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Learn what generative art is, how it works with NFTs, and why platforms like Art Blocks and fxhash changed collecting. Covers history, on-chain mechanics, key projects, trade-offs, and how to start.
Generative art is art made with a system. The artist writes code that sets rules, adds controlled randomness, and then lets the system produce the output. An NFT is a unique token on a blockchain that records ownership of that output.
Together they create long-form generative art. The artist publishes an algorithm on chain. Each collector mint generates a new hash. That hash seeds the algorithm to create a one-of-one piece no one has seen before, including the artist.
This guide helps three groups:
If you just want to collect a single piece you like, you can skip the code details and start in the "How to get started" section.
Generative art did not start with NFTs. Hungarian artist Vera Molnar began using computers in 1968 to explore order and disorder with plotter drawings. She is widely cited by Sotheby's, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and others as one of the first artists to use computers for art. American artist Sol LeWitt wrote wall drawings as text instructions for others to execute. The instruction was the artwork. That idea maps directly to code. Other early contributors include Frieder Nake, Manfred Mohr, Harold Cohen with AARON, and Casey Reas who co-created the Processing language.
NFTs gave generative systems a way to produce, record, and trade unique outputs with provenance.
Art Blocks launched in November 2020. It was founded by Erick Calderon, known as Snowfro. The platform stores the artist's script on the Ethereum blockchain. When you mint, the chain creates a unique hash. The front end feeds that hash into the script in your browser. The result is deterministic and reproducible from the hash.
Types on Art Blocks have included:
The platform now operates on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base. It documents its generator, storage, and minter contracts in public docs at docs.artblocks.io.
fxhash launched in November 2021. It was created by generative artist ciphrd as an open, no-curation platform on Tezos. Artists upload HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that renders deterministically from a per-mint hash. Collectors mint iterations of a parent generator. The project was built to lower fees and open access after Ethereum gas prices in summer 2021 regularly added hundreds of dollars to a mint. In 2023 to 2024, fxhash expanded to support EVM chains as well, but Tezos remains its origin and core community.
Both platforms use the same core flow: publish generator, set supply and price, collector mints with a hash, script renders unique output, token records owner and hash on chain.
Use these as references when you evaluate new drops. They show different systems, constraints, and markets.
Autoglyphs was deployed in April 2019 by Matt Hall and John Watkinson of Larva Labs. The team asked if art could be both recorded and created on chain after CryptoPunks. The result is 512 glyphs made of text symbols on a 64 by 64 grid. The generative algorithm lives inside the Ethereum smart contract at 0xd4e4078ca3495DE5B1d4dB434BEbc5a986197782. Each mint ran the code on the Ethereum network itself and stored the ASCII output in the transaction event data.
Details verified on larvalabs.com:
Chromie Squiggle is the inaugural Art Blocks collection. Each piece is a colorful, flowing line built from segments. Traits vary by type (Normal, Bold, Fuzzy, Slinky, Ribbed, Pipe) and by color behavior such as color spread, steps between colors, and segment count. The collection is capped at 10,000. It was left open for years, with the final token, Squiggle #9999, live-minted starting July 15, 2024 and gifted to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on August 21, 2024 after a public farewell period.
Canadian artist Dmitri Cherniak, based in New York, created Ringers as a study of strings wrapped around pegs. Each output is generated in JavaScript in the browser from a transaction hash. Features include peg count, size, layout, and wrap orientation. The series minted at 0.1 ETH.
Market history shows extreme variance within one series:
Tyler Hobbs, a generative artist from Austin, Texas with a BS in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, built Fidenza around a flow field algorithm he had used since 2016. Flow fields create organic, non-overlapping curves. Fidenza adds chunky blocks, probabilistic color palettes (14 palettes prepared for the project), and features such as scale, turbulence, spiral forms, and textured fills. Hobbs calls it his most versatile algorithm as of 2021.
The project is Art Blocks Curated, supply 999. It sold for about 3.3 million dollars for Fidenza #313 in August 2021 (1,000 ETH to collector Punk6529). The series is widely used as a reference for quality control in long-form generative art: varied, yet consistently coherent.
fxhash has no curated gate, so curation happened through collecting. Notable examples often cited by volume and critical response include Zancan's Garden, Monoliths (256 mints, December 2021, the platform's top volume project at the time) and William Mapan's Dragons. These use Tezos fees that are typically cents rather than dollars, which let artists test ideas without a large upfront cost.
| Aspect | What works well | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Provenance and ownership | ERC-721 records owner, creator, and history on chain. Anyone can verify. | If media is stored off chain on IPFS or a server, that link can break if not pinned on durable storage. Prefer pinned IPFS, Arweave, or fully on-chain. |
| Creative range | One script can produce billions of possible outputs. Collectors co-create by triggering the hash. | Quality control is hard. A weak generator makes many dull outputs. Test the generator's range before minting. |
| Creator royalties | EIP-2981 defines a standard way to signal royalties. Many platforms support it. | Enforcement is per marketplace, not by the token itself. Do not assume royalties apply everywhere you resell. |
| Cost and scale | Tezos and Ethereum Layer 2 options keep mint costs low. Ethereum mainnet gives the largest collector base. | Fully on-chain generators cost more to deploy. Ethereum mainnet mints can still spike during drops. |
| Display and longevity | Generative outputs are often resolution independent and can be re-rendered, plotted, or printed. | Rendering depends on browser and library versions. Pin specific library versions and test live view vs thumbnail. |
| Legal and rights | Many projects give collectors broad display and commercial rights, often described in the project's license. | Rights vary by project. Check the license for each collection. AI training, commercial use, and derivatives differ. |
MetaMask for Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base is common. Temple or Kukai for Tezos if you use fxhash on Tezos. Back up your seed phrase offline. Never share it.
For Art Blocks you need ETH. For fxhash on Tezos you need XTZ. Start small. Mint fees plus gas are separate from the art price.
Save a high-resolution render or print via the live view. Note that the canonical view is what the script produces from the hash, not just a cached PNG.
Most generative artists use p5.js or plain JavaScript with canvas. Processing veterans use p5.js for web parity. Keep libraries pinned to specific versions.
Use the hash provided at mint time as the only source of randomness. Do not use Math.random without seeding from the hash. Art Blocks provides a tokenData field and helpers for this. fxhash provides fxhash and fxrand.
Generate at least 200 outputs and sort them into keep, weak, and broken. Adjust parameter probabilities until even lower-tier outputs feel intentional. Fidenza's work on probabilistic palettes and scale mixing is a good model for balancing variety and quality.
For durability, store the script on chain and media assets on IPFS or Arweave. If you need fully on-chain visuals, keep the code and assets tiny, as Autoglyphs did.
Supply for Art Blocks Curated often ranges from 200 to 1,000. Open fxhash projects have seen supplies from 64 to 512 for accessible tests and up to 1,000 for larger ideas. Price low for experiments, higher when you can show a strong preview set.
Ethereum switched to proof of stake in September 2022, which the Ethereum Foundation estimates cut energy use by about 99.95 percent. Tezos uses proof of stake with similarly low per-transaction energy. This matters if your team has sustainability reporting.
It is art made by a system the artist builds. The artist writes rules and parameters. The system makes each specific image or animation within those rules.
The NFT records who owns which output, preserves the link to the generator and hash, and lets the market trade outputs without a gallery. The mint transaction itself creates the unique piece.
Sometimes. Autoglyphs stores the art inside the contract's event data. Art Blocks stores the generator on chain and re-renders the art from the hash on demand. Many projects store only a pointer (tokenURI) to IPFS or Arweave. Ask where the metadata lives for any project you consider.
You own the token and the rights the project's license gives you. You usually do not own the code or the right to reuse the generator. Read the license for each collection.
Yes for most projects, and many are designed for it. Autoglyphs includes instructions for rendering as a drawing with a plotter. Art Blocks pieces are often printed from the live view. Check resolution options and whether the animation is part of the canonical work.
No. You need to evaluate the system like you would any art: range, consistency, and whether average outputs still look intentional. You do not need to read the source.
Collectors often look for three things. First, variety: outputs feel distinct. Second, quality at the low end: even common pieces feel considered. Third, coherence: the whole set reads as one series with a clear visual identity. Fidenza and Ringers are often cited because they score high on all three.
Open a Tezos wallet and try fxhash with a few XTZ. Mint fees are low, often under one XTZ for many projects, and you can study how hash-seeded rendering works without a large outlay.
Yes. Art Blocks continues to release curated projects, hosts the annual Marfa Weekend gallery in Texas, and documents its protocol publicly. fxhash continues as an open platform on Tezos and EVM chains. Secondary sales for top series like Fidenza, Ringers, and Chromie Squiggle still report daily floor prices on OpenSea and other marketplaces.
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