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