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How to create a minting website for NFT projects.

Fully On-Chain SVG NFTs — Part 3: Minting Website

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How to create a fully on chain NFT

Fully On-Chain SVG NFTs — Part 2: ERC-721 NFT Contract

It’s been quite the eventful year in web3. We’ve seen more and more innovations not only from the technical side but also artistically. Here are our top 10 fully on-chain NFT projects of 2023 (In no particular order).  

## Web — Jan Robert Leegte
![5](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/1idZh3YAQQg35scn8X71lP/2dfc18cca619d2433f490b69f2252570/5.png)

Web is an artistic exploration of the Internet. 1000 unique web pages interlinked in a smart contract with a distinctive color and composition. A tribute to hyperlinks and machine learning, it's a monument to digital navigation and information architecture, where each NFT holds the DNA of the entire network. Use the explorer site to navigate through the web of documents.

## Chaos Roads — Chainleft
![6](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/5YwA9d0KTN3xGFUuM368c/04211b137fbc5aeac078d90191a3a207/chaos.jpg)

Chaos Roads is an immersive collection that blends art with blockchain tech, presenting each token as a combination of a visual painting, a musical piece, and a poem, all evolving in real time. This concept, coined "runtime art," showcases a dynamic interplay of controlled chaos, highlighting the balance between disorder and order.

## The Metro — Int.Art
![e](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4Li8X6vSJf09njHAW0hhZ5/c15d5143dea620056cf3247df520cd7e/e.png)

The Metro is an innovative exploration of abstract metro maps, built entirely on-chain and designed to evolve in unpredictable ways. As each one evolves, they are likely to take on new and unexpected forms, reflecting the creative input of owners.

## Cartae — 0xdiid
![mornings](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3fkaxGL98u2pezE2gMefSz/faa4065b40147c4d64e2003b188d4f9a/mornings.png)

A fully on-chain collectible trading card collection. 0xdiid has done a lot for the community by introducing tools and techniques that make storing complex images on the blockchain easier. Cartae is a collection that aims to make collecting beautiful fully on-chain art more accessible. 

## Crypto Coaster — Int.Art
![bg](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4ByT5re6vOlA3zxeFytwd9/d67584b4ef82365f1e70c420c03c60bc/8.png)

Crypto Coasters introduced a series of 2000 unique, randomly generated 3D roller coasters, compatible with VR and stored fully on-chain. This collection features a variety of track designs, ranging from fast-paced to slow and wild, providing a novel and thrilling experience, and is the first 3D immersive VR-compatible NFT.

## A Fundamental Dispute — Adam genlight & Frolic
![a](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/6B2mTj9Qn0jfNEyHSYZnNV/320cff38ce1b421f31868524e2e59792/fund.jpg)

A series of digital sunsets living inside the world computer. Each piece is procedurally and beautifully drawn onto the canvas using code fully stored on the blockchain. AFD uses EthFS from Frolic to utilize p5.js stored directly on Ethereum.

## byteGANs — Pindar Van Arman
![bytegans1](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/39yBrkhHmLuBnfcyTyVTiv/0dadacb515656fbec98df23edc845957/bytegans1.gif)

“A kilobyte on blockchain.” Pindar Van Arman is an award-winning artist known for creating, programming, and exploring AI and robots. byteGANs are considered to be the first fully on-chain AI art collection. There are 1,111 pixelated dancing skulls in the form of animated gifs. Each GIF comes in at roughly 1kb. They have recently been 100% immutable as the contract has been renounced to the burn address.

## Advent Stars — Miragenesi
![adventcal](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/i4YYRj7NC9JzOsslyT9by/7cd3686c29beb0de556d687bf29f5e96/adventcal.jpg)

A celestial on-chain Advent Calendar. Every day in December, a new star will shine in the night sky, sometimes together with colorful nebulae. Advent Stars is a beautiful time-based artwork that gifts you a unique experience every year. 

## GOLD — James Bloom
![gold](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3WMDg7iZalEtQeX5mvxGcR/550c6213c7fe90edaaf2482a48f07183/gold.jpg)

GOLD is a fully on-chain artistic exploration of its own market behavior. The art changes as the market changes. It explores how we see in digital environments, and how market networks influence how we see. The full spectrum of possibilities for GOLD will take years to reveal.

## Checks - VV Originals — Jack butcher
![4675](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/6nY7C3KoxGxGQMrQQDBMj3/4bbe59ade4ca10e81e035061e1983938/4675.png)

This artwork may or may not be notable. Jack Butcher may have won NFTs in 2023 and it’s no surprise that this dynamic, customizable, and composable art project made our list. Checks are an infinite canvas for expression that is designed to challenge the concept of ownership and authorship in the age of the internet. Checks inherit the DNA of their merged parents. Collectors choose which token ID to keep. The largest and final piece in the collection is the black check, requiring 64 single checks to produce (4,096 editions). Only three will ever be possible.

Thanks for reading. We expect 2024 to have an explosion of on-chain projects that will push the limits of what we thought was possible with new mechanics and art styles. If you liked this thread please consider following us on Twitter and subscribing to our bi-monthly newsletter.

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Our favorite fully on-chain projects of the year.

Top 10 Fully On-Chain NFT Projects of 2023

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On-chain NFTs refer to non-fungible tokens where the metadata and the actual media of the NFT (like an image, video, or text) are stored directly on the blockchain. Unlike most NFTs, where only the ownership and transaction records are stored on chain, on-chain NFTs store everything on-chain including the media.

## Intro
On-chain NFTs come in various forms, each utilizing the blockchain’s capabilities in different ways. One type embeds traditional image formats like PNGs or JPGs directly onto the blockchain. These are visually similar to conventional digital images but are immutable and permanently stored on the blockchain. Some on-chain NFTs embed JavaScript and HTML, incorporating libraries like p5.js or three.js. Others generate SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics) on the fly, directly from the Solidity contract. This tutorial will cover these SVG NFTs specifically. The tutorial will consist of several parts and will cover all aspects of development, testing, deployment, and supporting fully on-chain SVG NFTs, specifically:

- Part 1: Basic SVG Rendering (this post)
- Part 2: ERC-721 NFT Contract (to be released)
- Part 3: Minting website (to be released)
- Part 4: TBD

## Some Notable On-Chain SVG NFTs
Before understanding how to create fully on-chain SVG NFTs, it will be helpful to explore several notable on-chain SVG NFT collections (this is not an exhaustive list. There are hundreds, if not thousands, SVG NFTs available. Check the next section for two amazing resources that list fully on-chain NFTs, many of which are SVG NFTs):

- [Pushersleft (ART PONZI)](https://mirror.xyz/chainleft.eth/uTQ2JAgjV35asUTx8KVJKqlKYGJz7wfZUxRrEd0loL8) — this NFT is pushing the boundaries of SVG NFTs, having a lot of innovative optimizations so the work can be stored on-chain.
- [Chaos Roads](https://www.chainleft.art/chaos-roads) — it is more than SVG NFT. The thumbnail is SVG generated, but there is much more. It is an interactive painting, a music piece, and a poem.
- [OnChainMonkey](https://onchainmonkey.com/) is one of the very successful fully on-chain SVG NFT collections.
- [Advent Stars](https://stars.miragenesi.art/) — fully on-chain, dynamic NFT. Quoting the creator: “Every day until the 24th, a new star will illuminate the night sky, occasionally surrounded by colorful nebulae. On Christmas Eve, the celestial display will be fully realized, thus completing the cosmic artwork. Next year? Restart it, and the magic will happen again.”
- [Alien Runes](https://alienrunes.xyz/) — this is my own fully on-chain SVG collection. Every rune is unique, and the algorithm can generate infinite runes. The algorithm for rune generation is complex, and it may not be an overstatement to say that this collection generates one of the most complex SVGs among fully on-chain NFTs.

## On-Chain NFT Resources
If you like on-chain NFTs, there are two great resources to explore:

- [On-Chain Checker (OCC)](https://onchainchecker.xyz/collections) — a collection of 200+ fully on-chain NFTs. A lot of them are SVG NFTs. On-Chain Checker can also check programmatically whether a given contract produces fully on-chain NFTs.
- [Fully On Chain](https://www.fullyonchain.art/) — portal for fully on-chain NFTs. Has close to 200 fully on-chain collections and many other helpful resources. I highly recommend subscribing to its newsletter if you are interested in on-chain NFTs.
If you want to understand more about On-Chain NFT, I also recommend the following article — [https://metaversal.banklesshq.com/p/onchain-nfts](https://metaversal.banklesshq.com/p/onchain-nfts)

## Tutorial Requirements
This tutorial assumes that you have basic knowledge of Solidity — the programming language behind Ethereum Smart Contract and some basic JavaScript / TypeScript knowledge (most of the code we will write will be Solidty code; There are some TypeScript tooling that we will use in the tutorial, but you can use it as it is; TypeScript knowledge will be required only if you want to enhance the tooling). This tutorial also assumes that you have some knowledge of SVG (Scalable Vector Format) and a basic understanding of GitHub and shell/bash.

The following tools are required to be installed on your machine:

- __Node.js__ — JavaScript runtime (install from here: [https://nodejs.org/en/download](https://nodejs.org/en/download))
- __ts-node__ — TypeScript runtime, a very convenient tool to run typescript without precompiling it (install from here: [https://typestrong.org/ts-node/docs/installation/](https://typestrong.org/ts-node/docs/installation/))
- __Foundry__ — one of the best and fastest toolkits for developing and testing Solidity contracts (install from here: [https://book.getfoundry.sh/getting-started/installation](https://book.getfoundry.sh/getting-started/installation))
- A text editor or IDE — __Visual Studio Code__ ([https://code.visualstudio.com/download](https://code.visualstudio.com/download)) is recommended, together with this amazing Solidity plugin that integrates well with Foundry ([https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=NomicFoundation.hardhat-solidity](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=NomicFoundation.hardhat-solidity))

In these tutorials, I’ll guide you in creating an on-chain SVG NFT from scratch (you will need to download the tooling, though).

## Disclaimer
The purpose of this tutorial is not to teach you about Solidity or SVG. Neither is to write the most optimized code. The main idea is to show you the tooling and the workflow, that can empower you to create great on-chain SVG NFTs. In the current Part 1 — we will cover the basics, or how to generate and test SVG content, generated by Solidity code.

## First Steps
We will first focus on creating a Solidity contract that will output SVG and the tooling that will compile and test this contract. In the next tutorial (Part 2), we will focus on implementing an ERC-721 contract, which would enable “mint” and list the NFT on exchanges (like OpenSea)

To start, create a directory for the contacts, I will use __tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering__ in this tutorial. Now go to this directory and initialize Foundry:

```command
cd tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/
forge init --no-git
```

> __Please note!__ You have to run __forge init__ in __tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering__ folder. If you run the command in the parent directory or in a different subfolder, this will mess up your Foundry configuration, and the rest of the tutorial may not work properly.

Foundry will initialize the current directory (__tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering__ in my example) and will create a few files and directories.

Delete *script* directory (we will not need it for now) as well as the *src/Counter.sol* and *test/Counter.sol*.

Your directory now looks like this — nice and clean:

![1-vscode](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/103YIQUFtl8YVvdf941q0f/e4a99779abf275ad9b2f52c472145ed4/1-vscode.webp)

Now create a file in the *src* directory called *BasicSVGRenderer.sol* and populate it with the following content:

```solidity BasicSVGRenderer2.sol
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.21;

contract BasicSVGRenderer {
    function renderSVG() public pure returns (string memory) {
        return '<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" preserveAspectRatio="xMinYMin meet" viewBox="0 0 512 512">'
            '<circle cx="256" cy="256" r="128" fill="green"/>'
        '</svg>';
    }
}
```

__Congratulations, you now have a Solidity contract that can output SVG content.__

Run the following command to compile the contract.

```command
forge build
```

If successful, you will see two new directories created — *cached* and   *out*. In *out*, Forge will output the compiled contract in JSON format.

Next is creating a test to output the SVG content to the console.

Create *BasicSVGRenderer.t.sol* in test directory and populate it with the following content:

```solidity
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.21;

import { BasicSVGRenderer } from "../src/BasicSVGRenderer.sol";
import { Test } from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import "forge-std/console.sol";

contract BasicSVGRendererTest is Test {
    BasicSVGRenderer public renderer;

    function setUp() public {
        renderer = new BasicSVGRenderer();
    }

    function testSvgRenderer() public view {
        string memory svg = renderer.renderSVG();
        console.log(svg);
    }
}
```

Now run

```command
forge test -vv
```

And you will get the following output to the console.

![2-output](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3xzvhbIYUkc6g8DAgx8sFp/6c658b33f46fbb73853cece8e9ebbc24/2-output.webp)

Please note that you must include the *“-vv”* parameter; otherwise, Forge will not output the result from the console.log() function.

Now if you want to generate an SVG file from this output, you have to use the following:

```command
forge test -vv | awk '/<svg /,/<\/svg>/' | awk '{$1=$1;print}' > test.svg
```

And if you open the generated SVG file (*test.svg*) with a browser, you will see its content.

![3-circle](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3JjwQ0feGtxsHBGujo1THh/3e58b90c3a7234832b7b51b37a4a752d/3-circle.webp)

## Hot Reload
The tooling presented above can get you started with on-chain SVG NFTs, but will not make you productive or efficient. Thus, I have developed tooling (initially based on [https://github.com/w1nt3r-eth/hot-chain-svg/](https://github.com/w1nt3r-eth/hot-chain-svg/), but also with many enhancements and improvements and based on Foundry, which is faster than Hardhat) that can greatly improve your productivity. The tooling (as well as the source code of all of the tutorials from the series) is available in the following git repo:

[https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials](https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials)
Here is a short demo of what to expect with the Hot Reload:

![4-hot-reload-1](//videos.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/58lfWrvhBB9KxYVvhMrbqd/c543bcb4aebea2c5ce30dbcf9d8922db/4-hot-reload-1.mp4)

To work with the hot reload, you must either download ts-tooling directory from [https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/tree/main/ts-toolin](https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/tree/main/ts-toolin)g or clone the repo with:

```command
$ git clone https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials
```

Once you have the *ts_tooling* directory, go to it and execute *npm update* to download the dependencies.

```command
$ cd svg-nft-tutorials
$ cd ts-tooling
$ npm update
```

Now you can use the tooling. Before continuing the Solidity code, let me quickly explain what *ts-tooling* is about. In short, *ts-tooling* is a collection of useful scripts that greatly enhance the development experience while working with on-chain SVG NFTs. For this particular tutorial, we will consider only one tool — Hot Reload.

Hot Reload allows you to get instant feedback on the SVG content that your smart contract generates. Run the tool, modify your contract, and save it — and instantly, the browser will update with the new result. See the demo gif above.

You will be running the tool from the root Foundry directory of your project (in our case — *tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering*) with the following (for convenience, you will find a script called start-hot-reload that invokes it)

```command
npm  --prefix ../ts-tooling run hot-reload ../tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/ test/BasicSVGRenderer.t.sol testSvgRenderer 123
```

where:

- *__../tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/__* is the root directory of the Foundry project
- *__test/BasicSVGRenderer.t.sol__* is the relative path (from the root Foundry project directory) to the test that we want to execute
- *__testSvgRenderer__* is the test method in the test contract
- *__123__* is the default/initial ID of the token that will be shown. You can change it later in the browser easily.

You need to get the following two files into *__../tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/src__* directory:

- [https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/blob/main/tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/src/Random.sol](https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/blob/main/tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/src/Random.sol)
- [https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/blob/main/tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/src/Utils.sol](https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/blob/main/tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/src/Utils.sol)

I will explain these two solidity libraries in another post since this one focuses on workflow and tooling. In short, *Random.sol* allows you to generate pseudo-random numbers based on some input, while *Utils.sol* provides useful utilities to convert int/uint numbers to strings.

In the same directory, also create a file named *BasicSVGRenderer2.sol* with the following content:

```solidity
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.21;

import { Utils } from './Utils.sol';
import { Random, RandomCtx } from './Random.sol';

contract BasicSVGRenderer {
    function renderSVG(uint tokenId) public pure returns (string memory) {
        RandomCtx memory ctx = Random.initCtx(tokenId);

        string memory circles = "";

        int hue = Random.randRange(ctx, 0, 359);

        for (uint i=0; i < 50; i++) { 
            int cx = Random.randRange(ctx, 0, 512);
            int cy = Random.randRange(ctx, 0, 512);
            int r = Random.randRange(ctx, 24, 64);
            int sat = Random.randRange(ctx, 0, 100);            
            int opacity = Random.randRange(ctx, 10, 99);

            circles = string.concat(circles, '<circle cx="', Utils.toString(cx), '" cy="', Utils.toString(cy), 
                '" r="', Utils.toString(r),'" fill="hsl(',Utils.toString(hue), ',', Utils.toString(sat),'%, 50%)" opacity="0.', Utils.toString(opacity), '"/>');
        }

        return string.concat('<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" preserveAspectRatio="xMinYMin meet" viewBox="0 0 512 512">',circles,'</svg>');
    }
}
```

As you can see from the code, this contract has only one function — *renderSVG* that takes a single param — *tokenId*. Then, it uses the *tokenId* to initialize the random context, which means that every time we use the same *tokedId*, the same random numbers will be generated.

Then it “draws” 50 circles filled with the same color but with different coordinates, radius, opacity, and saturation. This function produces SVG content that, when rendered, will look like this:

![5-circles](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/5tGBnCG5QRHGPltZjUChJO/f291108e9b2d43aaa7f4df1e9239f64b/5-circles.webp)

Once we have the renderer, we need to update the tests since *ts_tooling* depends on a specific output from the tests.

You need to copy [https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/blob/main/tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/test/AbstractTest.t.sol](https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials/blob/main/tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/test/AbstractTest.t.sol) to *tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering/test/AbstractTest.t.sol*

I will explain the AbstractTest.t.sol in another post since this one focuses on tooling and workflow. In short, this file is responsible for outputting SVG (and gas consumption) to the console, in a specific format so that *ts-tooling* can understand it.

Then you have to modify *test/BasicSVGRenderer.t.svg* to have the following content:

```solidity
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.21;

import { AbstractTest } from "./AbstractTest.t.sol";
import { BasicSVGRenderer } from "../src/BasicSVGRenderer2.sol";

contract BasicSVGRendererTest is AbstractTest {
    BasicSVGRenderer public renderer;

    function setUp() public {
        renderer = new BasicSVGRenderer();
    }

    function renderContract(uint tokenId) internal override view returns(string memory) {
        return renderer.renderSVG(tokenId);
    }

    function testSvgRenderer() public view {
        super.testRenderer();
    }
}
```

And finally, if you run *./start-hot-reload.sh* from *tutorial-1-basic-svg-rendering* and navigate your browser to [http://localhost:9901](http://localhost:9901), you will see the following page:

![6-output](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3P2YYio1aYd6BT2X7nNdPc/1fdcefbe0b6b0cf381a9a4eb6ed67958/6-output.webp)

Congratulations! This means that your tooling is successfully set up, and we are ready for Part 2, which will cover how to create a mintable NFT contract, based on ERC-721.

![7-alien-rune](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/5X0hJivPeD5xRAu2lDCore/733a2f236edc16a5a59f3538cdf41a20/7-alien-rune.webp)

Thank you for reading. If you like this tutorial, please support the author by minting one or more Alien Runes. Alien Runes is a fully on-chain NFT collection that generates SVG content from Solidity code and has complex algorithms to produce infinite unique runes. Available here: [https://alienrunes.xyz/](https://alienrunes.xyz/)

## Links
__Git Repo for this tutorial:__

- [https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials](https://github.com/etovass/svg-nft-tutorials)

__SVG Tutorials:__

- [https://www.w3schools.com/graphics/svg_intro.asp](https://www.w3schools.com/graphics/svg_intro.asp)
- [https://jenkov.com/tutorials/svg/index.html](https://jenkov.com/tutorials/svg/index.html)

Eto-Vass-1

Creating an on chain NFT SVG

Fully On-Chain SVG NFTs — Part 1: Basic SVG Rendering

Welcome to today's interview with the creative power couple, Dr. Slurp and Cookie Tree, the brilliant minds behind MyFi Studio, which is a multimedia studio producing IRL and Web3 experiences. With their latest venture, "ooze", they are creatively merging audio and visuals on the blockchain. Join us as we delve into their innovative journey and explore how they are pushing the boundaries of artistic expression.

### Thanks for taking to time to chat. Could you tell us a bit about your backgrounds and what led you to Web3 and creating art?

**Cookie Tree:** My background is in art history. I'm skeptical about the way we learn and write and create the canon of art. I'm a curator and I work on projects that bring stories and materials that haven't always been taken "seriously." I have curated art for traditional art spaces, hallways in community centers, and in Nintendo's Animal Crossing. The process of creating art and contextualizing it excites me in a way that's magnetic. In 2016, I co-founded an art gallery/project space called [Rojas + Rubensteen Projects](https://rojasrubensteenprojects.com/) in Miami. I was commissioning site-specific installations, multi-sensory performances, hosting workshops, and curating a space that embraced process and first-person narratives. We made a video art nook and exhibited video art in each show. At the time, viewers would gravitate toward the video art but collectors and passerby did not understand why we would sell an mp4 file. This really stuck with me. After my partner and I closed the gallery, I was appointed to work at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I interviewed survivors, veterans, and their families. I acquired hundreds of artifacts for the Museum's archive. I'm really interested in archives, but also the stories that are left out of them. The permanence and the ephemera.

Then, Slurp and I started talking about web3. The space presented some key things I had been searching for: decentralization, transparent provenance, digital art (and mp4 files) being on the same page as "trad" art, and financial possibilities for artists. I learned a lot from Slurp, and other artists and projects, specifically Forgotten Runes and Mathcastles. It felt like web3 could be the thing to get you to the thing. We started MyFi Studio and I started learning how to use analog glitch video equipment and recording videos to make 106 hours of video art for our first collection. I would spend four hours in the Everglades taking videos on my iphone and then come home and turn the knobs on my BPMC Fritz Decontroller until the images felt right. I was experimenting with screens, live video performances, and projection surfaces. I loved the feeling of being deep in nature (covered in mud and mosquitoes, my iPhone overheating) and then playing with analog/digital gear in my dark studio. Collaborating with Slurp and making MyFi Studio a company is in many ways thanks to web3.

![ooz1](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/24NrDGdqWg8XNZsQEiRaKn/62785058637b4f656afa06292d2ef1f1/ooz1.gif)
[Ooze #66](https://persistence.wtf/collection/0xf0f263FB646A5C97F65ba6Fa491F441A6feC5a8F?id=66)

**dr. slurp:** I've played music, made art, and used computers almost my whole life. I somehow found my way into web3 through my work in AI.

A bit of my 'professional' computing background: I finished a PhD in computer science in 2018. My [dissertation research](https://www.research-josh.com/papers/eisenberg_joshua_dissertation.pdf) was about getting computers to automatically extract information about stories from text. Things like, identifying where stories are told in text, what is the narrative point of view and diegesis, narrative boundary extraction, and information about the plot + events. All things AI, NLP and NLU. Using machine learning to train a model to do story understanding tasks. Working with annotators and writers to markup stories + transcripts to use as training data to teach computers about stories. I did this research because people use stories to communicate with each other. I wanted to make computers a bit better at 'understanding' people.

Then I worked at a video game company, initially in making AI for conversations with NPC characters. Eventually this morphed into making AI to generate backstories and traits for NFT characters that would be used in a video game. During this time, one of my coworkers/friends founded Forgotten Runes Wizard Cult, and that is when I saw the grand possibilities of what NFTs could actually be. Around this time, Cookie Tree and I started MyFi Studio, and began our first collaborative project, aptly named 'MyFi'.

I quit my job in October of 2022, after almost 4 years. I began to fully focus on making art and technical projects at that time. I feel so fortunate and lucky that this is how I am spending my time.

Rewind back to art: I've always made visual art. Cycling through intaglio printmaking, cyanotypes, watercolor, and ink drawing. Piano was my first instrument, but it never really stuck. I played french horn for a huge chunk of my youth, in bands and orchestras, but lost all desire to play after doing two years of marching band. In high school I started playing bass, and that became my main instrument. I've had a few bands and I love playing music with other people, but the thing that's the most consistent is writing my own music. I've immersed myself in electronic instruments / synths / drum machines. During the pandemic I began experimenting with code that generates audio, and made my own custom multi-effects bass pedal.

### What is MyFi Studio?

**Cookie tree:** MyFi Studio is a multimedia production studio specializing in web3 and IRL experiences. MyFi (Mycelium Fidelity Network) is inspired by mycelium and the interconnected communication networks in nature and technology.

We focus on building on-chain audiovisual art and musical instruments. We launched two interactive on-chain instruments in February 2023. The first "toy instrument" is *[wind tunnels](https://twitter.com/dr_slurp_/status/1620109033410789377),* and everything you hear and see is synthesized by code stored on the blockchain (programmed in p5.js and p5.sound). The second instrument is *[circles are bad](https://twitter.com/dr_slurp_/status/1625187211296620549),* a collection of 3333 unique instruments that are on-chain drum machines and harmonic sequencers. We sold out both collections. We were named #4 on [Billboard's Biggest Music NFTs in February](https://www.billboard.com/pro/biggest-music-nfts-february-rihanna-snoop-dogg-tycho-kingship/).

Our first collection was [MyFi](https://opensea.io/collection/myfi): 106 hours of analog glitch video art + algorithmically arranged music about a mycelium network sending you messages. More info [here](https://www.myfi.studio/how/). Our second collection was [RSVP](https://opensea.io/collection/rsvp-by-myfi): 53 handmade cyanotypes with an interactive art function on chain + IRL. NFT owners sent an RSVP message to MyFi via smart contract, and the messages were included as lyrics during the live performance at [MyFi in the Garden](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/myfi-in-the-garden-basel-bash-tickets-462548794897).

We create the art we dream about. We collaborate with multimedia artists and musicians to create custom electronic instruments for recording and performances. MyFi Studio also performs live audiovisual sets, including at the Bass Museum, Gramps, and Naomi's Garden in Miami.

### What is ooze and what inspired you to create it?

**Cookie tree:** ooze is an audiovisual lava lamp. I love art that I want to spend time with. I want to hang out with ooze. Watch it grow and change over time. ooze doesn’t really fit into a clear category. It’s not just a collection of music, art, video art, but all of the above. It also just melts my mind. I hope people have fun playing ooze on different screens: on their phones or computers, projected onto a chunky couch. Maybe one day we’ll play ooze on the tv screens on an airplane or at the gas station.

![ooz2](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/7izp8eWfiRVGKCqlCXCCfi/b4e3248f2fc452e37b50af430be01650/ooz2.gif)
[Ooze #113](https://persistence.wtf/collection/0xf0f263FB646A5C97F65ba6Fa491F441A6feC5a8F?id=113)

**dr. slurp:** Initially I was inspired by caustics, the reflections of light off water. I tried making a program that recreates the light bands of caustics as circles aligned to a grid, where the colors represented whether it was a caustic or the background. Once this was programmed, I realized it looked and felt like watching a lava lamp. I also realized, the visualization with the circles is just a layer of abstraction that could be fed into another program, and interpreted in a new way. Similar to a modular synth, taking control voltages and using them to alter a sound / signal to then affect new sounds and signals.

Then, a theme in the project became layers of abstraction, and deliberately lifting the veil of abstraction, deciding which version of a representation to show. Initially it was all circles, but I built more layers on top of the circle ‘control data’ by ways of a boundary/group detection algorithm that I wrote. When you browse through the collection, you might see pieces that are only circles, some with no circles, and some with shapes and circles. You are seeing the different ways the idea of caustics or ooze is represented or abstracted.

I’m not trying to draw some big metaphor between ooze and computation in general. But, a motif in this work is abstraction and masking. Taking something, transforming it, making decisions on what versions of things to show or hide.

![ooz-concept](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/vYsvLL9y25iOwJjpdAfWs/ae46df5eca4c739107ba82c5e2463df8/ooz-concept.jpg)
Dr. Slurp’s notes from the process of making the caustic grouping algorithm for ooze.

### Why did you choose to make ooze fully on-chain?

**dr. slurp:** It's about making art specific to the medium it's propagated in. The medium is ethereum / the crypto art scene.

Most music NFTs (and even 'art' NFTs) only use the medium as a means to sell their music. The actual music or art, is recorded, encoded into an mp3 or wav file, and stored on a private server that might go down at any time. I support musicians / artists getting paid fairly for their work. Anyone who can get paid by selling NFTs, should. However, in terms of artistry, making work that pushes boundaries, and creating art that has fully soaked in the boons and limitations of the world it exists in, selling an mp3 as an NFT makes zero sense to me.

### Who or what are your biggest influences or sources of inspiration?

**Cookie tree:** Anicka Yi, Pipilotti Rist, Naama Tsabar, Ryan Trecartin, Elinor Carucci, Legacy Russell, Michelle Zauner, Jacolby Satterwhite, Thundercat, Angela Dimayuga, Precious Okoyomon.

**dr. slurp:** 0x113d Mathcastles + the ICA course, Jon Rafman, Molly Soda, Zelda, Duplass brothers, One Piece, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Herbie Hancock.

### How do you balance creativity with technical skill in your work?

**Cookie tree:** Working with analog glitch video gear has taught me a lot about this because I'm constantly learning new technical skills to make the work work. The most helpful thing for me is spending time AFK in nature, and making time to be creative in an unfiltered way with no deadlines. Deadlines do help with getting those technical skills sharpened though. I like trying new materials like clay or coding in p5.js as a way that requires me to make the time for the technical skills just as much as the creative.

![glitch](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4xiw1PO9ESzreSnKxbWnGl/1160d09be53dd80c14f8045c6a2403e6/glitch.png)
Glitch by [Cookie Tree](https://twitter.com/aimeedotnet)

**dr. slurp:** There was a time where creativity and 'technical skills' were partitioned into separated regions of myself. Music was a thing I did after my math/computer stuff. Now I get to do everything at the same time. The goal of the computation is to make something with a deliberate feeling or aesthetic. I was always spending tons of time on both my technical and creative sides. It's a relief that they are less partitioned than ever before.

### Where do you see on-chain artwork going in the future?

**dr. slurp:** I think there will be less of the whole 'trying to do XYZ on-chain', and more of trying to do something new that spurs out of the restrictions and specifications of having limited memory and resources in a decentralized multiplayer setting. A lot of current work is about figuring out how to technically do something that we all already relate to. I want to make and see more work that's more focused on what the on-chain materials are, and make something awesome from those 'rules'. Breaking the rules is nice too.

### Which piece of artwork do you not own that you want to collect?

**Cookie tree:** Anicka Yi, *In Love With The World,* 2021

**dr. slurp:** An [instrument sculpture](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5d2kj9bAWc) by Naama Tsabar

### What do you like to do when you're not busy with NFTs?

**Cookie tree:** Spending the day at the beach and swimming in the ocean, cooking, gardening, and reading memoirs.

**dr. slurp:** I like watching One Piece, making music, and watching youtube's about mundane shit. Cooking + eating. Making noise.

### Thanks for taking the time for this conversation, What is the best way for people to follow you both?

[Ooze mint page](https://persistence.wtf/collection/0xf0f263FB646A5C97F65ba6Fa491F441A6feC5a8F)

**Social Media**

[https://twitter.com/dr_slurp_](https://twitter.com/dr_slurp_)

[https://twitter.com/aimeedotnet](https://twitter.com/aimeedotnet)

[https://twitter.com/myfistudio](https://twitter.com/myfistudio)

[https://www.instagram.com/myfistudio/](https://www.instagram.com/myfistudio/)

**Discord link**

[https://discord.gg/mwkHfgzyB](https://discord.gg/mwkHfgzyB)

myfi-studio-interview

slurp

We interview Dr. Slurp and Cookie Tree of MyFi Studio.

Interview with Dr. Slurp and Cookie Tree

myfistudio

Chainleft is an integral contributor to the on-chain community who provides so much knowledge and value to the space. He just released a project, [Chaos Roads](https://opensea.io/collection/chaos-roads), that is pushing the boundaries in many ways (including a fully on-chain minting website, what?!). It is our very honor to interview him and learn more about his background.

### Hey Chainleft! Can you give a brief introduction of yourself?

Hi, I’m [Chainleft](https://twitter.com/ChainLeftist). I’m a West Asian immigrant. I finally settled in Central Europe after living in six different countries and started a family here. In the crypto space, I’m mostly focused on art and historical NFTs. I’m also openly leftist, I aim to contribute to bridging the gaps between leftist ideals and the trustless automation of the smart contract systems.

### Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you got into art and coding?

My background is in data science; I’ve previously focused on machine learning in the fintech space, but recently I’m more on the e-commerce side. Having coded numerous data visualizations in the past, creative programming was a smooth transition. I previously did street art and photography as a hobby but never professionally. Today I’d probably call myself a blockchain native artist focusing on glitch art, on-chain art and conceptual art.

I like going beyond using blockchain only as a medium for transacting art and use it as the canvas itself. In this moment of art history, blockchain allows a vast number of new concepts to be realized. Tokenization, programmability, and crypto-social relationships open up unique possibilities where we can create art that is uniquely possible only with blockchain. These possibilities endlessly fascinate me.

### How did you find your way into Web3?

I’ve heard about Bitcoin long before, but I only got actually interested in blockchains when I heard about smart contracts. The trustless use cases smart contracts unlock fit my personality and my political alignment much better. At first it was simply thinking about what DAOs can do. Then it was researching altcoins and trying to understand their use cases. Most of these turned out to be scams, but I truly believe those use cases will be achieved some day by genuine builders.

### Do you remember the first time you heard about NFTs?

I’ve heard about NFTs back in 2017 during CryptoKitties mint, but I truly “got” NFTs only in 2021. I believe it was either int.art or Art Blocks that really made me feel like “OK this is the same feeling I have when I hang an artwork on my wall in real life. It’s the same feeling, projected in the digital realm."

### What sparked your interest in historical NFTs?

It was probably immediately after getting into NFTs. In the peak mania of 2021, there were so many mints happening per day that it was very clear it couldn’t have been sustainable. I have tweets from September 2021 calling 99.9% of pfp projects scams. There was a need to find scarcity within NFTs, and historical NFTs with immutable timestamps were the inevitable answer.

### Could you briefly explain the concept behind your project Chaos Roads?

![chaosroads](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/5FVsSiFQ47gMT1Gj8Wd1m4/560783d1351521c4947d759b710db187/chaosroads.png)

Chaos Roads is a very rich collection in its concept explorations. My ultimate goal before I even thought about the collection has been to showcase that the blockchain medium we have here is a canvas and we can use it to conceptualize new art forms. This is why I built three art pieces into each token: A visual painting, a musical piece and a poem. All of these artforms would be generated, and then distorted (both literally and conceptually) by the Ethereum Virtual Machine itself, fully within the chain. This is called “runtime art” where the “always-on” Ethereum computer is used to create an always-living art that keeps changing dynamically.

So what concepts could be explored using this runtime medium? EVM gives us an always-on computer, but it also gives us control. So the idea behind Chaos Roads is to explore this relationship between disorder and order. The smart contract is set up to ensure that the pieces distort visually, musically and literally; but it also gives collectors a chance to “control” that chaos.

### Chaos Roads was also the first time an NFT mint site was fully onchain. How did this come to be?

![on-chain-site](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4zcwUbbKYJovv1MgTDZ0qo/3bdc408904fd2800e28267223b3eca3a/on-chain-site.png)
*Fully onchain mint site*

There are a few discord servers where the next evolution of onchain methods is being discussed. One of them is of course our Pushers server, but at a larger scale, I would consider Mathcastles (a pioneering art studio that released Terraforms) and Linagee Name Registrar (the oldest NFT smart contract on Ethereum) servers to be places to be for anyone interested in the technicals of this topic. My journey in this rabbit hole started in these two servers.

Mason Keresty, the developer who rediscovered the LNR contract, is a friend. We have chatted a lot before and he mentioned the etherweb protocol they were building in LNR. The protocol at that point was designed to use calldata to store the sites onchain at that point. We talked about the more recent onchain standards and how fully onchain storage at the state level would be a more permanent solution.

In the meantime, other developers built interesting experiments on Arbitrum or on Goerli, and a read-only onchain site was published on the mainnet.

So we decided to do Chaos Roads mint fully onchain. The most challenging part was the allowlist access. This requires access to merkle tree proofs which are normally stored on the website frontend. They’re actually useless after the mint.

0xDerpNation coded a mini version of ethers.js package (an incredibly difficult task) and Mason stored the merkle tree proofs within calldata (this was OK since allowlists are temporary requirements anyway). I added the merkle tree proof transaction link within my mint contract so that allowlist verification can happen fully onchain. Mason then built the minimized website and stored it in ethFS that Frolic had built (another Mathcastles discord alumni). We accessed it through .og protocol and here we are!

We have done dozens of tests and were testing until the very last minute :)

![discord](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/1LMKPDF5Iinul8HpDFhjbl/722b8af997b9bdabcf20ecab37c981a6/discord.png)
*The eureka moment*

### When creating art what are your biggest influences or sources of inspiration?

For me, art is more than a beautiful aesthetic. I’m deeply interested in medium-native art, where the new medium can cause new concepts to arise. And that’s not just limited to NFTs.

When I was living in London, I was fascinated by street art. Not just the aesthetics of it, but also the culture of it. Using a medium outside its original purpose, playing with the concept of permanent buildings and transitory state of public paintings, and of course the rebellion against the constantly surveilling CCTV cameras. To me, this new art style allowed new thoughts and emotions to be expressed. I remember searching for every new Otto Schade, Cranio, Banksy piece in the streets.

When I look at NFT space, artists that use the medium to communicate new thoughts and emotions inspire me the most. I’ll definitely forget some but some are: Rhea Myers, Mitchell Chan, Sterling Crispin, Simon de la Rouviere, Nili Werner, thedude, Crash Blossom, 0x113, remnynt... Aesthetically I’m a big fan of glitch art. Obviously XCOPY, but also JAK, Manic, Hafftka. Too many to count to be honest!

### Why did you choose to make your art fully on-chain?

I recently wrote [an article about this](https://mirror.xyz/chainleft.eth/CzPqeZliHEZ2WFcyDiMJtWuwQTJDKZUNEw5YCJ-AweE)! For me, beyond the obvious practical persistence advantages of onchain storage, fully onchain art is also conceptually very interesting. I listed four reasons in my article:

A) In the transitory world of NFTs, knowing something will be permanent is very interesting. It’s almost a critique towards ever-changing narratives.

![Genesisleft](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/6ouFomGWkJs3GreXmEdeZY/3a8318772981be2932272a4f12df22b6/Genesisleft.gif)
*Genesisleft*

B) Painting the medium that’s meant for financial transactions is a big F* YOU to the finance maximalists. We’ve seen this recently with the lash out against ordinals from Bitcoin maxis. This is enough reason for me to mint stuff onchain :)

C) When a medium comes with new concepts but also introduces restrictions, people start innovating. The amount of cost optimization I’ve learned over the last 1.5 years is an artistic journey in itself, and I love this process.

D) Specifically for smart contracts, onchain art also creates very interesting mechanics like permanent dynamism, programmability or social coordination.

### What advice would you give to someone who is interested in creating fully on-chain art?

Onchain doesn’t have to be expensive as people say! I started with 1/1s and learned how to optimize SVGs. Artists and developers are finding new ways to optimize even further and things are getting cheaper per gwei!

![early-chaos-roads](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/5jLeMmJpAaPSrSl0XtQumV/90b7ff485740710ea69e7609140d80cf/early-chaos-roads.png)
*An early sketch of Chaos Roads*

I’m now building gen-art where thousands of pieces can be created by storing only 25-30 kb of smart contracts, with minimal mint price. This is by far the most innovative niche within the NFT space. Onchain art is the frontier of not just NFT art, but art in general in 2023.

### Where do you see on-chain NFTs going in the future?

Storing art onchain is fun, but I think we can go beyond that. I think a lot more “onchain mechanics” exploration will happen. I’m hoping to see more interoperable experiments, and more social coordination art onchain.

### Which piece of artwork do you not own that you want to collect?

I think an onchain collection is never full without an [Autoglyph](https://www.fullyonchain.art/collections/autoglyphs) :) Almost impossible to come by, but one can hope!

### What can we find Chainleft doing when he’s not busy with NFTs?

Either working at my day job, or playing with my kids.

### Thanks for taking the time for this conversation, what is the best way for people to follow you and your work?

You can find me in our discord server [Pushers](https://discord.com/invite/m2rMTHpw3j), in Bluesky as chainleft.bsky.social and on Twitter as [@chainleftist](https://twitter.com/chainleftist).


chainleft-interview

thumb

We interview Chainleft and learn about his background and latest project Chaos Roads.

An Interview with Chainleft

chainleftistbanner

Meet [Tib](https://twitter.com/ShaikTibout), a talented creative coder and artist who is pushing the boundaries of digital art with his innovative approach to generative art. Tib is the founder of [256Art](https://256art.com/), a generative art platform that showcases on-chain art and the stories behind the artists. He has a drop on ArtBlocks out called [(Dis)connected](https://www.artblocks.io/collections/presents/projects/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/431). Today, we have a chat with him. 

### Can you give a brief introduction of yourself?

Sure thing, my name is Tibout, but most people in the space know me as simply Tib. I'm a generative artist with works released on multiple platforms (ArtBlocks, FxHash and of course [256ART](https://256art.com/) of which I am the founder). I'm also always looking to expand my personal generative art collections, often times focusing on lesser known but in my opinion very talented artists.

### Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you got into art and coding?

Absolutely! I really love this question as for a long time both art and coding have been passions of mine, but for a long time I somehow never thought of combining the two until I found out about generative art that is. Artwise, I was mostly focused on music and prose. I used to play the drums and the piano and for pretty much as long as I can remember I have always been writing prose. Throughout my life I have often times performed with my prose as well in Belgium and have some of my poetry published. My mum is a fine arts restorer and she used to work at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. I think my exposure to the visual arts has come pretty much entirely through her and my grandmother, but at the time I never actively pursued visual arts myself. As for how I got into coding, thats an entirely different story. In highschool I had a small internet store for an online card game, but I wasn't the developer behind it. After highschool I went traveling and ended up living in Costa Rica for a while. It was in my tiny, somewhat shoddy, but lovely apartment I decided I wanted to learn how to code. My routine in Costa Rica would look something like: travel around the country for a week, learn how to code for a week. I still look back at that time incredibly fondly. Eventually I went on to do two years of university before dropping out to start another company. Over time both art and coding became two important pilars in my life, but I had somehow never thought to combine them. That all changed when I stumbled upon a small project in the NFT space called [Open Palette](https://www.openpalette.io/), this was also my first time directly engaging with generative art. The project had a simple core idea: you have on-chain color palettes and you can mint generative art using your palette. I instantly fell in love with the idea and decided to explore further. I've always been a person when I absolutely love an idea I go waaaaay down the rabbit hole and it will pretty much take over my life. Which is exactly what happened and I've loved and worked on generative art ever since pretty much, both from the artist as the platform side.

![ode-to-black-and-white](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/774PUUFR9GhTJXLoTtXecW/8efe197a9fde6c616cde7a2c2d8a2ced/ode-to-black-and-white.png)

### How did you find your way into Web3 and creating art?

Hah, I guess I already answered this somewhat in the previous question. But to go to the start of my web3 journey we have to look at the Hive blockchain (Steem back then). In short, it's a chain where part of the inflation of the currency goes to authors of, mainly, written content. It must've been around 2016 and I was very heavily focusing on my writing at the time, so a place where I could get rewarded for that seemed incredible. What I didn't expect is how the community at Hive took me in and over the years became a bit of a slightly dysfunctional family, haha! Over the years I created a few dapps for that community and while I'm less active there now, I still often check in. If we're talking more specifically about the NFT scene, from around end 2020 it was on my radar, but I hadn't taken the time to really dive into it. From mid 2021 that changed as I found myself with more spare time after I had to stop work on my previous venture, a social media app for travelers, due to Covid. It was an especially low point for me as I had been working on the project for three years. My first generative art project was in essence in big part, me finding my groove again.

### Do you remember the first time you heard about NFT Art?

Hmmm, I'm not sure what the first time was I heard about NFT Art, but the one that got me very intrigued is the Open Palette project I mentioned above.

### Who or what are your biggest influences or sources of inspiration?

Oh god, there's way too many to name that's for sure. In my own works for a long time I was struggling with color palettes and I think that's where you can see most of the external influences of my work. I did a lot of research into the palettes from works I thoroughly enjoy and more specifically into why those colors work so well and what emotions they invoke etc. You'll very clearly see color palettes inspired by both digital and non-digital artists like Edward Hopper, Van Gogh, Rothko, Grant Yun and XCopy. 

### Why did you choose to make your art projects fully on-chain?

For me the preservation of my art in a decentralized way is incredibly important. Both when I create and when I collect art. Simply put, the best way to preserve generative art is by having it entirely on-chain. At times it feels like a fight as it seems a lot of people currently don't value or understand the preservation aspect as much. I think it requires a pretty long time horizon, at least a few years, in order to fully appreciate how important preservation will be for digital art.

![circles-in-a-square-world](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/19Tmjsghb4jjyrBEhchzLR/63acb512e4a6684977e0cab86e9a00e7/circles-in-a-square-world.png)

### What inspired you to create 256Art?

In short, when I was just experimenting and playing around with what generative art is and what is possible with it, I found, fairly unexpectedly at the time as it was just me playing around / experimenting, some success with my work. At the time it was prohibitevely difficult and expensive for artists to release their generative art on Ethereum and only the top artists had the opportunity of being selected by the very few platforms that were around at the time. I felt there was a need to provide a place for upcoming, clearly very talented generative artists, where they could release their work AND tell their story without having to worry about the difficulties and cost that come with releasing on-chain generative art on Ethereum. With 256ART we cover all the costs for the artist and put a lot of focus on the story behind the artist and their work, which I at times find a bit lacking in the generative art world. We also put a lot of focus on technical improvements, on the smartcontract side we were the first platform to store the art in the contracts bytecode, the first to lower the minting gas by 4x and the first to offer a getArtFromChain function (which allows a collector to directly get their art from chain). Right now we're working on taking all of this a few notches up in our transition towards a fully open platform where any artist can release their work fully in-chain at a cost another 2 - 4 times cheaper than is currently done.

![256art](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3fFC6OXKE4bId1ZlZMv9YD/0639a99b27622bc963c7adee136622a9/256art.jpg)

### Which tools do you use to create your art?

I personally prefer to work in vanilla JavaScript without any external dependencies. As for tools, I guess my laptop with my preferred code-editor VSCode. And coffee, does that count as a tool, haha?

### Where do you see on-chain art going in the future?

I love this question. I think on-chain, and especially in-chain, art will become more and more important. As time passes I think two things will start to happen: some art will be lost forever as it was stored off-chain AND storing on-chain on the Ethereum mainnet will become more expensive as gas and the price of ETH increase. I do believe eventually we'll see a transition to a layer 2 solution for on-chain art, where art on the mainnet will be kind of wow-ed over. With that said, there are of course a lot of factors that could mean it plays out another way and this is a prediction that will like take a decade or more to play out.

### Which piece of artwork do you not own that you want to collect?

Hah, there's A LOT of those. Two artists that I don't own any work of at the moment, but would really love to collect some work from at some point are [Harvey Rayner](https://pattern.co/) and [Emily Xie](https://xie-emily.com/).

### What can we find Tib doing when he’s not busy creating Art?

Usually working on 256ART to be honest, haha! But I do really enjoy traveling and going on multi-day treks. 

### Thanks for taking the time for this conversation. What is the best way for people to follow you and your work?

I think the best place is likely my Twitter: 
[@shaiktibout](https://twitter.com/ShaikTibout)
. The 256ART Twitter and Discord are also good places: 
[Mint256Art Twitter](https://twitter.com/Mint256Art)
 and [256Art Discord](https://discord.com/invite/avPZxhPzYr).

tib-interview

We get to know Tib and learn about his experiences as a generative artist.

An Interview with Tib

tibimage

Mad Jack has proven himself to be a passionate contributor to the on-chain community. He is deeply committed to his vision for[ Mad Masks](https://www.fullyonchain.art/collections/mad-masks) and has worked tirelessly to bring it to life. His talent and creativity are evident in the quality of the artwork he produces, and his ability to manage all aspects of the project on his own is a testament to his skill as a solo founder. Mad Jack's passion for art and blockchain technology is evident in Mad Masks, and it's clear that he has a bright future ahead of him in this exciting and rapidly-evolving field of NFTs. Join us for a small conversation. 

![mm-04](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3KYWYXCrDFCP7fWgI4MQsL/4b958abe4d39c4384a88de29dc3221be/mm-04.jpeg)

### Can you give a brief introduction of yourself?

I'm Mad Jack, a creator from Ontario, Canada.

I'm most known for creating [Mad Masks](https://madmasks.io/), an on-chain collection of 1024 pixel art masks with 12 ultra-rare mega masks. There are 12 base mask designs with 4 colour variations of each, making 48 different masks with various combinations of traits.

### Please tell us about your background and how you got into art and coding.

I've always been a computer nerd. Starting back when CD Roms were a revolutionary technology and dial-up internet was the only thing available. 

My Dad worked in IT, so I always had access to a computer. Regarding art, I was highly encouraged to create thanks to my mother, who continually crafts something and is a talented painter.

I started as an illustrator during school and shifted to web/graphic design. Since then, I have been working as a co-founder of an agency for about 15 years and counting. My focus is working with clients to reimagine their business and improve their physical and digital presence. 

Front-end web development is part of my skillset, so I've always dabbled with art and code. My expertise shines through in transforming a brand for digital.

I became interested in blockchain because of the intersection of art/development and the community built around it.

### Do you remember the first time you heard about NFTs?

I heard about NFTs in the news when they took off. Headlines were about how much money people were making and the craze capturing hope and promise. Mainly the big names like BAYC and Punks. I missed the initial run.

I started purchasing mostly ETH around 2017 but had not fully explored NFTs until January 2022. I was on holiday and revisited Twitter, discovering a rabbit hole of unique and fun content. At that time, we were at the top of a bull run, so the energy differed from the bear market. If I recall correctly it was Jack Butcher that got me onto NFTs since I was following him before through Visualize Value. 

My first purchase was Larva Lads, a wordplay on legendary Larva Labs, a clever punk remix. It's a unique community that made me appreciate meme culture's power. It's also where I connected with so many inspiring people. 

Twitter is where a lot of the content for NFTs lives. It's a gateway for discovering everything from influencers to collections to enthusiasts posting about this or that and spaces. You can really learn a lot if you know where to look. And there are so many helpful people here generous with their time. 

Navigating the space is an experience from your first crypto wallet to joining Discord and having fun in the metaverse. And simply having engaging or entertaining conversations.

![mm-01](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4jpR4CY7U5kyjYYhkmbY1B/ab0216a76745e4d77194fea3066a1dd6/mm-01.jpeg)

### What inspired you to create Mad Masks?

Masks have always fascinated me. I've drawn, painted and even collected a few pieces over the years. 

Whether for utility, ceremony or simply as an art piece, they have always been interesting regarding the variety of use cases. Many of my childhood heroes, like Batman or Spawn, wore them too.

Part of it was creating something that was a passion of mine. The other part was frustration with how the space sometimes makes you feel. For anyone who has been here for more than a year, you have experienced the good and the bad and you see the same things repeatedly happen, which can be maddening. 

Specifically, in the context of NFTs, I wanted to create an end-to-end collection to explore generative art and see what I could develop with my take on adding something familiar yet refreshing.

Often in collections, you'd see masks as an accessory, so I wanted to make an entire collection dedicated to masks with enough variation and interest within the masks themselves to feel complete as a set.

### For Mad Masks, who or what were your biggest influences or sources of inspiration?

I've been a fan of pixel art since my childhood with playing games on Nintendo and GameBoy. My all-time favourites were classics like Mario, Mortal Kombat and Pokémon, to name a few!

The masks themselves are inspired from around the world. I wanted to represent as many cultures and continents as possible, from Native, Mexican, African and Asian-inspired reference points.

In NFTs, there were several collections I was inspired by, especially collections like the legendary Gremplin's Cryptoadz, Nouns and The Boneys, which is a smaller collection and more focused on the art and fun, a vibe I align with significantly.

### Which tools did you use to create Mad Masks?

I'm old school when it comes to making things. I created the original art in Adobe Illustrator and migrated it to Figma to finish.

One of the challenges with being an independent creator is the lack of a team and resources to lean on. Within these confines, you must rely on platforms to launch your collection successfully. 

When I first started, I wasn't sure if I would use IPFS or on-chain, but I was lucky to have discovered Indelible Labs, which made launching the collection possible. They're dedicated to helping creators launch collections fully on-chain. Configuring the mega masks was a little finicky but we made it happen.

There are so many tools you can use now where you don't need to reinvent the wheel when before, you needed to often create a custom solidity contract. I'm a big no-code advocate and value the developers that create platforms to empower creators to help put work out there that might not otherwise see the light of day. 

It's essential to try different things and have other skills, but you should also focus on your strengths and be realistic with where you spend your time and effort.

### What is something most people don't know about Mad Masks?

The reality of how long it can take to make something.

I created everything from scratch and as an independent operator doing this solo, it's beautiful and challenging to create something on your timeline and with a specific vision.

I toyed with the idea and developed it in my spare time for many months before officially launching the mint on Nov 5th as a nod to Guy Fawkes. A good product takes time to craft, especially when building a narrative, art, traits, website, content, promotion, and so on.

The backstory was essential to set the tone and help shape a storyline to accompany the collection from a lore point of view that is somewhat undervalued in the space. I went as far as creating a language that helps realize the parallel universe.

Mad Masks launched without promises outside of the art, yet I've since added a token-gated member area with more content coming soon. There might be other things coming this year. And we'll see. It's essential to be honest and upfront, where most collections seem to overpromise and underdeliver time after time.

The art is cc0 which inspires collaboration with the community and other creators, an aspect I want to explore even more.

Your Mad Mask can be rendered off-chain for instances like where you want to use it on Twitter. Compatibility with on-chain can be hit or miss from platform to platform.

If you look closely at the collection, you could find a twin or at least a look alike. 

There are also hidden traits in the collection!

![mm-05](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/73i4XtBEuEMrW0DZp2UNX5/b37b61b517a796500efc38010c23df27/mm-05.jpeg)

### Why did you choose to make Mad Masks fully on-chain?

I appreciate having the art stored as code, which feels somewhat elegant and semi-permanent, compared to owning a token pointing to a URL somewhere else, which feels incomplete and problematic long-term.

Not having to worry about IPFS and web hosting with the storage of assets seemed like a no-brainer to me. The cost of on-chain is less economical, but because the collection was smaller, it was not an exorbitant fee to make it happen. If your artwork is optimized, such as pixel art, it aligns perfectly with on-chain as a solution which should be a first choice if you can make it work.

The enthusiasm for on-chain is small but present, and various communities I collaborate with appreciate prioritizing this aspect of NFTs.

### Where do you see on-chain artwork going in the future?

I have several associates that are creating outstanding artwork on-chain. 

Watching the direction of 1/1 artists I admire deeply, like [ripcache](https://twitter.com/ripcache) and [SmokeStacks](https://twitter.com/smokestacks), who are exploring and pushing the boundaries of what you can do with on-chain art. Especially when creating animation and interactive experiences, the possibilities for on-chain are endless. 

There is something special about creating on-chain work, including PFPs and art itself, which is a massive draw for me.

### Which piece of artwork do you not own that you want to collect?

I have a never-ending list. 

I went down the PFP rabbit hole, and recently my attention has turned toward generative and 1/1 artists.

Art Blocks is always putting out fantastic curated series of works. Grails such as Chromie Squiggles, XCOPY and others are high on my list as desired, yet slightly out of reach at this point for me. Owning a 1/1 ripcache would be epic! 

As a collector, there are emerging artists you can support with editions and other avenues to find something you can afford.

PFPs are something I come back to and they are iconic pieces. I think that will always stay the same. One day it would be epic to have a CryptoPunk. Memes play such a huge role, which is why I look up to artists like Batz who is doing an amazing job synthesizing the culture.

My goal is to help bridge the gap between PFPs and art.

### What do you like to do when you're not busy with NFTs?

I spend a good part of my time in client services at work and outside of that, I have a family that supports what I do which is a blessing.

My daughter recently turned 1.5 and I'm delighted to see her growth as she discovers the world, which is a true joy.

Recently I've been rediscovering my passion for illustration which has led me down a path of drawing and creating digital art again, which is something different style-wise than you'd expect since I'm mostly known at this point in the space for pixel art. But it's full circle for me going back to my roots.

You might see some 1/1 and edition work as I explore other aspects of creating. It likely will not be on-chain due to the nature of the art. But you never know.

I'm excited about this space long term. We're still in an early cycle, and I genuinely believe we're part of a movement that will transform and continue to evolve.

### Thanks for taking the time for this conversation. What is the best way for people to follow you and your work?

Appreciate you having me. Truly an honour to connect with on-chain enthusiasts!

Check out the [Mad Mask website](https://madmasks.io) and follow us on Twitter [@MadMasksNFT](https://twitter.com/MadMasksNFT) for the latest things going on. And make sure to follow me on Twitter: [@jacksheps](https://twitter.com/jacksheps)

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We sit down and have a chat with the founder of Mad Masks. 

An Interview with Mad Jack

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As the web3 industry continues to develop we’ve seen fully on-chain NFTs continue to innovate and mature. From world-building PFPs to general purpose 3d engines we’ve seen no shortage of great projects. These are our top 10 fully on-chain NFT projects of 2022.

### 10. Shapes2048

![67](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/xjXbZDQ6rRZ9pJKF8oPOu/b7ad2da762d1e754ba29909646724f90/67.png)

Shapes2048 by [@makio135](https://twitter.com/MAKIO135) and [@clemsos](https://twitter.com/clemsos) is a generative art project that allows owners to regenerate artwork based on 4 different styles. You can create as many as you want until you find the seed that you like the most. Final forms locked in January 31st, 2023.

### 9. Infinite Scribble

![603](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4syiiIzydSqSKim2NzanQF/d2077f9e31d355be91403aa5ff5682dc/603.png)

Created by [@minimizer_art](https://twitter.com/minimizer_art), [@infinitscribble](https://twitter.com/InfinitScribble) is a fun and colorful art project that introduces some interesting mechanics. It is an open edition and free-to-mint project which makes it inclusive and an easy way to introduce generative on-chain art to anyone!

### 8. The Universe Machine

![269](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/2OM5tpB6I0BOS24btWqnRV/ad6ab1b91fa43dfb4ae6defb4c3bb7eb/269.png)

A collection composed of bezier paths, shapes and textures. It’s called “The Universe Machine” as it generates mini windows into fantastic galaxies. Created by [@joshuadavis](https://twitter.com/JoshuaDavis) and [@kohiart](https://twitter.com/kohiart), the algorithm was converted from p5js into 31 Solidity contracts.

### 7. Posers

![16](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3IrSYlis5oacIrzpQAx2Qh/ceb7a2a05e3e26d5c673caed3d9d2fff/16.png)

5,000 fancy dudes living on the blockchain. [@PoSers_NFT](https://twitter.com/PoSers_NFT) are a cool, diverse and pixelated PFP collection that claim to be the first collection on Proof-of-Stake.

### 6. Tickle Beach

![6036](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/78Com0l2M9QHUZFmW195qb/8a490021d8d4caec76c97d12d3c45d03/6036.png)

On-chain, 3d and interactive? What’s not to love about that! [@ticklebeach](https://twitter.com/TickleBeach) was created by [@pm](https://twitter.com/pm) to push the boundaries of NFTs by taking advantage of GPUs and WebGL to render these fun characters while also storing all 3d models fully on-chain!

### 5. The Kiss Precise

![110](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/3gaPhnBzGKV4B1ci6ki4mP/117b3ca35972b072c55d7c7a1fc42b55/110.png)

A long-form fractal gen art project based on Apollonian Gasket. The Divergence team ([@divergencearran](https://twitter.com/divergencearran), [@divergenceharri](https://twitter.com/divergenceharri)) are no strangers to pushing boundaries of on-chain art in Solidity. Along with [@etheseus_art](https://twitter.com/etheseus_art) they have created an elegant collection.

### 4. network mythology & closed circuit

![blur](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/5aOX9KGR0Tavrd3laAwS4d/f0379a174a2fc71a1e2a1fccb3bb83f0/blur.png)

[@ripcache](https://twitter.com/ripcache) is putting out the some of the very best on-chain 1/1s we've seen this year. We are putting both of this years collections in the #4 spot. ripcache’s artwork centers around CCTVs and aims to bring awareness to video surveillance.

### 3. Shackled Genesis

![136](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/MWFrHTK5Af5cDME8GZN07/77212442adc5c16a5913f67b35747ed5/136.png)

Shackled Genesis is the first 3d gen art project fully rendered on-chain. [@SpectraArt_NFT](https://twitter.com/SpectraArt_NFT) are tech boundary pushers whether it be using supercomputers to generate art based on star data, or in this case, leveraging the Ethereum network to render 3d models.

### 2. Moonbirds 🦉

![1810](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4JuV4NJYASQS4y4BSInN5M/34b58e926c6611b391e752d4a9652bf2/1810.png)

When [@moonbirds](https://twitter.com/moonbirds) was first incepted the Proof team always had the goal of having them fully "in-chain". Not only were they able to do that but they introduced tools for rendering bitmap artwork fully on chain called Solidify, a huge contribution to the ecosystem.

### 1. CyberBrokers

![8287](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/6DD5qrCSMd8yy8g3cHqPcz/e77e6b534182432da154e1569d392260/8287.png)

CyberBrokers have taken NFTs to the next level with beautiful art, world-building and storytelling. Each CB has identity and backstory. [@josiebellini](https://twitter.com/josiebellini) and team are building a captivating universe and have done an amazing job crafting one of the best NFTs of 2022.


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Our favorite projects of the year.

Top 10 Fully On-Chain NFT Projects of 2022

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You may have heard the terms “on-chain”, “fully on-chain”, or even “in-chain” NFTs. Now, what exactly do those terms mean? The definition can be very nuanced but the quick answer is, NFT assets and metadata that are stored, and rendered entirely on a blockchain. 

For an NFT to be fully on-chain, it is required for every component — from the mint to the delivery of the final asset to be produced entirely on the blockchain. 

> Fully on-chain NFTs are NFTs where their assets and metadata are stored and rendered entirely on a blockchain. 

### What makes Fully On-Chain NFTs important?

There are a handful of significant reasons that make fully on-chain NFTs not only important but very powerful. 

### Assets on-Chain
No external dependencies! Most of the common NFTs right now simply have pointers to metadata and artwork that is either hosted on IPFS, cloud servers, or worse, privately hosted servers. While ownership of these NFTs is on chain and verifiable, the artwork and metadata is not.

For example, calling the `tokenURI` function on [Bored Ape Yacht Club](https://boredapeyachtclub.com/)’s contract returns a pointer to an off-chain resource, in this case, IPFS.

![uri offchain](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/YMonaD0OrzNsQUlvHCnkG/bcdde99278f8cade01ea2622a1ba96da/uri_offchain.png)

Calling the `tokenURI` function on an on-chain NFT will result in the full data being returned.

![uri onchain](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/66E6xgjEtjTtGtLlPuD8hx/779ec128423419066cb376ab64c3f798/uri_onchain.png)

The next time you decide to spend a significant amount of money on an NFT remember the risk you are taking on the possibility that the assets could one day be lost.

> You’re not buying the art, you’re buying a receipt of the art that’s actually kept in a stranger’s house in a tornado warning zone.

— [Tickle Beach](https://paulmars.notion.site/paulmars/Tickle-Beach-3650b51b9afd47879bbabbc7ba47c41f)

A fully on-chain NFT project like [Nouns](https://nouns.wtf/) compresses and stores all vector assets into the contract and renders on-demand when calling the `tokenURI` function. Those assets and artwork will be available as long as the blockchain continues to produce blocks.

![nouns](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/RLqDtMwe4EkG9rU8P0KoL/46500b9be2aca2d6526db4c57ecbe015/nouns.png)

There are projects like [Artblocks](https://www.artblocks.io/) that, while do store and provide the code necessary to produce the artwork, have external dependencies to do the rendering off-chain. So “on-chain” may be a correct definition but it is not “fully” on-chain.

Conversely, [Autoglyphs](https://www.larvalabs.com/autoglyphs) stores, renders and produces fully deterministic generative artwork entirely through it’s Solidity smart contract. 

![autoglyphs](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/1lTKHIUElZ6fr245Ck0bQt/614d369a23c9b8af0fed60f81f1a684c/autoglyphs.png)

### Immutable and Everlasting
Having assets stored on-chain means that they will continue to live on as long as the blockchain does! 

There is one big caveat to this:  **Contracts must have a way to lock on-chain assets forever.** It is one thing to have assets within the contract but if the owner is able to change and manipulate them then are they really everlasting? This is a decision that must be made for the project as maybe the creator and collectors do want the artwork to change.  

> Most importantly, there is no mechanism by which NFTs from fully on-chain collections can be unintentionally revoked or manipulated. In that sense, on-chain art is indelible.

— [Spectra.art](https://shackled.spectra.art/#/genesis)

Another benefit to immutable NFTs is, in the off chance a contract gets compromised and falls into the hands of malicious actors, the artwork will remain intact and safe.

The owner of the project [Posers](https://posers.app/) even went as far as renouncing ownership of the contract to prevent any further manipulation!

> **We renounced ownership** after checking the collection for bugs. This is a very important point for many true holders! This is the basis of pure web3, decentralization, and independence, so we and our holders are forever in history!

— [Posers](https://medium.com/@poserscollection/posers-dfc4e8db50f2)

### Composability
One of the more powerful and under-utilized aspects of fully on-chain NFTs is the ability to read and implement features from one token to another, not only within the same contract but across different contracts. Having metadata and artwork data available on the blockchain means that it can be read by other smart contracts. 

A great example of this is [Blitmaps](https://www.blitmap.com/). The project started with 100 unique original artworks that were then composed together to create 1,600 entirely new artworks. This is possible because the artwork data and attribute data is available fully on-chain. 

![blitmap-change](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/4Ep2cEWBjXGj2BphxgPnXr/43869f35aaf6f4ce335c030675a04244/blitmap-change.png)

![blitmaps](//images.ctfassets.net/0ty17mikmgai/qS6Xfo8hOjNEdEL8ufzF4/01ff4e9bcaa2267cf3981d9113d462fe/blitmaps.png)

Pair this concept of composability with CC0 licensing and you can have fully interoperable assets and intellectual property. This is a true display of the power of on-chain NFTs and web3!

### Are there drawbacks to fully on-chain NFTs?

The decision to make a project fully on-chain should be strongly evaluated beforehand as there are hurdles and limitations involved. 

Firstly, it can be very expensive to store art on-chain. Storing large amounts of asset data into a blockchain like Ethereum is highly gas intense. Keeping the amount of detail to a minimum helps reduce the cost to store. 

Rich media formats like jpegs, videos, gifs, and audio are simply too much data and extremely expensive to store onto most blockchains. For example, storing a 2MB image file would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. For this reason, bytes are precious. There is an art form to keeping data sizes small while producing beautiful artwork.

The rendering of artwork can also be a resource-intensive action which is why we see some projects opt to store assets on-chain but serve artwork off-chain. [Cyberbrokers](https://cyberbrokers.io/) has taken this approach by providing off-chain jpegs while still allowing for on-chain SVG requests. Projects like [Strange Attractors](https://strangeattractors.art/) and [Shackled Genesis](https://shackled.spectra.art/) render on request rather than serving the final artwork meaning the resource-heavy operation is on request. With this approach, the only negative of expensive on-chain rendering is that you need access to a node that is willing to run larger read-only calls to view the artwork.

The other big challenge is that the amount of computations a creator can run in a rendering job is limited, which is why so much on-chain art is either vector graphics or low-resolution pixel art. But, this is also where lots of the innovation comes in, because developers need to find smart ways to optimize their code and produce complex art from a system that was designed to process financial transactions!

### Summary

As time passes it’s becoming more and more clear of the importance of fully on-chain NFTs. While there are hurdles to achieving fully on-chain NFTs, the immutability nature inspires confidence in true ownership and composability unlocks new ways of interacting with assets. 

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