"A video game is a fidget spinner with a story". -- @mitchellfchan via @matto__matto I started tinkering with making a Gameboy game with my kiddo and in the process started to wonder if something like this could be put fully on chain. Gameboy games are compiled C code and you can't compile C in a browser environment (without some trickery) which is a deal breaker for putting something like a generative ROM based game fully on chain in a way that's compatible with @artblocks_io. But then I started digging deeper into how this all works, had to teach myself a ton of things (did you know Gameboys don't have an operating system and games are essentially "bare metal" programs that write directly to memory registers? I didn't lol) and figured out a workaround that I started experimenting with more meaningfully and it turns out it works! Learning curve was insanely steep and this is hands down the most ambitious project I've ever worked on, but I set out to build a fully on chain generative (every copy is unique) Gameboy Advance game (with downloadable ROM playable on an emulator or loaded on a cartridge on a physical Gameboy Advance (or Gameboy Advance SP)) using the "Pixel Man" self portrait as a protagonist, commenting on the journey I and many of us have been on over the years. Shared the concept in an Uber early this year with Mitch as he was wrapping up Zantar and as he told me more about his ambition with his trilogy I became increasingly inspired to bring my little experiment to reality. Then a combo of @derekedws offering me the @glitchmarfa residency and @redbeardnft always pushing me to be my best self got me across the line and here we are today. Seriously hardest thing I've ever done, but it's been a wonderful experience working with Derek and @magey_mage and also the @generativegoods team. Side note: Mitch's three part project Zantar (part story part video game) debuted via @nguyenwahed is one of the greatest and most ambitious projects ever and I strongly encourage you to check it out. The first act, an interactive story called Overture, is a sensory experience leveraging the absolute best of the digital medium. Check it out here: I'm eternally inspired by Mitch and his work and think y'all will enjoy the project if you take a moment and dive into it. 🍻

A simple, often colorful pixelated stick figure with an afro that represents who I am simmered down to the simplest possible form. The “Pixel Man”, also referred to as the “Little Man”, is a character that’s been a part of my life for a long time. Well before the Squiggle, this was my marque, my “easily identifiable” character, and the way I put myself out there. The little guy started as a simple arrangement of 3d printed blocks in 2014, but from there took many forms. From ceramic tiles to 3d projection mapped installations running live code to watercolor postcards and vinyl cut stickers (and most recently some @veecon tickets) I vibed hard enough with this simple character that I found myself looking for different ways to express myself with it. I never had thought of it so much as a formal self portrait though until after launching @artblocks_io and thinking more deeply about what it means to be an artist and learning about self portraiture over the course of history at which point I realized I had been making a “self portrait” all along. I think many of us have gone through a similar journey of introspection and discovery over the last few years. That’s part of what brings us together, whether as artists, collectors or simply as humans. We’ve gone through some stuff. And a lot of that stuff has taught us a lot about ourselves and each other. The handful of pixels that make up this character will be the protagonist in my upcoming project with @glitchmarfa. But while I’m really excited to get to formally put this out there as a “self” portrait, I truly hope it is a simple enough canvas that you can find yourself in it as well.

In the coming months, you’ll see meaningful changes at Art Blocks: some that honor our past, others that look towards the future. Today we introduce Collector Profiles: aggregate wallets, log in via email, track sets & achievements. Create yours:

Some days are better than others. Some years are better than others. But we get out of bed every morning, year after year, because we believe in why we are here and what we are building towards. We are all on this journey together. Every artist, collector, builder, even the sweeping generalizooors of an entire artistic medium’s longevity. We all play a critical role in how this all plays out. Some have moved on. Others come and go. And then there’s the folks that keep on keeping on. It would be so easy to just put the rock down. But we don’t.

Some days are better than others. Some years are better than others. But we get out of bed every morning, year after year, because we believe in why we are here and what we are building towards. We are all on this journey together. Every artist, collector, builder, even the sweeping generalizooors of an entire artistic medium’s longevity. We all play a critical role in how this all plays out. Some have moved on. Others come and go. And then there’s the folks that keep on keeping on. It would be so easy to just put the rock down. But we don’t.

No place on earth brings me more peace or inspiration than this view. Excited to make this part of the story I’m telling with LIFT. Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone. @glitchmarfa

This entire project, working with @brtmoments, experiencing the outputs with friends one at a time, spending time in CDMX, was an absolutely unforgettable experience. Feels like an eternity ago now too.

I heard @VitalikButerin speak for the first time today at @EthCC. His talk was about continuing to advance core principles of Ethereum like decentralization and privacy and not simply putting things on chain for the sake of being on chain. His first test was the “Walkaway Test”. If your company and all its servers suddenly disappear, do your users still have their assets? Thanks to the pioneering work of @ArtOnBlockchain and the @artblocks_io team the answer for us is yes. The artwork published on Art Blocks can be rendered directly from the Ethereum blockchain without the need of any intermediaries, including Art Blocks itself. Happy to know my artwork and the work of my AB contemporaries are durable in this way. To learn more, visit

This work is just about as @EfdotStudio as it gets and @0xdiid has done an excellent job bringing Efdot’s essence to life in algorithmic form! Proud to have your work reside within the @artblocks_io ecosystem. 🍻

Hey Punks! Exactly 8 years ago (to the minute) I claimed my first punk. In the years since we've seen a ton of incredible ways the community has shown up for the project and created public goods for the ecosystem and here's yet one more for y'all to nerd out on. Excited to share a fun little tool for y'all I've been working on with @generativegoods and embroidery wizard @DaCaldera. Put your @cryptopunksnfts punkID in the box and get professional quality DST (embroidery) files of your punk in a variety of sizes. I see people wearing their punks all the time and after spending the last few years deeply studying machine embroidery understand how annoying and complex it can be to get a good digitized version of your punk. A good digitization can cost $100 and that's for a single sized output. The punk embroidery generator will give you a range of sizes in stitch-perfect outputs for any of the 10k punks plus for the DIY folks a cross-stitch pattern for you to make your own by hand (s/o to @flakoubay and @RachelSTWood who completed theirs of @NaughtalieStone's #98 recently 🙌). We've put some instructions on the site to help you through the process, plus some embroidery machine recommendations in case you want to go all out and make them look at feel professional. Note: GenGoods is not set up to do the embroidery for these (our system uses the same 15 colors across all our projects and Punks use way more colors across all the various outputs) but the downloads on the site give you exactly what you need to walk into any embroidery shop and have them make your punk for you. We suggest thread colors in the tool but that's just to get you started. A good embroidery shop will have tons to pick from so just pick the colors that best match your punk. Anyways we thought it would be a fun way to celebrate the punks 8th anniversary with this fun little tool. Can't wait to see what y'all make with this. Enjoy! 🍻