24/08/2021 Somebody just paid $1.3 million for a picture of a rock

Clip art of a rock just sold for 400 ether, or about $1.3 million, late Monday afternoon. The transaction marks the latest sale of EtherRock, a brand of crypto collectible that’s been around since 2017 – making it one of the oldest non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the block.

EtherRock is, as the name implies, a JPEG of a cartoon rock, built and sold on the ethereum blockchain. There are only 100 out there, and that scarcity is part of what’s driving up its value.

So, what are these rock pics good for? According to the EtherRock website, “These virtual rocks serve NO PURPOSE beyond being able to be brought and sold, and giving you a strong sense of pride in being an owner of 1 of the only 100 rocks in the game :)”

Following this latest sale, the new price floor for an EtherRock NFT has been raised to $1.02 million. Two days ago, the cheapest rock went for $305,294. Two weeks ago, it was $97,716.

The run-up in sales price coincides with a wider surge in NFTs, which are blockchain-based tokens signifying ownership of a digital asset. For example, some people are buying digital images of apes and changing their Twitter images to signify membership in the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Following a dip in demand this spring, the overall NFT market staged a massive comeback, starting at the end of June.

For instance, NFT marketplace OpenSea surpassed $1 billion in monthly trading volume in August, according to data compiled by The Block, up 286% from July.

Even Visa has jumped into the NFT craze. The payments processor announced Monday that it had spent $150,000 in ether on a “CryptoPunk” – one of thousands of NFT-based digital avatars.

 

Visa’s CryptoPunk purchase is another example of a Fortune 500 racing to incorporate NFTs into their marketing strategy,” said Scott Spiegel, co-founder at BitBasel, a Miami-based blockchain start-up. “Brands such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Pringles have released NFTs of their own, but Visa’s purchase marks the largest investment in the space to date.”

Arts

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/23/people-are-paying-millions-of-dollars-for-digital-pictures-of-rocks.html

Interesting NFTs
The Scion
A young figure caught in a moment of distraction, aware only ephemerally of his unconscious being, as it engages in psychological and psychedelic layer spaces. His right arm casually cradles a moray eel; the figure is comfortable but not truly aware of the potentials for danger in such negligence. His shirt reads “Bello” in Pokemon style font, harkening back to a childhood straddling the millennial threshold. To his right side, out of the unconscious deep, shrouded alien heads propagate as a fractal totem, each new iteration a more sophisticated rendering of emotional masking over the cold mystery of the greys. As the scion of the Budgie-Sattva, the young man, in his distraction, is also simultaneously aware of higher levels of self discovery. To his left a psychological topology sets beneath the oracle side of an 8 ball ,hovering; its message a purest concept of acceptance. The “Scion” lettering is in 80’s HeMan style bold declaration. The lower right side of the painting is like a hybrid of melon, feathers, and seeds. The crystals in the background bring light; conducted, refracted, reflected, and dispersed, to balance the dark shadow of the figure’s physical body. The aura of the scion succeeds in layers to point, with a finger, and the crown chakra, toward a center of a mandala existing as nigh pure application of strokes, in essence painterly abstraction, but also revealing hints of the Aura of migraine, and the bi-hemispherical nature of the brain–noting concerns of the possibility of inherited mental disease. Yet the flourish of chakra as it sets against that center is robust, active, coherent, and reveling against all fear. Fundamentally, the piece speaks to the activation of one’s potential to begin to “Know Thyself”, and find greater awareness out of the enigmas of the mind–as an inculcated seed given to the rich soil of one’s own birthright.
CryptoKitties
*hissing noises*! I'm Kitty #453231. I'm a Dogwalker by day, and I like practicing witchcraft by night. I was voted biggest teacher's pet in college. I think you'll love me beclaws I have cattitude.
Wink
The eye of providence blinks. Originally posted to tumblr June 26, 2012.
Tactical Cats
Tactical Cats Practical cats, dramatical cats.. Experience the lighthearted inner smile when you are purrfectly purrrple. The cat's meow of pick-me-up paints with swirling tails of joy as vivid as the swirling magentas, blues and purple. I was able to with this work quietly paint a tribute to memories of meeting fans and revisiting "old friends" within the paint itself. All while pretending to paint a version of catwoman for the audience. More on that in bonus material. This is an alternate animation made specifically for crypto art collectors. This NFT depicts the rare, unused in media: verified image. Mixed Media: Bio/Digital. Glycerin on 5'9" human skin 10-14 hours Performance art. Shot on Canon EOS RP. 16 + hours Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve. All Works are SFW. Art has been Seen on the front page of Reddit, Featured in the New York Times, Galileo.tv, and multiple other promotions including Twitch.tv, Disney Interactive, RIOT games, WB games, AMD and more! More on how this art is unique and potentially explosive in the NFT world: https://youtu.be/CXbNF2Y6srs ------------------------- The purchase of this NFT Grants the buyer unique bonus material. Physical mail Bonus Package: A Physical Art Print. Autographed from the Artist in 12x16. Please allow a few weeks for Delivery. Digital Bonus Package: This image in .mp4. An "About the Art" Video and an "From the Artist" introduction. A README.txt about the artwork with some personal notes and Links relevant to the artwork.
CryptoPunk #6817
The CryptoPunks are 10,000 uniquely generated characters. No two are exactly alike, and each one of them can be officially owned by a single person on the Ethereum blockchain. Originally, they could be claimed for free by anybody with an Ethereum wallet, but all 10,000 were quickly claimed. Now they must be purchased from someone via the marketplace that's also embedded in the blockchain.