This is Ross Ulbricht. 10 years ago today, Ross was arrested for creating a website. If the government gets their way, he'll die in prison. Ross is serving a double life sentence plus 40 years for, again, creating a website. If that sounds ridiculous and infuriating to you, keep reading.  It gets worse. Ross created a website called Silk Road, which he designed to be a free market, secure, anonymous marketplace.  It used Bicoin for payment, and utilized a system called Tor which allowed buyers and sellers to access it anonymously and without any trace. An avid libertarian, Ross prohibited anything being sold on Silk Road that violated the Non-Aggression Principle. This included stolen items, counterfeit/fraudulent items, child p**n, assassinations, etc. A devout believer in nonviolence, Ross also prohibited the sale of weapons. Many items that were sold on Silk Road were legal, and a third-party study of the site inventory by Carnegie-Mellon University concluded that the drugs most commonly sold were small amounts of cannabis.  Most importantly, Ross was not convicted for selling, buying, or being in proximity to any of the items that were sold on Silk Road, legal or illegal. He was convicted for what others did on the site. Imagine if Elon, or Zuck, or any of the other owners of web platforms were charged for what other people did on them. On October of 2013, Ross was arrested by the FBI and charged with money laundering conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, fake ID trafficking conspiracy and narcotics trafficking. (Ross did not actually launder money, hack computers or sell illegal items himself. These charges were based on what users listed on the site.)   After his arrest, the prosecution fraudulently alleged that Ross attempted to have several people killed, but never charged him for this at trial, and his supposed "victim", Curtis Green, publicly stated that those allegations were false. He is a fervent supporter of Ross. Despite the fact that these false, unproven allegations were never prosecuted, the federal government used them in the media to paint Ross as some kind of violent criminal kingpin, despite the fact that he was nonviolent and lived a very meager life, living with 3 other roommates in an apartment. The FBI also seized over 144,000 Bitcoin that they found in a shared wallet on Ross's computer, which today is worth over $3.8 billion. During Ross's trial: - Evidence and testimony showing that multiple people ran the website was banned from being discussed at trial. - Ross's defense team was not allowed to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses or present their own witnesses - Key exonerating evidence was blocked by the judge - The prosecution was permitted to allege to the jury that Ross had hired hits on people despite never charging him with this or allowing him the opportunity to defend himself against the allegation The jury found Ross guilty on all charges, and the judge sentenced this first-time, nonviolent person to double life plus 40 years without parole. After Ross's trial, two of the key investigating federal agents were convicted on corruption charges related to Ross's case. Their existence was hidden from the jury during trial. Despite all of this, Ross’s conviction was lost on appeal, and the Supreme Court refused to hear his case. There is no other way to say it: Ross was railroaded by a corrupt federal government that wanted to make an example of him and steal his Bitcoin. During his 10 years in prison, Ross has continued to be a model citizen, teaching classes and tutoring his fellow inmates and helping them to earn their GEDs.  He has also completed several educational programs himself and has never received a single disciplinary sanction. Ross Ulbricht is a peaceful, nonviolent man who has never harmed anyone and whose only "crime" was to create a website that other people used to sell drugs that shouldn't be illegal in the first place. And for this, he's already spent a decade in prison. If he is not pardoned, or his sentence commuted, he will die there. That is unacceptable, and it is long past time for Ross to be set free. Obama could have set Ross free with the stroke of a pen, but he wouldn't. Neither would Trump. Neither has Biden. Let's replace them with someone who will. Ross, I am sorry for what you're going through, and I will not stop fighting for your freedom until you're back home where you belong. Free Ross Ulbricht.

They say a JPEG (technically a PNG) is worth a thousand words. Still feels surreal to know that CryptoPunk 110, an Autoglyph and many more important works of NFT-based digital art are hanging on the walls of the @CentrePompidou RIGHT NOW... for the culture, indeed.

AUTOGLYPH 2097

Minted zoo mutual Progressive #259 slbls.art/assets/0xD2903f322…

Satoshi Nakamoto on Bitcoin, exactly 14 years ago.

"A Chinese emperor orders the most talented painter in his kingdom to depict his favourite rooster, who has just died. He gives him three months. When the deadline passes, the emperor visits the painter, but the portrait is not ready. Just as he is about to severely punish him, the painter takes out a sheet of paper and draws, with exceptional precision, the profile of the much-loved cockerel. The emperor's anger explodes, because the painter would have had plenty of time to draw the portrait, but he wasn't ready. He raises his weapon at the painter, but the latter opens a huge cupboard filled with countless sketches and studies of the rooster in question. The emperor immediately realises how much practice it took to make this portrait, and invites him to his palace to complete the painting." – Vera Molnár

I know things are hard out there for generative artists right now. We're adjusting to a new reality where instant mint-outs are more and more rare. Secondary action and rapid profits for collectors have dried up, so there's a flight to safer names. That's meant emerging artists have had to shift their thinking to the steadier small sales, one edition at a time, that many of us knew before the Web3 boom. So what do we do? Things may or may not turn around, but I wanted to take a moment to shout out what I've seen work: 1. Great art still sells. We saw that on Alba with Undercurrents from @VolatileMoods and Tetra by @protozoo both minting out in December even as gas was 60-80 gwei midday. Other projects in that group show struggled, a couple of which I would call equally great, but by and large collectors still show up for great art. The bar is higher today, so as artists we have to rise to meet it. That means the "old days" of minting small experiments makes less sense. We can still share those experiments on socials, but burning up social capital to ask collectors to mint them makes less and less sense. This is even more true with on chain work. Artists should release/mint primarily the work they've invested serious time into, always putting your best foot forward. Even then, remember that collectors are more visually versed than they were three years ago — they've seen a lot of generative art in that time — so an average (or even good) work can struggle, which brings us to: 2. Making a daily post about your art that's open to mint works. Unless you wildly mispriced your piece, steady marketing works. Persistence matters more now than ever. If you continue to get the work in front of collector's eyes over several months, it should lead to gradual sales. But you have to stick with it. I want to shout out here @PauloSilvaGArt and his project Folia for his persistence in sharing an edition from his project each day on socials since the launch. The project sold an initial 73 editions. Not terrible. Not great. He's a smaller name that a lot of collectors don't know, so no surprises there. But over the last two months, he's made one post per day sharing outputs from the piece. He includes hashtags to help genart lovers discover his work. There's no link in the post (since twitter kills all posts with links), but he includes the link to the project in his bio and his pinned post so it's easy to find. And it's worked. In the last two months he's sold an additional 37 editions, that's an additional 50% increase in sales above and beyond his launch day mints — way more than he expected to sell after the first day. Daily posts work. And if you hate taking two minutes per day to make one, then use an app like Buffer to schedule your posts for the next month in a single afternoon. It's worth it. 3. Take more time between mints. With demand lower and the bar higher, it doesn't make as much sense to release something every few weeks. Taking time between mints allows you to raise your own standards as an artist, and strive to take your work further. Releasing something every 3-4 months is a good cadence for an emerging artist (at this particular moment). It gives you time between releases to make those steady, daily posts that attract new eyeballs. And it gives you time to refine your craft and focus on releasing only work where you've invested real time. On the flip side, don't take too long between releases either. I've seen emerging artists that waited 12-15 months between releases fade from collectors' memory in this space, so their follow up release can struggle from a lack of name recognition. I won't name names, but there have been a handful of good artists who've struggled on Alba over the last eight months for this exact reason. So it's important to stay visible. A more successful artist, with good name recognition, can afford to wait 8-12 months between releases, but that's not true for the majority of artists here. A cadence of 3-4 months hits an important sweet spot that makes room for both personal growth and steady posts leading to sales on your previous piece, both of which are vital to succeeding at this stage in the market. And that cadence also saves an artist from pouring in too much time at a time when collectors may simply not respond to a piece either. 4. The thing that most hurts a project today (other than a lack of new collectors overall in the space) is wildly mispricing your work. It's the one thing you often can't undo after a project is on chain and people have started collecting it. So it's super important for artists to be tuned into what their fellow artists are doing, keeping track of price points, how many editions sold, what platforms and chains are doing well — and ALL of the advice you'll hear around this is subject to change every quarter, sometimes even on a month-to-month basis. When I'm working with an artist, no conversation is more heartbreaking to me than having to give them a wake up call about pricing, because they're still thinking in numbers from 6-12 months ago (or worse). It's so important for artists to stay tuned in to what other artists at their level are doing, how they're pricing, how they're editioning, where they're releasing. It's essential to open your eyes and put in the legwork, because it's literally make or break for your project's success. And as an added bonus, when you pay attention to recent releases you'll likely also find some inspiration and motivation for your own art, and the places you could take your next piece. Otherwise it's like trying to be a writer that never reads, or only reads the great classics, but doesn't know what contemporary fiction looks like. In our space, where everything is evolving so rapidly, it's essential to be paying attention. I spend multiple afternoons each week doing studio visits with artists over Google Meet, and these are some of the realizations that have emerged from those conversations. Which, for all their difference, keep coming around to the same few topics, so I share them here now. Your mileage may vary. But I will continue to ring the bell of making daily posts about your open work. For emerging artists, at this moment, it works better than almost anything else I've seen. And it's something we need to step up and do if we want to succeed this year.

Gamble on lesser known artists and collect the art you love. The hierarchy we see is fragile, mostly a machination of hype and a few large collectors. Students of history know, especially in crypto and art, the wins come from your gut and the losses from playing others’ games.

I wrote a little reminder for artists and collectors why we are still here ❤️👇

the abyss is waiting

GM When people say there are only « cheap » art on Tezos, it means they are truly ignorant. If they only knew the amount of amazing artists making solo shows in renowned galleries and museums just this month, that have lots of incredible art on Tezos…. Undervalued art is NOT cheap art. It just means that there are not enough collectors in this space, with liquidity, able to go beyond hype. For now. I see collectors trying to educate themselves and search art beyond the obvious 20 names. I am optimistic. 🤍

♥️🌸

#tendered time: City Scapes #284 by @andreasrau_eu 👌

Paul Klee, The Museum of Modern Art, 1949. Designed by Paul Rand. designreviewed.com/artefacts… #paulrand #paulklee

GM if you love computer generative art!

Here's a recent Progressive that I like :) Progressive #246 suggest task slbls.art/progressive

Likely the earliest 'digital' artwork in existence, Oscillon 4 (1952), was created by American mathematician Ben Laposky, using an oscilloscope to manipulate electronic signals and photograph them in the shape of waves. A responsibility and deep privilege to steward this artwork

We are going to release the bitearth.io website as open source, enabling anyone to improve and develop their own applications based on the #Bitmap Earth standard. Fostering the development of diverse bitmap applications to propel the adoption of #bitmaps. 🌎🌍🌏🟧🚀

The quality of the works minted on Tezos has always been a cornerstone of this new digital art movement. The time has come to turn the spotlight back onto this ecosystem. In recent months, we have been working behind the scenes together with @objktcom to continue innovating and optimizing the possibilities for artistic expression and evolution...Get ready! Fakewhale x Objkt.com Stay connected ⚫

“Concrete poetry was the first international movement. Computer art was the second.” -Jasia Reichardt 16 Jan 2024