Apr 17, 2018
Announcing SuperRare Beta!
2017 was a yuuge year for cryptocurrency prices and hype. But 2018 is about substance and delivering working software, and rare digital art and collectibles are going to be at the center of it. We developed the Pixura protocol to power dapps focusing on non-fungible tokens, and we are excited to announce the beta launch of SuperRare, our platform that makes it easy to create, collect, and share digitally rare art, built on Ethereum and IPFS.
A Platform for Digitally Rare Art
Crypto art harnesses the digital scarcity provided by a blockchain, linking a digital or physical item to a provably-rare token, which makes the item easy to sell or trade, and provides an easy way to verify ownership and authenticity.
Each token is unique and is indelibly linked to the original art, which helps artists and collectors transfer ownership, track provenance, and prevent fraud.
It’s Aliiiive!
After working on the protocol and application since late last year, we just hit the insanely exciting milestone of having all of the beta features built and our smart contract ready to go, and deployed SuperRare to the Ethereum main net.
Iterative Development
Our aim from the start was to build the smallest viable product with the biggest impact, and then iterate from there, making improvements and building a great community along the way.
In March, we launched an alpha version of the app with its core features: creating, selling, collecting, and bidding on artwork. The alpha smart contract was deployed to the Ropsten Ethereum test net and we got some invaluable feedback from people who signed up for early access (big thanks to our alpha testers!)
Artists want control over their own brand. SuperRare’s light-weight solution offers that plus a 10% artist’s royalty for all future sales. Make the most talented artists happy and the collectors will follow. Launching early and designing iteratively is smart and bodes well for SuperRare’s future.
— Jason Bailey, Artnome
Shortly after going live on the main net last week, the first SuperRare artwork to trade hands was purchased by Jason Bailey, crypto art collector and founder of Artnome. He bought four single-edition AI-generated nude portraits created by Robbie Barrat.
Yep, you heard that right: four nude portraits generated by artificial intelligence were just sold on the blockchain. The future is weirder and more amazing than we imagined.
What’s next for SuperRare
Our plan is to make it as simple as possible to create, collect, and share digitally rare art, putting these tools in the hands of creators, and giving fans a new way to connect with, support, and discover artists. Here’s what’s next on our roadmap in the coming weeks.
- Continue on-boarding awesome artists from around the world and helping launch their first SuperRare collections (If you’re interested in joining our Artist Network, apply here)
- Artist and collector profiles
- Improved notifications
- Make the app fully compatible with mobile Ethereum clients like Toshi and Cipher Browser, to make it easy to browse and collect art on a phone
Follow our progress
- Check out SuperRare and start collecting!
- Follow us on Twitter
- Sign up for our newsletter
- Apply to join our Artist Network
- Give us feedback on Product Hunt
- Say 👋 to the team — hello@pixura.io
