CryptoArte

CryptoArte is a non-fungible token art collection that tells the history of Ethereum. It is a multi-disciplinary project that brings together the Ethereum network, an art collection, an NFT, and a dapp.
CrytoArte has sold over 4,000 of its fine art collectible since its lunch on its website, at crypto conventions, and in partnership promotions.^[26]

Overview

CryptoArte is an NFT and generative art collection developed in 2018 by Sebastián Brocher, a generative artist, musician, engineer, entrepreneur, and collector. He has also created the Ethereum 2 Validators series, Ethereum Lovers, and BlockParks on Dece. ^[3]

CryptoArte projects the Ethereum blockchain history into colorful, unique, and meaningful paintings. CryptoArte is an Ethereum (ERC-721) Non-Fungible Token (NFT).

The collection was launched on Ethereum on July 11, 2018. This made it the first generative art project on Ethereum. The first batch of NFTs was minted on July 13, 2018. ^[4]

Each token issued represents a unique painting and matches the painting's SHA-256 hash stored on the blockchain and displayed on the CryptoArte website. ^[5]

Owners of these tokens can download their painting's 8K resolution digital images and order signed, ready-to-hang prints at cryptoarte.io. Each painting is sold once it can be purchased with Ether, credit cards are no longer accepted. ^[6]

This collection has been featured in Coinbase Wallet, Hackernoon, Engadget, The Creative Crypto, and other publications. ^[7]^[27]

Features

Using the full ERC-721 standard and storing the painting’s hash on the blockchain gives the painting owners with many benefits, including:

Trustless ownership: owners have a decentralized, automatic, immutable, and uncensorable record of ownership.
Authenticity verification: given a painting’s full-resolution image, owners can independently prove its authenticity by simply recalculating its hash and comparing it to the on-chain stored hash.
Transfer mechanisms: owners can easily sell and transfer ownership of their paintings through the many exchanges and marketplaces that support NFTs such as, for example, OpenSea.

Collection

The CryptoArte collection consists of 9,895 unique, single-edition paintings. Each painting represents 576 consecutive blocks of the Ethereum blockchain through a meaningful combination of shapes, colors, decorations, and more. ^[8]
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For instance, Painting #0 is an artistic representation of blocks 0 (the genesis block) through 575. Painting #1 goes from block 576 to block 1,151, and so on. ^[9]

The paintings were created by mathematically transforming the publicly available Ethereum blockchain information. The transformation is deterministic, and the same for all the paintings. ^[10]

The collection hence illustrates the Ethereum blockchain history by projecting several data points and statistics (e.g.: amounts transacted, block miners, etc.) into colorful paintings. ^[11]

Users can also find the painting that contains their most recent birthday (to the exact date and time). Or even look for the paintings that contain the blocks for specific events such as a conference date, hack, fork, or any other event that occurred within the timeframe covered by the collection. ^[12]

Paintings

Each painting comes with a 7,680 by 4,320-pixel digital image (or 8K UHDTV resolution, also known as 4,320p), allowing for both high-resolution prints, and excellent fit on monitors and TVs. ^[13]

Painting owners can download their corresponding digital images free of charge.

Each painting illustrates 576 Ethereum blocks by organizing them into 18 rows of 32 consecutive blocks each. The first and last blocks are decorated with their corresponding block numbers and timestamps. All other blocks are decorated by 4 corner triangles that serve as a form of "security mark" while bringing a vitreau or node/network effect to the paintings. ^[14]

Block Background Colors

Color serves many functions in the composition of the painting. For instance, the background of each block is calculated by melding together a “base” blue-gray color with four “signals” that are encoded into corresponding RGB values:

Red: Ethereum Gas used/congestion at the time of mining the block/transaction fees.
Green: the total amount of Ethereum transacted (money)
Blue: the difficulty of hashing the block Transparency: layered on top and determined by the number of transactions within the block.

It is also noticed that the earliest pieces of the CryptoArte collection are so blue. Using colors can be especially striking during specific events that occur in certain paintings — consider Painting #80, which contains the first-ever Ethereum transaction (note the first block in the sequence with a bright red background).

Hashes, Vitraux Effect, and Security Marks

Except for the first and last blocks of each painting (which contain block numbers and timestamps as mentioned), the corners of every block are decorated with 8 colorful triangles to create a glass-like or vitraux effect. The 32-byte-long Ethereum block’s hash is encoded in the colors of the triangle and — because every hash is unique — adds another security marker for the authenticity of the painting. This means that not only every painting but also every single block in the collection are probably unique.

Miners and Rarity

Block Miners

Inside each block, there is an important shape: a hieroglyphic icon that functions as a signature for the miner of the block. Block miners are represented through this shape or icon within each block. Their shapes are unique, (meaning that no two miners will ever have the same icon) and remain constant throughout the entire collection. ^[15]

Some miners are very rare, have mined only one block, and can be seen in one and only one painting, while others are very active and common, have mined many blocks, and can be seen in almost every painting. For instance, Painting #93 is an exceptional case with no less than seven unique one-block miners. ^[16]

Each painting also has a highlighted block where its miner icon wears a "golden" border. The highlighted block number and painting number relationship is left as a simple math exercise to the reader. ^[18]

The Miners Gallery allows you to browse through all the miners in the collection and displays their unique shapes and detailed statistics. Blocks also have other properties, such as a background color, a miner color, and transparency settings that encode different signals. ^[17]

Miner Icon Colors

While the colors of the triangles are calculated via the block hash, they also play a role in determining the color for the corresponding miner icons. Beginning with the top left corner on the second block of each painting, the leftmost triangle determines the color of the miner icon.

This effect not only acts as yet another “hidden” security mark but also creates a smooth and soothing color cycle throughout the painting. To enhance contrast, the algorithm treats the triangle color together with the block background color to arrive at a pleasing middle point.

Golden Miner Icons

Within each painting, there is exactly one miner icon highlighted by a distinct “golden” border. Moving progressively from left to right and top to bottom, these are found across the collection and positioned at the remainder of the painting number divided by 576 — so the gold miner is at position 1 on painting 1, at position 575 on painting 575, and then back to position 0 on painting 576.

Just like the vitraux effect triangles derived from block hashes, the golden miner icon also creates a security mark in the overall configuration of the painting. Using Painting #2,881 as an example, dividing the painting number 2,881 by 576 gives us a remainder of 1, hence the golden miner icon is at position 1.

Website & DApp

The CryptoArte website allows users to browse through the entire collection. Each painting has its page with three image versions of the painting. ^[19]

The three versions include a low-resolution image of the whole painting, a high-resolution image of the painting's top left corner, and a high-resolution image of a random section of the painting. The website is also an Ethereum Dapp that is integrated with Web3, MetaMask, and other mobile wallets/browsers such as Coinbase Wallet and Trust Wallet. ^[20]

This integration allows users to purchase paintings with Ether, and securely download full-resolution images of their paintings free of charge, by signing a transaction with the account that owns the corresponding token. It also allows painting owners to order signed prints, although an additional fee applies. ^[21]

About the Artist

Sebastián Brocher is a Generative artist, musician, engineer, entrepreneur, and collector. His love for computer science began when he was about 6 years old and his Dad brought home a Commodore 128 the computer and helped him code a program that played a J.S. Bach invention by following the instructions manual. ^[22]

He holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology (ITBA). He is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. He also enjoys spending time with family and friends, making music, traveling, and exercising. ^[23]

When creating this collection, he hopes that it will help grow the Ethereum community by creating awareness of the technology in an accessible and fun way. He also hopes the paintings will bring up thoughtful conversations around blockchain technology.

Sebastian also created the Ethereum 2 Validators series, Ethereum Lovers, and BlockParks on Dece. He is also the Founder & CEO of ChimiChurri, a product management company that combines lean startup expertise with exceptionally agile software development and the latest technology stacks, open-source projects, container, cloud, and DevOps technology.^[24]