It’s a sunny August afternoon, I’ve finally forced myself to take a week off, and jpegs are hot again. No better time to write about something that has gotten me increasingly excited over the past few weeks:
The FVCKRENDERVERSE//
What started as a small write-up has quickly become quite an expansive wall of text, but I hope it’ll be useful for those trying to understand what in fresh hell this is all about & why it is so significant.
Firstly though, a quick bit of context for those who don’t know FVCKRENDER:
FVCKRENDER is a Christie’s & Sotheby’s sold 3D artist from Montréal who has worked for Supreme, Columbia Records, Lil Nas X, Cardi B & Instagram, Epic Records, New Retrowave Records, Puma, Spotify and Panic! at the Disco, and many, many others.
In crypto spheres, however, he’s more known for being an early adopter and avid collector of NFTs as well as being a true metaverse pioneer.
Oh, and not to forget his out-of-this-world art!
What’s most interesting about FVCKRENDER though is that over the past few years, while others have focused on translating real-life gallery experiences into the virtual world (oncyber.io is a very cool and very smooth example of this), FVCKRENDER has been rethinking this entire experience to be digitally native.
Okay, I’m understating this. Let’s try again.
FVCKRENDER has been building A COMPLETE UNIVERSE based around and populated with his artwork. Planets and all. Free to roam by anyone.
Every piece of art you come across has been sold as NFT and shows the name, artist and owner of the work. Even for the planets (FV_290B sold for $38,000 on Nifty Gateway just 6 months ago).
This is the FVCKRENDERVERSE//. And it’s stunning.
A Schelling Point for NFTs
As the ‘verse is being built out using Unreal Engine, even in its current beta phase roaming the different planets is an awe-inspiring pleasure that has to be seen to be believed. It has blown every other gallery experience I’ve ever had out of the water. Both in real life and virtual. By a mile.
And while it’s currently functioning as a Metaverse gallery for his own works, it’s safe to say the FVCKRENDERVERSE// will not be FVCKRENDER exclusive for much longer:
And with that in mind, the FVCKRENDERVERSE// has incredible potential to become a Schelling point for NFTs at scale (in this context: a place people naturally gravitate towards).
After having experienced the ‘verse myself, it didn’t take much imagination to see the FVCKRENDERVERSE// possibly actually becoming one of the most valuable spaces in the metaverse, with the potential to attract the interests of artists, collectors, as well as major galleries & auction houses globally.
And with the ‘verse accruing value over time, seeing how that value could be further captured becomes clearer too: think land being auctioned off to display art or hold auctions & exhibitions, where a % of the land sales would go to planet owners and a % of the auction profits would go to the land owners (and a % to a DAO perhaps?).
Experiencing the FVCKRENDERVERSE//
Besides giving us the gorgeous visuals, what’s equally exciting about the use of Unreal Engine is that the ‘verse will soon be made available through pixel streaming, where anyone will be able to explore it through any browser (even mobile) without it taxing your hardware (think Google Stadia), making it instantly accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
HOWEVER, if you’re already itching to explore the FVCKRENDERVERSE// for yourself right now, I have good news!
You can do so by downloading a package from the website, which contains an executable file that you can run locally and start exploring (please note that my 2017 MBP was on struggle street framerate-wise)!
What The FVCK_CRYSTAL//?
Separating Art & Utility
As art and utility are becoming increasingly intertwined in the world of NFTs, it is no longer rare to see strict requirements for obtaining new works of popular artists. Particularly on sites such as Nifty Gateway, you will find disclaimers such as:
“To participate in this auction you must own at least 2 NFTs by [Artist]” or:
“To participate in this auction you must own at least 1 NFT from [Collection] by [Artist]”.
While this does create more buying pressure on artworks from previous collections in the short run and can be a great way of rewarding your most loyal collectors, for some artists it also begs the question whether those pieces will then be acquired for “the right reasons”.
After all, are collectors acquiring your work because they like it, or are they acquiring it as an entry ticket to an exclusive auction/raffle they can profit of to then sell that ticket afterwards? You can’t stop the flippers from flipping, but whether you should incentivise them is another question.
“My art is a piece of art that shouldn’t be relying on utility to maintain its value.” — FVCKRENDER
Okay, clear.
So this is how FVCK_CRYSTAL// was born:
“to make a clear differentiation between [his] art and utility”.
While visually appealing in their own right (especially when viewed on display in the ‘verse) and unmistakably the works of FVCKRENDER, FVCK_CRYSTAL// is actually a collection of 4169 unique computer-generated precious stones “optimised to be used to participate in future events, raffles and exclusive areas of the FVCKRENDERVERSE//”.
Even if FVCKRENDER is remaining tight-lipped about exact future utility of FVCK_CRYSTAL//, there are some interesting bread crumbs people in the Discord have already started to follow to create a clearer picture. For instance:
- FVCKRENDER designed the ERC-721 Founder’s Vault DAO token by Pixel Vault, where first issues of PUNKS Comics could either be staked for fractional ownership in the 16 featured CryptoPunks, or be burned to receive a DAO token for governance and access to a private Discord.
If building out a protocol is a large, expensive undertaking, building out a universe is a large, expensive undertaking and a half. Hence, a burning mechanism of FVCK_CRYSTAL//s to obtain DAO tokens could make a whole lot of sense. This would essentially guarantee the alignment and intertwining of crystals and the ‘verse while further driving scarcity.
However speculative it may be, it is further supported by the fact that some of the crystals were actually born through a burning mechanism too!
The Mint & The Sale
In what was perhaps a final moment of utility for his previous works, within a select 1h window of their creation period, holders of FVCKRENDER’s “INVALIDITY//” and “BALANCE//” were able to burn these pieces to mint two FVCK_CRYSTAL//s per piece.
After the hour was up, the pieces were then made available to anyone for a purchase price of 0.4169 ETH per crystal (around $1,250 at the time).
Shockingly, despite the relatively high mint price, all crystals sold out within 1 minute.
At time of writing, the FVCK_CRYSTAL// floor price on Open Sea is around 2.4 ETH (or ~$8,000) with a highest sale of 40 ETH (or ~$129,500).
Event #1: The Raffle
Fast forward ten days after the mint to Friday Aug 20, 2021 and we’re at the raffle, where every crystal served as an entry ticket to be able to purchase one of 20 editions of BREATHE// on Nifty Gateway for $100 (winners still having to pay might sound weird, but consider that the cheapest FVCKRENDER piece after crystals is currently listed for $8,420).
To my personal surprise, an overwhelming 50+% of all crystals were sent to Nifty Gateway to participate (sending any hope I had in winning this thing with a meagre single crystal down the gutter with it).
Ultimately, 2024 entries were made within the 30 minute raffle window and 20 winners were chosen in the 15 minutes that followed (no, I wasn’t one of them).
Today, the lowest listed price for BREATHE// is $19,000, which you can find listed on Nifty Gateway here (yes, I am in pain).
An Asymmetric Bet
Now you may be thinking “wait a minute, but isn’t this just full-circle to art with utility?”. And I get it. But there’s so much more to it than that:
FVCK_CRYSTAL//s are an asymmetric bet on the outsized impact of the FVCKRENDERVERSE// and the metaverse as a whole. All the while FVCKRENDER keeps his original works “pure” from being collected for any reason other than people liking his art.
More simply put: if you believe FVCKRENDER, NFTs & the metaverse have any impact beyond the ~150k people dabbling in it monthly right now, you’d probably do good scooping up one of these crystals.
If you can find someone willing to sell you one that is.
Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
