From Here and Now to Infinity and Beyond

I want to give a big shoutout to my incredible friends and supporters who helped me bring this project to life. A special thanks goes to crcdng, floydwilde, Awheck, datcsv, VikVaughn, Lonliboy, Manticor, kwistof, Fatberg Slim, NeilQueenJones, jtrade, Shrednector, and Camila Nogueira.

Crcdng your contribution in creating and meticulously maintaining the hen-timeline was invaluable in preserving the history of this movement. Floydwilde, your meticulous editing brought clarity and coherence to my piece, while Awheck's invaluable feedback helped take it to the next level. Kwistof, Fatberg Slim, VikVaughn, NeilQueenJones, and jtrade, your support was invaluable to the completion of this project. Datcsv, your editing skills helped me refine my work, and Lonliboy, you helped me fill in gaps from the outset. Manticor, your insights into the behind-the-scenes drama were invaluable. Shrednector, your early editing and ongoing support were much appreciated, and Camila, you were a fantastic supporter throughout the entire process. Thank you all for your contributions and dedication!

Special shout out, on the second version of this writing, to Marcelo Moura and Retro Manni for their peer review and commentary. <3

In 2019, I visited my friend in Florida for a pirate festival called Gasparilla. This festival, held in Tampa every year, commemorates the pirate Jose Gaspar, who once laid siege on Tampa Bay by taking ships, and holding hostages for ransom. Gaspar became a legendary figure for amassing a "pirate kingdom" on Gasparilla Island, south of Tampa Bay. However, his exploits came to a sudden end in 1821 when, to avoid being captured by the U.S. Navy he wrapped himself in anchor chains and threw himself overboard while shouting, "Gasparilla dies by his own hand, not the enemy's!"[1]

Upon boarding the flight to Florida, I was seated next to an unassuming man in his 50's. I had my headphones on. I planned to listen to music and take a nap. I was visibily reserved and had no intentions of having a conversation. However, my seatmate had other plans. He began telling me many things about his life. We ended up getting lost in conversation.

He told me he was an art collector that traveled around the world searching for up and coming artists before they "blew up." He showed me pictures of his collection. The pieces were vibrant and masterful illustrations that I could immediately see the value in. We had a similar taste and style. He told me his house was filled with works of art. He even gave his friends art because he had nowhere to store it all! The first thing I said was, "Can I be your friend?" And the next thing I said was, "Wait, why are you sitting next to me in coach?!" He said that I meet more interesting people here. I don't know that I believed him, but I was flattered nonetheless.

I was captivated by his adventures collecting art. Our conversation was so engaging, that the flight zoomed by. By the time we landed, I was upset that we had to cut our conversation short! Before parting ways, he gave me his card and then disappeared into the meandering halls of the airport. I didn't give too much thought to our interaction at first. I just made my way to the parking lot where my friend was waiting to pick me up. On the drive back, I told him I met someone cool on the airplane, and that was that.

However, long after returning home from my trip to Florida, our conversation kept replaying in my mind. He opened my perspective to a world that I had not really known existed. I considered how I could start my own art collection, and travel the world searching for new and upcoming artists. However, there was one flaw with my plan - I was broke. The art world was inaccessible to me. I thought maybe I could do it one day when I have more money. I began getting lost in day dreams of starting my own art collection.

Down the Rabbit Hole

A year later, I began researching cryptocurrencies in my free time, and I came across a new technology called Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). They were a revolutionary innovation that provided provenance to digital assets. In other words, a piece of media (like an audio file, or a digital artwork) could be "minted," branding the media with its own unique digital certificate onto the blockchain (decentralized database), allowing the creators to sell it in a provably authentic way.

This opened up a world for new types of innovations in fields ranging from gaming, to music, to real world physical assets like contracts, and even body space. However, the logical next step for many was using this technology for digital art works. Digital artists needed this technology more than anyone else. There was no other way for them to sell their works in a provably authentic way. It was also one of the easiest use cases of NFTs since minting digital artworks as NFTs required much less infrastructure than minting other forms of digital assets.

I immediately began checking out crypto art marketplaces such as Superrare, Opensea, Rarible, and Nifty Gateway. However, it was a topsy turvy world that didn't seem to make much sense. NFTs were expensive. I ponderously scrolled through page after page of highly speculative assets ranging from the hundreds to thousands of dollars, with virtually nothing below that price point. I thought to myself: it must be money laundering.

However, I soon realized that one of the major reasons for this nonsensical market, was the underlying technology these marketplaces were built upon - the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum’s consensus mechanism (POW) and limited blockspace created a high demand for processing transactions onto the network. The demand for blockspace was so high, that the fees to mint and transact on the network could range into the hundreds of dollars alone. Therefore the market adapted to these conditions, creating an exclusive market revolving around expensive 1/1 editioned artworks. These were the NFTs that made the most sense to mint, since the market was small, and there weren't many people that could afford the prices to mint and transact on the network otherwise. This revolutionary technology, ended up not being so revolutionary after all. It excluded the vast majority of market participants, especially the digital artists who were located from poorer countries around the world, and significantly limited the creative potential of the technology.

The following year in 2021, I stumbled upon a marketplace called Hic et Nunc, affectionately known as HEN. On the outside HEN did not look like anything special. It was a bare-bones website with limited functionality - it didn't even have a search bar! It consisted of a main feed and user profiles. The main feed was an endless scroll of objkts (HEN term for NFTs) minted in sequential order. Anything that anyone minted would show up on the feed. Therefore, seeing something explicit wasn't out of the ordinary. But, in general, it consisted of a bunch of, arguably, worthless junk.

At this point in the state of the NFT landscape, there were many more sophisticated marketplaces with better UI, functionality, and frankly, quality of art. However, what made HEN stand out was that it was built on the blockchain called Tezos (all other marketplaces were on Ethereum at that point). This significantly reduced the minting and transaction fees on the marketplace, democratizing the technology to a wider range of individuals.

Despite this, when I landed on the platform, I was still not convinced. However, after a few periodic visits to the website, and a growing passionate community on Twitter that became hard to ignore, I eventually realized the website was littered with hidden gems. If you could only somehow navigate the website without any search functionality, you would occasionally come across real digital artists, some of which had been making digital art for decades, but were only minting their works on the blockchain for the first time in their career. Sometimes they even gave away their works for free, as the #Objkt4Objkt events on Twitter (where all artists would swap works for free) became a cultural staple in order to draw in new users to the platform.

Over the course of 2021, HEN became much more than just a marketplace - it was a cultural hub. Artists flocked from around the world to the platform to drop their works. There were innovations and experiments happening that had never been seen before in the history of NFTs. It was an eclectic and vibrant explosion of creativity. There were numerous events, digital exhibitions, immersive digital experiences, etc. It was a pivotal and defining moment in the history of Art, which is why I've felt compelled to preserve it! This is the story of Hic et Nunc.

The Gateway

The story begins in a foreign land of abundant scarcity and combustible cubes. When HEN was no more than a baby in the womb, another marketplace dominated the scene - a platform called Nifty Gateway. In early 2021, Nifty Gateway, affectionately known as NG, was the premier marketplace for crypto art. They innovated on a host of issues which plagued the NFT landscape, most notably, the terrible user experience of using the Ethereum blockchain directly. During this time, buying crypto off an exchange, creating a wallet, storing your seed phrase, transferring that crypto to a wallet, and using it to purchase an NFT was like trying to solve the Davinci code for a non-technical user. Therefore, when NG introduced credit card payments for NFTs, and obfuscated the blockchain technology to the background, they significantly lowered the barriers to entry for non-technical users.

Additionally, by utilizing a centralized database to process transactions off-chain, they offered a smooth, low-friction experience that sidestepped the exorbitant transaction fees that often plagued on-chain marketplaces. This allowed for a host of innovative mechanisms which were otherwise not possible with Ethereum's high fees. Most notably, Nifty Gateway's signature "Open Editions," timed multi-edition drops with a fixed price, which allowed anyone to buy as many editions as possible for a limited duration. To say they were wildly popular is an understatement. Artists would sell hundreds to thousands of editions in minutes (usually for $1,000 a pop), opening the door to a much wider range of collectors.

However, this centralized design was not without its flaws - it raised concerns about who owned the NFTs. While the NFTs showed up in the user's profile, they were not actually there. They were centralized within NG's wallet, which means NG had ultimate control over the NFTs (not your keys, not your NFTs), diminishing the whole purpose of the technology! However, the energy and excitement was so palpable that security was the last thing on anyone's mind. Nifty Gateway's approach was met with enormous popularity, onboarding thousands of new users onto the blockchain. Meanwhile, digital artists who had previously struggled to make a living were now earning thousands (in some cases millions) from their drops on the platform. It was a complete paradigm shift and revolution in the world of digital art.

In January 2021, I stumbled upon an interview of the Cock Foster twins, the creators of Nifty Gateway. Griffin Cock Foster admitted that he was initially skeptical of NFTs, calling the concept of digital collectibles "insane." However, he changed his tune after seeing the community that had formed around them. He compared NFTs to Bitcoin in 2012, saying, "once you get up close and examine the foundations of what already existed, you begin to realize this is really impactful technology, and this does matter a lot."

In early February 2021, I created an account on Nifty Gateway, and began receiving emails about upcoming drops. I soon received an email featuring the artist Fvckrender. He was releasing a collection of NFTs that evening, including an auction for a planet he had created called FV_290B. This planet was not only an mp4 file minted as an NFT, but also a fully interactive world in Unity that you could walk around and explore! Furthermore, Fvckrender announced a scavenger hunt within the world, where the first ten people to find a hidden scorpion would receive it as an NFT for free!

I missed out on finding the scorpion in time to receive the NFT (which ended up selling for $10,000 on the secondary market), however, I was not bothered. I felt like I was transported into the future and stumbled upon the holy grail. It was evident that there was something extraordinary happening on the platform, and I had to get involved. Therefore, that evening, I decided to make my first purchase.

In the following days, Nifty Gateways market erupted in euphoria! Every artist was selling out, and the value of pieces appreciated immediately after drops. Suddenly, for the first time ever, NFTs were breaking into the mainstream. NFTs were mentioned on the news. Saturday Night Live made a skit about them. Artists such as The Weeknd, Diplo, and Eminem had celebrity drops. NFTs were trendy, and anyone who was anyone had to get a piece of them.

Beeple

Mike Winkelmann, who goes by the name Beeple, is a digital artist who's known for creating bizarre, satirical, and, at times, unsettling renders, ranging from a "Chill Baby Goat" laying amongst a bed of tropical alien flowers, to a skyscraper sized phallus with a mechanical apparatus attached to it, extracting... fluids, which he masterfully called a "Dick Milking Factory." He had already garnered recognition for creating a piece of art every day consecutively for over 5,000 days. Before stepping foot into the world of NFTs, his Instagram account had nearly two million followers. However, he had only ever sold a print for $100.

When he began hearing chatter of a new technology called NFTs, he sought advice from Pak, a pseudonymous artist known for their geometric renders, who had already gotten their toes wet in this new technology. After learning about what other artists were earning from their NFT drops, Beeple thought that he could make a fortune from NFTs, stating, “I’m more popular than all of these people, and if they’re making this much then I would probably make a fucking shitload of money.”

On Oct 30th, 2020, Beeple released his first drop on Nifty Gateway, decisively termed, "THE FIRST DROP." Beeples' suspicions of making a “shitload of money” proved correct when his drop sold out, with a pair of NFTs auctioning off for $66,666.66 each (one of which later resold for $6.6 million a few months later). He was then inspired to take things up a notch by releasing "THE 2020 COLLECTION," on December 11th and 13th, on Nifty Gateway. The drop included twenty-one 1/1 "Everydays" auctions, three "Everydays" open editions, and an open edition collage of "Everydays," each accompanied with its own physical accessories, including a digital frame and a lock of Beeples' hair.

Behind the scenes, notorious whales, Metakovan and Twobadour, founders of the Metapurse fund, created multiple accounts funded with numerous wallets, to conceal their ransacking of the entire auctioned collection. They managed to win twenty of the twenty-one auctions. The entire drop amassed Beeple $3.5 million in primary sales. Metakovan and Twobadour then commemorated their efforts with the following video published on Nifty Gateway:

After their victory, they introduced a virtual event they created called "Metapalooza." The event was hosted across the three largest decentralized metaverses on Ethereum: Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, and Somnium space. The event unveiled monuments showing off their Beeple haul, ran scavenger hunts, hosted speakers, and launched a token called B.20. The B.20 token gave fractionalized exposure to the B.20 bundle, a collection of NFTs consisting of the twenty 1/1 "Everydays." A buyer could trigger the B.20 buyout mechanism with a minimum bid of $12mn, at which point an auction would kick off for a limited duration. The proceeds of the auction would then be shared among B.20 holders, pro rata. As far as I'm aware, the B.20 bundle still awaits a buyer today, but the website with the B.20 buyout mechanism is currently defunct.

If Beeple hadn't already accomplished enough up to this point, what happened afterwards made it seem like he was just warming up. He partnered with Christies, to sell the first ever purely digital work of art offered by a major auction house. They planned to auction off "EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5,000 EVERYDAYS," a collage of Beeple's first five-thousand works between Feb 25th to Mar 11th. On Feb 25th, what ensued was beyond anyone's wildest imaginations, even Beeples.

A bidding war broke out between notorious NFT whale Metakovan, and cryptocurrency mogul and Tron founder, Justin Sun. The auction culminated at a whopping meme price of $69 million with Metakovan, after Justin Sun could not place a higher bid because he was met with "technical difficulties." This made Beeples' work the third most expensive work of any living artist, redefining how valuable digital art could be overnight.

Pak

Pak, self described as “The Nothing” on their Twitter account. Not much is known about them. The pseudonymous creator closely guards their identity. It is uncertain whether Pak is a man or a woman, an extraterrestrial, or the supposed creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. However, as fun as it is to speculate on Paks true identity, it ultimately doesn’t matter. What matters is the content of Paks creations, which exist untainted by the labels of its creator.

One label we can attribute to Pak is that they’re a pioneer in both the digital and crypto art world. Pak has been creating digital art for over 25 years. They worked as a designer for hundreds of major brands and studios for decades. Before minting their works as NFTs, they were most well known for creating Archillect, an AI project which autonomously discovers and shares “stimulating visual content.”

Paks' crypto art journey began on Superrare, a crypto art marketplace that specializes in 1/1 edition digital art works. On February 3rd, 2020, they minted their first piece, Cloud Monument Dark, which later sold for 3.5eth ($787) on February 8th. He continued dropping works on marketplaces Superrare, Rarible, and Opensea, until he got accepted to Nifty Gateway allowing him much more creative freedom with his drops. On August 27th, 2020, Pak debuted on the platform with “X,” a drop consisting of two 1/1 auctions, and thirteen open edition works. The open editions lasted 24-hours, and amassed Pak roughly $100k in primary sales by the time the sale period ended.

With each subsequent drop, Pak pushed the envelope forward. On September 10th, 2020, Pak released Narcissus on Nifty Gateway, a collection of mirrors based on the Myth of Narcissus, a cautionary tale on vanity. The drop sold out by the following day, amassing roughly $70k in primary sales. A few months later, Pak collaborated with Trevor Jones, a Scotland based artist known for their paintings, to release "The Collision" on December 17th, 2020, on Nifty Gateway. This drop consisted of twenty-four 1/1 auctions, revolving around these Rubik cube-like mechanisms which featured paintings of legendary artists on its faces, such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, etc. Pak, once again, sold out, amassing over $200k in primary sales.

However, despite all that they had accomplished up until this point, it wasn't until their following project "The Title," that Pak, arguably, came into their element. This was the first time Pak experimented with the manipulation of value, which they later became known for. On January 5th, 2021, they released nine identical cubes, on Nifty Gateway. The only differentiating factors between the cubes were the edition sizes and the names: "Copy," “The Lucky,” "Paste," "The Gift," "The Flipper," "The Blind," “The Cheap,” "The Expensive," and “The Unsold.” Suffice to say, the drop was a success, selling out, and amassing over $200k in primary sales. The experiment on value also proved a success, considering the 9 cubes still hold distinct unit prices based on their arbitrary notions of value years later.

Soon after, Pak followed the lead of Beeple and partnered with the auction house Sothebys to release their opus, “The Fungible,” on Nifty Gateway. The drop consisted of many different components, but was centered around the “Fungible Open Edition.” The Fungible OE was Pak’s next experiment in the manipulation of value. Beginning on April 12, 2021, collectors could purchase as many fungible cubes as they wished during a fifteen minute sale period. The initial primary price of a cube was $500 and increased by $500 each passing day, for two additional days. Each cube would later be “burn enabled” on Pak’s site burn.art, which means you could destroy your cube in exchange for the cryptocurrency ASH. ASH would serve as the native currency of Paks “ecosystem.” They hinted at ASH-only drops and potential utility in the future. And the only way to obtain ASH was by burning a cube, so you were incentivized to obtain as many cubes as possible. However, there was a catch. 

You were delivered a different set of unique cubes depending on how many you purchased during the sale period. For example, if you bought one hundred cubes, you would only receive a single NFT, “Hundred Cubes,” rather than one hundred NFTs of “A Cube” Also, each cube denomination was fungible, which means each one was worth the same amount of ASH when burned. The ASH value of “Thousand Cubes” was the same as “A Cube.”

The cube denominations were as follows: A Cube (1), Five Cubes (5), Ten Cubes (10), Twenty Cubes (20), Fifty Cubes (50), Hundred Cubes (100), Five Hundred Cubes (500), Thousand Cubes (1,000). 

Therefore, as an individual, the amount of unique cubes you could obtain were limited. This was a clever method to give back to the smaller collectors at the expense of the NFT whales who dominated the space. If a whale wanted to obtain ASH, they were forced to buy cubes off the secondary market, reducing the supply, and effectively increasing the price.  

The Fungible OE was a tremendous success by any measure. It achieved the record for the highest number of “open edition” sales, totaling over fourteen million dollars! The three day sale period also included two auctions: “The Switch,” a piece that could be "used" by its owner, at which point it would activate something unknown and change irrevocably. The switch sold for $1,444,444, but was abandoned by the winner of the auction, and therefore was never actually sold. We never got to actually figure out what it did! The other auction was “The Pixel,” a single pixel, another one of Paks mind bending tricks on what actually determines somethings value. The pixel sold for $1,355,555, bringing the three day primary sale total to seventeen million dollars.

The sale period only lasted three days, but the whole week was a performance and ceremony celebrating the earliest contributors of the space. It was the first of its kind, and unlike anything that has transpired since. Pak managed to captivate an audience of thousands for an entire week through Twitter. However, after the performance was finished, things quickly took a turn for the worse. The market had been unraveling for some time, and by this point, devolved into an absolute frenzy, resembling a casino, rather than a healthy sustainable ecosystem. Pak sucked out whatever last drops of energy were left on Nifty gateway before its market essentially collapsed.

Many users then fully switched their attention to the generative collectible craze beginning to take off on Ethereum. The crypto art revolution was put on a back seat while digital rocks, animal PFPs, and ancient memes were selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, while collectibles were taking the spotlight, another crypto art marketplace began to gain traction behind the scenes - a newly launched platform called Hic et Nunc.

The Underground

In 2020, Rafael Lima, a Brazilian developer, received a grant from the Tezos Foundation to develop a microfunding protocol called "Hic et Nunc" (Here and Now in Latin). However, as the project progressed, it transformed into a crypto art marketplace, affectionately known as "HEN." Rafael sought to address the issues that plagued existing crypto art platforms, such as high energy consumption, exorbitant transaction and minting fees, and centralization.

These issues were all rooted in the underlying technology the crypto art marketplaces were built upon - the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum's consensus mechanism Proof-of-Work (POW) was energy intensive, and its block space (where transactions are processed) was limited, creating high demand to mint and transact on the network. Therefore, Rafael experimented with an alternative blockchain, known as Tezos.

Tezos was authored by crypto power couple Aurthor and Kathleen Breitman who initially met at a crypto anarchist lunch in 2010. They were passionate about blockchain technology as a force for good in the world. However, they noticed many pain points that were hindering the potential of the technology. In 2014 they proposed a new chain, Tezos, designed and built from scratch, taking the innovations of blockchains a step further by integrating developments such as improved decentralization, Proof-of-Stake (PoS), and Self-Amendment. In 2018, Tezos mainnet went live.

Consequently, on March 1st 2021, HEN launched on Tezos as the first environmentally sustainable, inclusive, and decentralized marketplace.

Quasimondo

Quasimondo, also known as Mario Klingemann, was an early pioneering artist who defies categorization. He’s known for his diverse range of tools and interests, which are “in constant evolution.” The only common denominators are his interests in human perception and aesthetic theory, and his desire to subvert systems of any kind, to create art that is intellectually stimulating and visually captivating.

Mario was one of the earliest artists to mint on HEN's smart contract. He immediately saw the potential in HEN as the beginning of a new cultural movement, and took an active part in shaping it. On March 17th, 2021, he minted “This is Not a Code of Conduct v1.0,” a personal reflection on the emerging community.

In his personal reflection, Mario states, "I don't speak for hic et nunc. I just happen to be here, too. This is a collection of my personal views of values for a community and how I would like to see it evolve and thrive. It is also somewhat of a contradiction in terms since I am not really a friend of rules and regulations, except for the one that is 'live and let live.' I do not expect that all of what I write here will align with your worldview, so I invite you to share yours and I hope that we will find some common ground."

Mario outlines several essential principles for community members to follow:

• Treating others with kindness and respect
• Contributing to the community instead of asking what it can do for you
• Leading by example instead of telling others what to do
• Embracing diversity and inclusivity
• Educating instead of blaming
• Avoiding competition and promoting cooperation
• Allowing for failure and learning from it

He concludes, "We may not all share the same values or worldview, but we all have a love for art in common. Whether we make it, collect it, talk about it, or even put a price tag on it, we all play a role in the ecosystem. Let's embrace the diversity of motivations and make the whole greater than the sum of its parts."

The minting of “This is Not a Code of Conduct v1.0” was a pivotal moment in the history of HEN. Mario was a prominent figure in the platforms early development, and hence, his writing had a significant impact on all who encountered it. This document, unintentionally or not, established itself as a defining piece for the community, shaping the early community's values, norms, and culture.

#Clean NFTs

As the NFT market exploded in 2021, many users became increasingly aware of the environmental impact of blockchain technology. Ethereum's POW consensus method was energy intensive - it required computers to randomly engage in computational processes until one of them arrived at a particular output. The first to arrive at the correct output would win the ability to validate the network and obtain a block reward. This created a highly competitive environment, incentivizing users to waste immense amounts of energy in order to increase their chances of winning a reward.

Estimates indicated that it took 332 kWh to mint a single NFT on Ethereum. According to one source, minting just 3 NFTs on Ethereum produced 915 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, the weight of a polar bear! Crypto users were struck with a dilemma: engage in this new technology, which was making people rich, or wait for an environmentally sustainable option? Suffice to say, most were not willing to sacrifice the sudden opportunities of this new technology. However, a few users stood by their moral convictions, and decided to take a step back until the issue was resolved. Unfortunately, at the time, every NFT marketplace had been built on top of Ethereum's network and had no plans to address this issue. Truly, the marketplaces were spread thin, as their communities and technologies were consolidated on the Ethereum network. It would have required a massive risk and investment in new technological developments to branch out into other blockchains.

Additionally, Ethereum had plans of addressing the issue by upgrading their consensus method from POW to Proof-of-Stake (POS). POS is a much more environmentally sustainable consensus method, as it only requires the locking up and staking of assets to validate the network, eliminating the need for compounds of warehouses packed with GPUs. Therefore, many marketplaces likely assumed they wouldn't need to do anything. They could just sit back, relax, and continue racking in their borderline theft marketplace fees, while Ethereum worked on these changes.

However, this development had been in the works for years and kept getting delayed. Ethereum's technology is slow to adapt. Ethereum's ecosystem had grown so large that any changes would have to be carefully rolled out in order not disrupt the multi-billion dollar economy operating on top of it. Additionally, it would require, a "hard fork," an outdated method of upgrading the network, which involves permanently splitting the blockchain into two separate chains, requiring all developers to upgrade to the latest version, or be left on a completely different chain.

Rafael recognized this as a massive opportunity, and therefore, chose to build HEN on the blockchain Tezos, which offered a more energy-efficient consensus mechanism. In comparison to the estimated 333k kWh to mint on Ethereum, it only required 0.0002kWh to mint on Tezos, virtually nothing. When HEN launched, it was the premier environmentally sustainable marketplace, which wasn't saying much. However, those who were looking for an energy friendly alternative were immediately drawn to HEN, albeit with precaution.

The early platform had very few users. As an artist, it was a huge risk to engage on the platform. No one knew if the platform or the blockchain would ever gain traction. Many crypto users had never used the Tezos blockchain before. It required a completely different set of tools and know how than what was understood with Ethereum. There were circling narratives that Ethereum was the one chain to rule them all. Would any other chain ever be able to rival it? Nobody knew. This had never been done before. For any artist that was looking to make the jump, they'd just have to bite the bullet and give this marketplace, that looked like it emerged after 24 hours at a local hackathon, a shot.

However, as time elapsed, the community grew in number. The term Clean NFTs was cleverly coined to refer to the low energy cost NFTs minted on Tezos. Before you knew it, Clean NFTs became a household name drawing in swarms of new users to the platform. HEN went from being a liability to an asset. Many pioneering artists were then handsomely rewarded for their early adoption, in many cases, much more so than if they dismissed their moral convictions and stuck around on Ethereum.

Joanie Lemercier

Joanie Lemercier is a renowned French visual artist and passionate climate activist, known for his captivating light installations that delve into the intricacies of human perception. Before delving into the world of NFTs, Joanie had already established himself in the art world. He had a distinguished portfolio, having collaborated with influential figures in the industry including Murcof, Flying Lotus, and Jay-Z. When he found out about this revolutionary technology known as NFTs, he quickly made his rendezvous into the scene.

In November 2020, he released his first drop on Nifty Gateway called, “Platonic solids: The Elements,” which sold out in seconds. The drop was a success, selling out and amassing around $16k in primary sales. However, after the drop concluded, he reached out to Nifty Gateway to inquire about the environmental impact of the drop. He was troubled to learn that they would not disclose that information. Undeterred, he turned to Offsetra, a carbon offset company, who calculated that each edition emitted about 80kg of CO2, without consideration for future resales!

It turns out my release of 6 CryptoArt works consumed more electricity in 10 seconds than the entire studio over the past 2 years. - Joanie

Joanie was distraught. He had become increasingly concerned with climate change and environmental degradation, lending his skills to causes and groups such as Extinction Rebellion, as well as tracking and publishing his studio’s carbon footprint.[2] He decided to sacrifice his newfound success on the blockchain, and postponed future releases on Nifty Gateway. He vowed not to release another drop until the issue was resolved. However, Nifty Gateway, along with all other crypto art marketplaces, had no plans to address the issue.

For months, he watched as the market moved while he was stuck on the sidelines waiting for an alternative. Eventually, he caught wind of a new marketplace in development called HEN, which was promising an environmentally sustainable solution to NFTs. In March 1st 2021, HEN's mainnet went live. Just 3 days later, Joanie immediately minted his first piece, “Shard |00” on the platform, unsure how it would be received.

Fortunately, it sold out that same night, albeit for much less than what was Nifty Gateway. However, as he continued dropping works on the platform, his collector base grew larger and larger. Eventually, he was convinced that HEN was a viable alternative. He then became a vocal advocate for HEN, rallying users to the platform. He initiated the creation of the FEN, HEN's first native exhibition, which aimed to inspire other artists and collectors to transition to low-energy marketplaces. His pioneering efforts and key role in the early HEN community cemented his position as a prominent leader in the push for sustainable technology in the crypto art world.

jjjjjjjjjjohn

John Karel is a Philadelphia-based computer animator who specializes in 3D animated gifs. His works are inspired by the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, which explored themes such as media saturation, celebrity obsession, and mass-produced commercial products. He believes these themes are still highly relevant today and are reflected in his frequent depiction of ordinary consumer objects in whimsical and unexpected ways.

John's love for animation and cartoons can be traced back to his childhood. In 2012, he began to channel this passion by creating and sharing gifs on Tumblr. In 2014, he introduced a recurring character, a skeleton, in his gifs, which became a signature element in his animations.

“I chose a skeleton because it's universally relatable and timeless. Goofy skeletons can be found in art dating back to antiquity. The skeleton has no backstory, official name, or gender... it just is what it is, a 3D model in its digital world, open to whatever interpretation the viewer has for it.” - John Karel

As a result of sharing his gifs on Tumblr, John's animations gained significant traction and were often featured on the platform's "radar" feature. Over time, he amassed a dedicated social media following, and today, his skeleton gifs have garnered millions of views and can be found across the internet.

John Karel's first encounter with NFTs was in 2018 on Digital Objects, now a defunct platform. However, it wasn't until a few years later that he fully committed to minting his works as NFTs. In 2020, he decided to take NFTs more seriously and applied to the marketplace SuperRare, but his application was rejected. His discovery of Rarible, an open NFT marketplace built on Ethereum, was a turning point for him. On July 5th, 2020, he made his debut on Rarible with the piece, "Waiting For A Sign," and continued to mint his skeleton .gifs there, gaining traction and recognition in the process.

"The jobs have always been enough to keep me going. But NFTs were what I have always been waiting for. It's what I do perfectly. From a financial aspect, it was exciting, beneficial, and great." - John Karel

Eventually, he became aware of the ecological minting on Ethereum, and felt he could no longer justify minting there. After some research, he discovered that the only available alternative was the newly launched platform HEN on the Tezos blockchain.

“To leave that behind for nothing at that point was... nobody was on it at that point. I was led to Hic et Nunc completely for the environmental aspect of it.” - John Karel

With John's decision to move to HEN, he also decided to start a new series that allowed him to mint a new piece every day. The idea for this series was inspired by his past experimentations with "window still lifes" on Tumblr and Instagram in 2016. These early works remained in the back of his mind, and ultimately led to the decision to begin a window still life series on HEN.

On March 8th, 2021, John minted the first piece of his Window Still Life series, “Window Still Life 001,” for 5 tez (~$20). It took two weeks to sell out 25 editions. He continued dropping a Window Still Life every day, for nearly 50 days. With each subsequent drop, it only became increasingly more difficult and expensive to obtain a Window. Before you knew it, his series became the most popular and recognizable collection on the platform. The main feed was inundated with Window tributes. As new users joined the platform, it became a fun tradition to create their own rendition of his iconic Window series.

Ultimately, John played an important role in establishing HEN. When other artists were afraid to take a risk, he stood by his moral convictions. As his collector base grew in number, he demonstrated the viability of this newly fledged platform. Eventually, many artists followed in his footsteps, utilizing the same distribution processes and techniques that he helped pioneer. He was then greatly rewarded for his early moves, as his series was collectively deemed historical, and he was canonized as a leading figure within the community.

A Sanctuary for Outsiders

While HENs clean NFTs were certainly a catch among those looking for an environmentally sustainable option, HENs biggest selling point was, arguably, its inclusive and welcoming nature. Since HEN was built on the blockchain Tezos, which had much less congestion to transact and mint on the network, its fees were significantly lower than those on Ethereum. It only costs cents to mint on Tezos. This was in contrast to Ethereum, where, during the bull market euphoria of 2021, it could cost hundreds of dollars to perform a transaction. This prohibited a significant portion of new participants from partaking in this revolutionary technology, and significantly limited the creative potential of NFTs.

Not only that, but most popular crypto art platforms on Ethereum were closed. As an artist, you had to apply and get accepted to the platform if you wanted to sell your works. Many talented artists were forced to make videos and jump through hoops, only to get rejected because their styles were less understood. When they had nowhere else to go, many turned to HEN, where even the most bizarre styles, mediums, and strategies were embraced with open arms. HEN then emerged as an eclectic and vibrant hub for crypto art. The cheap fees and inclusive culture together led to innovations that had never before been seen in the history of NFTs.

Rise of the Global South

HEN was nothing short of a global movement. There were users located from around the world who participated on the platform. However, among the different pockets of communities from around the world, the global south stood out. This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise considering the platforms creator, Rafael Lima, was of Brazilian origin. Additionally, Rafael was outspoken about his ideological goals of uplifting the global South at the grips of the global North. Despite his bias, all areas of the world were equally supported within the HEN discord, the main hub where the HEN platform conducted its operations. The HEN discord was the first stop for many users who were curious about the platform. Among the discord, were channels created specifically for many languages. However, while many languages were supported, most of them remained deserted, that is, besides the Spanish channel, which was buzzing with activity.

The Spanish channel was ground zero for many early South American groups which formed on the attainment of similar goals, from educating members on the technology, to organizing collective drops, uplifting each other, and just hanging out. One of the first of these groups involved in HEN, was known as "Chen." In Argentina, "che" can be translated as "hey!", "fellow", "guy." It's used as a vocative to call someone's attention, but it's often also used as a filler. When the word che was combined with HEN, you got: Chen, voilà. Chen was heralded by Argentinian visual storyteller and digital art educator, Tomás García.

Tomás had a popular Youtube channel where he educated his audience on new technologies. One of these videos was an approx. 3 hour Twitch stream where he explained how to mint on HEN and the vision of this platform for the Global South. This video was extremely popular and onboarded many South Americans onto the blockchain. Tomás then created a closed group, with goals that were not entirely clear, which required a form and acceptance to be admitted into. The group consisted of a bunch of artists, predominately based in Argentina.

Chen only lasted a few months until it was disbanded. There were supposed controversies, and disagreements among the members of the group. One thing led to another, and then a new group emerged during the middle of 2021, called Hic et Nunc Argentina, which eventually became known as Archain. Archain was co-founded by Lucasoxx, an Argentinian artist, along with many others. Archain attempted to be something much different than its predecessor. The members of the group wanted to have a bigger cultural impact, as well as be more open and inclusive. Anyone could join the group, there were no forms or convoluted hoops to jump through. Additionally, the structure was very much horizontal, as there was no leadership. Anyone from the community could organize an event, if they so wanted to. Lucasoxx mentions that the group was like a "playground" where they would conduct collective drops, interviews, have meetings, stream live content, give out raffles and speculate on digital marble races to win NFTs.

In Archain, Lucasoxx met another Argentinian known as Bulls on Twitter. They began to talk about co-founding a new group that was more structured. Soon they met Argentinian disQtible, who wrote a book about crypto art called "Cryptoart. Artistic work in semiocapitalism times." Around late 2022, together they founded "Newtro Arts," a cultural management and artist collective. Newtro's mission was to provide workshops to new users, to educate them on the Web3 space, and provide tools for artists. Their first workshop consisted of 15 artists. As of the last workshop, (at the time of writing this: March 2024) they had more than 50 artists, tokenizing their artworks for the first time. These groups have been consequential to the establishment of the global south on the blockchain. Through them we have seen the rich culture of the south flourish on the global scene.

Flora Marquez

Flora Marquez is an Argentinian artist based in a small town called Unquillo, situated in the province of Córdoba. She describes the town as more like a village than a city, explaining that its rather peaceful, and close to nature. In her village, Flora creates illustrations and gifs using digital tools such as an iPad and applications such as Procreate. However, when it comes to "more personal" stuff she keeps it old school with notebooks. She enjoys handwriting ideas for autobiographical comics, and especially doodling.

"I like to describe my style as fluid, free. I believe the themes I work on go from one extreme to the other: from completely autobiographical, to more fantastical and delirious. I enjoy playing with both worlds, and sometimes blending them. When reality overwhelms us, what's better than abstracting ourselves and venturing into the universe of imagination?"

She draws inspiration from many different sources including books from authors such as, Kurt Vonnegut and Horacio Quiroga. She reads a lot of comics, including the works of authors like PowerPaola, Julie Doucet, and Tillie Walden. She's inspired by movies that blur the lines between horror and humor, much like the films of Pedro Almodóvar, Pablo Larraín, and Sebastián Silva. As well as Dark Fantasy cinema from the 1980s including, 'The Neverending Story,' 'Labyrinth,' or 'The Frog Prince,' to name a few.

She also derives inspiration from everyday life. Whether its seemingly mundane conversations, knitting, ceramics, connecting with animals, or connecting with friends, of which many are creatives themselves. She mentions anything can spark her creativity.

When it comes to specific art styles which have influenced her works, she says that they are diverse.

"Rather than listing specific art styles, I'm enumerating artistic forms because I don't confine myself to any particular style. Instead, I absorb what captivates me from a more structural perspective, focusing on how stories, dialogues, and scenes are constructed, rather than the style used for such purposes." - Flora

She's been creating artworks from a very early age, before she could even use a pencil and paper. However, she doesn't believe there's anything unique about creating art from a young age because we are all artists as children. She posits that its more insightful to know when did she stop creating art, or why did she never stop? In other words, at what point did she transform the act of drawing from a "childish tool" to something more "professional."

She mentions that she doesn't know exactly when the transition happened because creating art has been a constant throughout her life. She's always been drawing as a way to channel, as a way to release, to communicate what she can't otherwise communicate, and to know herself. However, she says that if she had to give a date, it was in 2013 when she decided that drawing would also be her profession.

Her other profession being Desktop Publishing, which she still does at the time of writing this, in her free time. She mentions that Desktop Publishing is a job she's always enjoyed because it's highly technical, and never compromises her creativity. She's always reserved all her creative energy for her illustrations and comics, which take up most of her day.

In August 2021, Flora entered the world of NFTs after receiving a message from fellow artist, Tornado Rodriguez, another Argentinian who had already situated herself within the scene. At the time, Flora had been struggling to gain traction on platforms such as Instagram and Patreon. Tornado and Flora didn't know each other at the time, but Tornado saw her struggling and decided to fill her in on this new technology. Flora states, "She threw me a lifeline. She was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland." Flora immediately followed Tornados lead. Tornado explained a couple of things on August 3rd, 2021, and the very next day, Flora began minting her works on the platform.

"Hic et Nunc appeared to me as an oasis, or perhaps a utopia. Being an artist in Argentina, for me, seemed more like a hobby, something I did in my spare time out of sheer love for art. It's very challenging to pursue art as a concrete and stable career in my country. Suddenly, discovering this magical platform where thousands of incredible artists showcase and SELL their works to various collectors was a revelatory experience for me. It changed my perspective and my approach to creating. Hic et Nunc was an opportunity for me to grow as an artist and intuitively taught me how to assign value to what I create. It also placed me in the role of a collector, something I had never considered, and made me realize the great pleasure and happiness I derive from not only supporting my artist friends but also having beautiful artworks in my possession." - Flora

Unlike most artists who ventured into the unknown territory of Hic et Nunc with suspicion, Flora reserved all doubts. She had joined in August amidst the frenzy. All her friends and people she knew were succeeding on the platform, so she simply trusted. She minted her first piece, "Ofelia's house. I.," an edition of 15 for 0.5 tez each, which sold out within minutes. She continued minting works on the platform and selling out. Flora mentions that she didn't know, and still doesn't, frankly, how much longer this would continue to work. She always had a sense of uncertainty, but she always chose to keep believing.

Cyber Mystic

Cyber mystic, more formally known as Marcelo Pinel, is a visual artist based in Brazil, in the interior state of Minas Gerais, a small rural town, he describes as “very close to nature, and far from big cities :)" Hes very proud of his secluded town tucked away in nature. He derives much of his inspiration from the natural elements in his environment.

He also derives much of his inspiration from the art of ancient cultures such as the Egyptians, Greeks, the pre-Columbian era, indigenous people, as well as, Western and eastern religions from theosophy, to anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism, Gnosticism, Yoga, Buddhism, etc. He mentions he’s influenced by Renaissance, modern and contemporary Artists with spiritual themes, such as Hilma Af Klimt, Paul Klee, Xul Solar, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Additionally, Carl Jung has had a large influence on his works,

"In Carl Jungs books I saw an incredible bridge between psychology, art and spirituality. According to Jung, art, poetry and mythology are human expressions that address, consciously or unconsciously, universal archetypes, especially the hero's journey in search of reconnection with the SELF." - Marcelo Pinel

He mentions that he has been inclined towards topics of spirituality, mysticism, and occultism, since he was very young. One of his biggest hobbies is analyzing esoteric images, identifying symbolism, comparing iconography and iconology between eras and in different cultures. These esoteric symbolic elements are one of the most prominent aspects of his works.

The other prominent aspect of his works are his application of colors. He uses color theory to create chromatic cycles to simulate an effect of iridescence, similar to heightened visual states of consciousness. "I try to simulate enchantment, magic, spirituality, and elevated states of consciousness." Ultimately, his works can be described as colorful looped animations within a square frame - a magical window - addressing mystical, spiritual and esoteric themes, full of symbolism.

Before entering the world of NFTs, Marcelo worked as an art teacher and artist, who occasionally took on commissions as an illustrator. He mentions that he was passionate about art theory, especially art history. Additionally, he worked in various styles of art, including drawing, painting, ceramics, and installations.

Around 2019, he moved to a small house, which didn't provide him enough space for a studio. Since he didn't have enough space, he began creating digital works. He started with pixel art in MS-paint, then worked with vector art, and eventually began creating 3D works, which he's most well known for today.

Towards the beginning of 2021, during the heat of the pandemic, some friends told Marcelo about a new technology called NFTs. At the time, he was unemployed with a newborn baby daughter. He was in need of extra income, and thought it was incredible that he could potentially sell his digital works online and make a decent return, especially when compared to what was typically earned in Brazil. He was very excited about the possibilities of this new technology, albeit it was very strange to him.

He spent the next few months watching tutorial videos before he felt comfortable enough to utilize the technology himself. However, when he finally felt ready to dive in, he discovered that he couldn't afford it! Minting and transacting fees on the Ethereum network were too expensive!

He then gave up for a while, until he saved up enough money to afford to mint his works. Around a month later, while watching a video created by Brazilian artist Alexandre Rangell, who made tutorial videos about NFTs, he discovered an alternative marketplace called Hic et nunc - a newly launched platform that had much lower fees to mint and transact.

On March 26, 2021, less than a month after HENs launch, Marcelo minted his first digital work, "90s alchemist pc set," originally a 1/1 editioned piece for 10 tezos (~$12.14). It remained unsold for over a week. Marcelo then began to lose hope in the platform. He thought that the site didn't actually sell anything and that it was a scam. He then decided to burn (destroy) the piece from the platform.

Afterwards, he talked to a Brazilian friend, who had found some success selling their works on the platform. However, his friend was listing pieces for as low as 1 tez. Marcelo decided to give the platform another shot, by following in his friends footsteps, and minting a piece consisting of 10 editions for 1 tez each. To his surprise, just a few hours later, there were some editions sold! He felt encouraged by the sales, and started minting more pieces, nearly every week, and at times daily. By the time he reached approximately his 100th mint, he started selling out on all of his pieces.

On July 9th, 2021, he minted "Wixáritari Shamanic garden" the first piece of his magical window collection. It consisted of 25 editions and was listed on primary on an increasing slope from 3-5tez. Within a day, he was able to sell out all editions. Many mints later, this collection is one of the highest selling collections on the Tezos Network, and Marcelo is one of the highest earning artists. Ultimately, Marcelo is a pioneer, who turned minting artworks on the blockchain from an experiment for some extra crash, to a full time career, leading the way for many others to follow.

A Worldwide Movement

While HEN had a strong South American influence, it would be inaccurate to say it was anything but a global phenomenon. Users located from all over the world flocked to the platform. It was one of the first examples of the "metaverse" in action, giving a taste of what the decentralized digital future has in store for us. The energy inspired users from around the world to create virtual experiences, digital exhibitions, and online festivals. These events brought disparate people together and fostered a strong sense of community.

Events

#Objkt4Objkt: One of the most successful events was #Objkt4Objkt, which was initiated by DiverseNftArt. It was a weekend-long virtual event conducted on Twitter, where artists swapped pieces for free, with the goal of attracting new users to the platform. This event was so well-received that it led to multiple sequels and similar events like #AUBJKT4AUBJKT, #H=N500k, #tezos4tezos, which became popular among the HEN community.

Pupila Dilatada: The first collaborative art exhibition showcasing Tezos-based art was Pupila Dilatada. This “psychedelic digital art show” was a virtual exhibition that took viewers on a journey through five unique spaces, featuring artworks by over 70 artists from around the world.

The FEN: The FEN was the first HEN native exhibition. It was a series of seven coordinated drops curated by Juliette Bibasse and Joanie Lemercier, aimed at encouraging artists and collectors to adopt low energy alternative platforms.

HERE & NOW: HERE & NOW is an industry-leading series of interactive virtual experiences created by Beets, showcasing Tezos-based art. You can read about the history and evolution of the project here.

Proof of People: Proof of People was a three-day festival in London organized by VerticalCrypto. The event featured over 50 artists, sensory experiences using blockchain technology, live music performances, and panel discussions.

Hicathon: Hicathon was a hackathon organized by the community to accelerate the development of HEN. The event brought together developers, designers, and artists to collaborate and create new tools.

NFT Uruguay: NFT Uruguay started as a running joke by prominent artist Santiago, but eventually snowballed into one of the largest events in the ecosystem, as users coordinated to make it a reality. This event lasted 7 days, and consisted of exhibitions, performances, panel talks, and airdrops.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Despite HENs revolutionary contributions to the crypto art world, it was not without its imperfections. The platform had a clunky interface, and lacked essential features, such as a search bar. The main page was littered with OBJKTs, some of which were offensive and inappropriate. To make matters worse, the platform suffered from frequent downtime and “backtracked,” or failed, transactions, making it a constant source of frustration for its users.

Paradoxically, HEN's imperfections, emerged as its strengths. It brought the users of the platform together and motived them to drive the platform forward. The community created tools, contributed to governance, curated content, etc. Ultimately, this sense of collective ownership and community spirit empowered users, making HEN's decentralized and barebones structure an unparalleled and engaging experience that stood out among other NFT marketplaces.

Governance

HEN was designed as an experimental Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), a decentralized management structure where community members cast weighted votes based on their share of governance tokens. The platform was governed by the hDAO token and Homebase, a web application that enabled users to create and manage DAOs on the Tezos blockchain.

Rafael Lima, the creator of HEN, allocated 2.5% of the hDAO token supply for the organization and distributed the rest. Initially, every sale or purchase on HEN during the first 45 days received a share of hDAO tokens. However, this method of distribution was flawed, as users abused the system by buying their own mock listings.

Technology

HEN's underlying technology was built on decentralized principles, utilizing a decentralized database (Tezos Blockchain), decentralized storage (IPFS), and a number of smart contracts that were accessible to anyone. This open and modular structure allowed for a wide range of tools and features to be built on top of HEN, providing users with a wide range of tools and features to work with.

The initial HEN platform certainly had its limitations, but users were quick to turn those into opportunities. One of the earliest innovations came from Javier Gracia Carpio, a multifaceted creative coder, astronomer, and bread baker. Javier's pioneering tool allowed users to delve into the history of an OBJKT, paving the way for many more innovative creations.

The HEN ecosystem became a tapestry woven by many brilliant tool builders, including Mark Knol, Marchingsquare, Glryxyz and, most notably, NftBiker. NftBiker crafted an impressive suite of tools that transformed the HEN experience for users. These tools have since combined into the powerful Multitool, offering users a seamless, automated experience across a range of functions.

HEN's decentralized architecture inspired a proliferation of mirrors and alternative front-ends, each offering unique functionalities and experiences. From hicetnunc.art to Hen.teztools.io, users embraced the open source ethos, breathing new life into the platform with their own creative spin on the HEN experience. With hic.af, hicetnunc.miami, Hen.hicathon.xyz, hecticnun.xyz, and objkt.com, the possibilities for users to explore and engage with the HEN ecosystem were limitless.

The decentralized structure of HEN offered unprecedented creative freedom, but also left it vulnerable to malicious actors who sought to exploit the platform for their own gain. Raiding popular drops became a common tactic among these unscrupulous individuals, putting a strain on the community and the artists who called HEN home. In response, the creative community rallied together, developing innovative distribution methods. Through their determination and collaboration, they ensured that the spirit of HEN would continue to thrive and evolve, unencumbered by the malicious forces that threatened its foundations.

Culture Wars

As of April 30th, HEN had reportedly surpassed Opensea, the largest NFT platform, in terms of daily active users. The platform had even attracted popular artists such as Xcopy and Pak, who minted their works on the platform. However, HENS growing success was met with a growing opposition. Some Ethereum enthusiasts, known as "maxis," criticized the level of decentralization of the Tezos blockchain, they questioned the platforms stability, and even disputed the quality of the NFTs offered. They thought that the platform's success would be short-lived.

On June 28, a vulnerability in HEN’s smart contract, which enabled users to steal OBJKTs, was detected and actively being exploited! Rafael suspended HEN while a new smart contract was being developed. It was a period of great uncertainty and doubt about the future of the platform. Rafael Lima, the creator of HEN, publicly appeared in an interview, in order to provide clarity on the platform's future. Unfortunately, the interview had the opposite effect...

Rafael's responses during the interview brought up more questions than answers. When asked about the business model, he was not specific about whether it was non-profit or for-profit. When questioned about the team structure, he described it as "distributed," but provided no further details. He mentioned there was no voting process among the developers and that decisions were made singularly by him. He also stated that he was not a proponent of the DAO concept and that they (the community), "don't understand hic." However, what unnerved viewers the most was how he repeatedly referred to the platform as a “laboratory.” This led to uncertainty about whether the laboratory, was a stable and viable business with a promising future, or an experiment gone horribly wrong.

A few days after the vulnerability was discovered, the person who allegedly exploited it, operating under the pseudonym "hen-exploiter," agreed to an interview hosted by VerticalCrypto. It was revealed that they identified as a Tezos maxi and a "DeFi guy" who didn’t like that HEN transactions spam the blockchain. However, what stood out most was their peculiar affliction for aubergines, or eggplants.

Just a week after the platform's shutdown, HEN was back online. The development team released a new version (v2) of its objkt-swap contract! To use the new smart contract, users were required to delist their existing (v1) listings and migrate them. NoRulesJustFeels published a postmortem report, "Smart Contract Exploit Postmortem," detailing the aftermath of the exploit. The report revealed that seven OBJKTs were stolen, with a speculated total value of $1,078.55. However, the financial damage caused by the shutdown was far greater, with an estimated daily loss of $41,718.28! The alleged hacker, hen-exploiter, even minted NFTs of their exploits, such as "Steal this token" and "What can be exploited - should be exploited."

After the hack, users came together to organize the #AUBJKT4AUBJKT event to poke fun at the hacker's unusual affliction with aubergines and lighten the mood. Artists created unique and humorous OBJKTs that featured aubergines in creative ways.

Despite the excitement and renewed energy surrounding the platform's relaunch, uncertainty quickly crept back in. Rafael's botched interview continued to sew uncertainty in the future prospects of the platform. However, the overall crypto market was experiencing a downturn, which was likely the real reason for the sudden change in sentiment. Regardless of what exactly the reasons were, many users decided to take a break from the platform during the period following the hack, resulting in significantly reduced activity.

Behind the scenes, artist George Goodwin, also known as OMGIDRAWEDIT, teamed up with the Objkt.com team to release the first programmatically randomly generated NFT project on Tezos:

This project was a pioneering achievement on Tezos, further establishing the network's status. The Tezzardz collection comprises 4,200 one-of-a-kind "snazzy little fukrs," each of which was created through a combination of 97 randomly generated, hand-drawn traits. Additionally, the collection includes six rare, hand-drawn Tezzardz. The distinguishing characteristic of Tezzardz, which set it apart from similar projects on Ethereum, was its singular focus on art with no promises of utility or future developments.

On August 31st, the “horrible little fukrs” were unleashed, resulting in a user experience nightmare. Many users struggled to mint the tokens, resorting to changing wallets, modifying gas fees, and even directly interacting with the contract. Despite the disastrous launch, the project was a tremendous success, as it sold out in a few hours, as quickly as the contract allowed. Tezzardz were swiftly canonized among the Tezos community.

The popularity of Tezzardz quickly spread throughout the crypto community on Twitter, with the secondary market price of a floor Tezzard increasing from a primary price of about 15 tez to around 100 tez within a week. This marked the beginning of the next boom. The energy and enthusiasm generated by Tezzardz quickly spilled over into the rest of HEN's market.

Is HEN down?

During the period following Tezzardz launch, HEN’s usage exploded. HEN’s market was so popular in fact, that it frequently crashed the indexer. This caused the site to not reflect what was happening on the blockchain. This meant that if you were collecting, swapping, or minting OBJKTs, the changes would not be reflected on the site.

Developer MarchingSquare was testing a new indexer in an effort to resolve this issue. However, Manticor, the creator of TezTools, stated that, "Squares indexer was a personal dev system meant for messing around with, not for a top 10 site." Square's indexer frequently crashed, and he complained to Rafael that he wasn't receiving enough support. Square and Rafael argued almost daily about this issue, until Square eventually gave up after Rafael accused him of purposely throttling the indexer out of spite.

Manticor was then commissioned by a group of artists and collectors to spin up a production-grade instance of the indexer. However, the indexer that Manticor created was still a proof of concept, lacking many necessary features to be reliable. As a result, users began to turn to alternative platforms that were not affected by HEN's unreliability.

Objkt.bid, now known as objkt.com, quickly emerged as a leading alternative to HEN. The platform launched on June 10th, born out of the frustration that Rafael didn't integrate the bid function developed at the Hicathon. It gradually gained market share, thanks to its emphasis on reliability, fast response times, and added functionality, like auctions and collections. Objkt.com's commitment to fostering a community focused on much of the same values as HEN played a significant role in its rise to prominence.

Throughout September and October, other artists followed the success of Tezzardz and released their own programmatically randomly generated projects. Among them were PRJKTNEON by Flygohr, GOGOs by Arya Mularama and 0x10, NEONZ by Sutu, and Randomly Common Skeles by John Karel and Objkt.com.

On Sept 19, Flygohr dropped PRJKTNEON, a collection of 666 cyberpunk characters randomly generated from 137 different traits. PRJKTNEON was unique in that it offered owners access to “exclusive benefits.” Additionally, the collection had a companion project called PRJKTNEON FILES, which incorporated lore, special characters, and other collectibles minted for the benefit of the collectors.

On Oct 18th, Arya Mularama collabed with 0x10 to drop GOGOs, a collection of 5,555 colorfully hand-illustrated avatars. What made GOGOs stand out was their innovative addition of “inventory items,” a complex system designed to engage the community with different ways of interacting on the blockchain. The system rewarded GIFTs, ITEMs, COAL, GEMs, and BADGES based on different met criteria, with each item being an NFT with its own unique “capabilities.”

On October 23rd, Sutu released NEONZ, a collection of 10,000 retro-futurist avatars that set itself apart from other randomly generated projects by being one of the first collections of animated .gifs, rather than static images. The project was unique in that it promised future utility by serving as a membership card into the "Sutuverse," a web3 playground that would incorporate AR, VR, and WebGL experiences.

On Halloween, Oct 31st, John Karel and Objkt.com collaborated to stealth drop randomly common skeles (RCS), a collection of randomly generated skeleton .gifs. This collection was novel for challenging the traditional approach to randomly generated projects.

The collection prioritized inclusivity, with no arbitrarily determined scarcity, and a 24-hour open edition mint, enabling more people to participate. The project was also designed to prioritize art over arbitrary notions of value. It was randomly generated on-chain, utilizing true random entropy from 800 evenly distributed unique traits.

As a result of this unique approach, the RCS collection was a tremendous success. Over the 24-hour minting period, 37,807 Skeles were minted, showcasing the power of prioritizing inclusivity and artistry over arbitrary scarcity and utility.

discontinued

On November 11th, @hicetnunc2000 quietly changed its Twitter profile description to "discontinued." The news came as a shock to the community. Rafael stated nothing and was not reachable for comment. Twitter was immediately flooded with tweets mourning HEN’s unexpected demise.

In response, Shokunin, the CEO of DNS, called for an emergency meeting with his team. With the help of Manticor and input from the community via Twitter spaces, they were able to spin up a new instance at hicetnunc.art in just two hours!

In order to ensure the reliability and security of the new platform, they thoroughly reviewed the entire infrastructure for any potential vulnerabilities. They discovered that an overwhelming majority of NFTs were pinned to one node on IPFS, creating a single point of failure. Additionally, they found numerous risks in the smart contracts. They took immediate steps to rectify these issues.

The swift recovery was a testament to the power of the decentralized nature of the platform. It demonstrated that even in the face of unexpected challenges, the community could come together to find solutions and ensure the continuity of the project.

However, not everyone shared this optimistic view. Violetforest, a prominent member of the community, shared a different perspective in a statement minted on HEN. In it, Violet expressed her disappointment with the actions of the so-called "community" and their involvement in the recovery efforts.

“I believe that Hicetnunc, Rafael's project and name, was hijacked by the community.” - violetforest

Violet discovered HEN in March. She felt passionate about the site and wanted to contribute to its development someday. However, she felt hesitant to dive into the code due to her lack of experience. As she spent time in the HEN Discord, she noticed that many users were struggling with navigating the website. So, she decided to volunteer her time and offer assistance to users by troubleshooting and resolving their issues.

Violet's hard work and dedication did not go unnoticed. After a month of volunteering her time to assist users and contribute to the development of HEN, she received a surprise payment of 40-60tez from Rafael as a token of appreciation for her contributions. This payment was not a one-time occurrence; Rafael continued to reward Violet for her efforts by sending her payments roughly every week. According to Violet, "Rafael always had a 'core team' of about 5 people he was consistently paying, sometimes in tez, sometimes in hdao, and I was one of them."

Throughout 2021, HEN attracted a large number of developers who were eager to build tools for the platform. However, as their contributions began to outpace Rafael's development flow, tensions began to rise. Many developers grew frustrated with Rafael as their pull requests were not being approved, they felt underpaid, and felt unappreciated for their work. This led to a breakdown in communication and trust between Rafael and the developer community.

Violet states,

"A hicathon was formed to outpace Rafael's development flow, but it perpetuated a disdain and discourse of Rafael as a 'dictator.' Followers of this 'community' felt the need to constantly harass Rafael about why the website wasn't what they wanted it to be. Rafael was the only one with admin control, understandably so as it was his website and project, of certain things like the domain and the server. A staging site, for example, was constantly suggested but never implemented."

"I don't think Rafael handled the discontinuation of the project in a graceful way, but I also don't blame him for protecting his own project. I also don't blame him for not accepting pull requests or other help from the 'community' because I think he knew what was happening and was protecting his own project."

"There were two DAOs, one made by a former developer in the beginning, but it had no traction and was useless because Rafael had the ultimate say in whether the votes would be respected or not. A second DAO formed from the hicathon, and again it was useless because Rafael had the ultimate say whether or not things were voted on. I believe the DAO was an experiment, just like the site, and it was a work in progress. The work made from the hicathon was more of a design exercise for Rafael than something to be fully implemented. He was still trying to figure out how he wanted it to function, and although the hicathon thought they figured it out for him, that doesn't mean that HEN ever had a fully functioning DAO. At this point in time the 'community' has hijacked the DAO, and the leaders of this 'community,' the developers, the ones organizing things, are going to dictate how it runs and decide the design of it."

"My last conversations with Rafael regarding the DAO were more shifted towards voting on art for shows and festivals, not the way the site would implement features and code."

"In his more graceful days, when someone would lash out at Rafael in the Discord, he would respond that this needs to stop and we need to start focusing on the art again. I do believe Rafael cared about the art and a social cause, but was constantly distracted and eventually worn out by people calling him names, belittling him, and harassing him to give up his website to the 'community.'"

"What started off as an open-source project has ended up in closed-sourced copies."

On February 2nd, 2022, the HEN community underwent a rebranding and relaunched under the new name "Teia" (Portuguese for "web"). The new name was proposed by globpoderoso and chosen by the community through two rounds of voting and extensive discussion.

On March 19, 2022, the Teia marketplace contract was officially launched. With this change, marketplace transaction fees were now directed towards the Teia community.

On April 23, 2022, Rafael Lima made the decision to shut down the websites for hicetnunc.xyz and hicetnunc.art as the community had transitioned to the new name and platform.

The Next Cycle

The future of HEN after November 11th remains uncertain. While some believe the community successfully resurrected the platform, others argue it was hijacked. Regardless of what you believe truly happened, I think we can all agree that the HEN that once existed is no longer in operation in its original form.

Since HEN's discontinuation, we have seen a surge in development on the Tezos network. Marketplaces such as Objkt.com, Versum, fx(hash), and fx(text) have inherited HEN's open decentralized culture, while providing the necessary tools and environment for new forms of content to thrive. Additionally, Tezos NFTs have gained recognition in the art world, with their debut at Art Basel Miami.

Looking ahead to the future, it is crucial that we acknowledge and honor the impact that HEN had on the crypto art industry. HEN laid the groundwork for a more ethical, equitable, and decentralized culture that enabled a more diverse range of creative expressions to thrive. For those who experienced it, HEN was a magical time of discovery and wonder that will be cherished forever.

Although the end of HEN, as we knew it, signifies the close of one chapter, it also marks the beginning of a new era in the NFT industry, one that will continue to be shaped by the legacy of HEN. Therefore, let us not forget the lessons and impact of HEN as we move forward and shape the future of NFTs.