The Next Version of Art Blocks

New product collections, new smart contract, new website

For the past year we’ve been working on what we are loosely calling Art Blocks 2.0, a reorientation of our product, our brand, and our visual identity. We recently disclosed the first change in service of the new Art Blocks, the sunsetting of series designations for Curated projects. We are proud to announce several more changes that will come out in the coming months, including a new smart contract, refreshed website, and new product collections called Presents and Explorations. We believe these new product collections and updates will set the stage for the future of Art Blocks.

New Product Collections

At the beginning of November, our Factory and Playground projects will be consolidated into a new product collection called Art Blocks Presents.

• Projects in the Presents collection are selected by Art Blocks to be part of a growing family of artworks we feel deserve to be showcased on the platform.
• We believe it is in the spirit of elevating generative art to recognize all projects released on Art Blocks using the same set of standards.
• At the beginning of November, projects that pass through our current application review process will be released as Presents unless the curatorial board recognizes them as pushing the boundaries of the medium, in which case they will be released in the Curated collection.

Factory and Playground projects are a part of our history and have played a huge role in the evolution of Art Blocks. As of November, Art Blocks will no longer designate projects as Factory and Playground. For Factory and Playground projects that have been released up until the end of October, they will still be acknowledged as Factory and Playground via a special Heritage designation for this capsule subset of Presents projects.

And, because we like to tinker, explore, and try out new things, we are incredibly excited to announce a new collection called Art Blocks Explorations! These are commissioned projects conceptualized and created in collaboration with the Art Blocks team. This collection comes as a result of searching for a way to pioneer how generative minting can affect the human experience and this collection provides a wonderful home for these “explorations” ;). We’ve been working on a couple of projects that fit here already and will announce details on those very soon!

New Smart Contract

A new, innovative smart contract is being released! The new contract saves collectors about 65%% on gas costs when minting, and also reduces the cost for artists to upload their project scripts to the blockchain by about 65%. We will be following up with a more detailed breakdown of all the updates and innovations in the new contract via a blog post from the engineering team closer to the new contract’s release date. The new contract will maintain project ID continuity, and will continue to work in the same ways that you have come to expect the Art Blocks minting experience to work.

New Website

Finally, we’d like to announce that we will be releasing a newly rebranded website. The first version of Art Blocks was coded by Erick as a passion project, from a dream he had been noodling on for years. None of us could have foreseen the craziness of last summer, and as a result we allocated our engineers to rebuild our infrastructure to sustain the momentum while laying a strong foundation for Art Blocks’s future. The results of that work are more stable auctions, a truly scalable platform, and a consistent, inclusive user experience.

Art Blocks has been and will continue to be a true home for generative art, a place where anyone can discover and collect great work by great artists. In service of this mission, we have also added robust educational resources, artist information, community programming, and thought leadership to expose the richness of generative art to a wide audience. We hope you will join us as we seek to foster dialog and create community throughout the worlds of art and technology.

FAQ:

Moving forward all projects will be selected for release on Art Blocks one of four ways:

• Art Blocks Presents: projects that are recognized by the internal Art Blocks team
• Art Blocks Curated: frontier-pushing projects selected by the Art Blocks Curatorial Board
• Art Blocks Explorations: a place for our wild ideas and commissioned experiments
• Art Blocks Collaborations: unique go-to-market partnerships like Pace

What does this mean for projects that were released as a part of the Factory and Playground product designations?

We will continue to tag projects released as both Playground and Factory with a “Heritage” designation reflecting their pre-Presents status, alongside the designation for Curated Series 1–8.

What about new Factory and Playground projects?

Projects moving forward will now be released under a new category, Art Blocks Presents. These are projects that are recognized by the internal Art Blocks team using the same submission process, as artworks we as a platform want to release.

Can Factory and Playground artists apply to be a Presents Artist with a new project?

The submission and selection process of the last few months will not change. The only difference is if a project is selected to be released on Art Blocks it would be categorized as either Curated or Presents.

Will Factory and Playground projects still be recognized and exhibited by Art Blocks?

Of course! These projects, along with our Curated Series 1–8, are part of the incredible library of work that we’ve had the honor to host on the platform, and will be considered as any other with regards to exhibitions and other opportunities.

Will Factory and Playground projects still receive secondary royalties?

Yes, nothing changes with regards to royalties.

How can artists get involved in Art Blocks Explorations?

We are just getting this category off the ground and initial projects are as a result of internal selections, often driven by a particular idea. We are excited to see how this type of project is received and will provide opportunities to our artist community to participate as the concept expands.

How will heritage Factory and Playground projects appear on secondary marketplaces?

Factory and Playground projects will migrate into the new Presents category, and we will recommend to marketplaces that all Art Blocks projects live in the same collection. However, we will provide metadata for marketplaces to be able to filter by these types of projects, via a `heritage_curation_status` field returned by the Token API.

Does the standard for Presents projects change with the consolidation of Factory and Playground?

No, our current screening process will not change as a result of the recategorization. Our standards have been steadily increasing over time and the Presents collection will simply continue on this trajectory.

When will the final Playground and Factory Projects be released?

The last projects released as a part of Factory and Playground will be at the end of October.

When will new projects start showing up as Presents and Explorations?

At the beginning of November.

When will the Heritage designation appear for prior Playground and Factory projects?

Heritage designations will appear for prior Playground and Factory releases beginning in early November.

When will I see Presents on the front end?

The Presents Collection will appear on the front-end beginning of mid October. Playground and Factory collections will still be released through the end of October, but they will be found under the Presents Collection and indicated as Factory and Playground.