Blitmap

Blitmap is an open source art collection and sci-fantasy universe set in the fictional world of Caelum, spanning digital and physical art, stories, comic books, clothing, toys and other merchandise created by a community of artists, technologists and collectors. The original collection began with 100 pixel artworks created by 17 named artists (including askywlkr, BigPapap, boyprison, BRAINDRAIND, ceresstation, dom, HighleyVarlet, hipcityreg, jstn, numo, other, spacedoctor, themoonladder, Veenus, worm, yi and zod). Community members could combine any two originals to craft a unique "sibling" piece merging the composition of one with the palette of another, producing 1,600 siblings and a final set of 1,700 artworks.

The universe has expanded through community-built works: The Blitnauts, a free open source expansion pack depicting a faction of sentient robots sworn to protect the Blitmaps; The Logos, an expansion pack of androids that collect logos and memorabilia from fallen human-era brands, created by Sup; the comic book "Fragments of the Machine" by Sup, in which every cover is unique; Blitkin, an art collection by the Blitkin Artists; a limited cartoon series by Fiasco Soup; and merchandise runs including Blitstore apparel by Niftypins, Blitsocks by Core3d and one-of-a-kind Blitkicks shoes by Endstate.

Sup Inc. was formed by two of the original Blitmap artists as a separate initiative to develop new communal worlds and stories with community participation through artwork, customizable collectibles and merchandise. Sup describes itself as a distinct entity from the Blitmap project, holding assets such as the website, social channels and trademark on behalf of the community, and states that it provides no utility or value to holders of Blitmap collectibles.

Founding story

Dom Hofmann, previously a co-creator of Vine (acquired by Twitter) and founder of Byte (sold to Discord), became active in NFTs after listing an early Vine on Foundation, which sold for nearly nine ETH. After buying a CryptoPunk and studying Solidity, and drawing inspiration from on-chain projects such as Autoglyphs and Avastars, he observed that little on-chain pixel art existed and began writing the Blitmap contract while learning Solidity. He raised the concept in a Discord server originally set up by Totally for game-industry people during the pandemic, and recruited contributors there and via an open call on Twitter to create art within a 32x32 pixel, four-color constraint. BRAINDRAIND was the first artist after Hofmann to create a composition, Caffeinate (#74). The collection was originally planned at 128 compositions but launched after 100 were completed.

Business model

Blitmap is a community-driven, open source art project rather than a commercial operation. The original Blitmap and Blitnauts art collections were released under the CC0 public domain license, so anyone may use the artwork for personal or commercial purposes without obligation to open source derivative work. Downstream goods — shirts, hats and pins (Blitstore by Niftypins), socks (Core3d), shoes (Endstate), comics, cartoons and further art collections — are produced and sold by independent community members and companies. Sup Inc., formed by two of the original artists, acts as steward of certain Blitmap assets including the website, social channels and trademark, and states that it does not and has never generated revenue from Blitmap digital art collectibles and does not use proceeds from their sales to fund its operations.

Traction

The original collection of 1,700 artworks (100 originals plus 1,600 community-crafted siblings) was fully minted between May 31 and July 2, 2021. As of the latest marketplace data, the collection has 613 unique owners (36.1% of items) and about $36.5M in all-time volume on OpenSea, with 614 holder addresses recorded on-chain. The universe has since produced multiple community-built expansions, a comic, cartoons and merchandise lines, several of which have sold out.

Latest developments

Recent additions listed on the project site include the comic book "Fragments of the Machine" by Sup, in which each cover is unique; The Logos expansion pack of digital art collectibles from Sup; and Blitkin, an art collection by the Blitkin Artists aiming to continue the original Blitmap art project. Merchandise runs of Blitsocks and Blitkicks are marked sold out, while Blitstore apparel remains available.