Art Blocks Engine

The core innovation is the on-chain generative script. A creator uploads a script (e.g., in p5.js) and a set of traits. The Engine's smart contract uses a project seed and a token's tokenId to produce a unique, verifiable output. The same inputs will always generate the same artwork, ensuring provable rarity and authenticity without storing images on-chain.

Art Blocks maintains a tiered system for quality control.

• Curated: The flagship tier with a rigorous, multi-stage review by the Art Blocks Curatorial Board.
• Partner: Projects from established artists or teams, reviewed for technical execution.
• Factory: A permissionless tier for experimentation, with less curation. This structure balances artistic integrity with open access.

Art Blocks Engine projects have immutable provenance recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. The smart contract stores the generative script hash and project metadata. The artwork's DNA (its seed and attributes) is permanently inscribed at mint, allowing anyone to regenerate the piece independently, guaranteeing its permanence and eliminating reliance on centralized servers.

The platform popularized a Dutch auction (descending price) minting mechanism for fair distribution. The price starts high and decreases over time until all pieces are sold. This reduces gas wars by spreading out minting activity, allows market-driven price discovery, and makes art accessible at different price points. The contract logic is a standard feature of the Engine.

The Engine's smart contracts enforce creator royalties on secondary market sales by default, using EIP-2981. This provides ongoing compensation for artists. The platform also aggregates sales data, providing creators with transparency into the lifecycle and value of their work across marketplaces like OpenSea and Blur.

For enterprises and established brands, Art Blocks Engine provides a licensed, customizable suite of smart contracts and backend services. Clients like Porsche, Nike, and Christie's use it to launch their own generative NFT platforms without building the core minting, rendering, and provenance technology from scratch.

The core of an Art Blocks project is the generative script (typically JavaScript/p5.js) stored on-chain. When a token is minted, its token ID is passed as a deterministic seed to this script. This ensures the same input (project + token ID) always produces the identical visual output, guaranteeing verifiable provenance and rarity.

Art Blocks enforces fully on-chain art. The generative script and metadata are immutably stored on the Ethereum blockchain. This differs from systems using IPFS or centralized servers, as the artwork's existence and attributes are guaranteed by the blockchain's state, making it permanently accessible and verifiable.

The Engine structures work into curated Projects. Key types include:

• Curated: Vetted by the Art Blocks team for artistic and technical quality.
• Playground: For artists with previously curated projects to experiment.
• Factory: A permissionless platform for any artist to deploy, with community-driven curation. Each project is a distinct smart contract instance.

Minting is governed by the project's smart contract. A common mechanism is the Dutch auction, where the mint price starts high and decreases over time until all pieces are sold or a resting price is reached. This algorithmically discovers market price and discourages bots during high-demand drops.

The generative script uses the token's hash to derive features and attributes (e.g., palette, density, geometry). These are calculated at mint time and stored in the token's metadata. Rarity is an emergent property of the algorithm, as some feature combinations are programmed to occur less frequently.

The Engine provides a smart contract suite and minting platform that separates the generative script (stored on-chain or on Arweave) from the rendering logic. Key components include:

• Project Registry: Manages artist and project onboarding.
• Renderer Contract: Handles token URI generation and on-chain metadata.
• Minter Contracts: Configurable sales mechanisms (e.g., Dutch auction, fixed price).

Artists use the Engine to launch projects without building infrastructure from scratch. The workflow involves:

• Script Development: Writing a generative algorithm in p5.js or similar.
• Project Curation: Setting collection size, mint price, and sales model.
• Royalty Enforcement: Configuring on-chain creator fees for secondary sales.

The platform offers several key technical capabilities:

• Deterministic Output: A token's seed ensures its artwork is reproducible.
• Flexible Storage: Scripts can be stored fully on-chain or decentralized via Arweave.
• Multi-Chain Support: Deployments exist on Ethereum Mainnet, Ethereum L2s (Optimism, Base), and Proof of Stake chains.
• Gas Optimization: Features like Dutch auctions help manage network congestion costs.

The Engine has been adopted by major cultural institutions and web3-native platforms. Examples include:

• Bright Moments: A physical NFT gallery with location-based drops.
• Sotheby's: The auction house's "Gen Art Program".
• Pace Verso: The web3 arm of Pace Gallery.
• Feral File: A curated digital art platform.

The Engine facilitates a sustainable economic model for generative art. Key aspects are:

• Primary Sales Revenue: Goes directly to the artist/curating platform.
• Secondary Royalties: Enforced by the smart contract, typically paying the artist and sometimes the curating platform on each resale (subject to marketplace and chain policy).
• Platform Fee: Art Blocks Inc. may charge a fee for use of the Engine service.

A project is a creator's specific generative art series deployed via the Engine. It defines the script, minting parameters, and artwork style. Once minting is complete, the set of all output NFTs forms a collection on a marketplace like OpenSea.

The generative script and seed for each artwork are immutably stored on the Ethereum blockchain. This ensures verifiable authenticity and permanence, as the artwork can be recreated from its on-chain data at any time, independent of external servers.

Key mechanics that govern how artworks are created:

• Dutch Auction: A common pricing model where the mint price starts high and decreases over time.
• Reveal Process: Artwork is generated and revealed after minting, using the transaction hash as a seed.
• Max Invocations: The hard-coded, finite supply limit for a project.

Art Blocks operates two main tiers:

• Curated: A juried selection of high-quality projects with rigorous artistic and technical review.
• Playground / Factory: Open platforms (like Engine) for artists to self-publish projects with more flexibility and fewer gatekeeping barriers.

The Engine uses a suite of audited, non-upgradable smart contracts. Key contracts include the minter for handling sales, the renderer for on-chain art generation, and the core contract that manages token ownership and metadata, ensuring trustless execution.