Art Blocks: Generating art vending machines with a cumulative transaction volume of over $1.3 billion

Code and software have taken over our lives, but generative art created with code has been underestimated for many years. The NFT and Art Blocks craze that started in the summer of 2021 changed that.

Founded in 2020 by Erick Calderon et al., Art Blocks is a vending machine that generates art, generating final works with hash values randomly generated during transactions, subversively changing the relationship between generative art creators and collectors .

Chromie Squiggle, Ringers and Fidenza by Art Blocks have all sparked a wave of investment in generative art in the NFT world. They perfectly embody the "controllable randomness" of generative art. Artists need to adjust the script many times to ensure that the works randomly obtained by thousands of users are unique and aesthetically pleasing. Art Blocks amassed over $1 billion in cumulative transaction volume in 2021 and earned over $25 million in royalties. In August 2021, it closed a $6 million funding round. TRUE Ventures led the investment, with participation from institutions such as VC Galaxy Interactive and Collab Currency, a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital.

As market attention shifted, Art Blocks and generative art NFTs stopped skyrocketing, and monthly transaction volume also fell from a peak of $587 million in August 2021, continuing to fall below $100 million after October. But Art Blocks is already a recognized blue-chip NFT and has become an indispensable Portfolio for NFT index funds. Erick Calderon is not panicking either. The company has enough cash flow to support it for many years, and he is accelerating the recruitment of engineers and the shaping of the company's culture.

There are other interesting topics surrounding generative art: speculators are beginning to ebb, and those holding Art Blocks are more collectors, and their NFT display needs are far from being met; in addition, generative adversarial networks created directly using AI Imagination at work in the Metaverse.

The following is the content of this article, and it is recommended to read it in combination with the main points:

01 A Brief History of Generative Art

02 Birth of Art Blocks

03 Important works on Art Blocks

Fidenza
Ringers
Chimera
04 Mutual achievements between Art Blocks and artists

Curated vs Playground vs Factory
revenue far exceeding expectations
05 Invest in Art Blocks

Art Blocks as a blue chip NFT
Art Blocks as a Startup
06 Other interesting questions about generative art

The ebb of speculators
More NFT Native display method
Generative Adversarial Networks
01. A Brief History of Generative Art
The simplest definition of generative art is "art created using code that combines randomness and planning". In the creative process, the artist's "human brain" finds aesthetic interest and inspiration, while the "computer" turns inspiration into visual art on a large scale.