Evolution of Pings
We like to push the boundaries of what’s possible on the blockchain! That is why we continue to create interesting projects that play with the inherent nature of the blockchain we work in — Using the blockchain as a canvas in its truest meaning!
In Pings on bitcoin we enhanced the collection’s artwork after it had already been permanently inscribed and distributed.
Ethereum:
Although the genetic code of Pings was inscribed at Inscription #75705 (Mother of All Pings or MOAP) in Feb 2023, Pings shortly appeared on Ethereum where for a year they participated in performances that tightly leveraged the canvas that was Ethereum’s EVM.
Bitcoin (Ordinals):
A year later, Pings reclaimed their space on Bitcoin, as Ethereum Pings returned home and 200 Native Bitcoin Pings were born directly of MOAP.
As the ordinals specifications evolved so did the ability of the spawned Pings.
Baked into the code of each Ping on Bitcoin is a mechanism we developed, called On-Chain Customs (OCC), that allows Artist and Collector to collaborate on the blockchain. We used this to allow the Pings inscriptions to be enhanced, after minting.
Mechanism workflow
Workflow in its basic form:
(1) Artist creates collection. Artist inscribes collection
(2) Collector buys art. Collector enjoys it
(3) Artist creates enhanced artwork
(4) Artist activates that enhancement onto the collection
(5) Collector automatically gets their artwork updated
(6) Collector can switch at will between original piece and all future versions
Pings use case — evolution
For Pings, we achieved evolution in the following way:
(1) Mother Of All Pings was inscribed at Inscription 75,705
(2) Pings : Eternal Echoes tokens were created (*) using delegation (efficient low-cost inscribing) and parent-child provenance, and distributed via presale and claims
(3) We created a css based generative art called Generative Frames and inscribed it (*) before the halving
(4) We activated (*) the enhancement on the Pings collection after the halving
(5) All artwork evolved instantly — all artwork are now framed with unique Generative Frames
The actions marked with an asterisk (*) were carried out in a specific manner to enable the On-Chain Customs (OCC) functionality, to be expanded on in a further post
Unleashing the Power!
The above was the basic use-case. However this novel mechanism opens a flood of cool possibilities! Here are a few examples:
Art Studio — Artist collaboration
In this scenario, the person in steps (1) and (3) above are different people: (1) is a studio/publisher, and (3) is are artists/contributors
- The studio designs an art piece to be turned into a collection (1),
- Artists are invited to contribute variations (3),
- Variations are then incorporated into the collection (4)
Live Decentralised Co-creation
In this scenario (1) and (3) happen at the start of the project, and at (2) the collector buys one of X number of items in the collection
- There is a single large art piece that incorporates all tokens in the collection
- The collectors join in a decentralised co-creation: During the life of the project the collectors can update their token (6) to update the master work.
bonus:
- At certain periods an automatic snapshot is taken on chain that records the master work. e.g. snapshots: every X hundred blocks, every change, every halving, etc
- The master work can be replayed by future enjoyors to view how the art progressed over time.
- As this happens on chain and is recorded, participant becomes enshrined as part of the history of the artwork.
Customisation / User Custom Builds
- The artwork or project is created with several enhanceable parts of the artwork (1).
- The artist creates enhancements for each part (3)
- The collector mixes and matches various available components to create a custom design (6)
bonus:
- At a certain block the custom design becomes finalised. Collector enjoys the finalised art
Created for All
All these possibilities are enabled through OCC which was designed to be general purpose. Its inner workings are for another post. However it is available to use for free by anyone who wants to put flexibility/upgradability into their work or explore cool mechanics.
The Inscriptions that enable this mechanism are:
Shared Inscriptions (reusable inscriptions)
🧑🔧 On-Chain Customs: Module that orchestrates the production of the custom art based on artist-user custom specifications
🗃 Manifest Loader: Manages retrieving versions of enhancements and user specs
Specific Inscriptions (copied and inscribed per collection)
📦 Component Store & 📜Manifest Display: Stores the collection’s main artwork (e.g. p5js sketch, text, image, video, etc) as well as all artist enhancements. Allows future enhancements to be incorporated into the collection.
The inscription itself renders as a dynamic display console that lists all collection enhancements that are available for the artwork. It automatically updates to show new available enhancements
🎟️ User Tokens: The user’s Artwork Inscriptions that also allows them to control of their render version.
In future posts we will explore and document its use and a walk through example.
Explore the Pings Collection!
For now, we invite you to
💠 explore the Pings : Ethereal Echoes collection and hopefully find one that you like!
💠 Come and mingle with some familiar faces on discord!
💠 Follow the project developments on Twitter
