Hicetnunc.xyz and NFTs on the Tezos Blockchain ~ What's New April 2021 Update

Another month has passed, however a lot has changed in the Tezos NFT world. Recent developments.

This will be a loaded article, so hold on to your NFTs as we dive into all the recent developments of the past month! Here's a quick overview, if you're interested in reading up on something in particular:

UI/UX Changes
The Secondary Market Launches
HTML/SVG/P5JS/and other upload Templates
OBJKT4OBJKT Event
Copyminters and Hoarders
The hDAO feed
A new challenger arrives: Kalamint ~ Punc vs. Boutique
Tezos to the moon
Pricing your NFTs adequately and the Presstube Method
Weekly Livestreams
List of Companion sites and NFT reviews
Other interesting Articles, Resources and Stuff(s)

UI/UX Changes

Since it's launch, hicetnunc's UI has undergone a number of changes and revisions. The overall minting procedure is still pretty much the same as it was before, the biggest change being that there is no need to explicitely 'sync' before every action you do on the website. Once you connect your wallet and grant permission it'll stay synced with your wallet address, and it'll show it in the top right corner next to the drop down 'hamburger' menu. The sync button still exists however, you simply click the drop down menu in the top right corner, and where it previously showed your wallet address it'll show an 'unsync' button. Click it and it'll disconnect your current wallet address. 'unsync' becomes 'sync' and clicking the latter will ask you again to grant permission, now you can choose a different wallet address.

Another major change is that you now get to preview your NFT before minting it. This conveniently allows you to check that everything is right before minting.

Additionally, note that the option for setting the royalties on your mints is now back. Royalties in this context basically mean that you'll get a percentage share of every subsequent sale of your NFTs. You can set this percentage between 10% and 25%.

After hitting the preview button, you'll have the option to go back to fix any of the NFT details.

If everything seems alright, then you can hit the 'mint' to finalize the mint.

If you messed up anything, or just want to delete an NFT you've previously created, you now have the option to burn NFTs. Burning essentially means, that you'll send the NFT to a burner address that isn't owned by anyone (This is how I understand it). All of this costs almost nothing due to the cheap Tezos Gas Fees!

If you're still confused about how to mint NFTs on hicetnunc.xyz then this Video series should clear up all remaining uncertainties:

Celebrating more than 10K minted objects on @hicetnunc2000 with three video tutorials on how to get started creating #NFTs on the platform🤍
Thanks to @presstube for the video tutorials👇🤖

1/ Set up a @tezos wallet with @TempleWallet and apply for some tez w/ @tezosnftfaucet pic.twitter.com/64zGXQCTEQ March 23, 2021

Alternatively you can read up on it in my tutorial here

The Secondary Market

You can now not only collect, but also re-sell previously acquired OBJKTs in your collection! This feature was rolled out quietly throughout the month an had some issues at first. The UI worked in such a manner that if someone were to offer up an NFT for sale that they've collected, while the original creator still had remaining editions of said NFT up for sale, they would essentially supersede the original creator with their offer, since the 'click to collect' button would have to be shared. This was problematic, because if someone were to re-sell 1 edition of an NFT for 100tez, when the original creator still had dozens of the same NFT up for sale at a much lower price, these would then essentially be blocked until someone bought the NFT offered for 100tez.

Some people might not have realized it yet: the secondary market on @hicetnunc2000 is open now.

Yes, you can sell any NFT you collected. The only problem is that the UI has not noticed that yet.

So if the first number before the "/" is > 0, try clicking "not for sale". pic.twitter.com/lY9pr6UsvU March 28, 2021

This button introduced another problem, that caused a number of users quite the frustration. If an NFT were to sell all of it's remaining editions, the button would show 'not for sale'. This, however, didn't mean that the button was not able to be clicked.

Yes, i'll wait a bit before swapping, I just gave 20tez to someone who took 31 of my early freebiesMarch 28, 2021

This has now been fixed by showing all open offers for an NFT in it's collectors tab, with the respective price and the wallet address of the seller.

Lessons learned, always check the price befor hitting the confirm button in your wallet!

HTML/SVG/P5JS/and other upload Templates

What first started as html encapsulated in an svg file, has become another avant garde feature of hicetnunc. Data formats such as html, svg, p5js, pdf are now supported by hicetnunc and can be minted as NFTs. This was pioneered by a number of Twitter users in parallel, a super insightiful article by Twitter user @tarwin can be found here. You can find the respective templates for each supported format here. You'll have to replace certain parts of the templates with your own code, replace the default thumbnail.png / thumbnail.gif with your own and zip all files. This zip file will be what you upload at mint time. Amazing Right?

And here's an example of what a minted interactive p5js sketch looks like. Go ahead and hover over the NFT:

Maybe the next cool thing could be a convenient and customizable iframe embed code? That could allow creators to display and sell their creations easily from their own website.

OBJKT4OBJKT

On the weekend of the 26th of March, in celebration of 10k minted NFTs on hicetnunc, we've seen an event started by Twitter duo @ameliemaiaa and @TaisKoshino that go under the handle @DiverseNftArt, that encouraged users to share NFTs for free under the hastag #OBJKT4OBJKT, such that users on hicetnunc could build up their collections without a cost. Even though the event is officially over, searching the hashtag #OBJKT4OBJKT on Twitter, you'll probably still be able to find some free NFT goodies. It is also very likely that this event will make a return in the future.

To celebrate 10k #OBJKT mints, @hicetnunc2000 and @DiverseNftArt are promoting a weekend of fun and celebration for all artists and collectors!
#cleanNFT #OBJKT4OBJKT #NFTCollector #NFTArt #NFTArtists #cryptoart #lgbtqia #bipoc #diverse #artists #WomenInTech #Tezos #XTZ pic.twitter.com/1iBeju6Ltw March 24, 2021

Copyminters and Hoarders

A problem that arose with the OBJKT4OBJKT event was that some individuals would collect multiples of certain free OBJKTs, while not being illegal, it is clearly a dick move. The main purpose being the later resale of the claimed NFTs.

Just realized that one of the guys shamelessly snatching dozens of copies of the free #OBJKT4OBJKT pieces was @sirboomcat aka tz1MHVtpYFsW7VDH1rhbhK3Krad14n6Ww8RD.

The hint is his own NFT, https://t.co/pZCSOvGdPg, which he minted for this reply here: https://t.co/UQOmiyxl5o

1/2 pic.twitter.com/DsEBrBLSA2 March 28, 2021

Copyminting is another huge issue, where someone mints an NFT/piece/artwork that is not originally theirs. Some solutions to this problem are being discussed inthis github issue started byt Twitter user @quasimondo. He proposes a community regulated system that revolves around a 'trust' metric, which will be attributed to each wallet address active on the platform. The main point being that new wallet addresses will have to accrue some trust before they can freely mint on hicetnunc. Here's a short excerpt, but I also recommend reading up on it:

This is why I believe that we have to address this problem at the root - which is by preventing those first sales to be successful. A mechanism I have in mind for that is to use an escrow smart contract that acts a proxy for all sales by minters who have no sales history yet and who have not yet built up a network of trust.

hDAO and the hDAO feed

You might've noticed already that every NFT on hicetnunc has a little circle underneath it, in the lower right corner. The same circle can be found on the NFT page itself, underneath the OBJKT number, and also in the drop down menu. This circle isn't just some aesthetical UI fluff but it can actually be clicked. Clicking it underneath an NFT will trigger your Tezos wallet, clicking it in the hamburger menu takes you to the hDAO feed.

When you click the circle underneath an NFT or from it's dedicated page, it'll trigger your wallet which will allow you to spend some of your hDAO tokens on the NFT. I'm not entirely sure what the tokens are or how they work, but once spent they essentially work as an upvote for the NFT. If someone knowledgeable would like to chime in on this, be my guest!

I'm not certain how many people are aware of the hDAO as of now, or if they're actually using it to search for potential purchases. This also brings up the issue of creators upvoting their own creations with their hDAO tokens, esentially boosting and skewing the rankings in their favor (if/when the hDAO feed becomes a more integral part of hicetnunc).

So what exactly are hDAO tokens on hicetnunc? What can I do with them (other than upvoting NFTs) and why do get some whenever I make a transaction on the website? Explain like I'm 5 #Tezos $XTZ #hicetnunc #CleanNFT April 15, 2021

A new challenger arrives: Kalamint ~ Punc vs. Boutique

Kalamint was officially announced on the 19th of December as the 'first NFT marketplace on Tezos', and was scheduled for a release in January 2021. This release was then delayed to the 18th of February, which was delayed again due to some UI problems and Kalamint didn't launch until the 23rd of March. At this point it might be a little bit silly to still call it the 'first NFT platform for Tezos', when hicetnunc had already been up and running for more than a month. Not complaining though, the more the merrier, and maybe this competition will drive both platforms to keep improving.

Kalamint is vastly differently from hicetnunc, being described as a boutique NFT store vs. the spartanic hicetnunc (as described by some members of the community). One thing that I actually like about Kalamint is that they verify the creators before allowing them to mint and list NFTs, this somewhat circumvents the copyminting issue but could also be regarded as gatekeeping, as they have full control of what is being minted on their platform. But maybe they're intended to cater to different audiences, hicetnunc being much more accessible to people who just want to dip their toes into the Tezos NFT waters.

In other news, Opensea has also announced the support of Tezos NFTs, however there hasn't been a clear ETA. Speculatively later this month or early next month. Meanwhile, other NFT platforms are being developed such as tezauction, BazaarNFTs and DAuctionHouse, which are worth checking out. It's extremely interesting to see what the Tezos NFT landscape will look like in the next couple of months.

Give it 1 - 2 months and 2 or 3 other #NFT marketplaces should be live on #Tezos. Check out @BazaarNfts, @tezauction and @DAuctionHouse April 14, 2021

Tezos to the Moon

The NFT activity on the Tezos blockchain has catapulted the number of contract calls, surpassing previous all-time highs:

Tezos contract calls / April 12 r/tezos

Hicetnunc is also still growing at a very fast rate, as of writing this post we've already surpassed 30k minted NFTs. Twitter user @Esclaponr shows some stats he has aggregated regarding the growth and activity on hicetnunc:

Largest spike in new users on @hicetnunc2000 since I started collecting some data about the smart contract usage two days ago pic.twitter.com/jQVBEmqh8h March 25, 2021

Up to date graphs can be found in this repo here. Alternatively you can also purchase these live updating graphs as NFTs here if you'd like to support @Esclaponr. It's safe to say that the Tezos ecosystem is brimming with life more than it ever has before.

Pricing things adequately and the 'Presstube' method

It's still not very clear to creators how to number editions and price their NFTs adequately, and what combinations thereof will help them maximising sales. After experimenting, some hicetnunc users have come up with creative strategies for selling their NFTs, one of them being the 'Presstube' method.

I didn’t coin it so it’s marginally embarrassing every time I see it called that 😝 but...

The practice of pricing editions so that they begin accessible (even sometimes free) and then the price steps up as editions sell

Jury’s still out on whether it’s a good idea though! YmmvApril 4, 2021

The 'Presstube' method is essentially a specific way of pricing NFTs on hicetnunc, which rewards the early birds that swoop in and cop the first couple of editions of a freshly minted NFT. It's possible due to how the hicetnunc UI works. When you mint an NFT on hicetnunc, it appears in the feed and your creations tab, however it is not immediately up for sale. You still have to specify how many editions you want put up for sale. In that manner, you can sell different amounts for different prices.

Weekly Livestreams

There also have been regular livestreams and 'campfire chats' between involved members of the community hosted on @verticalcrypto, which are fun to watch if you'd like to get to know the people active on hicetnunc:

Decided to frame and mint part of @hicetnunc2000 history: the first Hicetnunc & friends livestream 🤍

featuring: @crzypatchwork , @quasimondo , @presstube @theAngieTaylor , @NeuralBricolage , @JoanieLemercier

20 editions here:https://t.co/mmm5yUSH62 #NFT #hicetnunc #Tezos pic.twitter.com/DMM8tiMWI9 April 12, 2021

Companion sites and art reviews

Companion Sites

Tile Grid of OBJKTs based on visual similarity: https://here-or-there.glitch.me/
Live Feed of transactions on hicetnunc: https://objkts.xyz/
Tag Discovery Tool: https://projects.stroep.nl/hicetnunc/#discover

NFT Art Reviews

Shoot me a message for additions to these lists, I know I missed a lot!