This Valentines Day, purchase your lover a rock. That will simply be the advertising angle legendary public sale home Sotheby’s is hoping to play up for tomorrow, Feb. 14, when it’s going to start a sealed public sale of EtherRock NFTs.
Based on the public sale web page, the EtherRock assortment is a “pivotal” a part of NFT historical past. There’s actually a case to be made: Launched in 2017 shortly after CryptoPunks, however earlier than the ERC-1155 and ERC-721 token requirements (which as we speak help most Ethereum-based NFTs) had been round, EtherRocks have remained a part of the digital artwork dialog since they grew to become in style over the last bull market.
This can be slightly stunning given precisely what EtherRocks are: Clipart of a rock. There are solely 100 tokens within the collection, every tied to a nearly-identical cartoon JPEG picture — the one variances being in shade and hue from grey to brown (and some extremely uncommon in blue). The collection is divisive amongst NFT collectors, a few of whom love the absurdity of “Pet Rocks on the blockchain,” as venture founders name them, and others who see the idea as a mockery.
To me, EtherRocks symbolize one of many truest expressions of NFT artwork, or not less than what NFTs have change into. When launched, the founders didn’t fake that EtherRocks had been something greater than an early experiment with a brand new kind of blockchain characteristic. The truth that they had been ineffective was form of the purpose: “These digital rocks serve NO PURPOSE past having the ability to be introduced [sic] and bought, and providing you with a robust sense of delight in being an proprietor of 1 of the one 100 collectible rocks :),” the EtherRock web site reads.
However as we speak, the dialog round EtherRocks takes on a distinct tone. Many within the NFT group had been extraordinarily aggravated that Sotheby’s determined to shine the highlight on the collection, below the corporate’s new-ish digital art-focused vertical, Sotheby’s Metaverse. A part of the talk is simply round how historic the historic collection is — apparently at launch, few individuals observed or cared about EtherRocks, not like CryptoPunks or CryptoKitties which instantly discovered an viewers.
“My tackle Sotheby’s EtherRock public sale: 1. EtherRocks are previous & scarce. Sturdy narrative. 2. Let individuals purchase & promote what they need in the event that they just like the meme. However: 3. Don’t push false narratives like “EtherRocks formed NFTs.” EtherRocks are a 2021 meme, occurred to mint in 2017,” ChainLeftist, a pseudonymous crypto artist and historian, mentioned on social media. It was some extent echoed by artist Rob Ness: “I WAS THERE DURING THAT TIME..NOBODY KNEW OR CARED ABOUT THEM ROCKS YO”
After initially saying EtherRocks “performed a vital function in shaping the NFT motion,” Sotheby’s truly modified the language on its website in response to the criticism. Whereas CryptoPunks created the shape and format for all 10,000 token cartoon collection to observe (from Bored Ape Yacht Membership to Pudgy Penguins), it’s laborious to say that others have tried to emulate EtherRocks’ mannequin.
From an outsider’s perspective, it looks like a variety of this controversy is just self-loathing redirected onto a venture that exemplifies the worst attributes of NFTs. EtherRocks, for higher or worse, are the platonic ultimate of up to date NFTs. Stripped of all of the hype round community-building and the way forward for artwork, they’re what they’re — a cartoon picture downloaded from the net clipart database goodfreephotos.com, bought to the best bidder.
In 2021, at peak NFT insanity, somebody shelled out the equal of $1.3 million in ether (ETH) for the reddish-brown EtherRock #42. On the time, the “value ground” for the collection was above $1 million, in response to @etherrockprice on Twiter/X, which stopped monitoring gross sales information in 2022, after issues fell off. And now that the eye is again on the collection as a result of public sale, costs are seemingly rising once more.
On Feb. 12, EtherRock #46 bought for $496,658, although there’s some suspicion it wasn’t a legit sale, given the common sale value beforehand was round $500. It’s not unusual for inside-parties to collude on NFT gross sales to carry consideration to a venture. The record-breaking sale of digital artist Beeple’s “100 Days” mosaic, which put NFTs on the map, was made to a enterprise associate, for example. Final 12 months, a bunch of artwork buyers sued Sotheby’s for allegedly colluding with Yuga Labs to inflate the value of Bored Ape NFTs.
I’m not alleging the identical recreation is being performed right here, however, if it had been, it’d be all to becoming.
To be truthful, it isn’t simply uncooked greed that drives curiosity and funding in EtherRocks. Just like the Pet Rocks it attracts inspiration from, there’s one thing refreshingly self-aware in regards to the venture. Gary Dahl, the promoting professional who had the million-dollar concept to promote stones to People, used to joke that pet rocks “required little to no care.” The novelty toys got here with a booklet that taught consumers the best way to get your rock to sit down, keep and, with slightly assist, roll over.
You possibly can’t do rather more than that with EtherRocks, both — aside from speculate. And in that sense, having the imprimatur of Sotheby’s saying “these rocks are necessary” is a big boon to collectors. A famed artwork collector and writer instructed CoinDesk in an e mail the collection is “legendary.” Why precisely did the curators select the venture? Due to its classic? Its creative assertion about capitalism? As a result of they’ve a humorousness?
