Background

Jonathan Rosen is a New York artist known for his "Dream Machines," interactive mirrors that flash phrases about desire and fame at you faster than you can read them. In 2021 he wanted to do the same thing as NFTs: tokenize desires, one phrase per collector.

What I built

The first text-art based randomized NFT sales platform. Each mint pulled a phrase at random from a pool of over a thousand, rendered it in Rosen's style, and minted it as a one-of-a-kind piece. On top of the chance-based mint there were five 1-of-1 auctions on OpenSea, including a collaborative piece with Nasdaq's Purpose Initiative and Broadway Cares.

The launch was featured on the Nasdaq video tower in Times Square, and winners could get their name, logo, or wallet address up on the tower as part of the exhibition. Watching your contract's output on a building is a strange feeling.

Things I learned

1. Randomness on-chain is a design problem, not just a technical one. Collectors need to trust the draw.
2. Artists care about the rendering as much as the token. The type had to be right.
3. Launch day traffic for an NFT drop looks nothing like a normal web app. Plan for the spike.

More on the Team Zero project page.