Knockoff NFTs are the best blockchain art
An NFT is an NFT is an NTF
TLDR: With Knockoff NFT, you can copy NFTs and take the knockoffs for yourself. Knockoffs are the best blockchain art!
NFTs are like rainbows
An NFT is a digital representation of a unique thing (like an artwork*) that can be owned with a blockchain wallet. It stands for “non-fungible token” because it’s a token that is “unique,” unlike tokens that can be exchanged for other identical tokens (like money). However the NFT itself is really the digital representation of ownership. The ownership could be associated with something physical, or something digital, but it could also just be an idea!
An NFT is kind of like a rainbow. You can look at the thing, point at the thing, tell your friends to look at the thing, but when it comes right down to it there’s no objective “thing” — it’s the shared concept that gives it “thinginess.”
*The term NFT has been watered down pretty severely due to the NFT crypto art craze of 2021, during which art speculators descended on “blockchain art,” causing NFT prices (and WTF headaches) to skyrocket.
How does Knockoff NFT work?
Are you too poor for NFTs? The idea of “digitally rare” art causes you existential dread? Accidentally burned your historic ENS name because of a marketplace bug? Speaking of, want to one-up insider NFT traders? Or, are you just a troll?
Knockoff NFT uses a smart contract that lets you plug in the details of an NFT you want to copy and immediately mint a knockoff. We started with the popular ERC-721 token standard: Each one of these tokens has an owner, an ID, and a link to its metadata called “tokenURI.” The metadata is the “thinginess” of the thing, so we just steal the tokenURI. That means whatever’s in there — a JPG hash, an IPFS link, a line of poetry — it gets reproduced, line for line. Then we make a new NFT, but with you as the owner.
Knockoff NFT currently supports ERC-721 tokens and is deployed on Mainnet, xDai, and Polygon. Some of the “OG” NFT projects like CryptoPunks, CryptoKitties, and Astro Ledger stars use a different standard or an older version of ERC-721, and aren’t as easy to knock off. Also, since some people apparently can’t read standards correctly, Knockoff NFT doesn’t work with all newer ERC-721s out of the box. (If you’d like to request support for another blockchain, another token standard, or a specific NFT project, just shoot us a message on Github, Twitter, or Discord.)
Rare fakes
An NFT can have infinite knockoffs, but when you use the Knockoff NFT contract, each knockoff is assigned a new ID that references the original with an ordered “serial number.” That means there is such thing as a “first edition” knockoff, and a “second edition,” and so on.
And before you ask — since the contract allows you to knock off anything — yes, you can knock off a knockoff, or knock off a knocked-off knockoff…
The best blockchain art is conceptual art
The purpose of public blockchains is to provide a censorship-resistant platform. It is a phenomenon that emerged from deep (arguably warranted) paranoia! Although they can go hand-in-hand, it isn’t really about “programmable” tokens (as those can equally live on centralized platforms). Blockchain is about unstoppable, “trustless” transactions.
So go ahead, put the ownership rights to abstract assets on the blockchain. But remember this is the wild west. An NFT might live on a blockchain, but that doesn’t mean it represents something real, something ethical, or something you own.
Knockoff NFTs may be (playfully) dishonest on the surface, but they are beautifully honest at heart. They are as much a part of the narrative as the originals, perhaps more so: In the end, knockoffs are a reminder that the idea of ownership is human-made and there is no such thing as trustless property!
Check out our other stuff
If you like this project, be sure to check out our other project GraffitETH, a collaborative NFT pixel graffiti wall using the Harberger tax. While you’re at it, take a look at some other blockchain art projects of ours: The Useless MEV Machine (Jannik/Maria), Synftony №1 (Jannik), Snowflakes (Jannik), Amadethus (Jannik), Astro Ledger (Aleeza).
And of course, don’t forget to go to knockoff.lol and get some awesome free (“plus gas”) NTFs.
Thanks for not suing us,
