels they contributed, and 10% are held as a protocol fee.
Every brush can only be used to paint a certain number of pixels per day. Every time an artist saves their progress, the UI encodes and stores the pixels on the blockchain. All the art produced is in the public domain (CC0). For over 200 days, collectors have minted more than 120,000 canvases, generating over 300 ETH in revenue for artists.
BasePaint = r/place + Nouns ⌐◨-◨
r/place is a shared pixel canvas on Reddit where users work together to paint imagery that celebrates different countries, organizations, media, and cultural phenomena. Each account can add one pixel every few minutes, so coordination is crucial. There are entire Discord servers dedicated to figuring out where to place pixels and how to defend the current art from being drawn over by other communities.
BasePaint takes this concept to the next level, blending the creativity of r/place with the innovative onchain mechanisms of Nouns, creating a unique intersection where collaborative art and digital ownership converge.
Core Qualities of BasePaint
There are three core qualities that define BasePaint’s appeal and innovation:
-
Collective Creativity - A group of contributors working together to generate something that surpasses what could have been produced by an individual
- Ex: Open-Source Software, Wikipedia, Johnny Cash Project
-
Perpetual Minting Mechanism - A consistent minting schedule that generates new revenue and content over time
-
Ex: Nouns DAO, Nouns Builder, Block Rewards
-
Onchain Verifiable Art - Every contribution is transparently recorded and can be used to granularly verify the final result
- Ex: Git Commit History
Collective Creativity
Collective creativity, the collaboration of individuals to create something greater than what any one person could achieve alone, is a fundamental aspect of human progress. This synergy has propelled us to our current achievements, in everything from sand mandalas to open-source software like Linux.
BasePaint represents an evolution of collective creativity, integrating onchain mechanisms that encourage participation and collecting. While it's natural to believe that the canvas might initially attract inappropriate content, the reality mirrors Wikipedia’s experience, where positive contributions outweigh the negative ones, culminating in a constructive outcome.
Amid the chaos of hundreds of painters, moments of coordination emerge in BasePaint. Artists converge on a shared vision, each contribution sparks inspiration in another, leading to a cascade of creativity. BasePaint's charm doesn't lie in the precision of a singular vision, but in the collective creativity of a group of contributors. It's the group effort, guided by a loose consensus that leads to unexpected and innovative artworks, that makes it special.
Perpetual Minting Mechanisms
Nouns pioneered the concept of daily minting. Each day, a unique NFT is created and put up for auction. The proceeds from these daily auctions go to a shared treasury, empowering Noun holders with the right to collectively decide on the allocation of these funds. This model not only ensures a steady stream of revenue for the project but also mirrors the incentivisation mechanism found in blockchain block rewards, fostering a sustainable ecosystem.
Projects equipped with a perpetual minting mechanism benefit from a sustainable flow of content and revenue, which is clearly outlined from inception. This contrasts with the approach taken in 2021 by many PFP collections, which opted for a fixed-supply model at launch and then spontaneously created new collections down the road. These new collections were often dilutive and were not an explicit part of the social contract.
Unlike Nouns, which releases a single NFT each day, BasePaint offers a 24-hour open edition model. This approach allows anyone to mint as many pieces as they want within the day's window. This encapsulates a “you had to be there” type experience, as the opportunity to mint a specific canvas vanishes with the close of each day. Consequently, BasePaint not only delivers fresh content for collectors daily but also ensures continuous support for its contributors, establishing a sustainable dynamic of creation and scarcity.
Each day’s piece of art is distinguished by its unique theme and color scheme, often selected through community voting. The influence of each vote is determined by the number of canvases owned, with a quadratic weighting. This method opens themes up to be collectively brainstormed and selected. Themes that resonate with current trends, popular memes, or significant events cause a notable uptick in minting. The allure of collecting BasePaint canvases is akin to the excitement of Pokémon cards, where the joy lies in the chase for rare finds and the personal connection to each piece.
Onchain Verifiable Art
BasePaint uses the blockchain as a public database with write access to the canvas limited to NFT brush holders. Every brush has a set number of pixels that can be placed each day and is enforced at the smart contract level. Every time someone paints, the pixels are batch-encoded and posted to the blockchain. Behind the scenes, BasePaint's backend stitches these individual transactions together, crafting the evolving art piece. As such, each BasePaint artwork goes beyond just the final image, representing a day-long process of creativity gradually coming together.
Since all contributions are recorded on the blockchain, it's easy to review each participant's input, tracking the precise pixels added by every contributor, similar to reviewing a git commit history in an open-source project.
Although the final artwork is primarily accessed through a centralized API for speed and convenience, the blockchain's public ledger ensures that anyone can verify the artwork's authenticity. This architecture combines the best of both worlds where the final image can quickly be retrieved, yet the data to verify the legitimacy of the final image is completely public and auditable.
The BasePaint Blockchain Network
In the early 2010s, platforms like Twitter and Facebook began restricting API access, significantly impacting developers who had built valuable services reliant on these networks. This sudden shift, driven by a misalignment of incentives, led to the abrupt discontinuation of numerous projects.
In contrast, developers who build on blockchain networks enjoy a much higher degree of certainty and freedom. For instance, BasePaint operates through a set of non-upgradable smart contracts, ensuring that developers can rely on consistent access for future projects. For example, someone created a project called BasePaint Bot, designed to automatically mint a certain amount of BasePaints every day for a nominal fee. Given the blockchain's role as a decentralized and open API, the BasePaint core team has no means to interfere with the bot's operations, highlighting the empowering nature of blockchain networks for developers.
In addition, Winter recently released BasePaint Rewards, a system that enables a permissionless way to earn fees through referrals for canvas mints. This innovation allows influential interfaces (wallets, dashboards, etc.) to provide their users with daily engaging content, while also securing a revenue stream from promoting canvas mints, all without the worry of access restrictions.
Beyond minting, the open nature of BasePaint permits the development of alternative frontends offering enhanced user interfaces. Someone could create a new painting UI and even charge for premium features with a subscription fee. The decentralized architecture of BasePaint, being an onchain application, guarantees that the core BasePaint team has no control over these third-party applications, ensuring they can freely interact with the smart contracts and contribute to the canvas.
Conclusion
Cryptopunks defined what it meant to create a PFP collection onchain. Nouns defined what it meant to create a DAO onchain. BasePaint defines what it means to create collectively onchain.
A project at the forefront of onchain collaboration, BasePaint showcases the possibilities of collective creativity with blockchain mechanisms. Looking ahead, there will be a variety of crypto apps that draw inspiration from BasePaint, enabling people to collaborate and earn based on their contributions not just with pixels, but everything from music to open-source software.
We invite you to explore BasePaint and start contributing. Discover, collect, and paint to the ever-evolving tapestry of collectively created art. The journey into the onchain future is just beginning, and your participation will help shape its course.
