Pixels, grids, curses, the limited edition narrative of Bitcoin NFTs

Author: Bug

Pixel NFT

The rulers of Bitcoin NFTs, the avatars made up of small squares seem to say: what is classic will become eternal.

Recently, in the hot BTC NFT track rankings, pixel-style NFTs occupy 5-6 of the top 10, easily claiming half of the market.

ordinals.market exchange data

In June 2017, Larva Labs launched the pixel-style NFT CryptoPunks, which can be considered the ancestor of NFTs. A total of 10,000 CryptoPunks NFTs were issued, each representing a different "punk-style" pixel avatar. Among them, #3100 and #7804 were sold for 4200 ETH each on March 11, 2022, which, based on the ETH price at that time, amounted to approximately 75.66 million USD. CryptoPunks #5822 was sold in February for a record-breaking price of 8,000 ETH.

When users buy pixel-style NFTs, what exactly are they purchasing? Is it the buyer's recognition and obsession with the value of the pixel style in NFTs, or a high appreciation for the artistic nature of the NFT market?

That great era is called------the Pixel Era.

The pixel era I refer to is the first batch of video games that emerged in the 1980s, technically known as 8-bit and 16-bit games. They lacked 3D graphics and true color, featuring only rough images of 64 or 256 colors. However, their emergence was epoch-making and pioneering. Games like "Pac-Man," "Super Mario," and "Contra" are representative of the pixel style.

The memories of the pixel era are beautiful yet rough, devoid of smooth skin and gradient colors. However, they are indeed a part of the lives and memories of our generation; despite their imperfections, they embody a purer attitude towards life and principles of being.

In that pixelated age and world, there were no multiple storylines or endings; the only thing we had was a vigorous leap forward, never looking back…

Globally, there is a growing nostalgia, with more and more people yearning for a sense of collective memory, desiring continuity in a fragmented world. In an era where social interaction is absent in Web3, NFTs in wallets serve as business cards that open the doors to various communities, representing the aesthetic and taste of the holders. Pixel style undoubtedly carries the childhood memories of most holders, along with a group of passionate childhood friends. They would leap for an exciting collaboration and might briefly fall out over the order of play.

Years later, you realize that such friendships are indeed precious; they may still be as strong as ever or may have drifted apart for years, but that simple and joyful feeling remains buried in the heart, brought out as the top conversation starter during reunions and gatherings.

The hardware limitations of the past have become childhood memories, while the preservation and continuation of pixel style prove that there will always be people reminiscing. Web3 provides us with a way to reminisce; for people, owning pixel-style NFTs adds labels like peers, cyberpunk, high value, and rarity to their personas. This extreme social currency has created a phenomenal wave of social interaction, encouraging more people to participate willingly.

The colors presented by early pixel art were limited by the RGB color display of video game screens, with color choices restricted to 256 colors. Therefore, game developers typically chose highly saturated primary colors, low-saturation transitional colors, and shadows for combinations. The most common combinations were red-green clashes with blue-yellow clashes, providing players with a strong visual impact that stimulated the brain to secrete exciting and pleasurable dopamine. The visual tension of pixel-style NFTs can evoke feelings of excitement and curiosity in users, and of course, it reminds them of the joy of playing games in their childhood.

By the late 1990s, pixel art gradually became synonymous with "rough" and "stiff" in the gaming industry and fell out of favor. However, pixel art was not eliminated; instead, it became a unique style and cultural symbol. The reason lies in the fact that pixel art expresses themes using simple elements, offering infinite creative space and a distinctive artistic style. Pixels do not convey information through realism; rather, the simple and clean visual effects of pixel art can effectively reduce visual information overload, thus enhancing the efficiency of information transmission.

Pixels can become pixel art because they are retro in one sense and trendy in another. In 2017, Matt Hall and John Watkinson, founders of the software company Larva Labs, developed a program capable of generating thousands of random characters that did not conform to the mainstream aesthetic of the time. Soon after, Larva Labs launched the now-familiar CryptoPunks—a collection of artistic images composed of irregular pixels. Among these pixel figures, in addition to human images, there are several green-skinned zombies, long-haired apes, and blue-skinned aliens, all adorned with unique accessories.

The two founders openly stated that the inspiration for CryptoPunks came from the punk spirit of London: "They (these figures) had to be a bunch of misfits and nonconformists. The punk movement in London in the 1970s felt like the right aesthetic, influenced by the dystopian cyberpunk spirit represented by the film 'Blade Runner' and William Gibson's novel 'Neuromancer'." In their view, the early blockchain movement had a noisy anti-establishment spirit, which was precisely the atmosphere they wanted to reflect in the punk exterior.

Some investors believe in the appreciation potential of pixel-style NFTs, while others are captivated by the experiences brought by pixel-style NFTs. The unique style of NFTs maximizes their social attributes, achieving the goal of word-of-mouth marketing. The marketing consulting firm Vivaldi Partners has categorized social currency into six dimensions: belonging, communication, identity, value, advocacy, and the exchange of information and knowledge.

The uniqueness of NFTs allows owners to achieve a unique identity recognition. Those who possess similar NFTs quickly form communities, seeking a sense of belonging within the community, advocating for their favorite NFTs, and finding shared circles to exchange relevant knowledge and information: owning an NFT also grants membership in the OG club of the NFT realm.

Grid Style NFT

From pixel art to grid art, we can call it a clearer upgraded version of pixel art.

When we think of the starry sky, we think of Van Gogh; when we think of polka dots, we think of Yayoi Kusama. There is a type of grid that you may not be able to name, but you are certainly familiar with it. That is---Mondrian's primary color grid.

In the minds of many Dutch people, Mondrian's status is on par with that of Van Gogh.

In 1918, the year World War I was about to end, Mondrian, along with six other artists, signed the anti-war, anti-individualism, and peace-promoting "First Manifesto of the De Stijl Movement."

In Mondrian's world, there are only points, lines, and color blocks. His paintings opened the door to abstract style, with vertical and horizontal lines dividing the canvas, revealing the music and rhythm of color blocks. Gazing at them, it seems that the universal laws of the world can be expressed through these grids.

This "magical" grid, though limited in patterns and abstract, symbolizes the primal forces that constitute nature, pure forms, and simple color blocks. The abstract aesthetic concept, from the art world to the fashion world, is filled with philosophical thought, allowing different people to find different answers within the grid, which is why this grid is so popular.

These grids come from the work "Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue" by Dutch painter Piet Cornelis Mondrian.

How could an artwork with just a few grids be auctioned for a staggering $50.6 million? Moreover, these grids have become the objects of desire for major luxury brands seeking collaboration. What is the charm of these grids?

There is also the work "Broadway Boogie Woogie," which was the last piece he completed in his lifetime, clearly reflecting the new atmosphere of modern urban life. Still straight lines, but not the cold, serious black lines; instead, they are lively, colorful lines composed of small rectangles of varying lengths, dividing and controlling the canvas. Still primary colors, but no longer constrained by black lines; they are dominated by bright yellow, interspersed with red and blue to form vibrant color lines, with red, yellow, and blue blocks scattered throughout, creating a rhythm of change and frequency vibration. Visually, this piece appears brighter and more vivid than any previous work. It embodies the rhythmic essence of jazz and resembles the flickering lights of office buildings and streets under the night sky.

Both of these works have very simple compositions because he believed that by simplifying shapes and colors, he could express a purer and more universal artistic language. Therefore, his style not only caused a significant upheaval in the painting world but also had a tremendous impact on architecture, furniture, decorative arts, and the printing industry at the time. Now, grid style has entered the Bitcoin NFT realm; perhaps pixel-style NFTs represent the nostalgia of the 70s, while grid-style NFTs may represent the trend-seeking aspirations of a new generation of WEB3 industry holders.

The Success and Controversy of Grid NFT NodeMonkes

Almost all NFT players are waiting for NodeMonkes to create a historical new high priced in Bitcoin. The first Bitcoin NFT series to break the price of 1 Bitcoin, NodeMonkes, is almost a certainty in everyone's expectations.

From its inception to becoming one of the top 3 NFT projects by total market value in the Crypto world, NodeMonkes took just over two months. Currently, the floor price of NodeMonkes reached 0.74 BTC, with a total market value exceeding 500 million USD, surpassing Pudgy Penguins, and only behind CryptoPunks and BAYC.

Born from Controversy

On December 23, 2023, after about 30 hours of Dutch auction, NodeMonkes finally sold out when the price dropped to 0.04 Bitcoin, with the project team ultimately earning about 240 Bitcoins in sales revenue.

NodeMonkes first sparked significant discussion because it claimed to have rejected a $5 million investment from VC, insisting on being a Free Mint project. However, the project's popularity continued to rise, and the team repeatedly changed the release plan, breaking previous promises. From claiming Free Mint and no whitelist mechanism to announcing the adoption of a whitelist mechanism and paid minting, and then to a Dutch auction without a whitelist, the claimed $5 million investment also came under scrutiny.

Many early Ordinals players were quite dissatisfied with NodeMonkes' flip-flopping during the release phase—"Of course, you can make money, but the way you're doing it is a bit too ugly." Moreover, early Ordinals players had an obsession with the "fair," "free," and "sincere" nature of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Nevertheless, I believe that the creators of NodeMonkes drew inspiration from Piet Cornelis Mondrian's works, using various color blocks to compose abstract "Bored Apes," which are clearer than pure pixel works. Due to the characteristics of pixel art, the facial details of pixel-style NFT characters are blurred, only allowing the outlines to be seen, while the high-saturation, vibrant colors of the grid style give the NFTs a futuristic punk exterior. The low resolution stereotype of pure pixel art has long been cast aside; what players see is a more open interpretive space behind the visual impact. Artists depict images through restrictions and simplifications, conveying emotions and thoughts through grids, opposing works that overly emphasize visual quality yet are superficial. Abstraction and symbolism are common points of pixel and grid-style NFTs, as well as the attitudes pursued by Web3 players.

The colorful squares in the image represent bodies, earrings, eyes, hats? For example, the eyes can be represented with just two squares, while the larger square below represents the body. In this way, everything in the artwork can be represented within right angles. You can always get your answer immediately. The structure of reality is not formed by the objects themselves, but by the relationships between them; this structural relationship is composed of abstract vertical and horizontal lines forming simplified geometric shapes. The geometric forms pursued by the De Stijl movement create a new, idealistic art form through the support and combination of lines and surfaces, and grid-style NFTs have pioneered another style of pixel NFTs.

What are Cursed Inscriptions and Why Will They Become Extinct?

Cursed inscriptions refer to inscriptions that have not been indexed by the Ordinals protocol. Initially, this was caused by a bug in the Ordinals protocol, where the numbering started counting down from 0 and was assigned negative numbers, thus being defined as "cursed inscriptions."

Rarity is the biggest characteristic of cursed inscriptions. Especially in Web3, NFTs are ranked based on their rarity, leading to price differences within the same collection, but cursed inscriptions are more like an unintended consequence. Therefore, the narrative perspective of cursed inscriptions lies in their scarcity compared to other legitimate inscriptions.

The extinction of cursed inscriptions is due to the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade. Ordinals founder Casey announced that the Jubilee upgrade would take place at block height 824544. After the Jubilee, all inscriptions will be blessed, meaning that using functions like batch inscriptions will no longer result in cursed inscriptions. However, cursed inscriptions prior to the Jubilee upgrade will still exist, which is also the reason for the community's FOMO regarding cursed inscriptions.

Before the arrival of block height 824544, projects minting cursed inscriptions were busy creating inscriptions, vying to be the last cursed inscription.

The extinction of cursed inscriptions may signify a new starting point for the Bitcoin ecosystem. UniSat announced that it would follow the Ordinals Jubilee upgrade to ensure that BRC-20 continues to operate on Ordinals rather than splitting into separate protocols.

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

The last image cursed inscription is the cursed goose INSCRIPTION-472,040 on Pizza Satoshi.

The last cursed inscription with a negative (Yin) and positive (Yang) dual-sided engraving is INSCRIPTION-458,327, which is the last one from the 10K collection BitMonkes, engraved on the rare Satoshi from block 78, featuring a design with cursed blue smoke. BitMonkes only has 150 pieces with cursed blue frames.

With the extinction of cursed inscriptions, there will be no more cursed inscriptions in the world.

After the fix, cursed inscriptions will become a special category, with a constant quantity that will never increase.

Cursed inscriptions will become a strong meme narrative in the history of Ordinals.

Compared to most artificially created items, people will have a greater consensus on a chosen one that came into this world due to a bug.

A collection of original components, paying tribute to NodeMonkes, all using rare Satoshis and dual-sided engravings, 100% engraved on the cursed inscriptions of the limited edition BitMonkes.

I’m glad you made it this far, which shows you are a holder who cares about art, not a speculator in the Web. We refer to such individuals as "locusts" in the crypto circle. I hope you understand the great NFT work we are describing from both artistic and technical perspectives.

Now you have learned about the great achievements of abstract art from pixels to grids in the NFT field, and we have also popularized the technology of cursed inscriptions, which has become extinct. At the end of the article, we provide explanations for some terms, such as inscription number, recursive inscriptions, rare Satoshis, etc. Understanding these concepts will enhance your taste and wealth.

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

Official website: ++https://bitmonkes.com/++

BitMonkes consists of dual-sided images, that is, Yin negative (cursed inscriptions) and Yang positive inscriptions.

The Yin side showcases NodeMonkes, with 150 rare designs framed, symbolizing cursed purple smoke, paying tribute to Bitcoin's 15th anniversary.

The Yang side's PFP is an original component, using the recursive protocol.

BitMonkes is the only dual-sided engraving with Yin and Yang order.

100% engraved on rare Satoshis from block 78, which was mined by Hal Finney, marking the first time someone other than Satoshi Nakamoto participated in mining. Block 78 also falls within the range of Vintage rare Satoshis, embodying the concept of dual rarity.

Rare Satoshis are highly valuable; aside from the NFT's intrinsic value, the future selling value of rare Satoshis will be considerable. There are only about 800,000 rare Satoshis in total, and BitMonkes occupies 10,000 of them.

100% engraved on cursed inscriptions, this is the last limited edition of cursed inscriptions before the Jubilee upgrade. Cursed inscriptions are akin to misprinted stamps and will not be added to anymore; there are only about 500,000 cursed inscriptions, and BitMonkes occupies 10,000 of them.

The last piece of the BitMonkes collection, INSCRIPTION-458,327, was engraved at UTC 2024-01-05 20:31, block height 824521. At this time, only 23 blocks remained until the Jubilee upgrade at block height 824544, approximately 250 minutes.

The Bitcoin network often experiences block congestion, and for a set of 10K works, double-sided minting is a very lengthy process. If the engraving at block height 824521 had not been 100% completed, it would have resulted in an imperfect work, meaning that some NFTs would be engraved on non-cursed inscriptions. Fortunately, they completed this great task four hours before block height 824521 and became the final masterpiece.

If I were to describe it in three sets of words, it would be First, Last, Only one.

First The first dual-sided engraving

Last The last 10K collection before the cursed edition

Only one The only one fully engraved on cursed inscriptions and dual rare Satoshis

If you missed the NodeMonkes at 0.04 BTC, it certainly wasn’t cheap. However, from what I understand, the whitelist sale price of BitMonkes is not high. Perhaps the future value of these rare Satoshis will exceed this amount of BTC. I suggest you do not miss out, as so many highlights are integrated into one work, and there will never be another such piece in the BTC ecosystem; it deserves your collection.

What are inscription numbers, recursive inscriptions, cursed inscriptions, and rare Satoshis?

Inscription Number:

Each inscription NFT is assigned an inscription number (starting from 0 and incrementing sequentially) based on the order of engraving. As time goes on, the current inscription number has reached tens of millions, adding to the fun of collecting and the basis for value judgment. Generally, it is believed that NFTs with earlier inscription numbers have greater collectible value, such as the sub10k series (the first ten thousand engraved inscriptions).

Recursive Inscriptions:

Due to the 4M content limitation imposed by Taproot's segregated witness, this restricts the size of inscription content. To overcome this limitation and introduce greater flexibility, the inscription protocol designed a mutually referencing format known as "recursive inscriptions." This allows for richer and higher-definition expressions in inscriptions. For example, ordibots 3D uses recursive inscriptions to achieve AR and high definition, with very low engraving costs for each inscription NFT.

Cursed Inscriptions:

Cursed inscriptions were originally a protocol bug, where some inscriptions were not "normally" included in the original numbering series. Thus, they were referred to as "cursed" inscriptions, assigned negative numbers.

These protocol bugs have now been fixed, and in the future, no new NFTs with negative numbers will be added, similar to misprinted banknotes, which have significant speculative potential. There are only about 500,000 cursed inscriptions.

Rare Satoshis:

Each inscription NFT is engraved on Satoshis. To add interest, the inscription protocol defines some special Satoshis, called "rare Satoshis," such as the first Satoshi mined in each block. NFTs engraved on these Satoshis typically have higher prices, and rare Satoshis are priced higher than ordinary Satoshis. There are only about 800,000 rare Satoshis in total.

In fact, "Satoshi," as the smallest indivisible unit of Bitcoin, has existed for many years, i.e., 1 Bitcoin = 10^9 Satoshis. However, due to its microscopic nature and lack of use cases, it has not entered the mainstream players' vision. But in the past three months, with the explosive growth of the Bitcoin ecosystem, Satoshis, as the carriers of inscriptions, have naturally gained considerable attention. Additionally, due to their intuitiveness and resistance to volatility, Satoshis have replaced USDT as the top pricing unit in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Aside from being the inscription carrier and pricing unit, Satoshis are inherently suitable for collectible speculation. To clarify this viewpoint, one must first understand the attributes of Satoshis.

Upon careful observation of how Satoshis are represented, one can find some interesting things. The Satoshis named 0 and a resonate across the temporal spectrum, collectively linking this grand epic of Bitcoin mining, spanning 21 trillion coins and lasting over 130 years…

In these periodic events, Satoshis that play important roles, uniquely named Satoshis, and those that have experienced historical events will have distinct rarity and premium.

For example, Satoshis are like circulating 100-yuan banknotes; their purchasing power does not change due to the printing batch or a few transfers. However, due to the appearance of serial numbers, some banknotes with special numbers generate a premium. The same goes for Satoshis; based on certain consensus criteria, a small number of Satoshis with special properties generate incredible premiums in market circulation. In contrast, the mainstream consensus criteria for Satoshis are much stricter than those for banknotes with special serial numbers.

By arranging and combining the four basic events covered by decimal representation, we can clearly define the six rarities of Satoshis: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythical.

On May 23, 2022, the inscription numbered 8669069 emerged, sparking heated discussions in the ordinals community and the rare Satoshis community. The reason for the attention is that it is the first inscription engraved on a rare-level Satoshi. It is worth noting that among the current 19 trillion Satoshis, there are only 370 rare-level ones, making this inscription highly likely to become the most expensive crypto artwork in history. Additionally, the text included in the image, "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks," was engraved by Satoshi Nakamoto in the genesis block, further endowing it with unparalleled significance. In the world of art, the accumulation of rarity often has a 1+1>>>2 effect.

You can easily find explanations for these classifications on the ++ord.io++ market.

Uncommon

Non-common, the first Satoshi of each block

Rare

Rare, the first Satoshi of each block

Epic

Epic, the first Satoshi of each halving

Vintage

Quality, mined from the first 1000 blocks

Nakamoto

Satoshis mined by Satoshi Nakamoto, which is an interesting name

First Transaction

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

Palindrome

A palindrome, a number that reads the same forwards and backwards, such as 12921

Pizza

The Satoshi used in the transaction to purchase pizza for 10,000 Bitcoins, which also gave rise to Bitcoin's nickname "big pie," occurring on May 22, 2010, and this day is now celebrated as Pizza Day.

Block 9

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

Block 78

Satoshis mined by Hal Finney, marking the first time someone other than Satoshi Nakamoto participated in mining. Block 78 also falls within the range of Vintage rare Satoshis, embodying the concept of dual rarity.

In Conclusion: Some excerpts from the chapter on pixel NFTs in this article reference articles from AIO News, for which I express my gratitude. I entered the Bitcoin world in 2013, and time has flown by; it has been 11 years. I am fortunate to have been born in this great era, paying tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto.