@jackbutcher retweeted
PERSONAL STORY: when your NFT starts remembering your mistakes
When I first came across Balances by @jackbutcher, I saw it as nothing more than a visual representation of the amount of $BALANCE in a wallet. But the more I look into how it works, the more interesting another aspect becomes.
The NFT records your behavior through metrics like Peak balance, Times emptied, and Returns from zero.
Imagine two wallets.
Wallet #1
Bought $BALANCE, gradually increased the position, and never emptied the wallet. Times emptied = 0. Just held.
Wallet #2
Bought, the market went down, and sold everything. Times emptied +1. Then came back. Returns from zero +1. And repeated the cycle several times.
Eventually, the NFT shows not just your balance, but the history of what you did with it.
This hits close to home for me after experiencing a drawdown of around 80%. In moments like that, you don't think about how it might look in an NFT someday. You're just trying to decide: sell or hold? Buy more or wait?
And if you end up selling everything, that decision doesn't just stay in your memory. It becomes part of your onchain history.
Balances doesn't know why you sold. But it knows that you did.
And that's what I like about @jackbutcher's idea.
Two wallets can have the same balance but completely different histories.
One: I held.
The other: I left. I came back. I left again.
Over time, that history becomes part of the artwork itself.
That's why I no longer see Balances as just an NFT that displays your balance. It's more like a visual onchain diary of what you did with that balance.
@jackbutcher retweeted
the depth of what @jackbutcher has created from a post about sending him $8 is wild
x money tx → credits → statements → $balance → balances sbt → bids
that's four different generative collections and systems, all composing into each other onchain
unreal
How @jackbutcher turned 729 bids on $BALANCE into a work of art.
And the most interesting part isn't how Bids looks.
It's that every detail of the image is built from real auction data. I dug a little into the collection's algorithm and here's what I found.
1. 729 bids = 729 elements
The CCA auction had 729 bids from 374 wallets.
369 wallets received a Bids.
Each bid was turned into its own printing plate on a shared 600×750 canvas.
Basically, Jack took the financial history of the auction and turned it into a CMYK composition.
2. Your bid literally drew your Bids
There's no random generative noise here. The algorithm uses real parameters from your bid:
→ X. How early you entered the auction
→ Y. How high your maximum price was
→ Size. How much ETH you committed
→ Rows inside the plate. How much of your budget was actually used
→ Color. Which quarter of the auction you entered
→ Spacing between elements your rank relative to the other participants
So two people could participate in the same auction and still receive completely different visual fingerprints.
3. The most interesting part is under the image
Bids is fully on-chain.
No IPFS or external server for the artwork itself.
The smart contract calls a separate renderer contract that generates the metadata and SVG on the fly.
And every NFT keeps the history of its specific bidder:
• first entry block
• number of bids
• committed ETH
• actual ETH spent
• $BALANCE allocation
• spending rank among 369 participants
• original bidder address
• SHA-256 hash of the SVG
Even if the NFT is later transferred to another owner, the original bidder's history doesn't disappear.
4. And one more detail
374 wallets participated in the auction, but only 369 received Bids.
The remaining 5 wallets weren't simply forgotten.
The contract permanently records:
"Five unallocated wallets remain part of the record."
So even the unallocated participants became part of the artwork.
And this is what I like about the concept.
Bids doesn't just tell the story of the auction.
It is the story of the auction.
729 bids → 729 printing plates → 369 unique works.
You didn't choose what your Bids would look like.
Your bid drew it.
@jackbutcher retweeted
How @jackbutcher turned 729 bids on $BALANCE into a work of art.
And the most interesting part isn't how Bids looks.
It's that every detail of the image is built from real auction data. I dug a little into the collection's algorithm and here's what I found.
1. 729 bids = 729 elements
The CCA auction had 729 bids from 374 wallets.
369 wallets received a Bids.
Each bid was turned into its own printing plate on a shared 600×750 canvas.
Basically, Jack took the financial history of the auction and turned it into a CMYK composition.
2. Your bid literally drew your Bids
There's no random generative noise here. The algorithm uses real parameters from your bid:
→ X. How early you entered the auction
→ Y. How high your maximum price was
→ Size. How much ETH you committed
→ Rows inside the plate. How much of your budget was actually used
→ Color. Which quarter of the auction you entered
→ Spacing between elements your rank relative to the other participants
So two people could participate in the same auction and still receive completely different visual fingerprints.
3. The most interesting part is under the image
Bids is fully on-chain.
No IPFS or external server for the artwork itself.
The smart contract calls a separate renderer contract that generates the metadata and SVG on the fly.
And every NFT keeps the history of its specific bidder:
• first entry block
• number of bids
• committed ETH
• actual ETH spent
• $BALANCE allocation
• spending rank among 369 participants
• original bidder address
• SHA-256 hash of the SVG
Even if the NFT is later transferred to another owner, the original bidder's history doesn't disappear.
4. And one more detail
374 wallets participated in the auction, but only 369 received Bids.
The remaining 5 wallets weren't simply forgotten.
The contract permanently records:
"Five unallocated wallets remain part of the record."
So even the unallocated participants became part of the artwork.
And this is what I like about the concept.
Bids doesn't just tell the story of the auction.
It is the story of the auction.
729 bids → 729 printing plates → 369 unique works.
You didn't choose what your Bids would look like.
Your bid drew it.
@jackbutcher retweeted
we’ve hidden a @jackbutcher 1/1 trait in our marfa game
come to plastic cactus right now for alpha!
"exchange" in one place:
credits are freely tradable artworks, each with a credit score
statements are created by burning 80 credits and carry forward their full score
statements can then be surrendered for their score in balance
balances are soulbound artworks that display your current balance holdings (a tradable erc20)
opensea.io/collection/credit…
opensea.io/collection/statem…
opensea.io/collection/balanc…
opensea.io/token/ethereum/0x…
if you are interested in more specifics on the distribution or watching the network change in realtime, I am building it all out here (forever wip):
jack.art/exchange/
@jackbutcher retweeted
i turned @jackbutcher's $BALANCE lettering into a free font
every word prints its own colors. add a letter and the whole word reprints
creditunion.fun/font
any amount of balance in your wallet will create a soulbound artwork
the balance inside it is tradable
Yesterday @jackbutcher launched the BALANCES token and some people also received an NFT
Does anyone know how we can get the NFT?
new exchange frontend live
tried to write extremely thorough disclaimers on the previous version re: auction and supply overhang, but will reiterate - there may be more sellers than buyers, price can go to zero, all activity taken at your own risk, etc
jack.art/exchange
