Forwarded Original Title: "Pixels, Grids, Curses, and the Out-of-Print Narrative of Bitcoin NFTs"
Pixel NFTs
The leading Bitcoin NFT projects, with their avatars made up of small squares, seem to be saying: Whatever becomes classic will last forever.
Among the top 10 NFTs on the recently surging BTC NFT market leaderboard, pixel-style NFTs account for five or six spots, easily taking up half the list.
Data from the ordinals.market exchange
In June 2017, Larva Labs launched the pixel-style NFT project CryptoPunks. CryptoPunks can be considered the originator of NFTs. The collection consists of 10,000 NFTs, each representing a different punk-style pixel avatar. CryptoPunks #3100 and #7804 were both sold for 4,200 ETH on March 11, 2022. Based on the ETH price at the time, each sale was worth approximately $75.66 million. CryptoPunk #5822 was sold in February for a then-record price of 8,000 ETH.
When users purchase pixel-style NFTs, what are they actually buying? Is it their recognition of and fascination with the value of the pixel style in NFTs? Is it a high level of recognition for the artistic nature of the NFT market?
The Great Era Was Called the Pixel Era
The pixel era I am referring to is the first generation of video games that emerged in the 1980s—in professional terms, 8-bit and 16-bit games. They had no 3D graphics or true-color displays, only rough images with 64 or 256 colors. Yet their emergence was groundbreaking and pioneering. Pac-Man, Super Mario, and Contra are representative pixel-style games.
The memories of the pixel era are beautiful, but also rough. There were no smooth skin textures or gradient colors. Yet these games were indeed part of our generation's lives and memories. Although they were not perfect, they contained a simpler attitude toward life and principles for conducting oneself.
In that pixel era and world, there were no multiple clues or multiple endings. All we had was a leap made with determination and moving forward without looking back...
This nostalgia is spreading around the world. More and more people long for a sense of collective belonging based on shared memories and hope to find continuity in a fragmented world. In an era before social interaction and Web3, the NFTs in one's wallet serve as calling cards for opening the doors to different communities. They represent a holder's aesthetics and taste. Pixel-style NFTs undoubtedly carry the childhood memories of most holders, along with memories of groups of passionate childhood friends. They would cheer over a brilliant combination and might briefly fall out over whose turn came first in a game.
Years later, you realize that these friendships were precious. They may still be as strong as ever, or they may have been lost for many years, but those simple and joyful feelings remain buried deep in your heart. When you return home or attend a reunion, they become the finest topics of conversation around a lavish dinner table.
The hardware limitations of the past have become childhood memories, while the preservation and continuation of pixel art prove that there will always be people who feel nostalgic. Web3 gives us a way to preserve that nostalgia. For people, owning a pixel-style NFT adds labels to their personal identity, such as being part of the same generation, cyberpunk culture, high value, and scarcity. The ultimate appeal of this conversation piece has created a social phenomenon that attracts more people to participate voluntarily.
The colors used in early pixel art were limited by the RGB displays of video game screens, with the palette restricted to 256 colors. Game developers therefore typically combined highly saturated primary colors with low-saturation transition colors and shadows. Contrasting red and green with blue and yellow was one of the most common combinations. It created a strong visual impact for players and stimulated the brain to release dopamine associated with excitement and pleasure. The visual impact of pixel-style NFTs can evoke excitement and curiosity in users, while also reminding them of the joy of playing games as children.
In the late 1990s, pixel art gradually became synonymous with being "rough" and "stiff" in the gaming industry and was no longer favored. However, pixel art was not eliminated. Instead, it became a unique style and cultural symbol. The reason is that pixel art uses simple elements to express themes, leaving unlimited room for creation and offering a distinctive artistic style. Pixel art does not convey information through realism. On the contrary, its simple and clean visual effects can effectively reduce visual information overload and improve the efficiency of information transmission.
Pixel art became a style because taking one step back makes it retro, while taking one step forward makes it trendy. In 2017, Larva Labs founders Matt Hall and John Watkinson developed a program capable of generating thousands of random characters. These characters did not fit the mainstream aesthetic of the time. Not long afterward, Larva Labs launched CryptoPunks, the collection of artistic images made up of irregular pixels that we know today. In addition to human figures, these pixel avatars included green-skinned zombies, shaggy apes, and blue-skinned aliens, along with combinations of accessories that emphasized their individuality.
The two founders openly stated that CryptoPunks was inspired by the punk spirit of London: "They had to be a bunch of outsiders and nonconformists. The London punk movement of the 1970s felt like the right aesthetic. The dystopian cyberpunk spirit represented by the film Blade Runner and William Gibson's novel Neuromancer also had an influence." In their view, the early blockchain movement had a loud anti-establishment spirit. This was the atmosphere they wanted to reflect through the punks' appearance.
Some investors believe that pixel-style NFTs have room for appreciation, while some players are immersed in the experience they provide. The unique style of NFTs maximizes their social attributes and enables word-of-mouth promotion. Marketing consultancy Vivaldi Partners once divided social currency into six dimensions: belonging, conversation and discussion, identity, value, advocacy, and the exchange of information and knowledge.
The uniqueness of NFTs gives owners a unique sense of identity. People who own NFTs from the same category quickly form communities, seek recognition within those communities, support the NFTs they like, find their shared social circle, and gain relevant knowledge and information through communication. I own an NFT, and I also qualify as a member of the OG club in the NFT field.
Grid-Style NFTs
We can describe the transition from pixel art to grid-style art as a clearer, upgraded version of pixel art.
When we think of starry skies, we think of Van Gogh. When we think of polka dots, we think of Yayoi Kusama. There is a certain grid whose name you may not know, but which is certainly familiar to you: Mondrian's three-primary-color grid.
In the minds of many Dutch people, Mondrian's status is comparable to Van Gogh's.
In 1918, the year World War I was nearing its end, Mondrian and six other artists signed the First Manifesto of De Stijl, which opposed war and individualism and advocated peace.
Mondrian's world consisted only of dots, lines, and blocks of color. His paintings launched the De Stijl abstract movement. The division created by vertical and horizontal lines revealed the music and rhythm of blocks of color. When you gaze at them, it seems that the universal laws governing everything in the world can all be explained through these grids.
Although this "magical" grid has limited and abstract patterns, it symbolizes the primitive forces that constitute nature, pure forms, and simple blocks of color. Its abstract aesthetic concept is filled with philosophical meaning from the art world to the fashion world. Different people can find different answers in the grid, which is why it has become so popular.
These grids come from Dutch painter Piet Cornelis Mondrian's work Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue.
How could a painting consisting of only a few grids sell at auction for the astonishing price of $50.6 million? Moreover, these grids have become sought-after collaboration partners for major luxury brands around the world. What exactly is their appeal?
Another example is Broadway Boogie Woogie, the last completed work of his life. It clearly reflects the fresh atmosphere of the modern city. The lines are still straight, but instead of being cold and solemn black boundaries, they are lively, colorful lines made up of small rectangles of varying lengths. They divide and control the composition. The primary colors remain, but they are no longer constrained by black lines. Bright yellow dominates, interspersed with red and blue to form colorful lines. Red, yellow, and blue blocks are scattered between the lines, creating changes in rhythm and vibrations in frequency. The painting looks brighter and more vivid than any of his previous works. It is both jazz full of rhythm and the flickering of endless lights across office buildings and streets under the night sky.
Both works are extremely simple because Mondrian believed that by simplifying shapes and colors, he could express a purer and more universal artistic language. His style therefore not only caused considerable upheaval in the painting world, but also had a major influence on architecture, furniture, decorative art, and the printing industry of the time. Today, grid-style art has entered the Bitcoin NFT sector. Pixel-style NFTs may represent the sentiments of people born in the 1970s, while grid-style NFTs may represent the pursuit of trends among holders in the new generation of the Web3 industry.
The Success and Controversy of Grid NFT Project NodeMonkes
Almost all NFT players were waiting for NodeMonkes to reach a new all-time high denominated in Bitcoin. NodeMonkes was expected to become the first Bitcoin NFT collection whose individual price exceeded 1 BTC. In the eyes of the community, this outcome seemed almost certain.
From its creation to becoming one of the top three NFT projects by total market capitalization in the Crypto world, NodeMonkes took just over two months. Its floor price has reached 0.74 BTC, and its total market capitalization has exceeded $500 million, surpassing Pudgy Penguins and ranking behind only CryptoPunks and BAYC.
Born From Controversy
On December 23, 2023, after approximately 30 hours of a Dutch auction, NodeMonkes sold out when the price fell to 0.04 BTC. The project team ultimately received approximately 240 BTC in sales revenue.
NodeMonkes first triggered extensive discussion because it claimed to have rejected a $5 million investment from VCs and insisted on creating a Free Mint project. However, as the project's popularity continued to rise, the team repeatedly changed its launch plan and broke its earlier promises. It went from announcing a Free Mint with no whitelist mechanism, to announcing a whitelist and paid minting, and then to a Dutch auction without a whitelist. Its claimed $5 million investment was also questioned.
Many early Ordinals players were highly dissatisfied with NodeMonkes' repeated changes during its launch. You can certainly make money, but the way you do it can still look rather unpleasant. Early Ordinals players also had strong convictions about "fairness," "free access," and "sincerity" in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Regardless, I believe that the creators of NodeMonkes drew inspiration from the works of Piet Cornelis Mondrian and used grids of various color blocks to create abstract "bored apes." They are clearer than purely pixel-based works. Due to the characteristics of pixel art, the facial details of pixel-style NFT characters are blurry, and only their outlines can be seen. Grid-style art, however, gives NFTs a futuristic punk exterior through highly saturated, vivid colors. The stereotype that pure pixel art has low resolution has long been left behind. What players see is a more open space for interpretation behind the visual impact.
Artists depict images through limitation and simplification, and use grids to convey emotions and ideas. In doing so, they oppose works that overemphasize visual quality while being ornate but superficial. Abstraction and symbolism are common features of pixel-style and grid-style NFTs, and they reflect the attitude sought by Web3 players.
Do the colored squares in the image represent the body, earrings, eyes, or hat? For example, the eyes can be represented by only two grids, while the large block below represents the body. Through this method, every element of the work can be represented using right angles. You can always arrive at your own answer immediately. Reality is not formed by objects themselves, but by the relationships between them. This structural relationship is represented by simplified geometric forms made up of abstract vertical and horizontal lines. The abstract geometric structure pursued by De Stijl is precisely a new, idealistic artistic form created through the support and combination of lines and planes. Grid-style NFTs have opened up another style of pixel NFTs.
What Are Cursed Inscriptions, and Why Are They Out of Print?
Cursed inscriptions are inscriptions that were not indexed by the Ordinals protocol. They initially resulted from a bug in the Ordinals protocol: their numbers were counted backward from 0 and assigned negative values, so they were defined as "cursed inscriptions."
Scarcity is the defining feature of cursed inscriptions. In Web3 especially, NFTs are ranked by rarity, which creates price differences among NFTs in the same collection. Cursed inscriptions, however, are more like an unintended occurrence. Their narrative centers on their scarcity compared with other standard inscriptions.
The out-of-print status of cursed inscriptions resulted from the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade. Ordinals founder Casey announced that the Jubilee upgrade would take place at block height 824,544. After the Jubilee upgrade, all inscriptions would be blessed, meaning that functions such as batch inscriptions would no longer result in cursed inscriptions. However, cursed inscriptions created before the Jubilee upgrade would continue to exist. This is why the community developed FOMO around cursed inscriptions.
Before block height 824,544, cursed inscription projects that were still being minted accelerated their inscription processes in an effort to become the final cursed inscription.
The discontinuation of cursed inscriptions may represent a new starting point for the Bitcoin ecosystem. UniSat stated that it would follow the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade to ensure that BRC-20 would continue to run on Ordinals rather than split into a separate protocol.
Based on the information I found, the final text cursed inscription was INSCRIPTION-472,043, which recorded the Yin-Yang inscription Mickey Mouse.
The final image cursed inscription was the cursed goose INSCRIPTION-472,040 on Pizza sats.
The final cursed inscription with a two-sided image engraved in the sequence of the last negative number (Yin) and positive number (Yang) was INSCRIPTION-458,327. It was the final piece in the 10K collection BitMonkes and was also inscribed on a block 78 rare sat. It featured a frame design with cursed blue smoke. BitMonkes has only 150 pieces with cursed blue frames.
Cursed inscriptions were discontinued, and there will never be another cursed inscription.
After the protocol was fixed, cursed inscriptions became a special category with a fixed supply that would never increase.
Cursed inscriptions will become a powerful meme narrative in the history of Ordinals.
Compared with things created intentionally by people, the chosen ones that entered the world accidentally because of a bug may attract greater consensus.
BitMonkes is an out-of-print collection that combines original components, pays tribute to NodeMonkes, and uses rare sats and two-sided inscriptions throughout. It is 100% inscribed on cursed inscriptions.
If you have read this far, you are clearly a holder who cares about art rather than a Web speculator. We call the latter "crypto locusts." I would rather you understand the great NFT work we are describing from an artistic and technical perspective.
You now understand the achievements of abstract art, from pixels to grids, in the NFT sector. We have also explained the discontinued technology of cursed inscriptions above. At the end of the article, we provide explanations of terms such as inscription numbers, recursive inscriptions, and rare sats. Understanding these concepts can help your taste and wealth grow.
Now I would like to introduce BitMonkes, a 10K collection that incorporates grid-art elements, consists of the final 100% cursed inscriptions and 100% rare sats, and uses the recursive protocol. Remember, this does not constitute investment advice. The spirit of Web3 lies in sharing.
Official website: https://bitmonkes.com/
BitMonkes consists of Yin and Yang images: Yin represents negative numbers, or cursed inscriptions, while Yang represents positive-number inscriptions.
The Yin side displays NodeMonkes. Among them, 150 rare pieces feature a frame design symbolizing cursed purple smoke and paying tribute to Bitcoin's 15th anniversary.
The PFPs on the Yang side use original components and the recursive protocol.
BitMonkes is the only collection with two-sided inscriptions ordered as Yin and Yang.
All pieces are inscribed on block 78 rare sats. Block 78 was mined by Hal Finney. Apart from Satoshi Nakamoto, he was the first person to participate in mining. Block 78 also falls within the range of Vintage rare sats, giving it a dual rare-sat concept.
Rare sats are highly valuable. Leaving aside the value of the NFTs themselves, these rare sats may sell for significant amounts in the future. There are only approximately 800,000 rare sats in total, and BitMonkes accounts for 10,000 of them.
All pieces are inscribed on cursed inscriptions, making this the final out-of-print cursed inscription collection before the Jubilee upgrade. Cursed inscriptions are similar to misprinted stamps and will no longer be created. There are only approximately 500,000 cursed inscriptions, and BitMonkes accounts for 10,000 of them.
The final BitMonkes piece, INSCRIPTION-458,327, was completed at 20:31 UTC on January 5, 2024, at block height 824,521. At that time, only 23 blocks—approximately 250 minutes—remained before the Jubilee upgrade at block height 824,544.
The Bitcoin network frequently experiences block delays. For a 10K collection, completing two-sided minting is an extremely lengthy process. If the inscription had not been completed 100% at block height 824,521, it would have been an imperfect collection, meaning that some NFTs would have been inscribed as non-cursed inscriptions. Fortunately, they completed this remarkable task four hours before block height 824,521 and became the final chapter.
If described in three words, they would be First, Last, and Only one.
First — The first two-sided image collection
Last — The final 10K collection before cursed inscriptions were discontinued
Only one — The only collection fully inscribed on cursed inscriptions and dual rare sats
If you missed NodeMonkes at 0.04 BTC, which was not exactly inexpensive, the BitMonkes whitelist sale price, as far as I understand, is not high. Perhaps the value of these rare sats will exceed this amount of BTC in the future. I suggest that you not miss it. After all, so many highlights have been integrated into one work, and there cannot be a second work like it in the BTC ecosystem. It is worth collecting.
What Are Inscription Numbers, Recursive Inscriptions, Cursed Inscriptions, and Rare Sats?
Inscription Numbers
Because each NFT inscription is assigned an inscription number in engraving order, starting from 0 and increasing sequentially, the current inscription number has reached tens of millions over time. This adds to the fun of collecting and provides a basis for assessing value. It is generally believed that NFT inscriptions with earlier numbers have greater collectible value, such as sub-10K collections, which consist of the first 10,000 inscriptions.
Recursive Inscriptions
Because Taproot and Segregated Witness limit content size to 4 MB, the size of inscription content is restricted. To overcome this limitation and introduce greater flexibility, the inscription protocol designed a format that references content recursively, known as "recursive inscriptions." This allows inscriptions to display richer, higher-resolution content. For example, Ordibots 3D used recursive inscriptions to create augmented reality and high-definition effects, while keeping the inscription fee for each NFT very low.
Cursed Inscriptions
Cursed inscriptions originally resulted from a protocol bug. Some inscriptions were not included "normally" in the original numbering sequence. They were therefore called "cursed" inscriptions and assigned negative numbers.
These protocol bugs have now been fixed, and no new NFT cursed inscriptions with negative numbers will be created in the future. Like misprinted banknotes, they have significant speculative appeal. There are only approximately 500,000 cursed inscriptions.
Rare Sats
Because each inscription NFT is engraved on a sat, the inscription protocol defines certain special sats, called "rare sats," to add interest. For example, the first sat mined in each block. NFTs engraved on these sats generally command higher prices, and rare sats are worth more than ordinary sats. There are only approximately 800,000 rare sats in total.
In fact, the sat has existed for many years as Bitcoin's smallest indivisible unit: 1 Bitcoin = 10^9 sats. However, because it is so microscopic and had no use case, it remained outside the view of mainstream users. Over the past three months, as the Bitcoin ecosystem has gained significant attention, sats have naturally attracted interest as the carriers of inscriptions. In addition, because of their intuitiveness and resistance to volatility, sats have replaced USDT as the leading pricing unit in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In addition to serving as inscription carriers and pricing units, sats are naturally suitable for collection and speculation. To understand this view, we must first understand the properties of sats themselves.
A close look at how sats are represented reveals some interesting details. The sats named 0 and a echo each other across the two ends of time and space, jointly connecting the magnificent epic of Bitcoin mining across 21 quadrillion sats over more than 130 years...
Sats that played important roles in periodic events, have unique names, or experienced historical events have distinctive rarity and premiums.
For an illustrative example, sats are like $100 RMB banknotes in circulation. Their purchasing power does not differ based on the printing batch or the number of times they have changed hands. However, because of serial numbers, a small portion of banknotes with special numbers command a premium. Sats work the same way. Based on certain consensus criteria, a small number of sats with special properties can command astonishingly high premiums in market circulation. The mainstream consensus criteria for sats are much stricter than the criteria for special serial numbers on RMB banknotes.
By arranging and combining the four basic events covered by decimal notation, six levels of sat rarity can be clearly defined: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic.
On May 23, 2022, inscription number 8,669,069 emerged and sparked extensive discussion in the Ordinals and rare-sat communities. It attracted attention because it was the first inscription engraved on a Rare sat. Of the current 19 quadrillion sats, there are only 370 Rare sats, making this inscription a potential candidate for the most expensive crypto artwork in history. The image also contains the text "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.," which Satoshi Nakamoto inscribed in the genesis block, giving it unparalleled significance. In the art world, stacking rarities can often have a 1 + 1 > 2 effect.
Descriptions of these categories can be easily found on the ord.io marketplace.
Uncommon
The first sat of each block
Rare
The first sat of each difficulty adjustment period
Epic
The first sat of each halving
Vintage
A sat mined within the first 1,000 blocks
Nakamoto
A sat mined by Satoshi Nakamoto. The name is certainly interesting.
First Transaction
The first transaction. On January 12, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 Bitcoin to Hal Finney, marking the first on-chain interaction in history.
Palindrome
A number that reads the same forward and backward, such as 12921
Pizza
The sats used in the transaction that purchased pizza for 10,000 Bitcoin. This transaction gave Bitcoin its nickname, "digital gold," and occurred on May 22, 2010. This date later became known as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Block 9
The oldest sats currently in circulation, unless an address belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto becomes active again.
Block 78
Sats mined by Hal Finney. Apart from Satoshi Nakamoto, he was the first person to participate in mining. Block 78 is also within the range of Vintage rare sats, giving it a dual rare-sat concept.
In Closing: Some passages in the pixel NFT section of this article were quoted from an article by AIO News. We would like to express our thanks. I entered the Bitcoin world in 2013. Eleven years have passed in the blink of an eye. I am fortunate to have been born in this great era, and I pay tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto.
Disclaimer
- This article was reproduced from chaincatcher. The original title was "Pixels, Grids, Curses, and the Out-of-Print Narrative of Bitcoin NFTs." Copyright belongs to the original author, Bug. If you have any objections to the reproduction, please contact the Gate Learn team. The team will handle the matter as soon as possible according to the relevant procedures.
- Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute investment advice.
- Other language versions of this article were translated by the Gate Learn team. Unless Gate.com is mentioned, the translated article may not be copied, distributed, or plagiarized.
