Apr 17, 2023

Evolution of Open Edition Meta

This blog looks at the evolution of open edition meta, including a free mint open for an hour, checks, a long-form generative art project, and the preservation of moments in time. It also examines verification in the age of the internet and gives agency to collectors to create immutable, onchain pieces themselves.

ART INNOVATION INTERNET

Jack Butcher

internet art @visualizevalue, @checksbot, @opepenai

Member of Building in Public

opepen evolution

↓ pic.twitter.com/nUmA96XOoO
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
transparency threads have been stopped and started many times, because this process has taken many twists and turns

it began as a free mint, open for an hour, a nod to the open edition meta of the time and the internet's most prolific memetic character
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
provenance wise - it follows checks, a long-form generative art project that comments on verification in the age of the internet, and gives agency to collectors to create immutable, onchain pieces themselves pic.twitter.com/UjFMx1KewX
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
my intention: the preservation of moments in time driven by big technological shifts

the output, "artifacts" that capture these moments

for checks - the disruption of top-down institutional trust, and the normalization of bottom-up truth seeking
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
for opepen, the following tweet sent me down a rabbit hole that I probably should have waited to go down https://t.co/pZL3P3MHxa
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
the pfp format is appealing if you evaluate it purely by its potential reach - prime real estate etc

but that reach has traditionally been achieved via skeuomorphic collections (10,000 of x with varied traits, very hard to do well and props to those who have)
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
if you've been following the opepen journey for a while, the initial idea was to borrow the visual language from checks, mapping color onto recognizable geometry: pic.twitter.com/GxCPYXGLVA
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
interesting? maybe

capturing a specific moment in time? commenting on a massive shift in technology and behavior? not really
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
working on this in public meant that people like @visualzare spun up tools to essentially create these outputs (as images) before we even had chance to

you can play with one of them here: https://t.co/IuwmQr1ctJ
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 17, 2023
first, increasing the likelihood for checks collectors to get early editions vs. "rare" editions

my understanding of the pushback is (at least those who were vocal about it) see no "benefit" to getting an early edition...
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 19, 2023
our reasoning, if the collection is significant, the early editions will be

also, limiting distribution of the smaller editions to those with the largest collections doesn't do much for the growth of the project, or the desire for those without large collections to participate
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 19, 2023
sharing the above to make clear that no decision is made without thinking about both those that got us here, and those who aren't here yet

always listening
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 19, 2023
90% sure we have a very good solution

running some tests to confirm 🫡
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 19, 2023
will elaborate more but the solution is essentially this

drop a collection wide metadata update after day 69 of checks (friday 4pm et) to lock rarities

guarantee edition size of migrated checks or lower to originals collectors (1 check = 1/1 opepen, etc)

for context, if you…
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) April 19, 2023