Ethereum's Artistic Frontier: The EF Spotlights Onchain Art

Despite plenty of competition and criticism this cycle, Ethereum's dominance in NFTs remains unmatched.

This dominance runs both tall and wide:

• Tall, in the sense that all the biggest PFP projects and top art collections are still on Ethereum.
• Wide, in the sense that Ethereum also easily boasts the most breadth in crypto re: smaller creative scenes with pioneering innovators.

Of these scenes, one has always struck me as particularly emblematic of the cultural potential of Ethereum, and that's the one that's blossomed around fully onchain art in recent years.

That's why this week I thought it was awesome to see the Ethereum Foundation host a guest thread by Luke Weaver spotlighting Ethereum's onchain art movement.

Give the thread a read, it's excellent. The tl;dr is Ethereum’s onchain art movement is pointing toward a future where the great artists of the digital age won’t paint, but program.

That said, this scene is also demonstrating that Ethereum can be far more than just a financial network. It's now also a new kind of canvas, with programmable onchain art existing entirely within Ethereum smart contracts.

This sort of always-on, networked art is unprecedented in art history, and for those paying attention with a critical eye, the early works here are challenging traditional artistic ideas around permanence, interactivity, and accessibility.

That's because onchain artworks don't decay like physical art, and they can be endlessly and openly interacted with and composed on, forevermore. Plus, Ethereum never demands credentials for these indefinite, dynamic exhibitions.

This open programmability has provided a one-of-a-kind foundation for ambitious contract-based sculptures like Terraforms by Matchcastles and Cycles by Material Protocol Arts.

The big picture, then, is that Ethereum is a groundbreaking new artistic medium in its own right, where computation can be expression. And that's why it's great to see the Ethereum Foundation amplifying this message, as this reality has flown under the radar before.

This cultural advance is actually really incredible when you think about it, and it's absolutely worth celebrating. And if history is any guide, those who experiment early in a new medium often go down as legends. Collect accordingly.