Latest Art Blocks-Playground News
Art Blocks announced the launch of its own secondary marketplace to address security, authenticity, and royalties.
❗ Why It Matters
The new Art Blocks secondary marketplace is meaningful because it's safe, ensures the buyer is getting the original artwork, and protects the creator royalties that have been a bedrock of the web3 space (that is, until Blur and OpenSea both opted to make royalties optional above 0.5%).
The Deets
The Art Blocks secondary marketplace addresses three primary pain points:
- Security: The Art Blocks secondary marketplace is safe, "built on top of the battle-tested Seaport protocol for in-product listings while aggregating other marketplaces with Reservoir so that you know you’re getting the best price."
- Authenticity: All listings on the Art Blocks marketplace are from legitimate Art Blocks projects and artists.
- Royalties: The two largest secondary market platforms have both made royalties optional, so Art Blocks is making sure to honor them on its own marketplace. Art Blocks has consistently been committed to royalties and views the trend of declining royalties as harmful to digital artists’ ability to make a living.
🎬 Take Action
- See the new secondary marketplace in action with Art Blocks' latest Curated release, Cargo, here.
- Read Art Blocks Editorial: Our Secondary Market is Kind of a Big Deal
🎤 Community Quotes
This is huge. Everyone has an opinion on royalties. It's awesome to see @ArtOnBlockchain and team actually do something about it all.Axu.eth
The Art Blocks secondary marketplace will boast lowest fees whilst fully honoring artist and creator royalties, says purplehat.eth.
❗ Why It Matters
Art Blocks has made it known that creator royalties will still be protected for purchases made on its own marketplace, amidst the backdrop of the ongoing feud between Blur and OpenSea that has targeted those very royalties.
This move comes less than a month after Art Blocks added support for secondary purchasing directly on its website, a move that was also designed to enforce royalties and support creators.
What It Means
- The secondary marketplace functionality has been expanded to include native listings/delistings, removing the need for another marketplace at all.
- Aggregated listings that don't include creator royalties will be royalty-normalized to properly include them.
🎤 Community Quotes
And there it is. If I read this right, we now have a place where we can actually see the art (unlike how it doesn't load on OS and Blur) AND support artists by honoring royalties AND no marketplace fee.harristotle
Art Blocks has added support for secondary purchasing directly on the Art Blocks website, according to a developer announcement in the community Discord.
❗Why It Matters
Art Blocks adding secondary support for its NFTs ensures that the platform will no longer need to rely on any other secondary marketplace or third party for its sales. Additionally, all sales on the Art Blocks marketplace will automatically enforce royalty payments, supporting creators whilst removing any anxieties from purchasers about whether or not royalties are being supported.
The Deets
All NFTs will be listed at the lowest price based on listings from the following NFT marketplaces: "OpenSea, LooksRare, X2Y2, Sansa, Zora, Foundation, CoinbaseNFT, Rarible, Sudoswap, and Reservoir." At this time, Blur is not supported but the team is hoping to add it soon.
🧠 Learn More
Art Blocks' new website is live, the team announced this afternoon. This is another step in the team's transition to Art Blocks v2.0, set to formally begin on November 1st.
The "revamped, beautiful online environment" includes the new logo, lovingly referred to as "lilsquig" and includes more content pages for the artists, the artwork, the Art Blocks company, and its team.
A new online journal called "Spectrum" will have its own landing page, where the team plans to feature interviews, educational content, news, and other audio and video content.
The navigation tabs on the site include:
- Featured - home for new and recent content,
- How It Works - basic background, artist landing pages, and FAQs
- About - information on the company, including the roadmap, team information, and Art Blocks Engine
- Journal - home for Spectrum (described above)
- Browse Art button, taking users to the classic inventory of projects
Early feedback from the community seems to be positive, though the site has been live for less than one hour. The Art Blocks team encouraged users with any feedback to bring it to their upcoming AMA on November 3rd.
Art Blocks is back today with a Playground release from artist Alexis Andre titled "Departed." This is one of the most visually compelling generative sets we have seen in some time and is set up for some major attention today.
The project theme centers around losing touch with friends and relatives in this growing online world.
"'Departed' deals with the uncertainty of life, feelings of helplessness and how we might be losing touch with our humanity when everything is online," the project page said.
"Departed" appears to have 3D imagery in its outputs, reinforced by the colors and lines that reach beyond the standard frame. The art spills out and it feels like it's coming at the viewer — a style not seen frequently in the Art Blocks world.
The pieces are slightly animated but reach their final resting state in a matter of two-to-three seconds. Thus, the outputs are more similar to still art than animated. Preview some sample outputs at this link.
In 24 hours exactly, "Departed" will go live on @artblocks_io
— Alexis André (@MacTuitui) October 11, 2022
Four successive non-curated test outputs.
What you see is what you *might* get.
I hope to see you there. pic.twitter.com/FR9VEhzWi1
Quick Background on Alexis Andre
Alexis Andre, who goes by Mac Tuttui on Twitter, is an early contributor to Art Blocks Curated, with his project "720 Minutes" launching as a part of Series 2 in early March of 2021. He has since launched three additional projects, with one "24 Heures" on hold and available for only specific collectors. The floors and supplies of those projects are listed below:
- 720 Minutes - 2.7 ETH floor, 720 supply
- Void - 0.29 ETH floor, 500 supply
- Messengers - 0.59 ETH floor, 350 supply
- Obicera - 0.29 ETH floor, 529 supply
Market Analysis and Predictions
Art Blocks has some serious tailwinds right now. Last week's Curated set "Fontana" is holding a 1.5 ETH floor, up nearly three times the mint price (though down almost 40 percent from its local high). Last Friday's Playground drop from Jeff Davis minted out in an outrageous gas war (600 gwei required to mint), and then Monday's drop "QWERTY" jumped nearly 100 percent from its 0.26 ETH mint price to a 0.5 ETH floor. That is some serious ROI and demand in this bear market.
Predicting "Departed" price action is a bit trickier. His prior works' floors are all over the place, ranging from 0.29 to 2.7 ETH. This does appear to be the most visually stunning of any of Alexis' sets and thus could command a premium. The supply at just 350 is nice as well.
The most likely scenario is that this mints out in the 0.3-0.4 ETH range and sees some target upside around 0.6-0.8 ETH range. If collectors start rallying behind it, it could very well run past 1 ETH. If the mint gets botted or mints out too high (in the 0.5-0.75 ETH range), it becomes much riskier.
A good comp set for "Departed" could be "Alien DNA" from Shvembldr, as Shvembldr has a similar number of projects and Alien DNA stood out visually from the rest (it holds a 0.85 ETH floor with 512 supply).
With how little else is minting today and this week, this has a good chance to be the liquidity focus of the day, which could also drive some more potential upside.
Departed will begin its Dutch auction today at 11 a.m. ET, starting at 3 ETH and reducing exponentially to a resting price of 0.2 ETH.
Today's mint from Art Blocks OG and Chief Creative Officer Jeff Davis may be the single best ROI (return on investment) mint opportunity of the week. But the market knows it, and will likely be out in full force for the mint today.
Let's back up.
For starters, the project name is "Rectangles (for Herbert)" and is in the Art Blocks Playground set, as this is Jeff's eighth project. The simple and minimalist shape-based generative set is an ode to one of Jeff's very first algorithms. In his words, "Pick a number of rectangles, at varying sizes, and place them on a grid."
For this specific instance of the algorithm, the inputs include the use of four squares (three gray and one black), the first rectangle must be full size, and the black rectangle must be on top. The beauty of the algorithm, and its overarching goal, is "to examine what can arise from such a simple set of rules."
I'm very excited for my upcoming @artblocks_io release 'Rectangles (for Herbert)' as part of #TributeHerbertWFranke. A few notes about the project ⏬ pic.twitter.com/UGPMLx2omY
— Jeff Davis (@jeffgdavis) October 4, 2022
The project is dedicated to Herbert W. Franke, described as a "pioneer of computer art" who passed away this summer. Several of the world's most-renowned generative artists have been submitting tributes, and "Rectangles..." will be the latest. Additionally, all proceeds from the auction will go to Franke's foundation "art meets science."
On that charity aspect, Jeff had this to say in his discord:
"Since this project is intended for charity with all of my minting proceeds going to the Herbert W. Franke tribute, I decided to keep a somewhat robust project size and offer minting for a reasonable fixed price. The idea is to make contributing to the HWF cause accessible for those who would like to participate, and then you receive an artwork from me as a small gift to say thank you for your donation."
Background on Jeff Davis
For some quick background on Jeff, which is important to understand in anticipating market action, he has been involved with Art Blocks since the very beginning, launching his first project "Construction Token" on day 0 alongside Snowfro's "Chromie Squiggles" and DCA's "Genesis". He has since gone on to become the CCO of Art Blocks, staying active in the company's growth, while also launching several generative art projects along the way.
With eight projects launched and a ninth on the way, he is the single most prolific artist in the Art Blocks ecosystem. A quick view of those projects, in chronological order:
- Construction Token: 8.69 ETH floor, 500 supply
- View Card: 60 ETH floor, 41 supply
- Color Study: 0.59 ETH floor, 2,000 supply
- Rhythm: 2 ETH floor, 334 supply
- Portal: 22 ETH floor, 10 supply
- Neighborhood: 0.43 ETH floor, 312 supply
- Reflection: 2.9 ETH floor, 100 supply
- Variant Plan: 2 ETH floor, 199 supply
Clearly, Jeff has been a major contributor to Art Blocks. His generative art history spans pre-Art Blocks though, and several of his earlier pieces are also available on SuperRare. Some are very similar in nature to Rectangles, notably the "Abstract Token" series, which may very well be a primary source of inspiration for this algorithm.
Market Analysis and Predictions
The success of Wednesday's Curated drop "Fontana" is a game-changer for the Rectangles mint. Given Jeff's pedigree, this was always going to be a high-profile mint with some strong attention - but after Fontana did a ~5x from mint since Wednesday, all the botters will be out in full force for this one.
Jeff has opted to use a fixed-price style mint, at 0.1 ETH - about as cheap as Art Blocks mints get. With such a low mint price, there is near zero risk for minters and thus this will be a full-on gas war. If you want to mint one of these on the primary, toggle that gas high and fire on the gun. Otherwise, just go ahead and wait for the secondary market.
The price target for this set is likely in the 0.5-0.8 ETH range, using some market cap math based on his prior sets. But there are a few X factors that could play out and impact this target up or down.
On the bull case side, the ode and resemblance to some of Jeff's earliest generative work may give this a bump in value and may very well draw more attention from true collectors. If this pans out, and the mint is not overly-botted, the upside could approach 1+ ETH.
From a bear perspective, almost any time botters and flippers overrun a mint, it ends poorly - at least in the short term. If the botters dominate this one, and 50+ percent of the supply is listed within 30 minutes of the mint, expect secondary action to dry up as collectors will sit on their hands and come back in two to three weeks. In this scenario, the floor probably settles around 0.2-0.3 ETH.
With all of that said, we are enjoying a nice wave of generative art momentum right now, started by Tyler Hobbs and QQL last week and carried forward by Harvey Rayner and his Fontana drop this week. Art is fun again. Hopefully, that momentum can carry through today!
The mint for the 500 supply Rectangles (for Herbert) project will start at 1 p.m. ET today, on the Art Blocks website.
This morning the Art Blocks team made a blockbuster announcement, sharing initial details for "the next version of Art Blocks," labeled Art Blocks 2.0.
For a quick overview, the changes will include:
- New designations for the product collections
- An updated, more efficient smart contract
- A newly rebranded website that will include more educational info and thought leadership
The primary area of focus in early discussions has been on product collection changes. The Playground and Factory sets will be sunsetted, replaced by "Art Blocks Presents," though the curation and application process will remain the same.
There will be two new collections, with the first called "Art Blocks Explorations," described as "a place for our wild ideas and commissioned experiments."
The other new collection is "Art Blocks Collaborations," which will be home to their market partnerships (i.e. projects like Petro National which was a collab with Pace).
The legacy Curated collection will remain unchanged, though the team does share that the requirements to pass the application process include projects that "push the boundaries of the medium."
Read more about the scope of changes in this blog post from the Art Blocks team.
What Does This Mean for the Art Blocks Market?
A few reactions to how this will impact the market and "too early" predictions:
The removal of the Factory and Playground labels will put an increased focus on the quality of the art.
Some of the best generative art on Art Blocks has absolutely come through the Factory set (i.e. Horo, Rapture, Lewitt Generators - the list goes on), yet it has historically carried a stigma as lower quality, along with lower floor price. This change of label may be the first step in removing that stigma and enabling a more pure valuation of the art on its merits (versus what collection it resides in). The new label "Art Blocks Presents" also makes the set sound like it is coming directly from the team, based on its naming convention - assuredly more attractive than "Factory."
There are now multiple new sets that can be made (and they will see a bump in value).
There is now a distinct start and end date for the Factory and Playground collections, ending in October 2022. These full collections have been mostly easier to collect than Curated from a price standpoint (putting Playground set "The Eternal Pump" aside), but collectors have backed off due to how difficult it felt to maintain over time.
Now that difficulty has been removed and the task is doable (still fairly pricey). There are currently 230 Factory projects, and with just four weeks left in October, the final tally will be somewhere around 240. There are 64 Playground projects, and that final tally will come in below 70.
With the rebrand to 2.0, there is also a new "Art Blocks v1.0" set that can be created. It consists of all of the Curated from series 1-8 along with Factory and Playground (in theory the v0 set is the day 1 set, Squiggles, Construction Token, and Genesis). Given that there are 66 Curated projects, the full Art Blocks v1.0 set would require 357 pieces at the time of writing. There are also now Curated v0 and Curated v1 sets which can be made - quite a variety of options for the dedicated collector.
From a market standpoint, do not expect a big bump in price in the near term - but over time, those sets which can create bottlenecks for each set (those with the lowest supply) could very well be the primary beneficiaries. Additionally, if Art Blocks stays relevant for 10-20+ years (which they are absolutely laying the foundation to do), all the sets in v1.0 are likely to see a bump due to historical significance over. The final mints for the v1.0 set, across Factory, Playground, and Curated all probably get a slight bump in value as well, so watch out for that in the final weeks of October.
Gas wars are going to get worse.
The new contract is said to reduce gas costs by 65 percent - great news! But the reality is, this means the botters and flippers are just going to ramp gas 65 percent higher (if not more) for the high-demand mints, knowing the fees won't be bad.
For the less experienced minter, this could very well make the minting process more difficult. To be clear, this is not a bad thing, it's quite good, but a change to be aware of and to act upon for those looking to stay competitive in minting new projects on the primary market (by adjusting gas settings ahead of mints).
Conclusion
This seems to be a very positive step forward for the Art Blocks team and good for the community. The community has responded in kind, with early feedback in the discord overwhelmingly positive. In fact, one of the most common remarks after the announcement was a desire for equity in Art Blocks as a company - with the common response being "buy squiggles." Squiggles have always been seen as the project most tied to Art Blocks and a bet on the company itself, and that narrative will only get stronger. Plus, they move.
Overall, the leadership team continues to evolve the brand and seek out innovation, cementing themselves in the very top tier of leadership in this young but growing NFT market. It will be fun to watch as this grand experiment continues to unfold before our eyes...
Lucky Trader's Tyler Warner shared his too early predictions about the Art Blocks announcement.
Art Blocks Factory and Playground collections are coming to an end as the generative art platform focuses on a new collection: Art Blocks Presents, according to an announcement Tuesday.
Projects which pass through the platform’s current application review process will be released as Art Blocks Presents and the ones that “push the boundaries” will be chosen as Art Blocks Curated, the Medium article said. Current Factory and Playground collections that are set to be released will receive a “special Heritage designation," but the collections will no longer see additional projects.
Art Blocks also announced some other initiatives:
- A commissioned collection called Explorations
- New smart contract it claims saves 65 percent on gas for collectors minting and artists uploading through the platform
- New website
Late last month, Art Blocks announced that it was sunsetting the series numbers at Series 8, but future submitted projects will still be under the Art Blocks Curated collection.
