The Best New NFT Platform You’ve Probably Not Heard Of

Let’s talk about my new favorite NFT platform.

Of course, NFTs aren’t about replicating the old ways of doing things in digital fashion.

No, NFTs are really powerful in large part because with programmability and more, they open up new ways of doing things, namely new distribution flows and new creative horizons.

For example, one project typifying how we can leverage NFTs toward unprecedented possibilities is Art Blocks, a novel platform for generative artists whose system is gaining traction and is made possible by Ethereum and NFTs.

Accordingly Art Blocks is quite compelling and worth trying out in these early days of NFT pioneering, I think.

In this newsletter, I’ll cover how you can get started on this up-and-coming NFT dapp!

Art Blocks is an unprecedented on-chain generative art platform built on Ethereum. 

Simply put, artists use Art Blocks to upload generative art scripts to Ethereum smart contracts. These scripts are then launched as series in which collectors can purchase limited-edition pieces as NFTs. This minting pings the underlying scripts in unique ways, leading to unique artistic outputs in their associated NFTs.  

What makes Art Blocks so interesting, then, is that it offers generative artists the ability to release works through a one-stop, first-of-its-kind storefront flow. The ensuing pieces live forever on Ethereum and give creators a novel distribution avenue, not to mention royalties in perpetuity. 

ArtBlocks is a generative art platform that’s become very popular in the last few weeks. People minting ArtBlocks NFTs are basically minting unknown pieces of art, and they find out what art their NFT has on it after they’ve minted it.

The project has seen an uptick in usage off late as volume crossed 400 ETH earlier this month. The average sale price is also rising fairly fast, hitting over 7 ETH yesterday (per the last 25 sales). Speculators have been bidding up ArtBlocks NFTs in an attempt to re-sell at a higher price. But speculation aside, some of the artwork is actually very cool.

How to Mint NFTs on Art Blocks

If you want to try minting your own Art Blocks NFT, you can follow these steps:

1. Navigate to artblocks.io and connect your MetaMask wallet. 

2. Click on the “All Projects” tab, and then select whichever one of the currently “Open” projects you want. 

3. On the next page, click on the “Purchase” button and your MetaMask wallet will be prompted with a transaction. 

4. Confirm the transaction, and then you’ll have a provably unique generative artwork minted right to your wallet!

Note that Art Blocks Curated releases can rapidly turn into acute gas wars. If you’re trying to snag a Curated piece, you’ll want to be on site as soon as the piece goes live and make sure your transaction’s gas is high enough to go through. Also, Curated releases have a “1 mint per address” rule presently to fight against bot purchasers, so keep that in mind too!