Checks (2023)

Onchain SVG
16,031 (Deflating)
Ethereum (Collect Editions, Originals)
February 2023
Collaborators: Jalil, Traf, Compositors

“This artwork may or may not be notable.”

Checks is an onchain, composable, collector curated commentary on the inversion of status, institutions and notability in the age of the internet.  

Originally available as an open edition for 24 hours, 16,031 pieces were minted. Captioned “This artwork may or may not be notable,” this phrase is a modified version of the disclaimer used during the rollout of paid verification on Twitter for legacy accounts.

'Checks' is centered around the transition from top-down to bottom-up consensus in a culture and economy driven by the internet. The coveted blue checkmark, once a symbol of external verification, now represents self-verification. This shift is foundational to decentralized technologies and networks, and is a central thesis of Visualize Value's practice.

The second iteration of 'Checks' was built publicly on Twitter, evolving from identical artwork to a protocol that gives collectors control over their experience and the collection's structure. During this phase, 'Checks' challenged many NFT assumptions, notably an artist's ability to change the token image completely.

On February 12, 2023, 'Checks' introduced a mechanism for migrating editions to originals, removing them from the artist's control and storing them trustlessly on the Ethereum blockchain. At the time of writing, 5,340 of the 16,031 editions remain unmigrated. The remaining 10,691 have been converted to original artworks or combined into smaller compositions.

The final piece in the collection is the Black Check, which can only be created by compositing 4,096 original editions. Only three Black Checks are mathematically possible.