Autoglyphs first “on-chain” generative art on the Ethereum blockchain
Autoglyph is a highly optimized generative algorithm capable of creating billions of unique artworks, wrapped inside an ERC-721 interface.
ERC-721 features
ERC-721 is a standard of a non-fungible token, unlike his main colleague universal ERC-20. The best use of this property is to digitalize unique assets, and art perfectly suits this category.
The Standard is generally used to manage ownership of digital items stored elsewhere. Basically, the art itself is stored somewhere in a database and by minting it (minting — making it an NFT) the artist addresses the storage by linking the image via a hash. This is a record, using which you can locate the image file from this record. Thus, the actual artwork does not technically benefit from any of the tamper-proof advantages like “decentralization” or “immutability” typically associated with the blockchain. Nothing stops someone from changing the content to which hash addresses, so that the only thing left would be a record of ownership, without an ability to actually see the artwork.
The key difference with the Autoglyphs is that the art is inside the contract itself, it is literally “art on the blockchain.” The art is stored on chain because it suits the storage limitations of the blockchain, while standard JPEG and PNG are too big.
Initial offering
The experiment was made by Larva Labs, the founders of which, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, are also the founding fathers of CryptoPunks, a project of 10,000 generated avatars. CryptoPunks got hyped lately, when the deal on US$7,5m equivalent of ETH was made on CryptoPunk #7804.
As it was mentioned, the system is capable of generating billions of works, however the creators limited the amount of possible generations to 512 items, after which the algorithm will shut itself off forever, and generated works will only be available on secondary market.
The project was launched on April 8, 2019 early in the morning and all the glyphs were generated by 1:02 pm EST. 512 glyphs were distributed between 66 owners. Initial generation of each glyph cost 0,2 ETH, which is about US$340, all money raised from the activity were simultaneously transferred to charity, 350.org. The organization has confirmed cryptowallet, thus all information about transactions is available.
Fast expansion
The initial capitalization of the Autoglyphs was US$174,080, however the projected immediately cracked the top of OpenSea (opensea.io — biggest marketplace of NFTs) with an average price of the deal 1,34 ETH (+670% from initial price of acquiring).
The graph shows the dynamics of the average price of tokes, which as we can see was almost plain for 1,5 years since the project was launched. First movements came with the new wave of interest towards Bitcoin and the correlation between their movements in price is quite clear. The number of sales is still very small, but the price is constantly growing. Last year it was about 1–1,5 ETH per glyph with the exchange rate of US$350, average price of one token for the last 14 days (from March 25, 2021) is 62 ETH with the exchange rate of US$1650. Which gives us astonishing +23382% return on investment.
Jump into the last car. Why is it still relevant?
Monetization of mentioned returns is now quite hard, not many people are eager to buy this high. However, art was never a fast investment. Nothing changed with it digitalization, art investment is still not an option for people greedy for fast profits.
Bitcoin price action is directly related to its mining cycles. Nothing grows and falls forever. The last wave of growth we will see the bear market at its best. The growth is now driven by funds of commoners, who came to the market after hype. And when the bear market comes in power, these impatient investors will probably help the market to crash. Crisis is the best time to buy and we might get a good buying opportunity.
The prospects of this investment are quite good for some reasons.
The NFT technology will probably prosper, because it is a good possibility for digital artists to secure their royalties. And geeks all over the world will continue making unusual projects, however glyphs are first of their kind, first items stored on chain.
Moreover, the project was launched by crypto enthusiasts, who already had a successful case with CryptoPunks. Autoglyphs were mentioned in the article about CryptoPunk #7804 on Forbes, introducing it to the broad audience. Seller of #7804, CEO of Figma, mentioned that he acquired several glyphs and also expects appreciation.
Unlike previous NFT projects of generated art, which had several thousands of items in their drops, for example CryptoPunks had 10,000 avatars, Mooncats had 26,000 items, CryptoKitties had astonishing 1,8 million items, the collection of Autoglyphs is very narrow limiting to only 512 pieces, which is negligible amount.
In the prospect of five-ten-fifteen years this items would be treated as rare, and the fact that they were the pioneers in the industry will only stir up interest of collectors and geeks.
Market also expects for the launch of ETH 2.0, which will also attract public interest to blockchain bringing new funds to the industry.
This information is not an individual investment recommendation, and the financial instruments or transactions mentioned in it may not correspond to your investment profile and investment goals (expectations).
