When we talk about digital artwork and NFTs, we often have the image of a few images of HashMasks in our minds.
It only took 4 days to achieve record sales in NFTs and crypto art, to the tune of 7600 ETH (around 16 million euros at that time) for 16 digital works... Illustrious auction houses like Sotheby's or Christie's are the first to be surprised and in fact it is the entire art market which seems to be experiencing a real upheaval.
If we tell you about the history of hashmasks, it's because it is the one (so far but that could change overnight) of the largest NFT art sale in a few days. And, if we tell you about it here, it is to reveal the strategy behind it.
Indeed, as you will see, it is a project that was well thought out and even if the result certainly exceeded expectations, there was still real work behind it. This is what we want to show you.
Even though we had already heard stories of large sales for NFTs, this still surprised the community of crypto-holders. Indeed, until now, we knew the story of CryptoKitties virtual cats but here, with Hashmask, it's more digital works of art. So we're moving on to another direction and it's Hashmasks who showed the way, in a way.
The creation of Hashmasks.
We do not know the creators of Hashmask, and anonymity is not a problem in itself, in the world of cryptocurrencies, as you know. The only thing we know is that there are two behind. They thought out their project well, in any case.
They called this collection of digital art “Hashmasks”.
This set of digital works depicts human figures with unique elements. These are digital works with a coherence in style nevertheless, a style which can make us think of Jean-Michel Basquiat elsewhere.
Hasmask’s NCT token
They brought a small innovation to the field and not the least. In fact, each work can be named by its buyer. This allows an interaction between the buyer and the work which is not trivial and it makes it possible to make the work unique, even in the name. A way to sign this work by the owner. Yes, that's rather how we should understand it as a painter adding his signature. Each owner can name/sign the work.
Each illustration has its own NCT associated with it and when you become the owner of a Hashmask you can rename it.
It was a strategy desired by the founders.
When you have a mask, you can generate 10 NCT tokens per image per day. It is thanks to the NCT that we can change the name of the work.
What's interesting is that each name change should be unique. No two works can have the same name. Each price change costs 1 NCT which will then be burned to make the change.
According to Hashmasks who thought out his long-term project very well to make it even more original. the objective is to no longer have any tokens in circulation so that the work is completely completed. This will happen in 10 years where the tokens will continue to decrease from there…
“After exactly 10 years, on January 26, 2031 (timestamp: 1927206000), the last NCT will be minted and from then on, the supply will only decrease until one day, the last NCT token is burned and the artwork will be complete.”
According to the founders on the Hashmasks website
A collective of anonymous artists
Now you wonder who created the works? The founders would have gone on social networks to find for themselves the artists who were putting up and displaying works of art that interested them. It was a long research process and they finally searched everywhere on the internet to find and select more than 70 talented artists.
They signed a confidentiality agreement and we also do not know the amount of their remuneration for this work….
What is interesting is that the artists did not create the work entirely. Instead, they create parts like eye color, hair color or hair type for example.
Then, it is an algorithm which creates a sort of puzzle to automatically create the different works. In fact, each work has 5 types of traits: the color of the eyes, the mask, an object, an article (like a book or toilet paper 😉 and the color of the skin.
To be exact, 80% of the HasMask collection was created entirely by the algorithm and 20% was created manually.
It was the founders who gave the instructions to the artists and who validated the works created by the algorithms. In this sense, they recognize themselves as having been the conductors of this exceptional collection.
In fact, they said they were guided by their own tastes. They asked the artists for works that they themselves wanted, that they would have bought.
When the collection was ready, they planned to open the collection quietly on January 28, 2021.
You should know that when sales opened, the prices were frankly affordable. Some were put on sale for less than 0,1 ETH (or a certain amount of euros at that time).
This was again a well thought out strategy. Prices would rise with the sale of the works. The more sales there were, the higher the prices would be.
It is also this rise in prices that we saw on the same day which cultivated the buying frenzy thanks to the FOMO that this creates.
Did the Hashmasks mystery sale contribute to the general craze?
You should know that the sale lasted only 4 days. We therefore have a sense of urgency that is activated and we might think that the founders know marketing well.
Likewise, buyers could not see the work they were going to get. It's pretty crazy when you think about it. The distribution was random. So, it could think of craze in the sense that the mystery can make us think that we are going to have some kind of rare nugget.
In less than 6 hours after launch, there was already a milestone with 3 unique and rare pieces of digital art having been sold.
Then, on January 30, the exchanges had already started. Hashmasks were selling for thousands of euros on other NFT marketplaces like opensea. The first Hashmask 1 – which was initially sold for 0,1 ETH on January 28 was resold at a 100% net profit, for $000.
In total, the Hashmask collection generated more than $16 million in sales.
After the euphoria of the first days and the exponential resale thereafter, some people began to take a deeper interest in the works.
And, all this speculation also contributes to making the works even more fascinating (and to increasing their prices as well…).
In search of the details that kill
The fact that the works were ultimately created by an algorithm is what makes the creation of the work even more interesting for collectors. For them, it is the final work of an algorithm and therefore of computer intelligence. This is somewhat to a lesser extent what we were able to see with the CryptopunksEg.
Likewise, some artists still put little hidden messages in their works. And, it is the search for these messages which also led to Hashmasks being considered little by little as true works of digital art.
Some have found hidden beauties and interesting Hashmasks like the one bearing the book Republic of Plato. Oh yeah! Others have found Fibonacci sequences in the series of works. Still others searched scrupulously and discovered twins (which in the algorithm was supposed to be very rare), then others found QRcodes that referred to jokes, sophisticated Rickrolls, like Rick's song Astley, for example.
In short, perhaps to prove that the hasmhmasks deserved such sums….
How Hashmask marked a turning point in history NFTs?
What was also well thought out was from the start to have relayed the information of this mystery auction to "influential" people on Twitter in the cryptosphere. The first people who talked about this sale before it took place (and who cultivated the desire to participate) were Cryptopathic and Crypto Cobain.
With their small network, this was enough to intrigue a few people. In addition, at that time, we were at the very beginning of the notoriety of NFTs. We were still far from the record sales of Beeple, for example.
In any case, now, on NFT marketplaces Type OpenSea, Hashmasks sell for thousands of dollars now.
They were clearly significant in the history of collectibles and the very emergence of NFT artists.
And, this highlighted algorithms in terms of artistic creation even if it still seems improbable to us. Personally, I really appreciate the artistic style of the works on the one hand. In this I don't know to what extent the founders of Hashmasks have something to do with it or if it is the artists or even an artist who had this vision...
Likewise, the system behind it is frankly smart with the last NCT issued in 10 years… Making the works more expensive and more legendary… This is even what is even more artistic it seems to me….
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