Ethereum

Art on Ethereum: a new series where we cover the latest news & give voices from the community a stage to share their ideas, stories, and visions

Yesterday’s guest: 113, artist & co-creator of mathcastles

With @lukeweaver.eth & @henry 
 
🧵1/24

Augmenting collective creativity through code

/bright-moments | /invaders | henrypye.xyz

Art on Ethereum: a new series where we cover the latest news & give voices from the community a stage to share their ideas, stories, and visions

Yesterday’s guest: 113, artist & co-creator of mathcastles

With @lukeweaver.eth & @henry 
 
🧵1/24
https://x.com/i/spaces/1OyKALBoVozxb

/ethereum foundation | opinions are my own but more than likely they come from Vitalik's blog paragraph.xyz/@chaskin

🧵3/24 - What is Ethereum, really?

It’s not just a ledger. It’s a single virtual computer. A public, persistent machine where you can run programs, indefinitely.
 
If Bitcoin is money, Ethereum is a programmable civilization.

🧵4/24 - Ethereum as a sculpture garden

“Some of us began to see Ethereum as a world computer sculpture garden. Programs on Ethereum are sculptures - permanent, running artworks.”

🧵5/24 - What Makes CryptoPunks Great?

It’s not just the images. It’s the program, unstoppable trading logic that lives onchain.

“Punks are Warholian not because they look like Warhol, but because the trading logic is the art.”

🧵6/24 - Crypto Art ≠ Finished

What if the most important art on Ethereum hasn’t been made yet? What if everything, including CryptoPunks, is just the warm-up?
 
The real art history is still to come.

🧵7/24 - The Bar Is Xerox PARC

“My favorite artist is Xerox PARC.”

 They didn’t just build tools, they reimagined what computing could be.

Ethereum art should aim that high.

🧵8/24 - Ethereum Is Infrastructure for Art

It’s not a speculative platform, it’s a medium. Like books, film, or vinyl, but more powerful.

Ethereum is an art substrate.

🧵9/24 - Constraints = Opportunity

Early Ethereum couldn’t do much. But like Game Boys or calculators, artists explored its constraints.
 
Great art often comes from constraint, not abundance.

🧵10/24 - What’s the Real Medium Here?

 Not JPEGs. Not marketplaces.

 The true Ethereum-native medium is:
 - Crypto-economic programs
 - Smart contracts
 - Autonomous art that acts and persists

🧵11/24 - Why Art Needs Ethereum

Because institutions won’t keep up. Museums, galleries, academia - they’re slow, gatekept, and not built for computation.

Ethereum is fast, open, composable.

🧵12/24 - No Experts. No Safety Net.

 There are no experts in this new medium.
 Artists must hold themselves to impossible standards.
 No one else will.

🧵13/24 - Build New Art Institutions
 
Ethereum doesn’t need old ones. We can create new institutions - built onchain, funded by crypto, shaped by community.

Ethereum is the city now.

🧵14/24 - The Crypto Art Scene Is Stuck

“People are hypnotized by what looks like art.”
 - Too many mimic TradArt tropes
 - Too few explore Ethereum’s unique materials
 - Too much friendship, not enough rigor

🧵15/24 - Real Art Requires Will

 You have to:
 - Exit the current context
 - Explore the substrate deeply
 - Imagine new frontiers

 That takes years, and most aren’t willing

🧵16/24 - Future Mediums: Rollups & Cryptoeconomics

 Ethereum has entered its third era. Sharding, rollups, L2s - new materials just dropped.

Almost no artists are using them. Yet.

🧵17/24 - Build Like It Will Outlive You

 Ethereum feels like it will still be running when we’re gone. What would you make, knowing your art might live forever?

🧵18/24 - Institutions Will Come Later

@henry: What role will institutions play in the Ethereum art world?

113: Maybe none. Or maybe they’ll emerge from within Ethereum itself. We don’t need MoMA to tell us this is art.

🧵19/24 - The Internet Is the Art City

 The real art city isn’t New York or London.
 It’s the internet.
 
And Ethereum is its center - coordinated, programmable, permanent.

🧵20/24 - Visionary Artists Will Emerge

“Eventually, someone will rise with the talent and will to create the first truly great Ethereum-native artwork. They’ll force it into existence. It might not be me. But it’s inevitable.”

🧵21/24 - What Does That Art Look Like?

 - Not just images
 - Not marketplace hype
 - Maybe a cryptoeconomic program
 - Maybe a fully autonomous world
 - Maybe a game, a DAO, a ritual

🧵22/24 - TLDR: What Ethereum Offers Artists

 - A new medium
 - A new economy
 - A new city
 - A new civilization

 You don’t need permission. You need vision.

🧵23/24 - Ethereum Isn’t Just Finance

 It’s computation.
 It’s culture.
 It’s infrastructure for the weird, the permanent, the collective.
 It’s the most important art city you’ve never seen.

🧵24/24 – Ethereum as the new art city

This Space explored why Ethereum isn’t just tech, it’s a cultural substrate.
113 shared a vision of:
- Art as code
- Programs as sculpture
- Onchain as eternity

Thanks 113, @lukeweaver.eth & @henry

🧵24/24 – Ethereum as the new art city

This Space explored why Ethereum isn’t just tech, it’s a cultural substrate.
113 shared a vision of:
- Art as code
- Programs as sculpture
- Onchain as eternity

Thanks 113, @lukeweaver.eth & @henry 
https://x.com/i/spaces/1OyKALBoVozxb

🧵2/24 - 113: OG digital artist

113 joined the Ethereum crowdsale in 2014 as a broke artist. Didn’t speculate, just wanted to use the tech. Ethereum called itself a “world computer”, but what kind of computer could it be?