Decoding On Chain Art vs. IPFs

On Chain versus IPFs

- Explanation of NFTs as JPEG URLs in the blockchain pointing to IPFs
- Different flavors of on chain art, including SVG format, base 64 method, and art blocks method
- Discussion of the pros and cons of on chain art and IPFs
- Insight into IPFs and how it assigns unique hashes to images
- Discussion of the resilience of on chain art in case of IPFs going down
- Considerations for the future development and ease of deployment of IPFs and on chain art
- Highlighting the decreasing cost of storage and the potential impact on the resilience of on chain art

Avant Art Rankings

- Review of the avant art collaboration, which involves seven artists creating physical art and NFTs
- Evaluation of the pieces released so far, including Alpha Centauri, Jake Freed, Rip Cash, and Luis Bonse pieces
- Personal rankings and reasons for favoring specific avant art pieces
- Encouragement for audience participation in sharing their preferences for the avant art pieces

The Simpsons Episode

- Analysis of the Simpsons episode's portrayal of NFTs and digital art
- Perception of the episode's undertones regarding digital art as a scam and the potential demise of physical art
- Discussion of the episode's impact on the digital art space

Recent Prices and Sales

- Recap of recent high-value sales, including a 600 E Crypto Punks sale and a Fidenza that sold for 189,000 USD
- Discussion of the market rallying and potential indicators of recovery
- Insights into unique wallet measurements and their potential impact on market assessment
- Acknowledgment of the ongoing market trends
_____________________________________________________
00:00:58 Discussing NFTs, IPFs, and on-chain art.
00:06:14 IPFs assigns unique hash, proves image ownership.
00:09:20 Running blockchain on raspberry pi, lowering entry barrier.
00:13:28 Considering on chain art may be limited.
00:14:23 Size limitations affect file transfer cost.
00:19:52 Excited about art for on-chain collection.
00:23:00 Mixed reactions to Simpsons NFT episode.
00:25:24 Recent crypto punks sale, Fidenza sold for $189,000.

The zealy word for the podcast is muse.

Transcript

0:13

GM. Gm. Welcome to the first episode of Market Muse. I'm going to be covering three topics today on Chain versus PFs. So this has recently been making the rounds due to Elon Musk and his comments on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. I'm going to be diving into the which, you know, we're about halfway through and which ones are my favorite so far. Lastly, I'm going to get into the Simpsons episode that just came out this past weekend. Some people view it as a positive thing, others view it as a negative thing. So I'll be going over my thoughts around that, and I'm going to jump into some recent prices and sales and just what's going on in the market as a whole. So thanks again for tuning in. I appreciate your time. And, yeah, let's jump in. All right, so on chain versus IPFs, what does that all mean? So I'm going to try and keep it pretty light on the technical, on the technical bits, but hopefully I am able to explain this in a more eloquent way so you guys are able to follow along. So for those of you that watch or listen to the Joe Rogan experience, Elon basically had a comment around how currently NFTs right now as a whole, it's basically a JPEG URL in the blockchain that gets minted, which then points to a decentralized platform called IPFs. And then from there, he sort of makes a statement towards supporting on chain art. There are many flavors of on chain art for those not familiar. So we have the SVG format. SVG is a type of image that gets actually loaded. It's a really flexible type of format for images. Really small, you can make them really big. So, I mean, pretty much when it gets minted on chain, you pay per the size of the block. ETH is pretty dynamic in that end. So if gas is really expensive, then you have to pay a really high gas price to mint that image. Another method of this is the base 64 method. So this is basically grabbing the image itself and pretty much putting it down to ones and zeros, and then it gets reconstructed on chain. So it's kind of like a recipe book on how to build back that image. That's another method. Another method would be kind of the art blocks method, which would be sort of like the IPFs, but it leverages another system called P Five Js. And so basically it gets built on demand on chain. So it's a combination of things. And there's a bunch of other flavors of this as well. Definitely not an expert on all the different flavors of on chain, but I'll link kind of an article that I read that was really interesting on describing all the different types of on chains, and there's different flavors and there's pros and cons to every single one of them. So on chain art is definitely a much gay thing, and we'll kind of go into a little bit more about what's going on in the space. For those that read my newsletter, have watched previous videos or talked to me, I like on Chain art. I am a little bit of an on Chain Maxi, but I recently had a conversation over at the click server with Pindar. So Pindar Van Arman is way more technical than I am. Of course, he's a super rare artist that does Byte Gans and has some on chain gender of art as well. So he is definitely way more technical than I am. But I am kind of able to follow along a little bit with some of the stuff that he said, and I've kind of come to realize that maybe the way that I was thinking of it before, I was able to learn a little bit more and kind of think about the other side of the argument a little bit more. So Elon obviously said that if IPFS goes down, then your JPEGs are gone. And that's partially true. And it also kind of was a little bit insinuating that it's pointing towards an image in some other server, and then there's kind of like providence and coming to question whether the image that you even have is actually yours or all that. So what's interesting about IPFs and how it works is that basically when you upload an image to when an image gets uploaded into IPFs, or a decentralized protocol for images, essentially, when you upload that image, a unique hash is created for it. Blockchain is cryptographic like advancement. So we've gotten really good at this and we're getting better at it, and we're learning how we can use these unique hashes to do really sophisticated things. And IPFS is one of those things as well. So if you change the pixel of one image, it would actually produce a different hash. If you did this for text, you can imagine just switching, like just changing the period to something. The hash would be completely different. So this is how IPFs, on top of having the URL and the image itself, it also assigns it a unique hash, which then gets put into the blockchain, which shows, are you the original owner? Is this the original image? Is this the exact image, because any changes to the image itself would give it a different hash. So even if someone can right click, save and upload a new, the same NFT, it would have a different cryptographic hash as well. So this is kind of how we can prove that the right image and token are together and associated. So pretty impressive stuff how IPFs works. So if we take a step back on this argument of, well, what happens if I PFS goes down? So Tindar basically said that he has a backup, a node, like a ETH node of all the images and their hashes. And so even if I PFS went down, his images will kind of live on through the blockchain in some kind of way. So basically you could point it into a new URL, you could point it into a new direction if you needed to. For marketplaces, it's kind of like how when Hen and a couple of other Tezzos blockchain marketplaces went away, it's how your NFTs continue to exist really in the new marketplaces that are coming out is basically you just reapin those into a different service and then everything's like you're cooking with gas at that point. So obviously, Pendar is a more technically savvy artist. Not every artist has this kind of capability, not even just artists. I have a home server and I run a bunch of software that I manage myself. And not everyone wants to manage nodes or manage this. But what's interesting is that because the hash is just text files, really the overhead on what's going on technology wise, it would be pretty low if all you're kind of hosting is just images with text files and just text for the hashes. Really, you kind of spin this up pretty quickly, I'd say. I am kind of curious to know if there's any ways to kind of deploy A IPFs or some kind of chain to make this easier for everyone. So in the bitcoin community, for example, you can really get like a raspberry Pi and have the whole bitcoin blockchain running through a raspberry Pi and through an SSD. So the entryway for you to be able to have that data and host that data and partake and kind of continue making the blockchain decentralized and making it resilient against just one system or one thing kind of failing is really easy, or it's starting to get really easy. So I'm hoping to see something very similar to kind of with east. So I know, like, if you wanted to stake ETH for example, you would need 32 ETH, but with rocket pool and a couple of other tools, you're able to bring that barrier of entry a lot lower. Also, you're able to kind of make it easier to maintain a node kind of up. So same thing for IPFs. I wonder if we can do something similar as a community to make this easier. Like with my Bitcoin node, for example, I'm able to click a button, it updates itself, it does its own thing. It's pretty easy. So hopefully more technically, people or people that are coders can kind of come up with some kind of way to make it easier. And we don't have to really worry about this as much. Pindar did also make a comment about how, going back to my earlier point where the overhead on this would be, you could essentially do this as a one man team, or maybe a two man team. So it sounds like the overhead as storage becomes cheaper too. So I'm able to now buy like four terabyte SSDs for sub$500. If you go with the HDDs, you could even get cheaper. So I think as storage becomes cheaper, this might be a moot point at that stage. Like IPFs going down, sure, but we could spin up a node very quickly and have all of our NFTs kind of protected. Another tool that's out there is club NFT. This is exactly what they're doing. They're basically creating a backup of your images or your NFTs. So pretty awesome stuff. They charge a fee because it's all hosted versus you self hosting it. So definitely go check them out, let them know Gramaho sent you. There's no affiliates or anything, but yeah, if you really care about your NFTs, this discussion about on chain and IPFs and all that, and all the different flavors, it might be too technical, people might not care, but it does seem that my previous take of I prefer on chain NFTs over IPFs ones sounds like it's kind of new for the regular Joe kind of person. There's ways to validate that you own the image and the backups are there and all that. So whatever makes ETh more resilient to these kind of things, I'm all for it. Continuing with this on chain and IPFs and kind of where we're going with all this. So Oxdi did basically release some tools with Manifold to create on chain art. So the barrier now for artists or anyone really, to create on chain art is a lot lower. It used to be like you needed to be able to write your own smart contract and know it required a little bit more thinking or workaround or it wasn't as straightforward. And now it's a lot easier thanks to the work of Manifold and Ovix did so really great work. What this is kind of leading to is that Jack Kaido recently just gave us a little bit of a tease on a piece of on chain art. I don't know if Jack Kaido on Chain is going to be a thing coming soon to you, but would be pretty awesome. I personally have goals of mine. I have a project that I was kind of working on earlier that would have really made sense for it to have been on chain. And I've only minted one or two pieces, I think, for it. So I might just redo those and try and see if I can make them on chain or make the rest of the collection on chain. But yeah, I think to the detractors or to eon or whatever, to everyone out there, I think the issue is sort of overblown a little bit. I think that it's up to you whether you want to just buy on chain art or not. Or if you want to continue buying art, weave or IPFs art, just be aware of there are limitations to on chain. So, like, size limitations also cost a ton of money to move because the file is in the block size and the block size is determined on gas. So when you want to sell something, it costs a little bit more, depending on gas. So there's pros and cons to everything, obviously, so make your own determination on what you think. But I do think it is a little bit overblown, and it's exciting to see with the tools that we now have our disposal as artists. And I barely consider myself an artist, but it does seem like the future is bright in terms of our choices and what we want to do. And maybe it's the next meta as well. I've seen a tweet about that, how the next meta in a couple of months from now will be is on chain artists, and everyone's going to try and be an on chain artist and all that. So who knows? It's kind of like a Jess, but people are able to do whatever it is that they want. So the current meta right now is doing physicals. So if you want to do physicals, do physicals. It's up to you. Don't let people dissuade you from doing one thing or another. Just create and do your thing. Up next is want to talk about the avant art ranking so far, so currently, there's about, for those unfamiliar, Cosmo Medici and the avant arte. I say Arte because it's Spanish, but avant art for English speakers. They have a collaboration. They're trying to bring seven artists to do physicals and NFTs. And we're a little bit halfway, a little over halfway on this. So we have four pieces that we have seen. The Jake freed piece. The Jake freed piece is this first one right here, this black and white one, the most recent one, the Alpha Centauri piece, which is. It glitches in real life, the rip cash security piece, and the Luis Bonse piece here, which also uses ultraviolet pigments and all that. And then we still have, let's glitch, Monica Rizoli and William Pond, pieces still to be released. But I figured I'd take the time to appreciate kind of what we have so far and try and figure out which ones I like the most. You can let me know in the comments or shoot me a message on Twitter. Let me know what your orders are for now and which ones you like. So I think for me personally, I think the ones that I'm a big Alpha Centauri fan, I have a Alpha Centauri print that I got recently, a coral skull that I'm getting framed currently right now. I personally really like this office and Tor piece. I would probably put it as my number one for now. We'll see kind of where the other pieces go. There's three more to go, so we'll see. Things could change. But I'm feeling pretty strongly about this office and tour piece as my number one out of the seven. Kind of the things I like about it is I like the story behind about the wizard of Oz and Dorothy. I like that it glitches and kind of what it stands for. And it's just a great looking piece to look at. And I think with the glitch aspect of it, I think it'll be really cool to hang it up. It also is sort of inviting to put your own opinion into it. It's either going to get people to be like, what the hell is this? I don't like it. Or people are going to feel it right off the bat. So it really forces the person that's watching it or looking at it to really think about it. To me, that's what art is. It pushes us to think in certain ways or feel in certain ways. And this piece does that to me right off the bat. For the next one, I would say I really like the Jake freed piece as probably my number two also, it's a lenticular piece as well, so it kind of glitches as well. I think this is like a piece, I would say that probably wouldn't offend as many people on your wall. This or maybe the ripcatch piece. It's black and white, so it can go in any home, really. It's a pretty cool piece, too, just to look like it makes you want to get close to see the details. And Jake's just like, super talented individual. All these people are really talented individual, but not trying to knock on one or the other, but you could see the level of detail that's in this piece. It's lenticular as well. It's three eyes. So one's a zoomed in version with the flower, and then one's the bigger one and one's kind of like the one that's out in outer space. The one in the bottom? Yeah. I don't know. This is a really awesome piece. This is one that I really wanted. I might try and make a move towards getting it. I thought this would go really well on my walls as thought, you know, it'd be wife approved at this point because it's a pretty dope piece. So I would say the Jake freed one is probably my second favorite one so far between the ripcash and the Luis Bonce one, I'm a big rip cash fan. I don't know specifically where my wife would sit on this one, but I really do like this one. I like, again, going back to the on chain, Maxi little vibes that I got going. This is a part of the collection that's on chain for Ripcash. I like what Ripcash is doing. I do like that it's a scratcher. So the NFT isn't automatically given to you. You would have to make the determination whether you want to scratch where the little triangle is and be able to get the NFT associated with it. We recently had two sales of this. I think it was like a two. Four went to BBA and a three. Two just went this past like two days ago or something like that. If you want to get that kind of information, subscribe to my newsletter. I send a weekly newsletter on Mondays, and I did cover some of that. So a little bit of repeated information for the readers. But yeah, I do like the Ripcash. It's not to say I don't like the Luis Bonso one. I like Luis Bonso. Luis sponsor has been doing some really awesome work, especially on the physical side. So he had that crazy table that I think sold for like 50, 60K USD like a year ago or something. I think this one's a little loud for sure. I don't mind loud. Loud is fine with me. I mean, I have a pink skull, for God'S sake. This piece is pretty crazy to me. It uses ultraviolet pigments as well. Lee sponsor's art is very distinct. I also do, like, kind of how it uses Lisbons'heritage with inspiration or kind of background and put it into this. So what that means to me is Luis Bolanza is Mexican. For those that don't know the Mexican deities or gods from the Aztec times or from the, you know, they, there's a lot of cultural history there and a lot of stories. And to me, if you've seen my logo for the weekend, Djen, it's pretty much the Aztec out of gambling. I'm not even going to try enunciate the name. It's like super complicated. But yeah, I see pieces of that, pieces of his identity imparted into this piece of art. It's just a dope piece either way. So that's my current power rankings of the von art drops that we have. Let me know kind of where they stand for you in the comments. And, yeah, like I said, we still have three more, so let's see what happens. All right, rounding out the corner, the Simpsons episode. So for the Simpsons episode, some people were feeling bullish about it. Some people were feeling like it was more like of a disrespect or a diss towards the NFT space. I think I'm going to go with it was kind of like a diss a little bit to the NFT space. What kind of cracked me up about the episode was it gave me honey, I shrunk the kids kind of vibes. If you're old enough to remember that, if you're a boomer like me, it gave me that vibe. So Homer basically made Bart into an NFT, and it was kind of poking fun of that. I did also get a lot of undertones of digital art is a scam, and a lot of non talented people are making money. I mean, you could say that about regular art as well. Like with physical art. Partially true. There's some humor in truths or half truths. So that was definitely one of them. And then I also got kind of vibes of like the blockchain and digital art will make in real life museums or galleries, null and also physical art. It's just going to go by the wayside. I mean, as you guys know, from the current trend, physical art is still very much a predominant thing in digital art space, or NFTs. So I don't know, I guess if you're of the school of any press is good press, even if it's bad press. I guess this is good press. But to me it was like, I don't know, it was talking smack about the digital art space and it's easy to talk shit when it's like 90% down, I guess. But everything's down to me. So I don't know, it was fine. I wouldn't get hyped and go buy those Simpsons NFTs that aren't even official NFTs. So some recent prices and recent sales. So just in the last couple of 24 hours we had a 600 e crypto punks sale and crypto punks are actually just rallying. Shout out BCheck for kind of getting Gordon Goner to throw a comment from this. So it sounds like Gordon Goner, he's a big board, AP Yacht club kind of person, and cryptopunks and mebits and a couple of the other assets are all part of the Yuga Labs umbrella. So it looks like they were able to get the ETH to get this pretty awesome good looking San Francisco History Board ape. So really good, nice looking piece, 600 E. Congrats to Gordon Goner. We also had a recent sale in the last 48 hours from like the newsletter to now of this Fidenza that sold for 100 E was for 189,000 USD. So yeah, it looks like the market is picking back up. We'll see if it continues. Based on some of the recent tweets that I've been seeing from NFT stats, where most people have three to five wallets, it looks like that unique wallet measurement that we're doing might not be a great measurement. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see if we're back. I don't know if we're back, but yeah, thanks again for tuning episode one. And yeah, take care.