fx(hash) is a generative art platform where creators design artwork using algorithms to generate unique artwork that is different with every iteration. It's one of the more creative experiments in Web3 content creation blending the generative nature of NFT collections with the bespoke art direction of smaller and more unique projects. It runs on the Tezos blockchain and has no direct equivalent on Ethereum besides Artblocks. In this post, we'll be covering how to explore, collect, and create on fx(hash).
One of the first things that makes fx(hash) different is that it runs on a schedule - you're unable to mint new projects during certain times and can only collect from secondary market. It's a remnant of the early days of the platform when fx(hash) would get pummeled with traffic, making it unusable for most people to participate.
Gallery
There's a few different ways you can navigate your way through fx(hash) to discover content and filter it down, the default option being the gallery view. When sorting by recently minted, it shows you the projects that have been most recently purchased on the primary, which is why most of the items in the screenshot appear to be fully minted.
Hot drops can sell out in a matter of minutes on fx(hash), so using the dropdown box you can switch to a sorting method that can yield more relevant results.
- oldest minted will sort by the items that were minted first, so the oldest items on fx(hash)
- editions refers to the total number of items able to be minted from a project
- balance refers to the number of tokens still available to mint from a project
- the filtering options will also let you view only verified/unverified artists, put restrictions on total number of editions and mint progress, as well as min/max prices
Incoming
The projects you'll see listed for the incoming section are ones that haven't opened up for purchase, but they will be in the near future. Set reminders for the items you really want to grab!
Articles
fx(hash) doesn't just do generative art, they also have a section for articles that anyone can publish. They accept Markdown format which is easy to pick up on, and you're also able to mint and sell these 'ARTKLs' as well, just like any other item from fx(hash).
Written content like this was a nice addition to fx(hash) and another source of uniqueness amongst other marketplaces. Here's greweb's resolutions for 2023, as an example.
Reveal Feed
The reveal feed shows you the items that have been most recently minted, one at a time. It's a good way to browse the most recent items purchased on fx(hash). Occassionaly this will also give me a sense of what projects are selling out quickly that you may want to jump on.
The Marketplace
The other section of fx(hash) that's good to explore is the marketplace section. Here you'll find the top charts that can be filtered down into 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and all time. Every item you see listed for sale in this section is a secondary sale, so be aware of that.
Collecting
Now that we know how to explore and navigate fx(hash), we'll probably have several different items that we're looking to purchase. There are two ways to collect on fx(hash) - the primary sale (minting from the project directly) and the secondary market. These NFTs can be easily seen on your DNS or OBJKT profiles, however other marketplaces don't seem to generate much volume for secondary sales of fx(hash) NFTs, so I recommend sticking to the native marketplace.
Primary Sale (a mint)
There isn't much to say about minting a primary sale on fx(hash). If you're on the page of a project and you like what you're seeing, then all you need to do is select the mint iteration button, confirm the transaction, and you're all set. At the moment of minting that's when the transaction hash is combined with your wallet address creating a unique combination that will serve as the seed for the attributes of the NFT.
Secondary Sale
Buying an NFT from the secondary market means buying an item from someone who already minted a generative piece. You might want to do this if you like a specific version of an art piece. When you find an item you want to purchase, simply navigate to the token page and hit the purchase token button. That's all there is to it.
Creating (some technical skills required)
The process of minting a generative token on fx(hash) is going to be outside the scope of things to cover in this blog post, but we do have a few resources that we can share to get you started if you are interested in digging deeper. The one exception to point out is the template that @PureSpider put together for doing generative PFP projects on fx(hash) - I wrote a guide for it that you can find here, and it's been minted as an ARTKL here if you want to collect a copy of it.
If you want to get into the nitty gritty of the code required to create projects then the best place to start is the docs section of fx(hash), as well as their GitHub repository which contains some very basic boilerplate templates.
fx(next)?
If you've been on the fence about fx(hash) you should now be pretty well equipped to venture out into this generative art platform. It's so different from the usual experiences we have with marketplaces that it really stands alone from the rest of the Tezos ecosystem.
I think my favorite project on fx(hash) this year was the Stoopid Avatar Project, and I recently added this stoopid thing to my collection. 👆
What were some of your favorite fx(hash) drops this year? Let us know on Twitter or drop us a line in Discord!