Imagine if you could store your memories in a format that would live forever. Imagine if you could take a walk in a musical garden, where each of the flowers contain a different song. Imagine if you could share a file with someone by sharing seeds. Imagine if you could grow NFTs that were alive. 

This is the vision of Non-Fungible Plants; blending regenerative thinking, artistic creativity, web3 technology and synthetic biology to develop a symbol for what might be, if we allow our imaginations and emerging technologies to combine in unexpected ways.

Through Non-Fungible Plants, my goal is to cultivate a community of optimistic 'gardeners' passionate about realising this vision. This project envisions a future where digital and biological data systems collaborate to establish a truly regenerative model for data.

What are Non-Fungible Plants? 

Non-Fungible Plants (NFPs) are living plants with digital data encoded in their DNA. They are a biological equivalent of an NFT. Like many NFTs, an NFP can be seen as simultaneously an artwork and an asset. Depending on the file size, an NFP could host an artwork, or simply act as a certificate of ownership / authenticity. 

While NFTs live on-chain, NFPs are in-plant. Since plants have life-cycles, NFPs are distributed via seeds and synthetic DNA. This represents an early experiment with the possibility of using biological computing as a low-carbon complement to data storage, data archival and blockchains. An evolution from the digital to physical, bytes to bases, carbon emitting to carbon absorbing.

How do you grow an NFP?

To create an NFP, we start with a digital file (like a JPEG) and convert the binary code (0s and 1s) of digital data into the language of DNA (A, T, C, G). Next, strands of DNA are created through a process known as DNA synthesis, ultimately transforming digital data into biological matter.

This synthetic DNA can then be incorporated into the genome of an organism such as a plant through targeted genetic engineering techniques. Thereby seamlessly integrating digital data into a living breathing organism.  

Using a small amount of digital data (in this case an NFT) does not affect the plant’s characteristics or interfere with the plant’s living processes. The data is furthermore stored in the non-coding regions, sometimes known as ‘junk DNA’, to avoid any disruption to the plant.

To retrieve the data, samples from the plant can be taken and sequenced using DNA sequencing technologies. The sequencer reads the order of the DNA bases (A, T, C and G) and can be fed to decoding software that can convert the sequence back to binary.

This process has been demonstrated in works such as The Data Garden by Grow Your Own Cloud (a research organization I co-founded), which exemplifies how digital files can be stored and retrieved from the DNA of plants.

Through the DNA data storage technology that powers NFPs, we could one day archive enormous amounts of data, with very little energy, for extremely long periods of time, all within a fraction of the space of a conventional data centre. At the moment the amount of data that can be stored in this way is relatively small, particularly in organisms such as plants. However, the science is rapidly advancing.

How can I be part of this?

The goal is to bring Non-Fungible Plants to life with a community of aligned individuals (Join Us). I see web3 as an enabler for this type of community led growth, especially for projects like NFP which offer people the chance to be early, to be part of history and to be part of growing the future.

Cyrus Clarke

@cyrusclarke

Introducing 𝑁𝑜𝑛-𝐹𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 (𝑁𝐹𝑃𝑠)

Living plants with 𝑁𝐹𝑇𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝐷𝑁𝐴
A carbon absorbing culture shift 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑤𝑒𝑏3 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒
Be part of history (𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒)

Collect 𝑃𝑟𝑒-𝑆𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑁𝐹𝑇:…

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1:33 PM • Jan 23, 2024

1. Pre-Seed Round (Open until Jan 29th)

First up is the Pre-Seed Round (live now) where people can collect a beautiful digital artwork, fittingly a digital flower. This artwork symbolises the flowers we need to spread their pollen, and grow future seeds.

It is distributed as an open-edition NFT via the platform Artizen, with all funds matched by sponsors who seek to enable public goods and regenerative ideas.

This is your chance to get in early, collect beautiful art and receive the ‘Early Gardener’ role. Each flower is priced at 0.01 ETH – you can collect as many as you like. Collect more than 10 and you will receive a guaranteed spot on the Whitelist to the Seed Round. The pre-seed round will be open until January 29th (9am PST). 

*You can also support the project via Credit Card by following these instructions.

1. Seed Round (It’s literally a Seed Round)

Next, is a very literal Seed Round. Collectors will have the chance to grow digital seeds. But these are no ordinary digital seeds.

Each seed will be unique and generated based on the collector’s wallet address or ENS. This wallet address will be stored and used for the next round - the IPO or Initial Plant Offering.

1. Initial Plant Offering (IPO)

For the Initial Plant Offering, every wallet address from the Seed Round will be used to create a collective digital file. This in turn will be stored in the DNA of an actual, living plant. 

This means you and every other participant will be part of the first ever Non-Fungible Plant. This NFP will contain and be in itself a collective artwork; a symbol for the regenerative vision of this project.

Non-Fungible Plants will grow on a digital garden platform - NFP.garden. A beautiful, garden themed website that features a low-carbon mode.

To help the project grow we’ve had support from across the web3 and biotech space including from the incredible people at Seed Club, Polygon Labs, Ginkgo Bioworks, Artizen and Valley DAO. 

Since launch 48h ago, we’ve already had 100+ mints of our Pre-Seed NFT, and we can’t wait to welcome even more of you into the Garden community.

Where might this lead?

NFP is an early-stage research project with multifaceted deliverables. It pushes the boundaries of synthetic biology and Web3, contributes to pioneering research in DNA data storage, and offers a visionary perspective on how we can address the challenges of climate change

Following the Initial Plant Offering (IPO) the goal is to start growing NFPs regularly with creators, companies and causes. These will initially be only available to collectors of our Pre-Seed and Seed NFTs. 

There is already significant demand from companies and consumers to leverage this idea of plant-as-a-platform, and in the medium term the goal is to improve the efficiency of the processes involved, such that this might be a viable commercial platform for growing data infused plants.

Vision

For me personally, Non-Fungible Plants is about sharing a new vision for technology that reconnects us with nature, while offering a hopeful vision for the future, where our data can actually help to regenerate the planet. 

My aspiration is to enable everyone to grow their own NFPs, allowing them to encode cherished memories to share across generations while fostering a unique connection between ourselves and other species.

The project aims to grow a community of ‘gardeners’ who are interested in seeing this vision come to life. Most importantly, I hope to be part of inspiring a future where digital and biological data systems work together to create a more regenerative model for data infrastructure.

Learn more: NFP.garden

Join Us: Community

Be an Early Gardener: Mint Pre-Seed NFT

Follow me: @cyrus (Farcaster) and @cyrusclarke (Twitter)