NFT: A NEW ART MEDIUM OR PASSING FAD? PART 2
NFT: A NEW ART MEDIUM OR PASSING FAD? PART 2
By Alessandro Di Benedetto
THE CRAZE CONTINUES: FROM CRYPTOKITTENS TO PET ROCKS, PASSING THROUGH CRYPTOPUNKS
Credit: De Ingenieur
I swear I’m not mentally ill, nor did you misread the title. One of the first usages of NFTs is called CryptoKitties. CryptoKitties is a blockchain game on Ethereum developed by Canadian studio Dapper Labs that allows players to purchase, collect, breed and sell virtual cats. In fact, it is one of the earliest attempts to deploy blockchain technology for recreation and leisure.
In December 2017, the game's popularity congested the Ethereum network, causing it to reach an all-time high in the number of transactions and slowing it down significantly. CryptoKitties’ success hinted at the potential of apps powered by blockchain technology — and gave birth to a new wave of cryptocurrency speculation. Again, you have two ways of seeing it: you either want to have fun and collect digital cats, or you see the potential of reselling them in a few years’ time for big bucks. Someone purchased Dragon, a CryptoKitty, for 600 ETH (US$ 170,000 approximately) in 2018, making her the most expensive kitty to ever be traded in the history of the game.
This hype is somewhat reminiscent of the Tamagotchi, a virtual pet on a simple LCD screen, that suddenly became popular in the late 1990s (and is now enjoying a revival, as an App). The main difference is that a Tamagotchi was stand-alone, while a CryptoKittie exists on a computer network, connected with all other players, so the longevity is way better.
Source: CryptoPunks
The next big thing after CryptoKitties was CryptoPunk (again, still not crazy…). Back in early 2017, John Watkinson and Matt Hall were playing with a pixelated character generator they built. They were so passionate about the fun little pop art portraits they had been crafting that by the middle of 2017, Watkinson and Hall had created 10’000 individual and unalterable characters with different hairstyles, hats and glasses for a project called CryptoPunks that would be hosted on the emergent Ethereum blockchain. Some punks had a handful of characteristics, some had none, some were apes, some were aliens. While the creators had a hand in curating some elements, they let their generator take control of the creativity.
On the generative process, John Watkinson stated: “The advantage of generative art is that the process, once set in motion, can produce results that are even surprising to us. We ran the generator hundreds of times, reviewed the results, and made adjustments. Then, with little fanfare, we ran it one last time, linked it to the Ethereum smart contract that we deployed, after which the CryptoPunks were completely set in stone.”
They launched to humble interest from a small community of blockchain enthusiasts who only had to pay a few pennies in Ethereum “gas” transaction fees to own their own punk. It was a novel idea, because rumors say that the CryptoPunks had started trading a few months before CryptoKitties, and years before NBA Top Shot (a mainstream usage of NFTs, discussed later in the article). But why are some punks’ worth tens of thousands of dollars today while others are worth millions? The reasons aren’t clear, but the speculation is about combining objective analysis of the rarity of certain design attributes with the more subjective impressions of punk “aesthetics”. As an example: there are only nine light-blue-skinned alien Punks to the series, and they look cooler than others. Another part of the success can be attributed to the solid foundation of the community around Cryptopunk, as Watkinson commented in a recent interview: “For fans of collectibles, it’s clearly a version of trading cards or something similar. However, generative art fans see it as an interesting example in that category. We like that its perception is flexible and brings together all these people into a single project”
Source: NFT Hours
When we were kids, we all dreamed of having digital pet rocks, right? Not. Another craze that ran in the NFT world was exactly that! Minted on the Ethereum blockchain, EtherRock is a series of 100 NFT images of… a rock! Identical in shape and inspired by the classic Pet Rock toy craze that blew up in late 1975, it’s only their color variances that set them apart. They were first launched in late 2017, so basically a few months after our two previous examples. The note on the official website is pretty clear: “These virtual rocks serve NO PURPOSE beyond being able to be [bought] and sold, and giving you a strong sense of pride in being an owner of 1 of the only 100 rocks in the game”. Well, enough said… you can now be the proud owner of a virtual image of a rock for the bargain price of some 200 ETH.
What are some of the craziest NFTs you’ve heard of and what did they sell for? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
NFT has also entered the sports world, with a LeBron Kames “Cosmic” Dunk sold at $200’000
Don’t miss part 3 of the NFT saga, coming soon!