Original author: Bug

Pixel NFT

The heads of Bitcoin NFT dominators, composed of small squares, seem to say: All classics will become eternal.

On the recently popular BTC NFT track popularity list, among the top 10 NFTs, pixel style NFTs can occupy 5-6 places, easily occupying half of the market.

ordinals.market exchange data

In June 2017, Larva Labs launched CryptoPunks, a pixel-style NFT. CryptoPunks can be regarded as the originator of NFT. CryptoPunks issued a total of 10,000 NFTs, each NFT representing a different punk style pixel style avatar. Among them, No. 3100 and No. 7804 were both traded at a price of 4,200 ETH on March 11, 2022. Based on the ETH price at that time, the transaction price was approximately US$75.66 million. CryptoPunksm #5822 was sold on the market in February at a record-breaking price of 8,000 ETH.

When buying Pixel Style NFT, what exactly do users buy? Is it the buyers recognition and fascination with the value of the pixel style in NFT, and is it a high degree of recognition of the artistry of the NFT market?

That great era is called the pixel era

What I mean by the pixel age is the first video games that appeared in the 1980s. In technical terms, they are 8-bit and 16-bit games. They have no 3D images and no true colors, only rough images with 64 or 256 colors. However, their emergence is epoch-making and groundbreaking. Pac-Man, Super Mario and Contra are representative games of pixel style.

The memories of the pixel era are beautiful, but also rough, without smooth skin and faded colors. However, they are indeed part of the lives and memories of our generation. Although they are not so perfect, they contain a simpler attitude towards life and principles of life.

In that pixel age and world, there were no many clues or many endings. The only thing we had was a vigorous jump and a never-ending move forward...

This kind of nostalgia is prevalent all over the world. More and more people are eager to have a community emotion of collective memory and to obtain a kind of continuity in a fragmented world. In the era of no social networking and no Web3, the money in the wallet NFT is a business card that opens the door of each community, representing the aesthetics and taste of the holder. The pixel style undoubtedly carries the childhood memories of most holders, and a group of passionate childhood friends. They will be excited for a wonderful cooperation, and they will also briefly fall out because of a game sequence where you come first and I come first.

And many years later, you realize that this kind of friendship turns out to be very precious. They may still be as strong as ever, or they may have been separated for many years, but the simple and joyful mood is still buried in your heart. The talk was served on the disheveled table full of fish and meat.

The hardware limitations of the past have become childhood memories, and the preservation and continuation of the pixel style proves that people will always miss it. Web3 provides us with a way to remember. For people, owning pixel-style NFT means adding labels to their own personality: peers, cyberpunk, high value, scarcity, etc. This kind of The extreme sexiness of the conversation created a phenomenon-level social wave, allowing more people to voluntarily participate in it.

The colors presented in the early pixel style were limited by the RGB color display of electronic game screens, and color selection was limited to 256 colors. Therefore, game developers usually choose high-saturation main colors, low-saturation transition colors and shadows for matching. The most common combination is red and green contrasting colors with blue and yellow contrasting colors, which brings a strong visual impact to gamers and causes the brain to secrete exciting and happy dopamine. The visual tension of pixel style NFT can bring excitement and curiosity to users, and of course it will also remind them of the pleasure of playing games when they were children.

In the late 1990s, pixel style was gradually regarded as synonymous with rough and hard by the gaming industry and was no longer favored. But pixel art has not been eliminated, but has become a unique style and cultural symbol. The reason is that pixel style itself uses simple elements to express theme content, has unlimited creative space, and has a unique artistic style. Pixels do not express information through realism. On the contrary, the simple and clean visual effects displayed by pixel style can effectively reduce visual information overload, thereby improving the efficiency of information transmission.

The reason why pixels can become pixel style is because it is retro at one step and trendy at the other. In 2017, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, founders of software company Larva Labs, developed a program that could generate thousands of random characters that didnt look like they fit into the prevailing aesthetic at the time. It didn’t take long for Larva Labs to launch what we now know as CryptoPunks—a collection of artistic images composed of irregular pixels. Among these pixel images, in addition to human images, there are also several non-human images such as green-skinned zombies, hairy apes, and blue-skinned aliens, all of which are also equipped with a combination of accessories that flaunt their personality.

The two founders bluntly stated that CryptoPunks was inspired by the London Punk spirit: They (these images) must be a bunch of misfits and non-conforming people. The London Punk movement of the 1970s felt like the correct aesthetic. The dystopian cyberpunk spirit represented by the movie Blade Runner and William Gibsons novel Neuromancer also had an impact. In their view, the district There was a raucous, anti-establishment spirit to the early days of the blockchain movement, and it was a vibe they wanted to reflect in their punk exterior.

Some investors believe in the appreciation space of Pixel Style NFT, while some players are addicted to the experience brought by Pixel Style NFT. The unique style of NFT makes it full of social attributes, thereby achieving the purpose of word-of-mouth communication. Marketing consulting firm Vivaldi Partners once divided social currency into six dimensions: sense of belonging, communication and discussion, sense of identity, value, advocacy, exchange of information, and knowledge.

The uniqueness of NFT enables the owner to uniquely identify his or her identity information. People with similar NFTs quickly form communities, seek recognition in the community, support their favorite NFTs, find common circles and exchange relevant knowledge and information: I own an NFT, and I also have an OG club in the NFT field. membership.

Plaid style NFT

Upgraded from pixel art to plaid style art, we can call it a clearer upgraded version of pixel art.

When it comes to the starry sky, we think of Van Gogh, and when it comes to polka dots, we think of Yayoi Kusama. There is a kind of grid that you may not be able to name, but you will definitely be familiar with it. That is - Mondrians three primary color grid.

In the minds of many Dutch people, Mondrians status is equal to that of Van Gogh.

In 1918, the year when World War I was about to end, Mondrian, together with six other artists, signed the First Manifesto of De Stijl which was anti-war, anti-individualism, and promoted peace.

In Mondrians world, it is only composed of dots, lines and color blocks. His paintings ushered in the Abstract De Stijl movement, with vertical and horizontal line divisions revealing the music and rhythm of color blocks. Staring at them, the universal laws of all things in the world seem to make sense in this grid.

This magic grid, although the pattern is limited and abstract, symbolizes the original force that constitutes nature. The pure form, simple color blocks, and abstract aesthetic concepts are full of philosophical thoughts from the art world to the fashion world. Different people Different answers can be found in the grid, which is why this grid is so popular.

These grids come from the work Red, Yellow and Blue Composition by Dutch painter Cornelius Mondrian.

An art painting with just a few grids was auctioned for a whopping $50.6 million? Not only that, these plaids have also become the partners of the worlds major luxury brands competing for cooperation? What is the charm of these grids?

There is also the work Broadway Jazz, which was also the last completed work in his life. It clearly reflects the new atmosphere of modern cities. It is still a straight line, but it is not a cold and serious black boundary, but a lively and jumping colored boundary. They are composed of small colored rectangles of different lengths, dividing and controlling the picture. They are still primary colors, but are no longer constrained by black lines. They are mainly bright yellow, mixed with red and blue to form colorful lines, and red, yellow, and blue blocks are scattered between the color lines, creating a Rhythm shifts and frequency vibrations. It seems that this picture is brighter and brighter than any previous work. It is not only rhythmic jazz, but also like the everlasting lights flashing in office buildings and streets at night.

Both works are very simple in appearance 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 big shock in the painting world, but also had a huge impact on the architecture, furniture, decorative arts and printing industry at that time. Now the grid style has come to the NFT field of Bitcoin, maybe the pixel style NFT It represents the feelings of those born in the 1970s, so the grid style NFT may represent the trend pursuit of the new generation of WEB3 industry holders.

The success and controversy of Lattice NFT NodeMonkes

Almost all NFT players are also waiting for NodeMonkes to hit a record high in Bitcoin-based pricing. The first Bitcoin NFT series in history with a unit price exceeding 1 Bitcoin, NodeMonkes is almost certain to happen in everyones expectations.

It only took NodeMonkes more than two months from its birth to becoming one of the top three NFT projects in the Crypto world by total market value. The current floor price of NodeMonkes has reached 0.74 BTC, and the total market value has exceeded 500 million US dollars, surpassing Pudgy Penguins and ranking only behind CryptoPunks and BAYC.

Born from controversy

On December 23, 2023, after about 30 hours of Dutch auction, NodeMonkes was finally sold out when the price dropped to 0.04 Bitcoins, and the project party finally received sales revenue of about 240 Bitcoins.

NodeMonkes first sparked huge discussion when it announced that it had rejected $5 million in investment from VCs and insisted on being a Free Mint project. However, the popularity of the project continued to increase, and the project team continued to change the sales plan and reneged on previous commitments. From announcing Free Mint and no whitelist mechanism, to announcing that it will adopt a whitelist mechanism and fee-based minting, to all Dutch auctions without a whitelist, its claimed investment of US$5 million has also been questioned.

Many early Ordinals players were quite dissatisfied with NodeMonkess repeated jumps during the launch stage - you can certainly make money, but its a bit too ugly to watch. Moreover, early Ordinals players were obsessed with the fairness, freeness and sincerity of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

But in any case, I believe that the creators of NodeMonkes drew inspiration from the works of Cornelius Mondrian and used grids of various color blocks to form the abstract Boring Ape, which is much better than pure pixel works. Clearer, limited by the characteristics of pixel art, the details of the characters face in pixel style NFT are blurred, and only the outline can be seen clearly, while the highly saturated and bright colors of the grid style give the NFT a futuristic punk coat. The stereotype of pure pixel style and low resolution has long been left behind, and what players see is a more open interpretation space behind the visual impact. The artist depicts the picture through restriction and simplification, and conveys emotions and thoughts through grids, in order to oppose the over-emphasis on the quality of the picture and the flashy works. Abstraction and symbolism are the common points of pixel style and grid style NFT, and they are also the attitude pursued by Web3 players.

Do the colorful squares in the picture represent the body, earrings, eyes, and hats? For example, the eyes only need to be represented by 2 grids, and the large square below represents the body. In this way, everything in the work can be expressed in right angles. You can always get your answer first. What makes up the realistic structure is not the objects themselves, but the relationship between them. The so-called structural relationship is to use abstract vertical and horizontal lines to form a simple geometric shape. The abstract structure of geometric forms pursued by De Stijl was created through the support and combination of lines and planes to create a new, idealistic art form. The grid style NFT created another style of pixel NFT.

What is Cursed Inscription and why is it out of print?

Cursed inscriptions refer to inscriptions that are not indexed by the Ordinals protocol. It was originally caused by a BUG in the Ordinals protocol. The index started counting down from 0 and was assigned a negative number, thus being defined as a cursed inscription.

Rarity is the greatest feature of cursed inscriptions. Especially in Web3, NFTs are ranked based on their rarity, so NFTs in the same collection have high and low prices, but the curse inscription is more of an unintentional one. Therefore, the narrative perspective of cursed inscriptions lies in their scarcity that distinguishes them from other genuine inscriptions.

The out-of-print cursed inscription lies in the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade. Ordinals founder Casey announced in a post that the Jubilee upgrade will be carried out at block height 824544. After the Jubilee, all inscriptions will be blessed, meaning that using features such as batch inscriptions will no longer result in cursed inscriptions. But the cursed inscription before the Jubilee upgrade pin still exists, which is why the community has FOMO about the cursed inscription.

Before the arrival of block height 824544, the cursed inscription projects that are currently being cast are in full swing to cast the inscriptions, striving to become the last cursed inscription.

The out-of-print Curse Inscription may mean a new starting point for the Bitcoin ecosystem. UniSat issued a statement stating that it will follow the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade to ensure that BRC-20 is still running on Ordinals instead of splitting into a separate protocol.

According to the information I found, the last textual curse inscription is INSCRIPTION-472, 043, which records the Yin-Yang inscription Mickey Mouse.

The last picture of the cursed inscription is the Cursed Goose INSCRIPTION-472, 040 on Pizza Cong.

The last cursed inscription double-sided in negative (yin), positive (yang) order is INSCRIPTION-458, 327, the last one in the 10K collection BitMonkes, and is also inscribed on block 78 rare satoshi, with cursed blue Smoke frame design, BitMonkes only has 150 made with a cursed blue frame.

The cursed inscription is now out of print, and there will no longer be a cursed inscription in the world.

After repair, the Cursed Inscription will become a special section, with a constant number that will never be reissued.

Cursed Glyph will become a strong meme narrative in Ordinals history.

Compared to most man-made things, people would have a greater consensus on a chosen one who accidentally came to this world because of a bug.

A collection of original components, a tribute to NodeMonkes, all using rare Satoshi and double-sided engravings, 100% engraved with cursed inscriptions on the out-of-print BitMonkes.

I’m glad you’re here. It shows that you are a holder who cares about art, not a speculator on the Web. We call them locusts in the currency circle. I hope you understand what we are describing from the perspective of art and technology. A great NFT creation.

Okay, you have learned about the great achievements of abstract art from pixels to grids in the field of NFT. We have also popularized the out-of-print technology of cursed inscriptions above. At the end of the article, we have explained some terms, such as inscription numbers, recursive inscriptions, rare coins, etc. Only knowledge can increase your taste and wealth.

Now I would like to introduce to you a 10K collection of BitMonkes that integrates elements of grid art, and finally 100% cursed inscriptions, 100% rare satoshis, using a recursive protocol. Remember, this does not constitute any investment advice, the spirit of WEB3 is to share.

BitMonkes are composed of a yin and yang diagram, that is, yin negative numbers (curse inscriptions) and yang positive inscriptions.

The dark side showcases NodeMonkes, 150 of the rare framed designs symbolizing the purple smoke of the curse, a nod to Bitcoin’s 15th anniversary.

The PFP on the positive side is an original component and uses a recursive protocol.

BitMonkes is the only Yin-Yang sequence double-sided engraving.

100% engraved in block 78 rare Satoshi. Block 78 is a Satoshi mined by Hal Finney. This is the first time that anyone other than Satoshi Nakamoto has participated in mining. At the same time, Block 78 also belongs to the range of Vintage rare Satoshi, with dual Rare satoshi concept.

Rare Satoshis are extremely valuable. Regardless of the value of the NFT itself, the sale of rare Satoshis in the future will be worth a lot of money. There are only about 800,000 rare Satoshis in total, and BitMonkes accounts for 10,000.

100% engraved on cursed inscriptions is the last out-of-print collection of cursed inscriptions before the Jubilee upgrade. Cursed inscriptions are similar to misprinted stamps and will no longer be added. There are only about 500,000 cursed inscriptions, and BitMonkes accounts for 10,000.

The last work in the BitMonkes collection, INSCRIPTION-458, 327, was burned at block height 824521 at UTC 2024-01-05 20:31. At this time, there are only 23 blocks left, about 250 minutes, before the Jubilee upgrade at block height 824544.

The Bitcoin network often gets stuck. For a set of 10K works, it is a very long process to cast both sides. If the recording is not 100% completed at block height 824521, then it will be a non-perfect one. work, which means that some NFTs will be burned into non-cursed inscriptions. Fortunately, they completed this great thing four hours ago at block height 824521, and it became the final swan song.

If we use 3 sets of words to describe it, it would be First, Last, and Only one.

First The first double-sided engraving

Last Curse The last 10K collection before it goes out of print

Only one is engraved with curse inscriptions and double rare

If you missed out on NodeMonkes at 0.04 BTC, of ​​course he’s not cheap. So as far as I know, the BitMonkes whitelist sale price is not expensive. Maybe the value of these rare satoshis in the future will be more than this BTC. I suggest you not to miss it. After all, so many highlights are integrated into one work, and the BTC ecosystem cannot be better. There is a second such work, he is worthy of your collection.

What is an inscription number, a recursive inscription, a curse inscription, a rare inscription?

Inscription number:

Since each inscription NFT will be assigned an inscription number (starting from 0 and increasing in sequence) according to the order of inscription, as time goes by, the current inscription number has reached tens of millions, which increases the fun of collection and the basis for value judgment. It is generally believed that the inscription NFT with the first inscription number will have greater collection value, such as the sub 10 k series (the top 10,000 inscriptions).

Recursive inscription:

Since the content limit of taproot Segregated Witness is 4M, this limits the size of the inscription content. In order to break through this limitation and introduce greater flexibility. The inscription protocol designs a format for mutual reference, called recursive inscription. In this way, you can see richer and higher-definition performances in the inscriptions. For example, ordibots 3D uses recursive inscriptions to complete AR and high-definition, and the NFT inscription fee for each inscription is very low.

Curse Inscription:

Cursed inscriptions were originally protocol bugs, and some inscriptions were not normally included in the original serial number series. Therefore, the inscriptions called cursed were assigned negative numbers.

Currently, these protocol bugs have been fixed, and there will be no new cursed inscription NFTs with negative numbers in the future. Just like misprinted banknotes, there is a lot of room for speculation. The number of cursed inscriptions is only about 500,000.

Rare Satoshi:

Because of the Inscription NFT, each one is engraved on Satoshi. To make it more interesting, the Inscription protocol defines some special Satoshis, called rare Satoshis, such as the first Satoshi mined in each block. NFTs engraved on these satoshis usually have a higher price, and the price of rare satoshis is higher than that of ordinary satoshis. There are only about 800,000 rare Satoshis in total.

In fact, Satoshi as the smallest indivisible unit of Bitcoin has existed many years ago, that is, 1 Bitcoin = 10^9 Satoshi, but it has not entered the mainstream players horizons because it is too micro and has no usage scenarios. . However, in the past three months, as the Bitcoin ecosystem has exploded out of the circle, Satoshi, as the carrier of inscription, has naturally received a lot of attention. In addition, Cong, with its intuitiveness, anti-volatility and other characteristics, has replaced USDT and firmly established itself as the number one pricing unit in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

In addition to serving as an inscription carrier and pricing unit, Cong itself is also naturally suitable for collection and speculation. Of course, to clarify this point of view, we must first understand what the attributes of Satoshi are.

It is not difficult to find some interesting things if you carefully observe the way Satoshi is expressed. Satoshis named 0 and a echo each other at both ends of time and space, and together they connect this magnificent epic of Bitcoin mining spanning 2100 trillion coins and lasting more than 130 years...

Satoshis who play an important role in these periodic events, Satoshis with unique names, and Satoshis who have experienced historical events will have unique rarity and premium.

To give a very vivid example, Cong is like a hundred yuan in circulation. The purchasing power does not vary depending on the printing batch or the number of times it changes hands. However, due to the emergence of prefix numbers, a small part of them have special numbers. Paper money generated a premium. The same is true for satoshis. Based on a certain consensus principle, a small number of satoshis with special properties have generated incredibly high premiums in market circulation. Relatively speaking, the consensus standards for Cong mainstream are much stricter than the leopard number of RMB prefix number.

According to the arrangement and combination of the four basic events covered by decimal notation, the six rarities of Satoshi can be clearly defined, namely ordinary, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, and mythical.

On May 23, 2022, the inscription with the serial number 8669069 turned out, triggering heated discussions in the ordinals community and the rare Satoshi community. It has attracted much attention because it is the first inscription engraved on rare grade Satoshi. You should know that among the current 1900 trillion satoshis, there are only 370 rare ones, which makes this inscription most likely to become the most expensive encrypted artwork in history. In addition, The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks. contained in the picture was once engraved in the genesis block by Satoshi Nakamoto, which gives it unparalleled significance. You must know that in the world of art, the superposition of rarity can often achieve the effect of 1+ 1>>>2.

Descriptions of these categories can be easily found on the ord.io marketplace.

Uncommon

Extraordinary, the first satoshi of each block

Rare

Rare, the first satoshi in every block

Epic

Epic, first satoshi for every halving

Vintage

Premium, first 1000 blocks mined

Nakamoto

The Satoshi mined by Satoshi Nakamoto has an interesting name.

First Transaction

The first transaction, on January 12, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 Bitcoins to Hal Finney, which was also the first on-chain interaction in history.

Palindrome

Palindrome, the number reads the same forward or backward, such as 12921

Pizza

Even though 10,000 Bitcoins were used to buy the satoshis used in the pizza transaction, this transaction is also the source of Bitcoin’s nickname “Piece” and occurred on May 22, 2010. This day has since been designated as Pizza Day.

Block 9 

This is the oldest Satoshi currently in circulation, unless the address belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto wakes up again.

Block 78 

Satoshi mined by Hal Finney, this was the first time anyone other than Satoshi Nakamoto participated in the mining. At the same time, Block 78 also belongs to the range of Vintage rare satoshis, with a dual concept of rare satoshis.

Written at the end: Some excerpts from the pixel NFT chapter of this article quoted the AIO News article, and I would like to express my gratitude. I entered the Bitcoin world in 2013, and it has been 11 years. I am fortunate to be born in this great era, and I pay tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto.