Hi, I'm Chainleft.
Today I'll introduce you to two things:
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A new art NFT collection with a unique drop mechanism.
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The first piece in that collection with a unique feature.
What is ART PONZI?
ART PONZI is a curated, growing art collection with unique drop mechanics and unique artworks. It’s designed for NFT art collectors and those who love unique blockchain experiments. The name is obviously a shout to crypto's cursed ponzi culture, but hopefully, this mechanic in the context of art is more positive than the original context. Plus, there is a clear stopping point (10th drop with new airdrops) and no further promises so hopefully it’s a lot more innocent!
To explain how it works, I need to explain what other artists are doing.
Blockchains benefitted artists massively not just as a medium to sell art, but also by providing interesting ways for artists to distribute their work. The most common example is the art drop tokens spearheaded by the likes of JakNFT, Manic, Zanoza, Stranger Solemn, King Xerox, and several more.
Art drop tokens allow you to buy the token from an artist in advance. Then the artist airdrops art to your wallet every few weeks. Some artists take this even further by introducing burn or breed mechanisms. Other artists introduced open edition free mints with burn-to-own mechanisms.
These creative distribution mechanisms advance the way artists connect with their collectors and further their brands.
The artists mentioned above already over-delivered to their collectors, but as someone with not many previously released artworks, I wanted to try something different.
What if each NFT in the collection is an art drop token?
In ART PONZI, edition size increases with each drop.
Each drop auctions one edition and the rest are rewarded to the holders of the previous drop.
Unlike art drop tokens, I don't sell 50 tokens at once, I sell one with each new artwork.
This mechanism allows us to try a few unique things. For example, a guest artist can drop their work and choose to auction their work or join the holders community for future drops. As they say; sometimes the best collectors are other artists.
If you’re still not convinced, here’s the cherry on top.
After the 10th piece, two things will happen:
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There will be a surprise for the holders of the 10th piece.
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We as a small community will decide what to do next.
A lot to say about this surprise but for now, just know these: It’s a conceptual attempt, it’s something I’ve been working on for months, and it’s likely again a first in the NFT space.
After the 10th drop and the special airdrop, the community will decide the direction of ART PONZI.
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We can stop the collection.
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We can continue and increase edition supply with every drop.
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We can do raffles for the new editioned drops.
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We can restart the cycle with a new 1/1.
There are a lot of supply/demand mechanics to consider, so I’m excited to see what others will think about the future of the collection.
What is Genesisleft?
If you’ve been following me, you know that I recently had a daughter. Obviously I’m a proud dad but the real props go to my wife. So I thought my wife’s pregnancy should be depicted in my first piece in this new collection.
The genesis of a new life. The genesis of a new, unique art collection.
Genesisleft is glitch art, with a twist:
It’s 100% stored on-chain.
It’s permanent, and it has no external dependency such as IPFS or Arweave. It does not even require a programming language like JS or its libraries. Unlike Art Blocks which stores the JS code to produce the art (which is still very novel) on-chain, Genesisleft is the actual media file stored on-chain.
Genesisleft is akin to other 100% on-chain NFTs such as Autoglyphs, OnChainMonkeys, InNoiseWeTrust, Terraforms, and a few more.
Genesisleft might be the first 100% on-chain glitch art. Or more specifically the first 100% on-chain figurative (non-abstract) glitch art. I know it sounds super niche, but hear me out: Being glitchy, on-chain, and non-abstract comes with its challenges!
There are extremely few animated truly on-chain NFTs and most of them are generative, so they pretty much have to be abstract (see INWT). I don’t know if these generative works qualify as glitch art, but in any case, I’m a huge fan of them.
With this piece I’ve followed a much more detailed process than I could if I were doing a generative art project. I’ve drawn the piece myself on Inkscape, meticulously minimized its size by removing nodes in SVG path, further optimized on the SVG code itself.
For the glitch effect, I used SVG animate functions (both for movement and for the flash effect).
Independent of the “first evoor” title, I think this work is pretty unique in itself. The few art movements that represent today’s blockchain movement are on-chain art, glitch art, pixel art, and generative art. This piece is one of the few NFTs that check multiple boxes here.
Storing stuff on-chain has its limitations. I had to limit the number of strokes and nodes used in the piece, so balancing the quality and storage was the most challenging task here.
But using SVG has its advantages too!
The obvious first advantage is that the entire media is stored 100% on-chain and secured by Ethereum itself. This is close to impossible with JPG and PNG files.
Unlike classic glitch art, I don’t have a frame limit thanks to SVG’s built-in functions. Technically there are infinite frames in the piece itself (the quality of the version copied here is reduced due to Mirror’s limitations).
Notice the different frequencies managed in two separate waves. Notice how the baby's heart beats faster than the mama’s heart (because babies have higher heart rates). There is no loss of frame between these thanks to the programmatic nature of SVG.
Another advantage of using SVG is the quality. SVG allows infinite scalability. As InarusJuan put it, it can fit into any frame in the metaverse without losing any quality. SVG is future-proof!
I hope people like Genesisleft as much as I do! Keep in mind that owning this piece will qualify for an edition airdrop of the next piece in ART PONZI. And owning that second piece will qualify for an edition airdrop for the following piece. And so on…
What’s Next?
I’m aware that the lack of network effects in small collections reduces liquidity and chances to “flip”. This is not a bug but a feature in ART PONZI. I want to SLOWLY build a community of art and technology lovers, at the expense of making less money in the short term.
We are in a bear market and this is how you build during the bear market.
I’ll keep building this collection, whether we bring in other artists or not. I’m interested in building the pieces as a way to display my own artistic skills, and hopefully achieve unique artwork that hasn’t been done in the NFT space. If I can get other artists on board soon, things may progress a bit faster than I imagine and even prefer, but if not, we’ll keep a consistent Chainleft collection!
My Twitter DMs are open, so if you want to ask anything, feel free to reach out.