Blocks: a generative art NFT built exclusively on Stacks
What would happen if early computer art pioneers Vera Molnar and William Kolomyjec got high with Disney’s Mary Blair and discovered they had a mutual interest in napstering the entire world’s financial system? They’d probably end up creating a bunch of crazy looking squares with Mary’s vibrant retro colors and shapes and then use them to hide secret crypto messages in binary across a symmetrical grid representing some sort of low-fi analog display in an attempt to play off the word ‘blockstack,’ right? It’d be like a better looking punch card!
No?
Yea, probably not… but…
Meet Blocks. A super artsy thing I made that looks a little bit like that.
Blocks is a generative art project that uses color filled blocks with black lines as ones and white filled blocks with colorized lines as zeroes. Each block is drawn randomly up to 8 levels deep. Grids, comprised of stacked blocks (ahem), are either 8x8, 16x16 or 32x32. Color palettes are chosen randomly from a list of 100 of my favorite color schemes.
Various crypto related terms and stacks ecosystem shout-outs are used to generate each pattern and are purposely limited in rarity. Phrases that are too long to fit on an 8x8 won’t have any 8x8’s minted, and phrases that are shorter than their grids simply repeat until the ‘storage space’ is exhausted. This gives a ton of variety to each phrase’s set of NFTs. Combined with the randomly drawn patterns and plethora of color schemes, each image in the series is a perfectly unique 1 of 1.
They’re also high resolution at 1500x1500 pixels and can be printed at 5"x5" at 300dpi to be enjoyed offline, too. There’s nothing quite like a pretty piece of art on your office wall that says “Not a Fucking Rock” across it in super eccentric binary.
2,500 variations will be minted exclusively on Stacks via StacksArt.com. They will be sold for 25stx each.
The project goes live today, Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at 12pm EST.
UPDATE: Blocks is sold out! Incredibly humbled, thank you all for the support! You can view the resale market here.
Specific rarity details, and the phrases used, are shared down below.
But first…
Why Stacks?
Stacks is the most prominent smart contract platform built on top of the world’s most prominent crypto — Bitcoin. Every NFT sold will be secured by Bitcoin’s proof-of-work. Stacks is smart contracts for bitcoin.
Stacks is an opensource project aimed at re-imagining the internet as user owned. No more big tech, big bank, big whatever nonsense. No silly proof-of-stake schemes that will undoubtedly turn certain individuals into godlike-crypto-super villains. Instead of Google’s famous “do no evil” slogan, Stacks promises “can’t be evil.”
I can get behind that.
There’s also the added benefit that gas fees are incredibly low and acceptance of STX is growing quickly as the ecosystem matures. For the price of one Ethereum transaction, you can own a whole plethora of NFTs on Stacks.
There’s a lot of cool NFT marketplaces coming to Stacks soon that I’m excited about and hope to support, but StacksArt was the first to launch and gain a little traction. They’ve been really helpful in setting this whole thing up, and I’m happy to partner with them.
How do I get started with Stacks?
If you haven’t already been purpley-pilled into Stacks, it’s really easy to get started. First, download the Hiro Web Wallet so you can sign into Stacks apps. Then head over to OkCoin.com to purchase “STX” (referral link so we can both get some of that sweet btc lovin’).
Once you have STX, simply withdrawal to your Hiro Web Wallet address.
Congratulations, you can now sign into decentralized applications and pay for things all while knowing you’re riding on the world’s most secure network — Bitcoin, baby. Welcome to Web 3.0!
How do I buy a Bitcoin NFT?
Once you’ve transferred STX to your wallet, head on over to StacksArt.com, (or STXNFT.com or Byznation.xyz currently). You can sign in with your wallet and start your collection!
Blocks Rarity Guide
Each image is constructed from a grid of blocks stacked together in one of three sizes — 8x8, 16x16 and 32x32. Each block consists of anywhere from 1 to 8 square-ish / circle-ish shapes that are completely random (random number of shapes, random corner radius, etc). On that front alone, each NFT is completely unique.
There are a limited number of phrases that have predetermined rarity, 100 different color schemes randomly determined at generation and applied uniquely to each block in the grid. Each phrase has an equal number of grid sizes, but longer phrases do not have any 8x8s, which makes them fairly rare on their own.
Each image has the phrase, grid size and color scheme noted at the bottom to make it easy to determine which image has what.
Here’s the specifics.
Phrases
Here’s a list of the phrases used and their binary patterns. Each have a predefined total.
Satoshi Nakamoto — 10/2500 (0.4%)
1010011 1100001 1110100 1101111 1110011 1101000 1101001 100000 1001110 1100001 1101011 1100001 1101101 1101111 1110100 1101111
Satoshi — 15/2500 (0.6%)
1010011 1100001 1110100 1101111 1110011 1101000 1101001
Not a Fucking Rock — 20/2500 (0.8%)
1001110 1101111 1110100 100000 1100001 100000 1000110 1110101 1100011 1101011 1101001 1101110 1100111 100000 1010010 1101111 1100011 1101011
Can’t Be Evil — 40/2500 (1.6%)
1000011 1100001 1101110 100111 1110100 100000 1000010 1100101 100000 1000101 1110110 1101001 1101100
Proof of Work — 50/2500 (2%)
1010000 1110010 1101111 1101111 1100110 100000 1101111 1100110 100000 1010111 1101111 1110010 1101011
Proof of Transfer — 50/2500 (2%)
1010000 1110010 1101111 1101111 1100110 100000 1101111 1100110 100000 1010100 1110010 1100001 1101110 1110011 1100110 1100101 1110010
Smart Contracts — 50/2500 (2%)
1010011 1101101 1100001 1110010 1110100 100000 1000011 1101111 1101110 1110100 1110010 1100001 1100011 1110100 1110011
Autonomous — 50/2500 (2%)
1000001 1110101 1110100 1101111 1101110 1101111 1101101 1101111 1110101 1110011
Stack Sats — 50/2500 (2%)
1010011 1110100 1100001 1100011 1101011 100000 1010011 1100001 1110100 1110011
To The Moon — 50/2500 (2%)
1010100 1101111 100000 1010100 1101000 1100101 100000 1001101 1101111 1101111 1101110
Blockstack — 50/2500 (2%)
1000010 1101100 1101111 1100011 1101011 1110011 1110100 1100001 1100011 1101011
Decentralized — 50/2500 (2%)
1000100 1100101 1100011 1100101 1101110 1110100 1110010 1100001 1101100 1101001 1111010 1100101 1100100
CityCoins — 60/2500 (2.4%)
1000011 1101001 1110100 1111001 1000011 1101111 1101001 1101110 1110011
MiamiCoin — 60/2500 (2.4%)
1001101 1101001 1100001 1101101 1101001 1000011 1101111 1101001 1101110
Stacks.AC — 60/2500 (2.4%)
1010011 1110100 1100001 1100011 1101011 1110011 101110 1000001 1000011
HODL — 60/2500 (2.4%)
1001000 1001111 1000100 1001100
BTFD — 60/2500 (2.4%)
1000010 1010100 1000110 1000100
SIP-009–60/2500 (2.4%)
1010011 1001001 1010000 101101 110000 110000 111001
NYKNYC — 60/2500 (2.4%)
1001110 1011001 1001011 1001110 1011001 1000011
Bitcoin — 75/2500 (3%)
1000010 1101001 1110100 1100011 1101111 1101001 1101110
DeFi — 75/2500 (3%)
1000100 1100101 1000110 1101001
P2P — 75/2500 (3%)
1010000 110010 1010000
BUIDL — 75/2500 (3%)
1000010 1010101 1001001 1000100 1001100
Blockchain — 100/2500 (4%)
1000010 1101100 1101111 1100011 1101011 1100011 1101000 1100001 1101001 1101110
Cryptocurrency — 100/2500 (4%)
1000011 1110010 1111001 1110000 1110100 1101111 1100011 1110101 1110010 1110010 1100101 1101110 1100011 1111001
BTC — 165/2500 (6.6%)
1000010 1010100 1000011
NFT — 165/2500 (6.6%)
1001110 1000110 1010100
STX — 165/2500 (6.6%)
1010011 1010100 1011000
Crypto — 180/2500 (7.2%)
1000011 1110010 1111001 1110000 1110100 1101111
Web 3.0 — 210/2500 (8.4%)
1010111 1100101 1100010 100000 110011 101110 110000
Stacks — 210/2500 (8.4%)
1010011 1110100 1100001 1100011 1101011 1110011
Grid Sizes
An equal number of grid sizes were created for each phrase. Some phrases can’t fit on an 8x8 grid, however, and are excluded from that size. That leads to a fun little twist in that if you prefer the look of an 8x8, you’ll have more luck with the more common (shorter) phrases. At the same time, there’s fewer 8x8s in total than there are of 16x16 and 32x32.
So an 8x8 of HODL? There’s only 20 of them (0.8%). The same rarity as the third most rare phrase, “Not a Fucking Rock,” in it’s totality (which has 10 16x16s and 10 32x32s, for a total of 20 altogether)
8x8 — 550/2500 (22%)
16x16 — 975 (39%)
32x32 — 975 (39%)
Color Schemes
Color schemes were randomly determined when the image was generated. There are 100 possible color palettes. They ended up fairly evenly distributed. Color Scheme #22 is the most rare, with just 11/2500 using it (0.44%) and the most common scheme, Color Scheme #21, clocks in at 38/2500 (1.52%). It’s just a coincidence that they’re next to each other numerically.
#1 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#2 — 23/2500 (0.92%)
#3 — 22/2500 (0.88%)
#4 — 31/2500 (1.24%)
#5 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#6 — 26/2500 (1.04%)
#7 — 18/2500 (0.72%)
#8 — 24/2500 (0.96%)
#9 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#10 — 25/2500 (1%)
#11 — 18/2500 (0.72%)
#12 — 20/2500 (0.8%)
#13 — 19/2500 (0.76%)
#14 — 23/2500 (0.92%)
#15 — 25/2500 (1%)
#16 — 31/2500 (1.24%)
#17 — 16/2500 (0.64%)
#18 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#19 — 35/2500 (1.4%)
#20 — 21/2500 (0.84%)
#21 — 38/2500 (1.52%)
#22 — 11/2500 (0.44%)
#23 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#24 — 26/2500 (1.04%)
#25 — 27/2500 (1.08%)
#26 — 19/2500 (0.76%)
#27 — 25/2500 (1%)
#28 — 19/2500 (0.76%)
#29 — 25/2500 (1%)
#30 — 23/2500 (0.92%)
#31 — 21/2500 (0.84%)
#32 — 27/2500 (1.08%)
#33 — 21/2500 (0.84%)
#34 — 26/2500 (1.04%)
#35 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#36 — 24/2500 (0.96%)
#37 — 22/2500 (0.88%)
#38 — 25/2500 (1%)
#39 — 22/2500 (0.88%)
#40 — 29/2500 (1.16%)
#41 — 24/2500 (0.96%)
#42 — 27/2500 (1.08%)
#43 — 20/2500 (0.8%)
#44 — 20/2500 (0.8%)
#45 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#46 — 25/2500 (1%)
#47 — 26/2500 (1.04%)
#48 — 33/2500 (1.32%)
#49 — 14/2500 (0.56%)
#50 — 23/2500 (0.92%)
#51 — 21/2500 (0.84%)
#52 — 19/2500 (0.76%)
#53 — 22/2500 (0.88%)
#54 — 16/2500 (0.88%)
#55 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#56 — 26/2500 (1.04%)
#57 — 25/2500 (1%)
#58 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#59 — 22/2500 (0.88%)
#60 — 27/2500 (1.08%)
#61 — 29/2500 (1.16%)
#62 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#63 — 23/2500 (0.92%)
#64 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#65 — 26/2500 (1.04%)
#66 — 25/2500 (1%)
#67 — 29/2500 (1.16%)
#68 — 18/2500 (0.72%)
#69 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#70 — 17/2500 (0.68%)
#71 — 26/2500 (1.04%)
#72 — 25/2500 (1%)
#73 — 34/2500 (1.36%)
#74 — 21/2500 (0.84%)
#75 — 29/2500 (1.16%)
#76 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#77 — 22/2500 (0.88%)
#78 — 27/2500 (1.08%)
#79 — 17/2500 (0.68%)
#80 — 23/2500 (0.92%)
#81 — 19/2500 (0.76%)
#82 — 20/2500 (0.8%)
#83 — 15/2500 (0.6%)
#84 — 28/2500 (1.12%)
#85 — 27/2500 (1.08%)
#86 — 29/2500 (1.16%)
#87 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#88 — 28/2500 (1.12%)
#89 — 21/2500 (0.84%)
#90 — 22/2500 (0.88%)
#91 — 27/2500 (1.08%)
#92 — 25/2500 (1%)
#93 — 20/2500 (0.8%)
#94 — 21/2500 (0.84%)
#95 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#96 — 30/2500 (1.2%)
#97 — 25/2500 (1%)
#98 – 26/2500 (1.04%)
#99 — 32/2500 (1.28%)
#100 — 31/2500 (1.24%)
