Notes on Fingerprints DAO
Could this be the best organization furthering art and an understanding of blockchain technology?
I have been a fan of the artist John Simonr Jr. for a long time and collected digital artwork from him back in 2002. More recently in 2022, I was ecstatic to come across his digital artwork being collected by Fingerprints DAO. I’ve heard of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) but never joined one and didn’t have much reason to explore. But after seeing John Simons Jr’s “Every Icon” series and works by Mitchell F. Chan being collected by the DAO, I was intrigued to dive in.
So to start I’ve collected a few quotes and notes here for my own education as a kind of ‘cheat sheet’ to understand the DAO in simple terms. The TLDR is that DAOs are important for educating art lovers and the world at large about blockchain. I’m now a Fingerprints Member and I’m going to focus on continuing to learn and hopefully help educate others.
My apologies this article is a mess, I keep learning as I write this.
Fingerprints DAO believes blockchain art is, “essential for helping us understand blockchain’s growing importance in the world.” The goals are, “curating, collecting, and promoting on-chain artwork.”
It’s not a museum, it’s a for-profit organization. And it’s also stated, “We’re not here to be market-makers, we’re here to collect and curate.”
“Fingerprints DAO collects seminal smart contract-based artworks showcasing innovative use of the blockchain for artistic expression, in accordance with its strict curatorial thesis and curation system.”
Key phrase: “innovative use of the blockchain for artistic expression”... because it’s… “essential for helping us understand blockchain’s growing importance in the world”
Within Fingerprints DAO is the “Fingerprints Studio, which supports artists in the creation of smart contract-based art, generating revenue for the DAO in the process.”
OK. Why is this DAO significant?
Historically, traditional art curation (even for digital art) falls into camps of galleries/dealers, museums, and auction houses. More recently for-profit companies offering fractional ownership have appeared too. But a DAO? How many art collectives have been successful at collecting historically significant artworks, generating new opportunities for artists, and making money in the process? The DAO seems to be playing the role of gallerist, museum, and auction house, and at the same time developing future-focused mechanisms of a democratic process.
Though it’s hard to know the makeup of the DAO membership because of the prevalence of pseudo-anonymity, it’s safe to say Fingerprints DAO members are technology-savvy digital-first folks with equal parts interest in crypto-technology and modern generative art. Many of the members have significant collections of generative art NFTs unto themselves. Members include a nice cross-section of artists, collectors, technologists, and probably some gallerists.
A little more about what’s been collected. Autoglyphs are at the heart of the Fingerprints DAO collection.
Larva Labs were the first to build a platform for generating NFTs on Ethereum, famously producing Cryptopunks and Autoglyphs. Though Autoglyphs may be less famous than Cryptopunks, they may have more historical significance because it’s generative art.
Fingerprints DAO has a deep collection of generative blockchain artwork, holding many variations within each series.
At the risk of going further off-path here, it seems there has been a gold rush in building marketplaces for selling smart-contract NFT art, like Superrare and Rarible. Curation in the traditional sense has mostly been absent in the world of NFTs. There are some digital/NFT-first galleries like Feral File, but they are still far fewer than platforms being made for marketplaces, which is no surprise as auction houses make bank. That’s not to say that builders of marketplaces aren’t interested in or support DAOs. The founder of the KnownOrigin marketplace wrote at length about wanting a DAO.
Though Fingerprints DAO has a deep collection of generative blockchain artwork, it doesn’t have as much breadth of artists as other collectors (which are not DAOs). Here are a few whale-sized collections of expensive NFT artworks, including their mission, how they were founded, and other brief notes.
“THE 6529 MISSION IS TO ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPEN METAVERSE” (yes, in all caps)
Started/run by a handful of guys who have also brought in investors
You can invest in the company but don’t have any say like with a DAO.
Curation is very meme aware/driven.
Lots of great Twitter threads that are very educational
The website has a ridiculous usage of call caps fonts and a love for 3D galleries. (Some find these to be obnoxious and display the art improperly. Personally, I find them helpful in changing your headspace when viewing the art. Though sometimes the perspectives warp the art and it gets grainy.)
“A digitally native institution that stewards meaningful pieces and supports their creators.”
Started/run by an angel investor Todd Goldberg and art dude Andrew Jiang
They have a very well-rounded collection of generative art from Art Blocks.
This is probably the most fun site of the bunch to look at without having to think too much about the significance of the artists and the abstract nature of the technology behind it.
Art Of This Millenium / VincentVanDough
“A global gallery and publishing house specializing in contemporary digital art.”
Started/run by pseudonymous NFT investor Vincent Van Dough
This is a relatively new site, and incredibly thorough if not institutional. (Though the fonts are ridiculous here too). It’s almost too much to take in.
It might be safe to say those are THE BIG THREE.
Similar to some of these characters, Fingerprints DAO has collected a large number of generative artworks. The major difference is that it’s a DAO. Being a member means you get to participate in the decision-making process of the organization. Some of the collection nuances are…
Fingerprints DAO has a deep collection of Autoglyphs, a historically significant body of work.
They have a nice range of generative art that is not from ArtBlocks
Oddly there aren’t any ArtBlocks pieces despite they might fit the curatorial thesis. I would say Fingerprints DAO is a nice surprise to the generative art collector who has seen every ArtBlocks series and thinks there was no other authority when it comes to generative art on Ethereum.
Because anyone who discovers Fingerprints will also know about Artblocks, they will wonder why there are no Artblocks even though it’s refreshing that there aren’t any. Could it benefit Fingerprints to publicly state how it collects without including ArtBlocks? eg, something like…
We recognize the significance of Artblocks in the generative art space, but we curate differently from Artblocks and other collectors who collect from Artblocks projects. We started by collecting first-of-their-kind original generative artworks. Our collection served to establish our intent to generate community and deliver new projects. Though we admire ArtBlocks, we are a DAO that supports projects stemming from our own innovative process.
Because it’s a DAO, every effort is being made to make the discussion and decision-making happen in a public way.
As mentioned previously, Feral File is also a big player. However, it’s not a DAO and they are less concerned with collecting works existing works from other platforms and are more on a traditional mission to create new work. Fingerprints Studio is an interesting parallel.
Art Blocks do need to be mentioned here. Everyone knows this company because of its insane trajectory of success in 2021. But this company does not “collect” per se, but they actively curate which artists will run on the site, and the site is custom-built for minting generative art only.
“Art Blocks is dedicated to bringing compelling works of contemporary generative art to life.“
Start by Snowfro, (with the help of his brother Daniel), and Jeff Davis.
If you’ve read this far in the article you deserve some visuals. Here are the first artworks by the first three artists to mint on Artblocks. (I’ll write more about “First Artworks” soon.)
That exhausts my interest in comparing who’s who / what's what for the moment.
This might be a weird format but I’m going to write my own Q&A to stay fresh.
Q: Does artwork on the blockchain need to have a smart contract?
A: Mostly yes.
Many artworks on blockchains do not need to be on the blockchain to exist. The blockchain merely enables the artwork to be bought and sold in a marketplace that transacts with cryptocurrency.
NFTs exploded with the advent of smart contracts on Ethereum and other blockchains. However, NFTs are also possible on the Bitcoin network using additional technology.
Q: What technology do the NFTs curated and collected by Fingerprints DAO use?
A: At the moment only Ethereum smart contracts
Q: Do all of the smart contracts work in the same way?
A: No. Smart contracts can be created with endless variety, and currently the heart of innovation centers around how relationships are governed with smart contracts. Smart contracts have become popular because their security is held in the blockchain.
Q: What are some examples of different kinds of smart contracts?
A: This is a good question that will be answered in upcoming articles by Future Human Art.
Q: So is Fingerprints DAO the best organization furthering art and an understanding of blockchain technology?
A: At this point YES? There are a few others I’m exploring too like NFDAO and MetaCartel.
Now What?
As stated earlier, I’m now a Fingerprints DAO member, and it has taken a while to really understand what’s going on. I think my goal is to contribute to the Fingerprints Studio, helping capture artists’ intentions for the purposes of preservation and education.
WOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW. What a fun read!