Trevor Jones, Don Diablo, & Alotta Money Launch Ethereal NFT

Artists Trevor Jones, Don Diablo, and Alotta Money are setting a new benchmark for NFTs with their Ethereal NFT drop. This is the first time that the three renowned artists are coming together for an NFT project, Origin Protocol’s CEO Matthew Liu wrote in a blog post.

The artists launched the collection in partnership with the NFT platform Origin Protocol to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the Ethereum network’s launch. The network debuted on July 30, 2015.

What is Ethereal NFT?

ΞTHΞRΞAL, or Ethereal, brings together NFTs, traditional physical art, programmatic art, music, and augmented reality in a single collection. It is the first among the ten chapters of EthBoy’s journey.

Before you ask, EthBoy is the brainchild of Jones and Money, who created the programmatic artwork in 2020. The piece changes over time, depending on factors such as ETH/BTC prices, gas prices, and more. 

The EthBoy painting features Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin as Picasso’s son Paulo in medieval harlequin attire. “Vitalik has no idea what the future has in store for him, but he’s prepared to face any obstacle ahead as he begins life’s adventure,” reads the artwork’s description on Async Art.

Last year, it was sold to a collector and curator, Maxstealth for a whopping $141,536.20 – a record at the time, according to CoinDesk. This painting became the predecessor to EthBoy’s journey.

ΞTHΞRΞAL, a 1 of 1 NFT, marks the coming of age of EthBoy. Essentially, it tracks Vitalik’s remarkable journey through the first six months after EthBoy’s creation (till June 30, 2021). It will go up for a 48-hour auction at 11:30 PM UTC on August 3, 2021.  

“Vitalik has traversed time and dimensions as the flagbearer of the entire Ethereum movement,” EthBoy’s website notes. As a result, chapter one’s release comes as a fitting tribute to the launch of the Ethereum network. Despite the high gas price, Ethereum continues to be the most sought after network for tokens and DeFi projects. 

A five-year-long project

The project consists of ten chapters, spread over five years. Every six months, the artists will release a new chapter, that shows how EthBoy has evolved through the months. Essentially, each drop showcases the changes taking place between the Ethereum network’s release on July 30 and Vitalik’s birthday on January 31. 

“Each piece will be unique and dynamically generated from the previously written code, capturing real-time reactions to the cryptocurrency market and including current events easter eggs,” Liu wrote. 

The artwork also features guest appearances such as that of the late John McAfee and Elon Musk. With the latter’s influence on cryptocurrencies and memecoins, his presence comes as no surprise. In addition, several CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties also pop up on the NFT.

“At Origin, we’re thrilled these world-famous creators chose Origin’s NFT Launchpad to power their sale,” Liu added. “We believe in putting creators first and enabling them to connect and interact more directly with their fans and collectors.”

The significance of Chapter 1: ΞTHΞRΞAL

One of the main factors that set ΞTHΞRΞAL apart is its token economics. Whoever wins the auction doesn’t just walk away with the NFT alone. They also get a part of the profits from the sale of the next nine NFTs! This, according to Liu, is a first for the NFT industry.

While the winner will receive 20% of the sales proceeds of chapter 2, for chapter 3, they will receive 10%. Over the months and years, the percentage of revenue share will decrease. The last four chapters will give the chapter 1 owner around 5% of their sales proceeds.

This makes the chapter “unique and timeless”. In addition, it is also a “representative of future stakes in Trevor Jones, Alotta Money, and other guest artists,” Liu wrote. 

Moreover, the winners of each chapter can also take part in the communal revenue share. This marks another first for the industry, where collectors will come together through the years, and will have a stake in the evolving collection. 

The winner also takes home the 1 of 1 signed physical ΞTHΞRΞAL painting. With a size of 80cm x 60cm, the painting features an augmented reality layer via the Artivive app. It is replete with animations and a musical score created by Diablo.  

And that’s not all! The winning collector will also get a physical print of the original EthBoy painting, signed by the artists. A total of 10 such limited edition prints are available. Each print, having a size of 101 x 80 cm, will be given to the owners of each chapter. These prints also come with embedded augmented reality features.

The artists behind ΞTHΞRΞAL

Trevor Jones, Don Diablo, and Alotta Money are pioneers in their respective fields. Jones works at the intersection of art and technology and is one of the first artists in the world to inculcate augmented reality with his work. In the last 18 months, he has dropped several record-breaking NFTs. This year, his Bitcoin Angel open edition had sold for a record $3.2 million in just 7 minutes. 

Dutch visionary Diablo works across the music, art, fashion, and tech realms. This year, he has been part of several projects in collaboration with The United Nations, Star Wars & Disney, as well as auction house Sotheby’s. Recently, Sotheby’s also sold his NFT “Infinite Future” for a whopping $927,500 during its ‘Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale’.

French digital artist Money, meanwhile, has been associated with propaganda art, memes, and social header artworks. He is known for adding humour to his works. He also helped with McAfee’s USA 2020 presidential campaign. Since 2019, he has been involved with various NFT projects, with his works featured on major NFT marketplaces.

In the last couple of months, NFTs have transformed the way people create and consume art. The trio’s collaboration is now taking NFTs to new heights and blurring the boundaries between various art forms. The ambitious project is also testimony to how far NFTs have come, and how far they have yet to go.