Today I would like to tackle a scorching topic in the generative art space. Friendship Bracelets from Art Blocks + Alexis André.
Many wonder why they are so valuable and why there is such a high volume (especially considering the high supply of ~38,000).
Is this pure speculation? Is this a group pumping these bracelets to dump at some point? Or could there be additional reasons for this “unexpected” - by many - success?
Friendship Bracelets were a free mint (2) for anyone that collected an ArtBlock piece; only gas had to be paid.
Before we jump into these points, keep in mind this article or any of my content is not financial advice, and you should always do your own research. Also, full disclosure: I own 0 Friendship Bracelets and sold two after the FTX debacle hit.
Some of these are highly speculative reasons why Friendship Bracelets are already worth a lot and could continue to increase in value over time.
The community comments show a high interest and appreciation for the Friendship Bracelets. I found some examples from fans on Twitter. This is a subjective, debatable point.
Buddhanft.eth | BujiDAO (🤝,💫) @BuddhaNFT
What isn’t subjective is that the generative algorithm designed by Alexis André has an extreme amount of reach. It produced almost 40,000 bracelets making it the biggest-ever Art Block collection.
If we look closer at the description, these were conceptualized by snowfro himself. The ArtBlocks team was also involved in the palette design, so this collection could be labeled as an official drop by Art Blocks.
Erick was incredibly excited to collaborate with renowned artist Alexis André (a.k.a. MacTuitui) to bring generative art and ephemeral physical objects together in the form of friendship bracelets. Conceptualized by Erick and aesthetically and programmatically designed by Alexis, this project pairs creative coding with a beautiful spectrum of embroidery floss colors. The project was a true team effort, as each member of the Art Blocks team designed and named their own color palette!
Squiggles by Snowfro are ArtBlock’s first collection, emblem, and logo. Could we say the Friendship Bracelets are baby Squiggles?
Time for a simple, imaginative scenario.
Let’s say you are more of an investor than an art collector. Or maybe you are a mix of both. You are very excited about ArtBlock’s future, but you don’t have time to mint the newest drops every week, research old collections, or even be active in the secondary market.
The Friendship Bracelets are perfect for those in that situation (a big group of people) as they can “invest” in ArtBlocks, in a highly liquid collection. If ArtBlock’s success skyrockets in the long term, Friendship Bracelets should do too.
Liquidity plays a key role here, as some ArtBlocks collections are not so liquid, making them more of a long-term bet or purely interesting for art collectors.
No ArtBlocks collection is as liquid as the Friendship Bracelets.
Important: The Friendship Bracelets have been super liquid since their inception (around three months old). Things could change radically, and it is never guaranteed that this kind of liquidity will go on forever. Collecting a bracelet isn’t really investing in ArtBlocks.
Now things get a bit more speculative and crazy…
ArtBlocks has been pretty open about the generative anything concept. They see the generative experience transcending and expanding to other creative areas.
Since founding Art Blocks in 2020, artist Erick Calderon (a.k.a. Snowfro) has been intrigued by the idea of representing digital artwork in the physical world in the form of an ephemeral physical object with meaning, but with no inherent value.
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During Bright Moments Mexico City, I listened to a panel where Jeff Davis (ArtBlock Co-Founder) answered a question on this topic.
Do you see a future where generative artworks could available in places like Ikea?
Jeff didn’t hesitate and answered clearly, “yes, we believe this could be closer than most people expect.”
Not only generative artwork as it is right now. The generative engine could also be shaped and used by industrial designers or other creatives to bring structures or other physical or digital items to life1.
Inhabitable Bridge in Tokyo - algorithmic design has been widely adopted in architecture.
The Friendship Bracelets fit this description perfectly and take me to the next point, which might be closer in the making…
Many people have started to think about fashion in the digital world. Why not generative fashion designs that could be worn in real life?
I actually thought about this a bit when I experimented with my first gen art collection - Impossible Sneakers. It would be cool to generatively create fashion apparel, sneakers, shirts, pants, hats, whatever… So how would you go about doing something like this?
The generative or digital aspects aren’t the problem. The biggest issue is the supply chain to bring something like this to life. If someone wanted to go ahead and bring generative fashion to the real world, the most logical way to start would be a simple item. A bracelet fits this description.
Stefano Contiero's minting room at Bright Moments Mexico City had a fabric made from one output from his generative collection “Infinito.”
Gen22: Personalized Generative Fashion by Luis Fraguada and Elizabeth Bigger is the first collection that used a generative engine to create generative fashion.
If that is ArtBlock’s plan, these bracelets could play a key role. Either by being a premium item that could be purchased and distributed as a limited edition or making them some merch kick starter. In any case, bracelets would become more iconic as they would be one of the first fashion items to live digitally and physically.
@Kaloh_nft @artblocks_io @MacTuitui Final result 😅
Please note that we may in the future release additional modified iterations of the Friendship Bracelets project, ideally on an L2 scaling solution, that may substantially increase the total supply of tokens related to the project, with the intent of being a more accessible entry point to a larger audience.
ArtBlocks is exploring an expansion to an L2. Popular L2s are Polygon, Arbitrum, and Immutable X. If they do, it seems the team has already planned how the bracelets will play in that transition.
It could just be an expansion drop. Another round of gifts, down the road, for the growing ArtBlocks community. That would be cool.
But what if it is part of something bigger…
With such an ample supply, especially since it was mentioned already the supply could even get bigger, I can think of a very popular utility… The bracelets becoming ArtBlocks coin isn’t that crazy, is it?
Friendship Bracelets #28062 sold for 10 WETH and is the highest sale registered on OpenSea.
There are cons to the bracelets too. The large supply and the fact that nothing else could happen regarding ArtBlock’s execution. This is the most probable outcome, and I believe something needs to happen from a utility standpoint for it to acquire serious value.
This is probably the most speculative article I’ve written until now. Still, I think it is worthwhile considering some of these ideas could become a reality (I would be very excited if that is the case).
To close this article, I would like to thank my friend FAR because many of these ideas came from a chat we had, and I’d also like to point you to Collector’s Corner Twitter Space. Some of the opinions were mentioned to some extent, and I recommend you listen to the recording to hear additional viewpoints.
Collector's Corner @collectors_xyz
Until next time,
- Kaloh
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