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Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGRuntime Art on an Always On Computer
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGWe Don’t Need More Collectors. We Need Better Patrons.
One of the quiet downsides of blockchains (especially in the context of art) is how good they are at making transactions easy. This sounds like praise, and often it is framed that way. Frictionless markets. Global access. Instant liquidity. No gatekeepers. All true... And also deeply consequential in ways the NFT space hasn’t fully reckoned with. Historically, art didn’t become valuable because it was easy to buy. 𝑰𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒖𝒍...
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGDriFella I. The Legend of DriFella
𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒇. A Dratini (a faithful companion, a symbol of gentleness) lies dead. The world it leaves behind is grey and empty. In that hollow moment a figure steps forward from the shadows: a Shinigami, a gatekeeper of the underworld. The bargain it offers is simple, brutal... irresistible. Your friend can return, but only if you bind it to another soul. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒊𝑭𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂. The sou...
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGRuntime Art on an Always On Computer
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGWe Don’t Need More Collectors. We Need Better Patrons.
One of the quiet downsides of blockchains (especially in the context of art) is how good they are at making transactions easy. This sounds like praise, and often it is framed that way. Frictionless markets. Global access. Instant liquidity. No gatekeepers. All true... And also deeply consequential in ways the NFT space hasn’t fully reckoned with. Historically, art didn’t become valuable because it was easy to buy. 𝑰𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒖𝒍...
Ramblings of a Degen by SonOfLasGDriFella I. The Legend of DriFella
𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒇. A Dratini (a faithful companion, a symbol of gentleness) lies dead. The world it leaves behind is grey and empty. In that hollow moment a figure steps forward from the shadows: a Shinigami, a gatekeeper of the underworld. The bargain it offers is simple, brutal... irresistible. Your friend can return, but only if you bind it to another soul. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒊𝑭𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂. The sou...
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Let’s ground theory in dirt. Examples of crypto-native art that actually embodies these affordances. Not just JPEGs taped to a blockchain.
Art as Executable Scarcity
Autoglyphs — Larva Labs
The piece is the algorithm. No image file needed. The blockchain is the gallery and the factory.
Why it couldn’t exist before:
You can’t hand people a lithograph and say “the art is the machine that made it... go mint one from the machine yourself.”
Art as State-Responsive Organism
Terraforms — Mathcastles
Not a picture. A living, on-chain spatial simulation tied to Ethereum block height. The chain becomes geography. Collectors don’t own images; they own land in a computational world.
Why it matters:
It collapses art, simulation, memory and chain-time into one substrate.
Art as Collective Ritual
Checks / Opepen — Jack Butcher
The artwork isn’t static; it’s co-authored by community participation, iteration, remix and release cadence.
Why it’s native:
The collector isn’t a consumer — they’re a player in the unfolding composition. The drop itself is art.
Trad art auctions don’t become the medium. Here, they do.
Art as Time-Stamped Belief
Chromie Squiggles — Snowfro
Simple visually, but radical culturally. The mint = the birth of a movement. Early collectors weren’t “buyers,” they were founding members of a generative culture.
The affordance unlocked:
Provenance as community-level identity. Holding is membership.
Art as Network Memory
Sam Spratt — The Masquerade / The Monument Game
The act of participating in the lore becomes part of the work. You don’t just view it. You enter the world, leave footprints and the system remembers.
Old world analogue:
There isn’t one. A Renaissance fresco doesn’t change because you prayed near it.
Art as Permissionless Myth Factory
Nouns / Daily Meme Objects
A perpetual art engine tied to a treasury and governance. The art funds more art, memes, culture, IRL impact. Community becomes canon-writer.
This isn’t a collection. It’s a protocol for culture formation.
No gallery system on Earth could sustain one-a-day forever backed by autonomous capital.
Art as Pure Cryptographic Gesture
Cory John’s “Ordinal · 0” inscriptions
Pieces created inside Bitcoin constraints, treating satoshis like physical atoms. Similar to drawing on atoms of gold while everyone else trades bullion.
What’s new:
Medium = chain. Not medium = image.
Art as Economic Game / Performance
Punk6529 — The Memes
Not just images. A memetic coordination game encouraging freedom propaganda, ownership literacy, and cultural participation through shared visual language.
It’s propaganda... in the noble sense.
Art as Self-Rewriting Codebase
Mitchell F. Chan — The Boys of Summer / Perfect & Priceless
Tokens that reveal, update, or reference philosophical texts and evolving logic tied to ownership conditions. Art that thinks with you.
Trad art can depict philosophy.
This stuff performs it.
Art as Proof-of-Self
Botto
Decentralised autonomous artist learning from collector feedback. Community literally trains the aesthetic. A feedback loop between audience and machine.
Not “AI making art.”
AI + human governance producing taste.
The Pattern Emerging
None of these objects are “pictures with receipts.”
They’re experiments in:
• art as software
• culture as executable code
• ownership as participation
• provenance as identity formation
• time as material
• community as author
• money as medium... not intruder
Trad art didn’t fail to invent these.
It couldn’t. The platform physics weren’t there.
Crypto unlocked them.
Let’s ground theory in dirt. Examples of crypto-native art that actually embodies these affordances. Not just JPEGs taped to a blockchain.
Art as Executable Scarcity
Autoglyphs — Larva Labs
The piece is the algorithm. No image file needed. The blockchain is the gallery and the factory.
Why it couldn’t exist before:
You can’t hand people a lithograph and say “the art is the machine that made it... go mint one from the machine yourself.”
Art as State-Responsive Organism
Terraforms — Mathcastles
Not a picture. A living, on-chain spatial simulation tied to Ethereum block height. The chain becomes geography. Collectors don’t own images; they own land in a computational world.
Why it matters:
It collapses art, simulation, memory and chain-time into one substrate.
Art as Collective Ritual
Checks / Opepen — Jack Butcher
The artwork isn’t static; it’s co-authored by community participation, iteration, remix and release cadence.
Why it’s native:
The collector isn’t a consumer — they’re a player in the unfolding composition. The drop itself is art.
Trad art auctions don’t become the medium. Here, they do.
Art as Time-Stamped Belief
Chromie Squiggles — Snowfro
Simple visually, but radical culturally. The mint = the birth of a movement. Early collectors weren’t “buyers,” they were founding members of a generative culture.
The affordance unlocked:
Provenance as community-level identity. Holding is membership.
Art as Network Memory
Sam Spratt — The Masquerade / The Monument Game
The act of participating in the lore becomes part of the work. You don’t just view it. You enter the world, leave footprints and the system remembers.
Old world analogue:
There isn’t one. A Renaissance fresco doesn’t change because you prayed near it.
Art as Permissionless Myth Factory
Nouns / Daily Meme Objects
A perpetual art engine tied to a treasury and governance. The art funds more art, memes, culture, IRL impact. Community becomes canon-writer.
This isn’t a collection. It’s a protocol for culture formation.
No gallery system on Earth could sustain one-a-day forever backed by autonomous capital.
Art as Pure Cryptographic Gesture
Cory John’s “Ordinal · 0” inscriptions
Pieces created inside Bitcoin constraints, treating satoshis like physical atoms. Similar to drawing on atoms of gold while everyone else trades bullion.
What’s new:
Medium = chain. Not medium = image.
Art as Economic Game / Performance
Punk6529 — The Memes
Not just images. A memetic coordination game encouraging freedom propaganda, ownership literacy, and cultural participation through shared visual language.
It’s propaganda... in the noble sense.
Art as Self-Rewriting Codebase
Mitchell F. Chan — The Boys of Summer / Perfect & Priceless
Tokens that reveal, update, or reference philosophical texts and evolving logic tied to ownership conditions. Art that thinks with you.
Trad art can depict philosophy.
This stuff performs it.
Art as Proof-of-Self
Botto
Decentralised autonomous artist learning from collector feedback. Community literally trains the aesthetic. A feedback loop between audience and machine.
Not “AI making art.”
AI + human governance producing taste.
The Pattern Emerging
None of these objects are “pictures with receipts.”
They’re experiments in:
• art as software
• culture as executable code
• ownership as participation
• provenance as identity formation
• time as material
• community as author
• money as medium... not intruder
Trad art didn’t fail to invent these.
It couldn’t. The platform physics weren’t there.
Crypto unlocked them.
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