Digital arts have become quite popular nowadays and NFTs or non-fungible tokens are making headlines due to their eye-popping prices. NFTs are being perceived as a new asset class. Yes, any digital art can be copied very easily but NFTs preserve the origin, authenticity, ownership and transaction details on the blockchain in a verifiable format. Cryptokitties in 2017 was the precursor of NFTs going mainstream but the recent hype was beyond anyone’s imagination. The first quarter of this calendar year saw NFT market turnover reach approximately $200 million. NFT is conceptually very interesting due to its underlying technology and technology can make many things possible. While high speculations have become integrated with NFT trading, we are seeing new concepts like yield farming with NFTs, burning of NFTs for the generation of even rare NFTs. What about self-replicating NFTs?
“REPLICATOR is the story of a machine through time. It is a reflection on forms of past groundbreaking innovation and serves as a metaphor for modern technology’s continuum. I’m interested to see how collectors will respond as the work evolves and the NFTs in their possession continue to create new generations.” - Micah Dowbak aka Mad Dog Jones
Micah Dowbak aka Mad Dog Jones’s REPLICATOR tells the story of a machine. A photocopier machine, placed in a Los Angeles office space, makes its journey towards becoming out of date. The image seems to tell a very complicated narrative and it has nostalgia and pessimism imbibed in it. The art piece interweaves medium and form, synthesizes media and subject inspired by Andy Warhol’s method of repetition. The artwork was minted on April 11, 2021, and it was sold for $4,144,000 through auction house Phillips. The online-only auction closed on Friday, April 23rd through dynamic bidding. Here is the contract address of the token (ERC 721 standard).
REPLICATOR still image
REPLICATOR is not just another NFT! It is a self-replicating art i.e.; it has been designed to create new NFTs down the line. So, what is the supply theory of such a token? That’s really interesting! REPLICATOR produces seven unique NFT generations. The NFT sold through the auction is the genesis generation. This genesis generation will produce 6 more generations every month for consecutive six months. Every generation will be truly unique and will produce one artwork less than its previous generation. Generation 7 will be the last generation and it won’t produce any new NFT.
Exciting days! Smart contracts are providing a plethora of possibilities to digital artists. A reproducible art made by a renowned artist can sell like a hot cake. What if we throw some probability and game theory into it? REPLICATOR genesis art displays a photocopier machine and a photocopier can jam. The official blog post says: “The jam rate is between 50-80% for Generations 2 through 6, which also serves to curb exponential growth. Each generation may have up to three unique Jam pieces. Due to statistical variance, it is impossible to predict the exact number. After one million simulations the average is approximately 220 with a 99% chance that the total artworks generated will be between 75 and 300, with an average time of one year from start to finish.”
REPLICATOR uses smart contract tricks but the gamification concept is awesome. It brings an element of chance and an outcome that can never be determined. The unpredictability of the NFT is inspired by the jams of a traditional photocopier that suddenly stops copying due to a technical error. Like the photocopier machine depicted in the art, the artwork can generate a jam suddenly and thus it delivers a great dilemma to the owner of the art. Will he/she hold it for a long term to see all generations or sell it quickly for a trade margin? When a particular generation of art is sold, the new owner gets all subsequent jams or arts. It’ll be really interesting to see whether the market gives more value to deterministic scarcity or replication potential while doing valuation of such arts. The collectors will see the drama but we are definitely going to watch a new technical innovation. It is time to embrace fresh gamification coming to digital arts that will break all conventions.
Note: This post was first published here for Cryptowriter in association with voice.com.
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