The Dan Files

The Dan Files by @dan_files has gotten their own gallery, which just got added to @ord_net🖼️ 77 of the first 1000 inscriptions are part of this collection, from inscription #626 to #953. The Dan Files is one of, if not the, first non-derivative, conceptional art collection on Bitcoin🟧 Now, you can collect them on Ord. ord.net/collection/the-dan-f…

The Dan Files by @dan_files is a collection of 65 art pieces, distributed over 10 sub-collections, inscribed between #626 to #950, making it a true Sub1k collection (@sub1k_ordinals). This is conceptional art at its very best. The Dan Files acts as a nostalgic Internet time capsule, with a wide range of inscriptions that touches onto humour and satire, and more thought provoking art pieces. One of them even got censored when it first was inscribed. Check out #668 for those who dare👀 So much thought and work went into making this collection. As @droplister explains in his Hell Money Podcast episode (@hellmoneypod), he was into ordinals long before it got officially launched in Jan 2023. He had to have used fall of 2022 to make this collection ready to be inscribed from the get-go. Last night I was fortunate to get hold of an art piece from this legendary collection💎 Inscription #671 is from the Shitposts Only sub-collection, and is called The Tornado Guy Meme. This went viral in 2014, when a guy named Terry Tufferson posted a video of him taking a selfie in front of a tornado👇🏽 Later on, it was discovered that the video was a hoax, made to promote an Australian movie called Into the Storm. As got revealed in Hell Money, Dan was actually working on his own NFT protocol on Bitcoin, called Artifacts. This had many of the same ideas as ordinals, getting NFTs on-chain. When Dan discovered ordinals, and realised how far they’d come in making the protocol, he stopped working on his version. That is what makes this art piece so special to me. There were many developers working on how to get NFTs on-chain. RGB. Taproot. Artifacts. Ordinals got there first, and has stayed on as the preferred protocol to store data on-chain. But the story could have been different, hence the tornado (artifacts) that could have crushed the guy (ordinals) taking a selfie in front of it. Also like the nice touch that when you visit artifact.org you get redirected to #671 in ordinals.com, acknowledging ordinals as the protocol that got traction. I will cherish this truly remarkable art piece, forever💎

Before Parent/Child and Galleries was invented, the way to preserve metadata provenance was to inscribe JSON files on-chain. In Sub1k, most of the big collections did this: # 105 | Bitcoin Shrooms by @BitcoinShrooms. 191 | Bitcoin Rocks by @ordrocks. 382 | Timechain by @timechainord. 580 | Rare Pepes. 672 | The Dan Files by @dan_files. 969 | The Shadow Hats by @TheShadowHats. The one that stands out is The Dan Files. They were the first collection on Bitcoin to utilise JSON files in a manner that most collections would copy afterwards, especially after the founder @droplister talked about how Counterparty does community curated collections on @hellmoneypod. To preserve provenance to his collection, Dan made 10 JSON files for each sub-collection in the collection - or traits as we call them today. Then, he bound them together making a JSON file with all the other 10 JSON files in them. Also remarkable is that the JSON files - even the misprint - were all inscribed Sub1k: 672, 674, 718 831, 847, 888 889, 890, 891 921, 952, 953 With its 65 art pieces and 12 JSON files securing provenance - an ecosystem of 77 inscriptions - The Dan Files is a true Sub1k collection with inscriptions ranging from #626 to #953. That’s how you secure metadata provenance💎