Introducing Cryptographics - Unique digital artwork on the Ethereum blockchain

Today we are proud to introduce Cryptographics, our latest and most complex DApp to launch on the Ethereum mainnet yet. Cryptographics is a digital artwork hub and digital print generation tool powered by Ethereum and IPFS.

Introducing Cryptographics - Unique digital artwork on the Ethereum blockchain

Today we are proud to introduce Cryptographics, our latest and most complex DApp to launch on the Ethereum mainnet yet.

Screenshot of the Cryptographics DApp homepage

Cryptographics is a digital artwork hub and digital print generation tool powered by Ethereum and IPFS. It allows Artists, Creators and Collectors to come together in order to sell assets, create cryptographics and trade them, respectively. Moreover, cryptographic as a form is a unique fusion of cryptography, digital art and Web 3.0, greatly inspired by the dada avant-garde movement.

The Cryptographics project emerged from our love for digital art, passion for building innovative decentralized apps on Ethereum, and a special fondness for cryptography. We see it as an exploration of the ever growing crypto-collectibles concept, although someone pointed out to us that it can also be considered a prototype of IP management on the blockchain. But we wouldn’t go as far.

We set out to create a useful and cool app that’s true to decentralization and Web 3.0 development principles and we fully succeeded. Cryptographics is a DApp through and through, pure frontend working with Ethereum and IPFS.

This means that in order to use it you will need MetaMask or a Web 3.0 enabled browser, but we’ve also gone to great lengths to make it possible for any visitor to enjoy the cryptographics composition experience in order to drive adoption.

How does it work?

Cryptographics recognizes three different types of users – Artists, Creators and Collectors. Artists upload asset packs and offer them for sale to Creators who will use them to compose cryptographics. Creators then pick asset packs they want to see included on their cryptographic and find their favourite variant using the composition process before saving it to the blockchain and claiming ownership. Collectors browse the Gallery, buy their favourites and either create Collections or trade them further.

The Cryptographics composition algorithm selects random assets from the asset packs you chose and composes them on the canvas based on the final seed of an algorithm. This final seed is a result of multiple hashing functions of multiple starting variables which ensures random results. Additionally, the smart contract enforces uniqueness by eliminating the possibility of two exactly the same cryptographics ever existing on the blockchain.

This provably random origin is what gives a cryptographic objective value, while its visual appearance adds an additional layer of subjective desirability.

Using the blockchain enables storing cryptographics permanently and providing inalienable proof of ownership. And we should add that the DApp uses IPFS (or the InterPlanetary File System) for storage of actual graphic assets and each cryptographic is actually recreated based on its stored seed and containing elements every time one opens its page.

A point we should highlight is that Cryptographics is designed as a profitable DApp. An asset pack author sets their own price for each pack and receives 95% each time a new Creator uses it, while Creators again receive 95% of the payment for each cryptographic sold. Additionally, the original Creator of a cryptographic receives 2% from each future resale. And trading for Collectors is of course a whole different story in itself.

Photo of cryptographics printed out and hung on our office wall at Decenter

Ultimately, you should try it for yourself to see what it’s all about. The DApp is actually pretty straightforward once you’re there. We loved some of the cryptographics so much that we actually printed them out, framed them and hung them around the office.

We would love to hear your thoughts and can only hope you will enjoy the concept just as much.

Try Cryptographics now.

For any feedback, comments and questions, feel free to jump into the Cryptographics Discord. You can also follow us on Twitter and join the subreddit.