FAQ
What does "open source" mean?
The original Blitmap art collection and Blitnauts art collection were released by the artists who created them under the CC0 public domain license. We call this "open source" for short and it means you can use the art for any purpose, including both personal and commercial projects.
To date, Blitmap has been used for a variety of purposes including stories, comic books, toys, and other merchandise — as well as additional digital and physical art.
Does using Blitmap require my project to be open source, too?
No. Although several projects using Blitmap have decided to contribute their work (or portions of it) back to Blitmap's open source community, there is no expectation or requirement to open source your own work if it uses Blitmap. It's completely up to you.
How do I know if a Blitmap community project is open source?
The best way is to check the project's official website or documentation. Look for phrases like "CC0", "public domain", or "open source" to get started.
What does "community crafted" mean?
The original Blitmap art collection began with 100 pixel artworks created by 17 artists. An important attribute of the project also enabled the Blitmap community to create their own unique pieces by choosing to combine two of these originals, which resulted in a new "sibling" piece that incorporated the composition of one original with the color palette of another. The originals and siblings completed the final set of 1,700 artworks that make up the original collection.
This was the first instance of "community crafting" — a value in the Blitmap community where projects and the communities that form around them work together using different capabilities to complete a shared creative output.
Community crafting has appeared in several subsequent community works that use and build upon Blitmap, and its spirit is captured in the direction of Blitmap itself. Although not required by any means, it is a unique part of Blitmap's culture.
What is artistically significant about Blitmap?
The original art collection was released to the Ethereum blockchain in early 2021 and was one of the earliest works to store pixel art fully on-chain, one of the earliest works to process art transformations fully on-chain, and one of the earliest works to be released under the CC0 public domain license. The project also eschewed intentional rarity or randomization in favor of even distribution paired with communal creativity and curation, which was and continues to be a unique approach to generative artwork.
The project is also notable for supporting two distinct perspectives within its community: an art perspective with subsequent community works that aim to push further on technical posterity, and a world building perspective with subsequent community works that aim to build compelling fictional worlds. The tension and overlap between these perspectives continue to be the backbone for interesting works.
How is the data stored in the original art collection?
Blitmaps and their metadata are stored and processed entirely on the Ethereum blockchain. The data format allows for 32x32 images with up to 4 colors inside 268 bytes of data, which keeps gas costs manageable.
Having data and logic exist in the same place means interesting things can be done inside the smart contract itself. Combining Blitmaps, extracting properties (like "Fire III" or the slab pattern), and even converting to SVG all happen on the contract.
Technically, the main advantage of going on-chain is permanence. All data, functionality, and the "story" of Blitmap will exist without maintenance for as long as Ethereum does — hopefully for a very long time. Artistically, relying solely on the Ethereum Virtual Machine presents interesting constraints which inspire creativity.
Which artists worked on the original art collection?
Seventeen artists contributed artwork for the 100 Original Blitmaps.
They are:
- askywlkr
- BigPapap
- boyprison
- BRAINDRAIND
- ceresstation
- dom
- HighleyVarlet
- hipcityreg
- jstn
- numo
- other
- spacedoctor
- themoonladder
- Veenus
- worm
- yi
- zod
What is Sup?
Recognizing the power of the community that developed around the Blitmap project, two of the original Blitmap artists formed Sup Inc. as a separate initiative to develop new communal worlds and tell stories that invite community participation through artwork, customizable collectibles, merchandise, and more.
Sup also acts as a steward of certain assets related to the Blitmap project, such as the website, social channels and trademark. Sup holds these rights to safeguard them on behalf of the Blitmap community.
For the sake of clarity, Sup is a separate and distinct entity from the Blitmap project and has no plans to generate (and has never generated) revenue from the Blitmap digital art collectibles. Sup does not use any proceeds from sales of Blitmap digital art collectibles to fund the company's operations.
While Sup's founders have contributed artwork to the Blitmap project, Sup does not provide utility or value to the collectors of Blitmap digital art collectibles or subsequent community works. Sup does expect that its products and services may be interesting to Blitmap collectors and community members, as well as collectors and community members of other similar projects.
Sup's company operations (and any revenue its operations may generate) are not connected to the Blitmap project, the Blitmap digital art collectibles, or subsequent community works.