KALOS.art — a powerful showcase and marketplace community built for AI art creators and lovers
Writen by Catmus
Since April, when I started to get addicted to AI image generation, my enthusiasm and “production capacity” for AI artwork have increased sharply in tandem. Every week, I could produce dozens or hundreds of works that satisfied me (at least satisfied at that time). It’s kind of an irrepressible human nature impulse to show off the works. So I post them everywhere I could, Twitter, instagram, discord group, everywhere and feel I have tried my best to restrain myself. But, well, the feedback to my posts is getting less and less, before there were dozens of likes, now only a dozen likes. Maybe, some of my shy but merciful friends have muted me or my AI related keywords secretly.
From then on, I am thinking about building a platform that would allow “AI artists” as “prolific” as me to show our work unlimitedly and loudly.
Besides that, there were two other needs that I strongly wanted to meet as a primary user of the platform: “how to profit from my costly AI creative hobby” and “get a digital signature to my work to prove the originality”.
So I started to design the product focusing on solving these three pain points in August and worked with 3 developers to build the platform specifically designed for digital artists, AI artists and enthusiasts to showcase, sell and communicate their work.
As a creator, all works uploaded to Kalos will be displayed as a gallery profile. Unlike most social media that are popular nowadays, your posts will not sink into the timeline quickly and be difficult to find.
Upload your AI or digital artwork to create a remarkable portfolio gallery and earn income
Every artwork posted can be listed for purchase, liked and powered by others.
The “purchase download” is not a NFT mode, but pays for a license for using the image, which is the same as the stock image or photo selling model. We currently offer only one type — a non-exclusive commercial and personal usage license. An unlimited number of copies can be sold for being used as footage, asset, background, design, etc. Kalos may also introduce more artwork selling mode in the near future, such as digital artwork collection with limited number of signed copies.
Published works are watermarked with the author’s ID. The original watermark-free images only can be acquired after purchase.
“Powering an artist” means tipping or reward. The power meter near the artist avatar shows the power value accumulated by power charges and purchase downloads paid by others. The value shown here will only increase and not decrease, which can be considered as an influence or achievement index of the artist.
Selling your works, prompts and stories on Kalos
You could set whether or not to list the artwork, and price it freely (in kw). However, it is better to set the price that can reach a good balance of unit price and sales volume.
Prompt or Story can also be posted as part of the artwork, which could complete the concept and form of the image only works. This means that a work posted on Kalos.art can also be a short story or a poem with illustration, a graphic novel, or even the interesting and creative dialogues or writing from AI text generation models, such as ChatGPT.
Not everyone can view your prompt uploaded with the image, only those who purchased this piece. Another way is to power the artist, which could unlock prompts for all of that artist’s works for 72 hours. So for artists who are willing to make prompts public, you can earn some financial rewards along the way.
But why don’t we support selling prompts directly?
The main reason is the originality of a prompt is difficult to define, besides, we don’t want to spend too much effort at this stage on dealing with disputes like the fake match between the prompt and the resulting image.
Generate and download digital certificate of your artwork for free
Blockchain-based digital signatures and digital certificates have been the main business of my team since the Press.one project in 2017. Later, Press.one moved to Rumsystem, a open-source decentralized p2p network infrastructure, so on-chain proof for digital work is an easy task for our team.
However, it should be noted that the digital certificate of a work is not equal to the certificate of originality or copyright.
To prove that work A is the original work of author B and author B has copyright on work A, two conditions are needed: to prove that user B is creator B himself; and to prove that creator B has the right to claim the copyright on work A.
To satisfy these two conditions, it requires identity verification based on a large amount of real-name user data and a complete evidence chain to prove the copyright ownership, which also involves privacy issues. So there are almost no online services that can provide such a “copyright” certificate except for traditional intellectual property certification agencies,
So what Kalos provides is actually a blockchain-based “first published certificate” , which is issued by the private key of a Kalos user, plus the image, publish timestamp and other info of the work, and is stored as tamper-proof, verifiable on-chain data. If you want to prove that a work is your original, the easiest way is to show your proof that you were the first to publish it. Kalos can help you.
On the flip side, if someone manages to impersonate you, steal your work to generate a “fake digital certificate” and sell it for revenue. Then the evidence of his copyright infringement is permanently stored on the chain, which can be beneficial for the original creator to claim his or her rights and compensation through legal means.
Below is a demo digital certificate generated on Kalos.art (demo, cannot be scanned and verified yet), suitable for view and share on mobile screed. This feature is not yet fully open for use, coming soon.
There are more users who are not “AI artists” yet, just AI lovers or people who are curious about new tech. (However, I believe that within a few years, just like the popularity of photography by using phones, everyone could use AI image generation technology for visual-based self-expression and communication) . It is a fabulous experience to witness the latest creative trends and technical and conceptual capability possibilities in the field of AI art on the front seat.
1. Explore and discover your favorite AI art, mark works with Like, and follow artists by powering them.
2. Private message with your favorite artists.
After powering your preferred artist or purchasing any piece of his or her artwork, a private message channel with the artist would be opened and valid for 72 hours. A good opportunity for chatting, learning, or ordering a custom artwork from your favorite artists.
3. Get a commercial usage license of your favorite work.
Kalos provides the same image licensing model as the mainstream stock images or photos service.
You are free to use:
- For both personal and commercial projects and to modify it.
- In a website, apps, digital reproduction, or as part of your design.
- Printed in physical form as part of cover art, product packaging and labeling,, or in the advertising and copy of tangible media, including magazines, newspapers, and books.
- Incorporated into film, video, advertisement as footage resource.
What you can not do
- Re-sell, re-distribute or sub-license items.
- Use items as the basis for merchandising. For example, printing a logo from the purchase downloaded content straight onto a T-shirt for selling.
- In a manner that could be considered libelous, obscene, or illegal.
- Use straight as a trademark, service mark, logo
4. paid to view prompt
The best way to improve your creation with AI models is to learn from successful works. As mentioned above, there are two ways to view a prompt on Kalos, by purchasing the work (if it comes with a prompt) or by powering the artist (72 hours to view all prompts that come with his work).
About purchasing and redeeming the power value
You can check the balance and all the transactions in your Power Bank in the APP.
There are two points to note.
The balance in the power bank and the meter value shown in the artist info bar are two different values. The latter corresponds to the cumulative total of the power value from tipping or purchases, only add up and not decrease. The former reflects the actual balance in your account wallet, including both power-in and power-out transactions.
Due to the iOS app store’s policy, power purchased from non-iOS devices are not allowed to be used in the iOS app. So the Power bank balance will most likely show up in two wallets, an iOS wallet and an Android/web wallet, and the balances of both will need to be redeemed separately. This design is a pain, but we can’t help it.
Purchase power value
Global price: 100 kw = 1 USD (the screenshot shows in Canadian dollars, the currency exchange rate is set by app store or play store default)
Redeem power value
Redeem price: 100kw = 0.75 USD (current plan).
iOS app store charges all app developers 15% ~ 30% Apple tax; Google play, 15%. Plus tax and finance costs, it’s why there is a difference between buying and redeeming price.
Artist inviting code
To ensure the quality of artworks on KALOS, also to prevent spam, you need an invite code for your first time posting. You can ask from your AI artist friends. (Who has been powered over 50 kw could receive 2 invite codes for giving away, and those over 500 kw will receive another 5 codes). Or you can click “Where to get an invite code?” to apply for one by providing a URL that can show your at least 5 artworks, such as your Twitter link, Instagram or any publicly accessible url of your blog, artwork gallery or any showcase platform.
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Kalos is derived from the ancient Greek word καλός, meaning beautiful, impression and high quality. It’s no coincidence that Fox Talbot patented his original negative and positive photographic process invention in 1984 with the name calotype that also comes from the word kalos.
Many people compare the birth of AI art with photography art. When the camera appeared in the 1800s, painters feared that the end of art was near. Now, we are witnessing another epochal change in the creation of graphic art.
More than a hundred years ago, Charles Baudelaire, father of modern art criticism, saw photography as a mechanical process that should be regarded only as a “servant of the arts and sciences” ，described photography as the “refuge of failed painters with too little talent” , “by invading the territories of art, has become art’s most mortal enemy” and “if it is allowed to encroach upon the domain of the… imaginary, upon anything whose value depends solely upon the addition of something of a man’s soul, then it will be so much the worse for us.”
These criticisms and predictions about photography, if replaced by AI, are not far from the current angry denunciation of AI art.
People fear that the camera will destroy society, culture, morality, and the purity of the human soul ……. In retrospect, these concerns about photography are strange. For when we let photography encroach upon the realm of arts, true art was not “completely sidelined or corrupted,” but rather liberated artists from a strict focus on realism, and led the way to the modern art movement. Faced with the impact of new technology and new ideas, we adapt, we change, we integrate. This is the way human civilization has always evolved and iterated.
Hope you will find your own joy and fulfillment in Kalos.art.
Download the app from the iOS app store or Google Play by searching for KALOS. You can also use the website of Kalos.art to post and edit your artworks and set your artist profile. Fully functional web service is coming soon.
