On September 15, 2021, in a black terminal window on a glowing Mac laptop, a few commands were typed. A blockchain record was created. There was no celebration, no champagne (or even sparkling wine) was popped, but rather a feeling of anxiety mixed with a healthy dose of excitement. The very first series of photos was being published on our new platform, Sloika. The name came quite naturally, Sloika, in the language of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, means layers and a puffed pastry, a play on a layered approach to blockchain, while also evoking memories of a tasty snack.

Ethereum was riding high — at $3,615, and so was the gas. Today, the anniversary is marked by the largest and most anticipated event in crypto — Ethereum is switching to proof of stake on a 1 year mark of the first transaction on Sloika. Talk about coincidence! 

Everything gains clarity in retrospect, and it is incredible that in year we helped onboard 400 artists — including up-and-coming legends and world renowned photographers such as Iurie Belegurschi, Daniel Kordan, Stian Klo, Jordan Banks, Eric Pare, Justin Lim, Subodh Shetty, Hobopeeba, Oprisco, Tara Workman, half a dozen collectives, and so many more. 

As a photography first and (at a time) the only marketplace, we helped pioneer several new innovations that now became standard across the thriving industry, bear market be damned.

Photography rights are one of these. When we started, marketplaces insisted, deep in the terms of service, that all you get in exchange for your payment is a blockchain record itself and not the underlying art. We helped make it transparent, by putting rights front and centre on every photo asset, and embedding them on-chain. We even collaborated with a bunch of photographers and collector in real time to improve and expand it to match the evolution of the space.

We also helped pioneer more gas efficient contracts. From November of last year to September of this year, creators paid up to 1000 times less to mint their photos, with an average reduction of about 350 times. Till today, minting an edition or a photo series on Sloika will result in industry’s lowest gas fee. In the end, photographers are the ones who benefited the most from this. 

There are so many more things that we tirelessly worked on to bring into the world, such as Collectives, which allow a group of strangers to create cohesive works of art and share proceeds in a decentralized and trustless manner. Or take GACHA, our innovative on-chain randomizer that picks a random art piece from the series, turning collecting into a fun game. Or artist-owned smart contracts from day one, at a time when none of the marketplaces were doing it, because this was a controversial and overly technical solution. Now, it’s the standard as well. Or our work with enabling listing liquidity, allowing collectors to save money when listing on OpenSea, X2Y2, LooksRare, Rarible, Coinbase NFT, and soon, Sloika. 

To mark this anniversary, I also wanted to take a moment to say thank you to the first collectors who helped spark the revolution that is underway with Sloika. Thank you Daniel McAuley, Justin “hurtingbombz” Lim, Iurie Belegurschi, Chris Ye, octo9488, torman, 8F44F7, EDFDF4, 8c9c716018710c30ebb038da8d9eb4b3b8446943, and freeatnet.

Here’s to the future.