Author: Bug
PixelNFT
The dominators of Bitcoin NFT, the avatars made up of small squares seem to be saying: those who are classic will become eternal.
In the recent hot BTC NFT track popularity list, pixel art NFTs can occupy 5-6 positions in the top 10 NFTs, easily dominating the market.
ordinals.market exchange data
In June 2017, Larva Labs launched the pixel art NFT CryptoPunks, which can be considered the origin of NFTs. CryptoPunks issued a total of 10,000 NFTs, each representing a different "punk-style" pixel art avatar. Number 3100 and number 7804 were sold for 4200 ETH each on March 11, 2022. Based on the ETH price at that time, the transaction price was approximately $75.66 million. CryptoPunks #5822 was sold in February for a record-breaking price of 8,000 ETH.
When buying pixel art NFTs, what are users actually buying? Is it the recognition and fascination of the pixel art style in the NFT, or a high recognition of the artistic value of the NFT market?
That great era is called the Pixel Era.
The Pixel Era I mentioned refers to the first batch of electronic games that appeared in the 1980s, in professional terms, they are 8-bit and 16-bit games. They did not have 3D graphics or true colors, only rough graphics with 64 or 256 colors. However, their appearance was epoch-making and pioneering. "Pac-Man," "Super Mario," and "Contra" are representative games of the pixel art style.
The memories of the Pixel Era are beautiful yet rough, without smooth skin or faded colors. However, they are indeed a part of our generation's life and memories. Despite not being perfect, they embody a more simple attitude towards life and principles of conduct.
In that pixelated era and world, there were not many clues, not many endings, the only thing they had was a determined leap and an unwavering forward…
The nostalgia for this kind of retro style is popular worldwide, and more and more people yearn to have a collective memory and a sense of continuity in a fragmented world. In the age of no social interaction and Web3, NFTs in wallets are business cards that open the doors to communities, representing the holder's aesthetics and taste. Pixel art undoubtedly carries the childhood memories of most holders and a group of passionate childhood friends. They will cheer for a wonderful collaboration and may briefly fall out over the order of gameplay.
Years later, you realize that this kind of friendship is actually precious. They may still be as strong as ever, or they may have been separated for many years, but that simple and joyful feeling is still buried deep in your heart, becoming the top topic at family gatherings and reunions.
The hardware limitations of the past have become childhood memories, and the preservation and continuation of pixel art prove that there will always be people who cherish nostalgia. Web3 provides us with a way to cherish memories. For people, owning pixel art NFTs adds various labels to their self-image: peers, cyberpunks, high value, scarcity, etc. This extreme appeal of conversation creates a phenomenon in social interaction, encouraging more people to voluntarily participate.
The color palette of early pixel art was limited by the RGB color display of electronic game screens, with a choice of only 256 colors. Therefore, game developers usually chose high-saturation primary colors, low-saturation transition colors, and shadows for matching. The most common combination is red-green and blue-yellow, which gives players a strong visual impact and triggers the release of exciting dopamine in the brain. The visual tension of pixel art NFTs can bring users excitement and curiosity, and of course, remind them of the joy of playing games in their childhood.
In the late 1990s, pixel art gradually became synonymous with "rough" and "stiff" in the gaming industry and was no longer favored. However, pixel art was not eliminated but instead became a unique style and cultural symbol. The reason is that pixel art uses simple elements to express thematic content, providing unlimited creative space and a unique artistic style. Pixel art does not represent information through realistic techniques. On the contrary, the simple and clean visual effects of pixel art can effectively reduce visual information overload and improve information transmission efficiency.
Pixel art becomes pixel art because it takes a step back into retro and a step forward into trend. In 2017, Larva Labs founders Matt Hall and John Watkinson developed a program that could generate thousands of random characters that did not belong to the mainstream aesthetic at the time. Shortly after, Larva Labs released what we now know as CryptoPunks—irregular pixel art image collections. In addition to human images, these pixelated images also include non-human images such as green-skinned zombies, hairy cavemen, and blue-skinned aliens, all with unique accessory combinations.
The two founders stated that the inspiration for CryptoPunks came from the punk spirit of London: "They (these images) must be a group of non-conformist and non-compliant people. The punk movement in London in the 1970s feels like the correct aesthetic, and the anti-utopian cyberpunk spirit represented by the movie 'Blade Runner' and William Gibson's novel 'Neuromancer' also had an influence." In their view, the early blockchain movement had a noisy anti-establishment spirit, which they wanted to reflect in the punk appearance.
Some investors believe in the appreciation potential of pixel art NFTs, while some players are addicted to the experience brought by pixel art NFTs. The unique style of NFTs maximizes their social attributes, achieving the goal of word-of-mouth promotion. Marketing consulting firm Vivaldi Partners once divided social currency into six dimensions: belonging, communication, identity, value, advocacy, and exchange of information and knowledge.
The uniqueness of NFTs allows owners to achieve unique identity recognition. People with similar NFTs quickly form a community, seeking a sense of belonging within the community, advocating for their favorite NFTs, finding common ground, and exchanging related knowledge and information: "I own an NFT and also have membership qualifications in the NFT field's OG club."
Grid StyleNFT
From pixel art to grid style art, we can call it a clearer upgraded version of pixel art.
When we mention the starry sky, we think of Van Gogh; when we mention polka dots, we think of Yayoi Kusama. There is a type of grid that you may not be able to name, but you will definitely be familiar with. That is—Mondrian's primary color grid.
In the minds of many Dutch people, Mondrian's status is on par with Van Gogh's.
In 1918, as World War I was about to end, Mondrian, along with six other artists, signed the "First Manifesto of the Stijl," which opposed war, individualism, and advocated peace.
In Mondrian's world, there are only dots, lines, and blocks of color. His paintings opened the door to abstract style, with vertical and horizontal lines dividing, revealing the music and rhythm of the blocks of color. Gazing at them, the universal laws of the world seem to make sense in these grids.
This has a "magical" grid, although the patterns are limited and abstract, they symbolize the primal forces that make up nature, pure forms, and simple color blocks. The abstract aesthetic concept is full of philosophical thoughts, and different people can find different answers in the grid, which is why this grid is so popular.
These grids are from the work "Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue" by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
Just a few grids of art sold for a whopping $50.6 million at auction? Not only that, these grids have become objects that luxury brands around the world are eager to collaborate with? What is the charm of these grids?
There is also the work "Broadway Boogie Woogie," which is one of the last completed works in his life, and it clearly reflects the new atmosphere of the modern city. Still using straight lines, but not the stern black lines, but lively and colorful lines, made up of small, differently sized colored rectangles that divide and control the composition. Still using primary colors, but no longer constrained by black lines, they are dominated by bright yellow and mixed with red and blue to form a colorful line, with red, yellow, and blue blocks scattered among them, creating rhythm changes and frequency vibrations. It looks more cheerful and beautiful than any other work. It is both full of rhythmic jazz and seems to flicker like the unextinguished lights of office buildings and streets at night.
The images of these two works are very simple because he believed that by simplifying shapes and colors, he could express a purer and more universal artistic language. Therefore, his style not only caused a stir in the painting world but also had a huge impact on architecture, furniture, decorative arts, and the printing industry at the time. Now, the grid style has come to the Bitcoin NFT field, perhaps representing the nostalgia of the 1970s for pixel art NFTs, while grid style NFTs may represent the trend pursuit of a new generation of holders in the WEB3 industry.
Grid NFTNodeMonkesSuccess and Controversy
Almost all NFT players are also waiting for NodeMonkes to set a new historical high in Bitcoin terms. As the first Bitcoin NFT series to break through 1 Bitcoin per unit, NodeMonkes is almost certain to happen, given everyone's expectations.
From its birth to becoming one of the top 3 NFT projects in the Crypto world by total market value, NodeMonkes took just over two months. The floor price of NodeMonkes once reached 0.74 BTC, and its total market value has exceeded $500 million, surpassing Pudgy Penguins and ranking only behind CryptoPunks and BAYC.
Born from Controversy
On December 23, 2023, after about 30 hours of Dutch auctions, NodeMonkes sold out when the price dropped to 0.04 BTC, and the project ultimately received sales revenue of about 240 BTC.
NodeMonkes first sparked a huge discussion because it claimed to have rejected a $5 million investment from a VC and insisted on being a Free Mint project. However, the project's popularity continued to rise, and the project team repeatedly changed the sales plan, abandoning previous commitments. From claiming to be Free Mint and having no whitelist mechanism, to announcing the adoption of a whitelist mechanism and charging for minting, and then to a Dutch auction with no whitelist, the claimed $5 million investment was also questioned.
Many early Ordinals players were quite dissatisfied with NodeMonkes' repeated flip-flopping during the sales phase—of course, you can make money, but the appearance is a bit unsightly. Moreover, early Ordinals players have a strong attachment to the "fairness," "free," and "sincerity" of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
However, in any case, I believe that the creators of NodeMonkes drew inspiration from the works of Piet Mondrian and used various colored grids to create an abstract "boring monkey," which is clearer than purely pixelated works. Due to the characteristics of pixel art, the facial details of pixel art NFT characters are blurry, and only the outlines can be seen, while the high-saturation and vibrant colors of the grid style give NFTs a futuristic punk style. The stereotypical impression of low-resolution pixel art has long been discarded, and players see more open interpretive space behind the visual impact. Artists use restrictions and simplifications to depict the scene, convey emotions and thoughts through grids, and oppose works that overly emphasize visual quality but lack substance. Abstraction and symbolism are common points of pixel art and grid style NFTs, as well as the attitude pursued by WEB3 players.
The colored squares in the picture represent the body, earrings, eyes, hats? For example, the eyes are represented by just 2 squares, and the large square below represents the body. Using this method, all the elements of the work can be represented in right angles. You can always get your answer first. What constitutes the structure of reality is not the objects themselves, but their relationships with each other. The so-called structural relationships are created by the support and combination of abstract vertical and horizontal lines to form simple geometric shapes. The abstract structure of geometric forms pursued by the style is a new and idealistic art form created through the support and combination of lines and surfaces. The grid style NFT has created another style of pixel NFT.
What are Curse Inscriptions, and why are they discontinued?
Curse Inscriptions refer to inscriptions that are not indexed by the Ordinals protocol, initially due to a BUG in the Ordinals protocol, which caused the numbering to start from 0 and count down, resulting in negative numbers being assigned and defined as "cursed inscriptions."
Rarity is the biggest feature of cursed inscriptions. Especially in Web3, NFTs are ranked by their rarity, so there are differences in prices among NFTs of the same collection, but cursed inscriptions are more like an accident. Therefore, the narrative angle of cursed inscriptions lies in their scarcity compared to other regular inscriptions.
The discontinuation of cursed inscriptions is due to the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade. Casey, the founder of Ordinals, announced that the Jubilee upgrade would take place at block height 824544. After the Jubilee, all inscriptions will be blessed, which means that using batch inscriptions and other functions will no longer result in cursed inscriptions. However, before the Jubilee upgrade, cursed inscriptions still exist, which is also the reason for the community's FOMO for cursed inscriptions.
Before the arrival of block height 824544, the cursed inscriptions projects that were in the process of minting were all working hard to mint the last cursed inscription.
The discontinuation of cursed inscriptions may signify a new starting point for the Bitcoin ecosystem. UniSat stated that it will follow the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade to ensure that BRC-20 continues to operate on Ordinals rather than splitting into a separate protocol.
According to the information I found, the last text cursed inscription is INSCRIPTION-472,043, recording the Yin and Yang inscription of Mickey Mouse.
The last image cursed inscription is the cursed goose of Pizza Cong, INSCRIPTION-472,040.
The last negative (Yin) and positive (Yang) sequential double-sided engraved curse inscription is INSCRIPTION-458,327, the last one of the 10K collection BitMonkes, and is also engraved on the rare Cong of block78, with a cursed blue smoke frame design. BitMonkes has only 150 with a cursed blue frame.
With this, the curse inscription is discontinued, and there will be no more curse inscriptions in the world.
After the fix, the curse inscription will become a special category, with a constant and never-increasing quantity.
The curse inscription will become a strong meme narrative in Ordinals history.
Compared to most things created by people, there is a greater consensus on a chosen one who came to this world by chance due to a bug.
A collection of original components, paying tribute to NodeMonkes, all using rare Cong and double-sided engravings, 100% engraved on the discontinued curse inscription work BitMonkes.
I'm glad you've made it this far, which means you are a holder who cares about art, not a speculator in the Web, which we call a "coin circle locust." I hope you understand this great NFT work from the perspectives of art and technology.
Now that you have learned about the great achievements of abstract art from pixels to grids in the NFT field, we have also explained the discontinued technology of curse inscriptions. At the end of the article, we have provided explanations for some terms, such as inscription number, recursive inscription, rare Cong, etc., which can help increase your taste and wealth through understanding.
Now I would like to introduce to you a collection that integrates grid art elements, the last 100% curse inscription, 100% rare Cong, and uses the recursive protocol, the 10K collection BitMonkes. Remember, this does not constitute any investment advice; the spirit of WEB3 is about sharing.
Official website: https://bitmonkes.com/
BitMonkes consists of Yin and Yang double-sided engravings, that is, Yin negative (curse inscription) and Yang positive inscription.
The Yin side displays NodeMonkes, with 150 rare ones with a frame design symbolizing the cursed purple smoke, paying tribute to Bitcoin's 15th anniversary.
The PFP on the Yang side is an original component using the recursive protocol.
BitMonkes is the only double-sided engraved sequence of Yin and Yang.
100% engraved on the rare Cong of block78, which was mined by Hal Finney, the first person to participate in mining other than Satoshi Nakamoto. Block 78 also belongs to the range of Vintage rare Cong, with the concept of double rare Cong.
Rare Cong is very valuable. Apart from the value of NFT itself, the future sale value of rare Cong is considerable. There are only about 800,000 rare Cong in total, and BitMonkes occupies 10,000 of them.
100% engraved on the curse inscription, it is the last discontinued curse inscription collection before the Jubilee upgrade. Curse inscriptions are similar to misprinted stamps and will no longer be added. There are only about 500,000 curse inscriptions, and BitMonkes occupies 10,000 of them.
The last work of the BitMonkes collection, INSCRIPTION-458,327, was completed at UTC 2024-01-05 20:31, at block height 824521, with only 23 blocks, about 250 minutes, left until the Jubilee upgrade at block height 824544.
The Bitcoin network often gets stuck. For a set of 10K works, double-sided minting is a very long process. If the engraving is not 100% completed at block height 824521, then it will be an imperfect work, which means that some NFTs will be engraved on non-curse inscriptions. Fortunately, they completed this great feat four hours before block height 824521 and became the final masterpiece.
If described in three sets of words, they are First, Last, Only one.
FirstThe first double-sided engraving
Last The last 10K collection before the discontinued curse
Only oneThe only one engraved on the curse inscription and double rare Cong
If you missed out on the 0.04 BTC NodeMonkes, which is not cheap, from what I understand, the whitelist sale price of BitMonkes is not expensive. Perhaps the future value of these rare Cong will be more than just a few BTC. I suggest you don't miss out, after all, so many highlights are integrated into one work, and there will not be a second work like this in the BTC ecosystem, it is worth collecting.
What are inscription numbers, recursive inscriptions, curse inscriptions, and rare Cong?
Inscription number:
Since each inscription NFT is assigned an inscription number in sequence (starting from 0), over time, the current inscription number has reached millions, adding to the fun and value judgment of collecting. Generally, it is believed that inscription NFTs with lower inscription numbers have greater collection value, such as the sub10k series (the first ten thousand inscribed inscriptions).
Recursive inscription:
Due to the content restriction of 4M by the taproot segregated witness, which limits the size of inscription content, the inscription protocol has designed a format of mutual reference, called "recursive inscription." This allows for a richer and higher-definition representation in inscriptions, such as ordibots 3D using recursive inscriptions to achieve AR and high definition, and the engraving cost of each inscription NFT is very low.
Curse inscription:
The curse inscription was originally a protocol bug, where some inscriptions were not "normally" included in the original sequence. Therefore, inscriptions that are called "cursed" were given negative numbers.
These protocol bugs have now been fixed, and there will be no new curse inscription NFTs with negative numbers in the future. Similar to misprinted banknotes, curse inscriptions are highly speculative, and there are only about 500,000 curse inscription NFTs.
Rare Cong:
Since each inscription NFT is engraved on a Cong, for added fun, the inscription protocol defines some special Cong called "rare Cong," such as the first Cong mined in each block. NFTs engraved on these Cong usually have a higher price, and the price of rare Cong is higher than that of ordinary Cong. There are only about 800,000 rare Cong in total.
In fact, many years ago, "Cong" as the smallest indivisible unit of Bitcoin already existed, that is, 1 Bitcoin = 10^9 Cong, but it has not entered the mainstream player's field of vision due to its micro nature and lack of use cases. However, in the past three months, with the explosion of the Bitcoin ecosystem, Cong, as the carrier of inscription, has naturally received a lot of attention. In addition, with its intuitiveness and resistance to fluctuations, Cong has replaced USDT and firmly established itself as the pricing unit leader in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In addition to serving as a carrier for inscriptions and a pricing unit, Cong itself is naturally suitable for use in speculation and collection. Of course, to clarify this point, we first need to understand the attributes of Cong.
Careful observation of the representation of Cong reveals some interesting things. The Cong named 0 and a resonate across time and space, connecting the grand epic of Bitcoin mining spanning 13 decades and 21 trillion pieces…
Cong that plays an important role in these cyclical events, Cong with unique names, and Cong that have experienced historical events will have different levels of rarity and premiums.
To give a vivid example, Cong is like a 100 RMB banknote in circulation. Its purchasing power does not change due to printing batches or transfers, but because of the appearance of serial numbers, a small portion of banknotes with special numbers have a premium. Cong is similar; based on certain consensus criteria, a small portion of Cong with special properties have generated incredibly high premiums in the market. In contrast, the mainstream consensus criteria for Cong are much stricter than the leopard number of RMB serial numbers.
Based on the four basic events covered by the decimal notation, the six levels of rarity of Cong can be clearly defined as Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythical.
On May 23, 2022, INSCRIPTION-8669069 made its debut, sparking discussions in the Ordinals community and the rare Cong community. It received attention because it was the first inscription engraved on a rare level Cong. Currently, out of 21 trillion Cong, there are only 370 rare level Cong, making this inscription likely to become the most expensive crypto artwork in history. In addition, the inclusion of "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." which was engraved by Satoshi Nakamoto in the genesis block, gives it unparalleled significance. In the art world, the stacking of rarity often has a 1+1>>>2 effect.
You can easily find explanations for these classifications on ord.io market.
Uncommon
Every block's first Cong
Rare
Every block's first Cong
Epic
The first halved Cong
Vintage
Mined from the first 1000 blocks
Nakamoto
Cong mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, an interesting name indeed
First Transaction
The first transaction, on January 12, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney, the first on-chain interaction in history.
Palindrome
A number that reads the same forwards and backwards, such as 12921
Pizza
Cong used in the transaction to purchase pizza with 10,000 bitcoins, also the origin of the nickname "Bitcoin Pizza Day," which occurred on May 22, 2010, and has since been designated as Pizza Day.
Block 9
The oldest Cong currently in circulation, unless an address belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto wakes up again.
Block 78
Mined by Hal Finney, the first person to participate in mining other than Satoshi Nakamoto. Block 78 also belongs to the range of Vintage rare Cong, with the concept of double rare Cong.
In conclusion: Some excerpts in this article about pixel NFT chapters are quoted from AIO News, for which I express my gratitude. I entered the world of Bitcoin in 2013, and time has passed quickly, it has been 11 years. I am fortunate to live in this great era and pay tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto.
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