Digital collectibles continue to break the circle, and the NFT field is innovating again (Cyber ​​Finance)

Cyberpunk comment: CryptoPunks has created a precedent in the field of NFT. Although the pixel art generated by its algorithm looks "simple and rough", its development studio Larva Labs is extremely innovative and pioneering, opening a new pattern of digital art collection; phase In contrast, Hashmasks adds more artistry and entertainment to digital artwork, and its anonymous team is eclectic and unique. Both projects were not prominent early investors, but by virtue of its unique community-driven and can also break the circle out, is in line with the block chain original intention, "everyone can be an artist." However, based on Ethernet Square, these two projects It also faces high gas costs and network congestion.

The author can't help thinking about the future development of those collections that are not yet or difficult to digitize.

Source: Dappradar

CryptoPunks and Hashmasks are the two most out-of-the-box projects for encrypted digital collections. For art and collectibles, this provable scarcity endowed by blockchain technology adds great value to it, because art relies heavily on how to prove the scarcity of original works. Whether it is generated by artificial intelligence or man-made, blockchain can prove the authenticity of digital works and prevent tampering. As of February 2021, Dappradar has counted the total number of works with a single NFT of more than $200,000 that month: a total of 22, of which CryptoPunks accounted for more than the average, and Hashmasks accounted for nearly 25%. Next, let's take a look at how CryptoPunks and Hashmasks are different.

Products and technology

CryptoPunk is a 24x24 pixel art image generated by an algorithm. Most are short and chubby boys and girls, but there are also some rarer types mixed together: apes, zombies, and even strange aliens. These digital art are generated through artificial intelligence or a combination of artificial and algorithm. You may be wondering why these ordinary-looking pixel paintings are so valuable? CryptoPunk created a precedent for NFT on Ethereum, at that time even the ERC-721 standard had not yet been established. For artworks, this provable scarcity endowed by blockchain technology adds great value to it, because art relies heavily on how to prove the scarcity of original works. Whether it is generated by artificial intelligence or man-made, blockchain can prove the authenticity of digital works and prevent tampering.

Unlike CryptoKitties, which can be generated in an unlimited amount, the number of CryptoPunks is fixed, and there are only 10,000 Punks in total. The actual image of punk is too large to be stored on the blockchain, so we hash all the composite images of punk and embed it in the contract. You can verify whether the punk managed by the Ethereum contract is a real CryptoPunks™ by calculating the SHA256 hash value on the Cryptopunks image and comparing it with the hash value stored in the contract.

Source: CryptoPunks

Unlike the “rough” pixel paintings of CryptoPunks, the Hashmasks digital art collection is artistically appreciative, created by more than 70 artists around the world, with a total supply of 16,384 NFTs, each of which is a unique personal portrait. In addition to scarcity, Hashmasks also uses a blind box auction method to start, the specific personal portrait will be randomly determined by a random algorithm 14 days after the auction ends. The price of Hashmasks adopts the joint curve model, and the price gradually rises, which is in line with the public's FOMO psychology. In addition, Hashmasks is interactive, and users can change their names through their NCT tokens.

Source: Hashmasks

Team and ecology

CryptoPunk is developed by Larva Labs, which is a software development studio, not an enterprise; it was created in 2005 by two geniuses Matt Hall and John Watkinson. The works developed by this laboratory are not limited to digital art, but are rich in innovation and pioneering genes, such as large-scale network infrastructure, genomics analysis software, 8-bit role-playing games, endless driving games, etc. In addition, Matt and John launched their other NFT project in 2019-Autoglyphs. Autoglyphs is the first derivative art on the Ethereum chain.

Hashmasks is a community-driven product, not designed for the community. Hashmasks was created by two anonymous founders, both of whom are deep cultivators in the digital field, one is a Solidity engineer and the other is a researcher for digital asset managers. The original intention of Hashmasks is to create what they like without any analysis of people's preferences. And this creates another uniqueness.

market situation

Source: Dappradar

CryptoPunks #6965 was sold for 800 ETH in February 2021. At the current price, it is worth more than $1.36 million. According to Dappradar statistics, in the past month, the total transaction volume of CryptoPunks exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars, and a total of more than 2,000 works were sold, with more than 1,000 users participating; the total transaction volume of Hashmasks exceeded 20 million U.S. dollars, with a total of more than 20 million U.S. dollars sold. Nearly 5,000 works were published, and more than 2,000 users participated. Whether it can hit a new high again in March, we will wait and see.