Art Blocks & Me
I first heard about Art Blocks via a friend of mine months back in Discord. The pitch was pretty simple: cool generative art (code is used to ‘paint’ the art) made by cool artists at affordable prices. On top of that, Art Blocks itself has a fierce commitment to on-chain generation as well as a tiered curation system, making it well positioned to capitalize on the archival nature of fine art at the museum level. I didn’t need any further convincing so I dove in with Synapses, doubled down with Elementals and by the time I minted Subscapes I was a full blown fanatic.
I’m never been someone that is really into art. When I travel it’s always to eat, drink or surf — I’ll occasionally toss a museum in there. I’ve been to Paris several times and never been to the Louvre. I lived in New York City for over a decade before I ever made it to the Met. It’s not that I don’t like art, it’s that past a certain point I just don’t really “get it”. Monet, Van Gogh and the rest of the Impressionists…I can get down with them. Dali and Magritte? Absolutely. But past that? Hell no. The first time I went to The MoMA I saw just a black frame hanging on a white wall. That was the whole piece. All I could think was 🚮.
I remember the first time I strolled through Chelsea, popping into galleries and looking for something nice I could put on my walls. Prices, if they were listed at all, were high. Whenever I asked about a piece I could feel the judgement. Did I have enough money? Was I worthy of this gallery’s time? I left empty handed, consigned to bare walls or maybe a random poster I’d buy on the internet and toss in a cheap Ikea frame. Fine art, it would seem, just wasn’t for me. This is a feeling I have carried for years. Just another pleb who isn’t wanted by the intellectual elites of a world I’d never understand.
As a software engineer I have spent my adult life moving bytes from one part of the internet to another part of the internet. A sort of jack of all trades master of none type engineer I have always been intrigued by the various ways in which code can be applied to all kinds of problems. Until recently I had never really considered the application of code to art. Yet the more I thought about it the more it made sense. When Tyler Hobbs, the artist behind Fidenza, published his essay on long form generative art a lot of this started to crystalize for me. On-chain generative art truly puts the code at the center. The visual output is merely a reflection of the underlying algorithm. The code is the art. And just as the code is the art, the community are the curators. The democratization of fine art, enabled by the Ethereum blockchain. A beautiful thing to witness, and a gateway into a world I thought I could never be a part of.
At this point readers my be thinking “but ser, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to mint on Art Blocks now, what is democratic about this”? While Art Blocks once allowed anyone with a couple hundred bucks to mint potentially amazingly fine art, the recent explosion in popularity has largely put that to bed. The days of cheap, uncontested mints for Curated and Playground releases are likely a thing of the past as more people have caught onto the magic of the Art Blocks platform. These growing pains are being felt by everyone — artists who become overnight millionaires, collectors who are priced out, collectors who themselves have become millionaires, and of course the Art Blocks team.
With this explosion in growth, the Art Blocks team has adopted a new approach to minting which consists of a Dutch Auction mechanism.While this new pricing hasn’t really succeeded in curtailing the froth, it was never meant to be a lasting fix. As a collector I hope the new minting contract balances access to the art and capturing value for the artist. I often hear “if the free market values the art at X then so be it”. And sure, I get how markets work. But expanding the base of collectors to include those who are either late entrants or smaller wallets is important too. While I empathize with the desire to maximize the earnings for the artist — why should miners or flippers capture the bulk of the value — I think that again there needs to be a balance here. If the cost to mint is too high then all you’ve really done is, to some extend, reproduce the gated access of the traditional art world on-chain. That said, Art Blocks already has tiers of curation and perhaps there is room to explore different distribution and minting strategies within this existing structure. In the meantime, those that have been priced out of recent mints should take a look through old projects on the secondary market. There is plenty of incredible work that is being overlooked as everyone chases the next mint, hoping to win the Art Blocks lottery.
While I have also been frustrated with the explosion in demand and becoming priced out myself, a recent conversation with Snowfro really reinforced what a special platform this is lead by genuinely empathetic people who are doing the best they can during this time of unprecedented demand. With this in mind I am trying my best to be patient as the team works hard on the new minting contract.
I have been in and out of the crypto world since the early days of Bitcoin. DeFi is what pulled me back in months and months ago but NFTs, specifically fine art minted on Art Blocks, is what truly captured my imagination. I am lucky enough to be the owner of some excellent pieces that I will cherish for years to come. My sincere hope is that those who feel left out and on the sidelines right now will be able to experience this magic for themselves and fall in love like I did. In so many ways this is what this space is all about. Whether we get there or not remains to be seen, but if anyone can do it it’s the team at Art Blocks.
Disclaimer: Some members of Yunt Capital are invested in Art Blocks.
As always, please do your own research. This is not financial advice. Every strategy is not for everyone. Each investor needs to understand what is right for them.
