Digital art continues to be one of the best and most popular use cases for NFTs. The technology has enabled artists to sell their digital works online to a global collector base for the first time ever.
Generative art in particular has experienced a massive boom over the past couple of years. While the genre has been around for decades, it didn’t reach any level of mainstream interest until the advent of NFTs.
Art Blocks has long been the leading platform for the best artists to launch their generative projects. As highly curated as it is, and having been built on Ethereum, it’s also left a gap in the market for other platforms with alternative approaches. The best example of this is fxhash.
Just before we jump into what makes fxhash so interesting though, here’s a quick primer on generative art.
What is generative art?
The art you can buy on fxhash and Art Blocks is what’s called generative. Generative art is a huge and fascinating topic in and of itself and I won’t attempt to define and explain all its nuances here. If you’re interested in that, check out this article.
In the context of fxhash, you can simply think of generative art as digital art that’s created by an algorithm. Rather than creating a piece of art by hand or with an illustration software, the artist writes a piece of code that can then automatically generate a digital artwork.
Furthermore, the same code can automatically generate hundreds of pieces of art, all similar enough to fit into the same project but without any of them looking exactly the same. Thus, you can be sure that any piece you buy on a platform like fxhash is completely unique.
While generative art has been around for a long time, it wasn’t until the advent of NFTs that an actual market for it was enabled. With that came a massive opportunity for generative artists and collectors alike. Art Blocks was the first platform to facilitate this but is no longer your only option.
fxhash and the Tezos culture
fxhash was launched in November 2021 with a simple philosophy: “provide a framework so that generative artists can have a space in which they can mint their pieces meant to be generative. No curation, open to everyone.”
fxhash is built on the Tezos blockchain where transaction fees are negligible. This makes it extremely cheap for artists to launch their art and for collectors to buy and sell it. Ethereum, which is where most NFTs are created and what Art Blocks is built on, is known for the opposite.
This has made Tezos the ideal ecosystem for experimental art and indie artists. In fact, it has almost become synonymous with art and fostered a diehard community of artists and collectors who truly are in it for the art, the experimentation, and the original crypto- and NFT ethos.
fxhash fits perfectly with the Tezos brand so I’m not even surprised by the platform’s rapid adoption. NFTs on Tezos — and on fxhash — are fun and interesting, just like the people who are leading the way in creating and collecting them.
How fxhash works
If you’ve ever minted a piece of art on Art Blocks, you’ll have no trouble understanding the mechanics of fxhash. In fact, fxhash is often called “the Art Blocks of Tezos”. That being said, the two platforms are fundamentally different in a few important ways. I’ll get to that in a moment.
The main premise of fxhash is that artists can launch and sell their generative collections directly on the platform. Collectors, like you and me, can go onto the site and mint a piece of art from a given collection as soon as it’s launched.
Artworks from some of the most popular fxhash collections: hollow, Tesseract, and horizon(te)s
Since we’re dealing with generative art here, you won’t know exactly how your piece looks until after you’ve minted it. That’s part of the allure of the genre.
Aside from the exact launch time, the artist also specifies the collection size and the price per NFT. Collections on fxhash typically consist of tens or a few hundred pieces. A few collections are much larger than that though. Unicorn, as an example, is a classic 10,000-piece avatar collection.
The prices on fxhash are one of the aspects that really set it apart from Art Blocks. Whereas new drops on Art Blocks typically range from ~$100 to several thousand, you can buy plenty of cool artworks on fxhash for a few dollars. Many can even be minted for free.
Three live mints at the time of writing, each priced between 0.35 and 1 tez ($0.5 to $1.50)
Whereas everything on Art Blocks is curated to some extent, fxhash is completely open to anyone. This attracts a lot of new and aspiring artists who don’t (yet) charge serious money for their work. It also inspires creativity and fosters a culture of indie art for art’s sake.
Ultimately, the way fxhash is designed makes it an awesome place to begin your journey as a generative NFT art collector — or as a generative NFT artist, for that matter!
How to get started on fxhash
Before you can buy anything on fxhash, you need to create and fund your Tezos wallet. NFTs on the Tezos blockchain are purchased with TEZ (also known as XTZ), which you can buy on most crypto exchanges. As for the wallet, you have a few good options. I personally use Temple and Kukai.
Once you’ve got your Tezos wallet loaded up, you can connect it to the fxhash website by clicking the ‘sync’ button in the top right corner. You’re now ready to buy your first piece of art on fxhash.
Explore collections
The ‘explore’ page is a great place to begin your shopping on fxhash. Here you’ll see all the recently launched collections. You can even filter by price, number of editions, or mint progress. The latter is quite useful for finding collections that haven’t yet sold out.
The ‘explore’ page lets you browse all the new collections on fxhash
One other noteworthy option on the explore page is the ability to search by tags. This essentially means that you can search for art with a certain style or subject matter. Try searching for “retro”, “isometric”, “nature”, “pixelart”, or “skull”, for instance.
Mint an artwork
When you go to a collection page, you can see all the details like price, description, time of publishing, and royalties. You can also see the pieces that have been minted so far to get a better idea about what to expect.
Once you’ve found something you like, all you need to do is hit ‘mint iteration’ and confirm the transaction in your wallet. If you’re using Temple, it will automatically pop up and ask for your confirmation.
An example of a collection I just minted (Neutral, iteration #45)
As soon as your purchase is confirmed, you’ll see an option to reveal the artwork. Now is the time to admire your new piece of NFT art! And perhaps go for seconds when you realize how much you like the art, the experience, and the fact that it only cost you $2.
Buy on the marketplace
If you’re new to fxhash, you’ve obviously missed out on hundreds of cool new collections over the past months. But fret not, fxhash has its own marketplace for collectors like you and me to trade amongst each other. Here you’ll find lots of cool pieces that have already been minted but are now put up for sale by the owner.
This is very useful when you stumble upon a collection on the explore page that already minted out, learn about an older collection elsewhere, or simply go to browse the marketplace directly on fxhash.
The fxhash marketplace and an example of an artwork listed for sale
Buying a piece of art on the marketplace is just as easy as minting one. Simply click ‘purchase token’ and confirm the transaction in your wallet.
Sometimes you’ll find a piece that you love but think is overpriced. Or maybe it’s not even listed for sale. In that case, you can always make an offer and hope the owner accepts it. With all the amazing art that’s easily available, you probably won’t find a big need for this at first though.
Iconic fxhash collections
While fxhash is certainly a go-to place for aspiring and upcoming artists, it’s also home to some of the most popular ones in the NFT space.
‘Garden, Monoliths’ by Zancan
Zancan is one of the most popular artists in the entire NFT space. His genesis collection on fxhash, called ‘Garden, Monoliths’, is by far the most traded of all collections on the platform.
Inspired by the blooming spring in 2021, Zancan set his initial goal of using mathematical formulas for creating patterns inspired by the density of nature. It resulted in 255 beautiful pieces, the cheapest of which are now selling for almost 30,000 tez (~$45,000).
3 pieces from the ‘Garden, Monoliths’ collection
Zancan is actually behind three of the four most traded collections on fxhash. The other two are ‘(kinder)Garden, Monuments’ and ‘A Bugged Forest’.
‘(kinder)Garden, Monuments’ by Zancan & Yazid. This collection is, in the words of the artists, “dedicated to kids, those who were once children, to the dreamers and builders who still enjoy playing with cubes.” And you’ll quickly understand the references to cubes and builders when you begin browsing through the 309 beautiful artworks. They’re classic Zancan, although the collection was created in collaboration with another great artist, Yazid.
3 pieces from the ‘(kinder)Garden, Monuments’ collection
‘A Bugged Forest’ by Zancan. Having launched in June of 2022, ‘A Bugged Forest’ is Zancan’s newest collection. With 1,000 editions, it’s also his largest and lowest-priced with a current entry point of 1,500 tez (~$2,250). The art is no less stunning than his other works though.
3 pieces from the ‘A Bugged Forest’ collection
RGB Elementary Cellular Automaton’ by ciphrd
‘RGB Elementary Cellular Automaton’ is a 1,000-piece collection built on the concept of elementary cellular automation, “where 3 different rules are drawn in the Red, Green and Blue color components of the image.” It’s created by the artist known as ciphrd, who also happens to be the creator of fxhash.
3 pieces from the ‘RGB Elementary Cellular Automaton’ collection
‘Dragons’ by William Mapan
William Mapan is the man behind ‘Anticyclone’, one of the leading Art Blocks projects with a current floor price of 6.69 ETH (~$10,000). He’s also the man behind ‘Dragons’, one of the most iconic collections on fxhash.
While the description of Dragons on fxhash is rather sparse, you’ve got plenty of options to get to know William Mapan and his art a little better.
- Interview with Jeff Davis of Art Blocks (article)
- Interview with Jason Bailey of Right Click Save (article)
- Art Blocks After Dinner Mints, episode 55 (video)
- Conversation about Dragons with Bruno Imbrizi (video)
- Conversation about art, lifestyle, & NFTs with TechArt (video)
3 pieces from the ‘Dragons’ collection
‘Smollskulls’ by Mark Knol
While fxhash is first and foremost an art platform, you’ll also find a few popular avatar/profile picture projects. ‘Smollskulls’, a collection of 2,000 simple pixel art-style skulls on colored backgrounds, is widely recognized as the preeminent one in this category. It’s also the pfp-of-choice for many of the biggest Tezos art collectors.
Mark Knol, the artist behind the project, is a developer/artist who’s dropped more than 20 collections on fxhash. If you want to learn more, I highly recommend this piece that was just published by Kaloh, one of the leading experts on all things Tezos and digital art.
3 pieces from the ‘Smollskulls’ collection
‘Fragments of a Wave’ by Ryan Bell
Ryan Bell is an engineering lead at Upshot and a prolific artist with 10 beautiful collections on fxhash. In addition to ‘Fragments of a Wave’, my personal favorites are ‘Sprocket Factory’ and ‘Dreamcatcher Forest’.
While a piece from ‘Fragments of a Wave’ will set you back at least $1,000, many of Ryan’s other collections are much more affordable. I encourage you to go explore his creations and find your own favorites.
3 pieces from the ‘Fragments of a Wave’ collection
Closing thoughts and additional resources
Most people still view NFTs and digital art as expensive assets meant to make you rich. This has to a large extent taken the fun out of something that used to be all about creativity, experimentation, and self-expression.
The art scene on Tezos and fxhash in particular are made for art. Indie artists trying all kinds of weird and interesting things. No big promises or expectations of million-dollar returns. Just art for art’s sake.
I highly encourage you to adopt this mindset as you go browse around for half an hour on the platform. I’m sure you’ll find something you like and understand what I’m talking about.
In addition to the fxhash website itself, I’ve listed a few more resources to help you learn and stay up to date with fxhash and Tezos more broadly. With that, I wish you a wonderful journey into the amazing world of generative art!
- Kaloh is one of the leading experts on Tezos NFTs with an active Twitter account and a great newsletter.
- MattW is another leading figure in the Tezos NFT space and definitely worth a follow on Twitter. Also, notice his Smollskull profile picture.
- fxhashdrops on Twitter helps you stay on top of new and ongoing mints on fxhash.
- fxhash provides a lot of great documentation on the background of the platform, its operating philosophy, and practicalities for artists and collectors alike.
- fxhash has its own Discord server as well. Although there isn’t a ton of activity in there, it’s worth joining and checking out for yourself.
- Two Bored Apes is one of my favorite podcasts. They cover a wide range of NFT-related news, but always have a recurring segment on Art Blocks, fxhash, and generative art in general.
