0.0 Summary

Update

Based on feedback on original proposal, this BIP provides the metadata updates costs on L2 vs Mainnet, as well as examples of the discards ranked by most VP vs. highest raw score for previous rounds.
It changes the following parameters:

Size and price: 52 editions @ 1 ETH

Mint on Mainnet instead of an L2

Change to top discard by VP instead of Raw Score to ensure quality of discard

Cap the length of updates to 1 year, 52 weeks

Timing the drop with Botto’s 2nd anniversary

This BIP proposes an anniversary collection for Botto’s 2nd birthday. The collection would be built on a customized Doppelganger contract. The editioned token would show the latest top-ranked discard (by VP) every week, for a period of 1 year. At the end of the 52 week period, the token holder would be able to update the Discard displayed by the token.

The contract over time becomes an archive of those that never made it. We would look to add an option of buying a physical display via a partnership with a display vendor, but would not be required. The display would always be featuring the current week’s loser through a forced metadata update, which speaks more directly to Botto's process and its rotation would be a marker of time passing in that process.

This is a collaboration with Transient Labs and Proof as a member of their Outliers cohort, an exclusive set of artists given early access to their Labs platform for making use of their contracts.

An edition of 52 @ 1ETH each (not including displays), with 2 reserved for the DAO.

1.0 Background

Each of Botto’s 1/1 mints can be seen as tokens of the development of both Botto and BottoDAO collectively over time. However, these works are most appreciated for their particular aesthetic, and their presentations do not emphasize the time component nor the many runners-up and discards along the way that are invisible. With Ryan Koopmans we began to explore the themes of cycle and decay in Botto’s process and considered how we might feature “dead” fragments in a dynamic way. We looked at various ways of dynamically rotating discards, whether a curated set like the 10 we did for the eventual collab, top-voted unminted pieces from a round, or weekly/monthly random picks from discard pool. However, at the time there were too many complications with the dynamic NFT that raised issues of minting more works by Botto, volume, and sustainability and so it didn't carry forward. The new Doppelganger contract by Transient Labs resolves a lot of the complications we had run into. Transient Labs brings an ability to make a more sustainable work, and Outliers presents a strong platform on which to launch this experimental piece.

This summer, Botto was invited to be a part of the Outliers cohort, a group of artists assembled by Transient Labs and Proof to share ideas, learn from guest speakers, and get first access to Transient Labs’s new platform and custom contracts. About a month ago we received access to their Lab and have been exploring their contracts.

Their Collector’s Choice contract, nicknamed Doppelganger after Patrick Amadon’s inaugural drop on it, caught our eye as a way to implement several ideas that have come up for collaboration concepts: expressing the idea of time in Botto’s blockchain art, making use of a physical display, and rotating works from Botto’s discards.

This all comes together with the timing of Botto’s 2nd anniversary as a meaningful moment to drop this piece and provide some of the parameters for the drop.

1.1 Customized Doppelganger Contract

The Doppelganger contract is a single contract holding many files (not to be confused with ERC-6551 which holds many NFTs). The original contract idea was that you could purchase the contract with the promise of having new art sent to it by an artist over time. That one contract/NFT would hold an entire series of artworks and you could choose which artwork is shown. Our customized version would make one distinct change: forcing a metadata update to the latest image sent.

That simple change turns the NFT from holding a series into a kind of clock with a memory. Each week, the top-ranked Discard is sent to the contract with a forced metadata update such that the NFT features it. The next week, a new Discard is pushed, with the former one remaining unseen, but observable in the smart contract (and possible front end) as a record of the archive of top-ranked discards. By sending to the Doppelganger contract, no single fragment is getting listed, rather the contract functions as an archive of those that almost made it but got left on the cutting room floor.

At the end of the year, the collector would be left with an artefact of Botto’s past year and would be free to swap between the Discards. If successful, we could also re-use the contract for the following anniversary.

1.2 Alternative to Top-Ranked Discard

Reviewing different definitions of “top discards”, going by VP appears to yield much stronger fragments than going by raw score. See following for reference:

Top Discard by VP
Rd 80 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/momentary-utopias
Rd 81 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/ageless-urban-memorabilia
Rd 82 https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/multi-connected-feminine-darkly
Rd 83 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/feathers-unbound-together
Rd 84 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/operating-in-warning

Top Discard by Raw Score
Rd 80 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/beyond-wired-machines
Rd 81 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/exploring-the-cosmos
Rd 82 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/detour-to-destiny
Rd 84 - https://www.botto.com/gallery/rebellion/the-darkly-established-order

It should also be noted top discard could be minted at a later date if it was voted back from the discards for some special collection, but is unlikely.

1.3 Drop + Microsite

This would be a part of the showcase for Outliers by Transient Labs and Proof, providing a significant platform to promote. Excluding the pricing of the displays (to reiterate, we’d attempt to onboard a display partner and this would be optional), we are considering a price of about 1ETH for 52 editions.

*The original BIP proposed 200 editions, but there was considerable doubt that those would sell out. There’s also a question of the cost of updating the tokens, addressed further below on L2 vs. Mainnet, and so the size has been reduced to 52 for the number of weeks it will be updated. The duration of 1 year feels appropriate for an anniversary drop and is a robust timeline to create a significant artefact of Botto’s process.

It would sell on its own mint page on TL’s Stacks Website, and there will be a plugin developed to call the metadata such that collectors can easily see the archive of discards that have been pushed to the contract. Each would have a timestamp associated with the block they were uploaded on.

Collection name tbd.

1.4 L2 vs. Mainnet Mint, Drop Size and Duration of Updates

An important issue to consider is the gas of weekly metadata updates. To address this, the Transient Labs team had recommended minting the contract on Arbitrum. This would significantly reduce the costs of metadata updates, as well as further delineate this discards archive from Botto’s core 1/1s on Ethereum while adding emphasis to the importance of the physical display (the chain used is an enabler of the physical manifestation). At an edition size of 200, a metadata update would cost about 0.001 ETH. The downside here is that buyers would need to bridge ETH to Arbitrum, but the recent DeeKay Motion drop on Base should show us that this is not necessarily a blocker.

There was strong pushback on minting on Arbitrum, as well as most other L2s. This BIP updates to a smaller drop of 52 tokens, limited to 52 weeks, and a mint on mainnet.

For reference, mainnet costs for updating 1 tokens 52 times with gas at 100 gwei is .104 ETH. Here are different scenarios for a set of 52 at different gas prices:

gas updates

The max scenario comes out to 10.4% of the gross revenue of the drop.

1.5 Physical Displays

The concept emphasizes the physical display that is showing a popular loser of each round. Each week the image changes, controlled by Botto’s process and not the owner. This dynamic updating forces the attention more directly to Botto’s ongoing process than a typical mint does. While conceptually simple, a physical instantiation that directly speaks to Botto’s process can be a powerful way of sharing the experience of Botto, and can be popular with Botto enthusiasts who are drawn to the project for the overall concept and not just the aesthetic outputs. A physical display can also have the effect of a wall clock: a weekly reminder to stay active in Botto as some weeks may feature “one that got away”, or just something the viewer much more strongly prefers over the mint/leaderboard. Finally, one other consideration is growing interest in dynamic NFTs and improvements in digital displays in the near future. This would make an early, and collectible, entry into that space for Botto.

We are talking to Transient Labs and Proof about possible partners here to get a deal on displays as well as finding the right hardware for this job. Given Botto has varying aspect ratios, we likely want to find one that can rotate or refit as needed, as well as ongoing internet activity.

A likely bundling of the NFT and physical display would be that each NFT is good for one display at a discounted price. This way it is not required to purchase both and respects the collector’s freedom to display how they please.

2.0 Proposal Details

TL to create a mint page on their Stacks website along with plug-in/front end for exploring metadata and discards in the contract.
Have botto.eth deploy customized Doppelganger Contract on mainnet with 52 tokens available to mint at 1ETH each.
Push the top-ranked discard by VP from each round going forward to the contract and force the metadata update to the contracts:

Botto app (offchain) takes Discard at set weekly interval of Tuesdays at 1600 EST
Botto app reuploads artwork onto Arweave
Server makes an API call to get all the data from Botto, then uses that data to update the contract and force a metadata refresh via backend service. (Depending on launch this may start off as a manual process to ensure proper testing of automated process).

52 weeks of forced metadata updates (token is locked to the new artwork of the week)
At the end of the 52 weeks, token holder can choose from any of the 52 discards in the contract of the archive.

2.1 Drop details with Outliers [TBD]

Tentatively:

Take part in Outliers Showcase
Set date for drop
Add display deal
Promo via Botto, TL, and Proof channels/media emphasizing customized contract and physical display integration

3.0 Budget

Minimally, 0.5408 ETH for 1 year of updating, or maximally 5.408 ETH for 1 year of updating if all minted and gas is at a very high 100 gwei each time we mint. This max scenario represents about 10.4% of gross revenue.

3.1 Revenue & Split

1 ETH each + Pricing for Display
Primary: 5-10% Transient Labs and Proof depending on full development scope, 90-95% Botto
Secondary: 100% Botto
2 minted for BottoDAO treasury

4.0 Timeline [Tentative based on discussion]

BIP discussion Aug 24-31
Marketing planning Sept 1-13
Outliers Showcase September 13th, noon EST
Sale on or around October 22nd

5.0 Benefits

An experimental drop that creates a new artefact of Botto’s process with a physical component
Participation in a strong artist cohort

5.0 Risks

Aesthetically unpleasing pieces are discarded and end up on the display and considered representative of Botto’s quality
High gas costs, overhead and fragility of metadata updates