Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & digital collectibles
Dear Bankless Nation,
The Async Art team are pioneers of programmable art in the NFT space.
Take note, then, because the project’s pushing the limits of NFT collaboration once more with the launch of Dynamic Blueprints, a new way for creators to add ever-changing visual options to a dynamic NFT collection.
The system’s interesting in its own right, but it’s even more compelling considering how its genesis collection is the new Forever Supper release featuring work from over 50 acclaimed cryptoartists, including Josie Bellini, Coldie, Gremplin, Hackatao, Matt Kane, and Ripcache.
A new era of large-scale ongoing crypto art collaborations has begun accordingly. Let’s get you up to speed on all the basics here for today’s post!
-WMP
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The Rise of Dynamic Blueprints
Today, Async Art introduced their latest innovation: Dynamic Blueprints.
The 101? With this new collection functionality, creators can let their communities mix and match elements from an ever expanding bank of backgrounds, characters, and traits in order to personalize their NFTs over time.
As such, this modular system can be a big boon for NFT projects with regard to ongoing community engagement, storytelling, and beyond.
How Dynamic Blueprints Work
Dynamic Blueprints consist of a “Core” NFT collection that can be infinitely expanded with new visual elements called "Expansions."
The Core serves as the collection foundation, upon and around which creators can thereafter release an unlimited number of visual Expansions, allowing the community to collect and style their NFTs as they please with all the elements made available to them.
This novel system is ripe for collaboration, as creators can invite other artists to contribute additional visual layers, with royalties then shared between the original creator and the collaborator.
As such, this highly customizable system can let NFT derivatives feed back into main Core collections, giving projects a way to steadily grow their art base by directly embracing peer and fan creations.
The Forever Supper Release
“Async’s technology has always been bleeding edge. With Forever Supper and their launch of Dynamic Blueprints, artists set the stage for an expansive collaboration across time, making an open invitation to both artists and collectors to join. I'm really excited for how Async again reframes the collaborative spirit of web3 and challenges what it means to be an artist, collector, curator, perhaps a hybrid of all three.” — Matt Kane, cryptoartist
The first Dynamic Blueprint release, Forever Supper, revisits and pays homage to the iconic, first-of-its-kind First Supper artwork that kicked off Async Art’s launch in February 2020.
With contributions from 13 artists including Alotta Money, Josie Bellini and XCOPY, that original Async Art piece pioneered programmable art divided by Master and Layer tokens in the NFT ecosystem. In Forever Supper, over 50 artists aim to make cryptoart history again with the biggest ongoing digital art collaboration the space has seen yet.
The Core for this new collection is a free mint “empty room” NFT, which is soulbound (i.e. will be locked to your wallet if minted) and has an unlimited max supply. This digital room can thus be styled with Expansions, the first series of which is called the “First Course” and features works from Gremplin, Hackatao, Jæn, Neurocolor, Skeenee, and uczine.
While the Core NFTs are free to mint and unlimited, Expansions have varying minting prices and max supplies. For example, with the “Gremplin’s Mystery Guests” Expansion below, you can see there are a max of 69 packs and a mint price of 0.042069 ETH each. Also note the type, which in this case is “Mystery,” meaning what you receive will have a unique rarity and only be revealed post-mint.
If you pick up any First Course Expansions, you could then go to your Core NFT and press the “Edit Core” option to start styling it with what visual elements you have available. Keep in mind that Async Art will be releasing more Courses, i.e. art releases, into this collection over time so be on the lookout for many more creative options going forward.
The Big Picture
The launch of Dynamic Blueprints marks a functionality milestone in the NFT space and solidifies Async Art’s position as a key innovator in the NFT ecosystem’s ongoing shift towards dynamic, living creations. As this trend continues to gain traction and more Forever Supper Expansions and further Dynamic Blueprints arrive, expect to see droves of new creative experimentations and collaborations emerge!
Action steps
Check out Forever Supper: Consider claiming a free Core and checking out the first Expansion packs 🎨
Read my previous weekly roundup if you missed it: Onchain Gang 🔗
Author Bio
William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!
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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
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