Coinbase — This wallet is generally known by most crypto wallet users, and according to Investopedia and other sources, it has “some of the lowest fees in the cryptocurrency wallet ecosystem” (investopedia.com). Keep in mind, however, that it only has mainstream coins, has interface issues, and may not be convenient for people who have crypto outside of the United States (g2.com).

Guarda — This wallet is considered one of the best overall (investopedia.com). It is highly secure, with a good layout and good user experience. It has a large variety of coin assets, and good APY if you have crypto savings. (g2.com)

MetaMask — HyperCube recommends MetaMask due to its ease of install and accessibility, which makes it great for beginners. However, keep in mind that this wallet is not the best when it comes to security, transactions costs and the UI. (g2.com).

Crypto Wallets To Be Aware Of

Exodus — Even though Investopedia rates it as the best beginner wallet (investopedia.com), multiple reviews on G2 say that it has many security risks. (g2.com)

Mycelium — best multi token wallet only for mobile (investopedia.com). App is very convenient to use (g2.com).

Directions to setup MetaMask

This wallet can be installed on the following browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Brave, or Microsoft Edge.

Go to your browsers Web Store Extensions Section and search for MetaMask. Check the number of downloads to make sure that the legitimate MetaMask is being installed, as hackers might try to make clones of it.

Once installation is complete there will be a page with a Get Started button displayed. Click on the Get Started button.

If this is your first time creating a wallet, click the Create a Wallet button. If you already have a wallet, then import the already created wallet using the Import Wallet button.

Create a password for your wallet. This password is to be entered every time the browser is launched and wants to use MetaMask. A new password needs to be created if chrome is uninstalled or if there is a switching of browsers.

Once you’ve created your password, click on the dark area which says Click here to reveal secret words to get your secret phrase. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP! Back up your secret phrase properly. Do not store your secret phrase on your computer. Please read everything on that screen until you understand it completely before proceeding. The secret phrase is the only way to access your wallet if you forget your password. Once done click the Next button.

Type the seed phrase using the button on the screen. If done correctly the Confirm button should turn blue. Click the Confirm button.

One can see the balance and copy the address of the account by clicking on the Account 1 area.

One can access MetaMask in the browser by clicking the Fox face icon on the top right. If the Fox face icon is not visible, then you will have to access your extensions manually. (vault12.com).

Bibliography

https://www.investopedia.com/best-crypto-software-wallets-5220762

https://www.g2.com/products/coinbase-wallet/reviews#reviews

https://www.g2.com/products/guarda-wallet/reviews#reviews

https://www.g2.com/products/metamask/reviews#reviews

https://www.g2.com/products/exodus-exodus/reviews

https://www.g2.com/products/mycelium-wallet/reviews#reviews

https://vault12.com/securemycrypto/crypto-wallet-guides/how-to-secure-metamask/particle-43

The second wave of computer art happened thanks to the appearance of blockchain and NFT technology. This is the period of computer art known as the Computer Art Renaissance. The new innovation that helped this Computer Art Renaissance to come along is called Blockchain Native Art.

What is the value of Blockchain Native Art? Its value comes from the fact that it gives the artist new tools and methods for self-expression. To better understand why this is important, our platform, HyperCube, takes a look at the work of artists in different epochs.

The first example of humans trying to express themselves through artistic practice, were executed in pre-historic times. They used tools at their disposal, like rocks, metals and pigments. These tools were basic, yet sufficient enough to mark the beginning of art history. Today, these examples of cave art are found in history museums, and are recognized as artifacts and expressions of human artistic practice.

Having developed a level of proficiency over the course of history, modern artists started looking for new methods of self-expression. In the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia, the painting “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich is on display. Malevich considered this painting as the “zero point of painting”; a painting meant to signify a clean slate in art, and to break away from traditional methods of art making. It is considered one of the most important works of art in the world. What made this so important, is that Malevich and his work prompted experts and colleagues to search for new methods of self-expression and artistic ideas.

The work of Lucia Fontana — which was sold for $29.2 million at Christie’s auction in 2015, is located at the Tate Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Lucio Fontana is also known for continuous search for new methods of artistic self-expression. Apart from pigment and canvas, he uses cutting tools in his practice.

Having cut the canvas, he stated that now painting can exist in 3-dimensional space. If permitted to make the comparison, this is similar to what is happening on the Internet. The change to web3 takes us out of a 2-dimensional internet space, and allows us to enter into 3-dimensional space.

So what makes these artists so important?
These artists were innovators. By using new tools and methods to express their own unique ideas about art, they were able to reject recognized canons and rules that existed in their time. This was important, in order to create new and interesting results, that better represented the time these artists were living in.

This means that the evolution of their toolkit helped artists to create new methods for self-expression. Nowadays, the appearance of JavaScript libraries, for example, three.js, or p5.js, allows artists to use creative code, instead of traditional pigment and canvas, to explore new directions in contemporary art. Here at HyperCube, we call this new method Blockchain Native Art.

An example of innovators of Blockchain Native Art, are creative technologists Matt and Johnis from the Larva Labs. www.larvalabs.com

Art Blocks is one of the first who actively popularized the art of creative coders. Thanks to Art Blocks, these artists became well known: Tyler Hobbs, Fidenza, Dmitri Cherniak.

Hypercube.art was created in September of 2021. HyperCube coined the definition for generative art on the blockchain, calling it: Blockchain Native Art.

Generative Art as a tool for self-expression contains limitless possibilities. In the future, we will witness the creation of not only static and dynamic generative artwork, but also mutations and interaction and other innovative elements which have yet to be explored.

One of the first collections of dynamic, and at the same time, interactive Blockchain Native Art was presented on the HyperCube.art platform.

It is a collaboration between two loving souls — the artist and the coder — Alina Karo and her husband Ryan Junee. It is called Electralina: Window to the Soul.

Soon, more unique projects will be created, which merge together art and creative coding, and will be presented on our platform, HyperCube.art !

Follow us on Twitter!

Originally published at https://shendrik.medium.com on February 23, 2022.

Viewing Your Eye Virtually

To view your eye virtually, follow this link: https://api.hypercube.art/canvas/1/1

To change the eye that is displayed, change the last digit to the eye that you want to see. For example, if you wish to see eye #2, change the last digit of the link from “1” to “2”.

Viewing Your Eye In Augmented Reality (AR)

To view your eye in AR, follow this link: https://api.hypercube.art/canvas/1/1

There is an option listed as “AR”. This will enable the action to use your camera, which you may or may not have to give permission for. Then, the eye will be displayed in your camera in AR mode. Remember to change the last digit of the link to the number of your desired eye!

*For iOS users: you will need to download the XRViewer app from the app store in order for the AR feature to work.The app will ask you to provide a link. Use the one previously provided: https://api.hypercube.art/canvas/1/1

Don’t forget to change the last digit to your desired eye!

How To Display Your Eye As A Desktop Background

*For mac users only

To display your eye as your desktop background, download the Plash app to your computer. Follow this link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/plash/id1494023538?mt=12

The app will then ask you to link the URL that you wish to display. Use this link: https://api.hypercube.art/canvas/1/1

Again, remember to change the last digit of the link to the number of your desired eye!

Window to the Soul is a generative art algorithm producing a collection of unpredictable and infinitely unique digital eyes, sold as NFTs. The algorithm generates each eye at the moment of purchase, based on the state of the Ethereum blockchain at that instant as well as the unique id of the buyer. It is impossible to predict in advance and neither the buyer nor the artist know exactly what each eye will look like until the moment it is purchased. It is truly a window into the digital soul.

Each piece is animated in 3D and is resolution-independent, meaning it will scale to any size of digital display without any loss in quality or resolution. Animations are non-repeating and continue forever.

The Artist

Electralina is a collaboration between two loving souls — the creative and the coder — Alina Karo and her husband Ryan Junee. Alina began her career as a fashion photographer shooting for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview Magazine and many others. She turned to fine art photography and has exhibited her collections in Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Miami. Ryan grew up programming from a young age and eventually earned his Masters Degree in Engineering from Stanford University. They were recently inspired to explore the patterns in nature and technology together through algorithmic generative art.

Completely On-Chain

Did you know that most NFTs aren’t actually stored on the blockchain? The NFT that you purchase is actually just a URL pointing to an image sitting on a server somewhere, usually owned by a private party. But what if that server disappears? So does your Image.

Window to the Soul is different. The artwork is actually a computer algorithm which is stored completely on-chain. It will always be available (as long as Ethereum exists). It is not controlled by any private party and you will always own it.

Features and Traits

Each eye is generated with unique traits selected by the algorithm, including:

• Color palette
• Base texture
• Inner ring
• Fibers
• Animation
• Symmetry
• Reflectivity
• And some surprise hidden features

Some traits are much more rare than others. A full list of traits and rarities will be revealed after the collection is sold out.

Artist’s Choice

In addition to the eyes generated at time of purchase, an exclusive set of 10 pieces have been hand-selected by the artist to showcase some favorite outputs from the algorithm. These are marked with a special ‘Artist’s Choice’ property and may be kept or resold by the artist.

Displaying Your Piece

There are many options for displaying and appreciating your new art piece. It can be viewed on your computer or phone and will scale to any size and resolution with no loss in quality. You can show it off in art galleries in the metaverse, set it as a wallpaper on your phone, a screensaver on your computer, or even purchase a display to mount on your wall at home.‍

Augmented Reality

As a special bonus, the eyes can be displayed in augmented reality on supported devices. This works natively in Android Chrome, and on iOS by installing the WebXR Viewer. Simply tap the ‘AR’ button that appears in the bottom right when viewing an eye on a compatible device.

The Artistic Process

When Alina and I traveled to Melbourne in 2019 we visited a market and found a person taking high resolution eye photos. We had our eyes photographed and were amazed by the beauty of nature. We think it’s magnificent how unique and intricate each person’s eye is — a window to their soul.

Two years later we had a vision to algorithmically generate digital eyes, in order to peek into the soul of the machine. Our first step was to try and recreate an eye using nothing but math and code. No imported textures, no imported models. Alina sketched her ideas, breaking down the components of a human eye (the colors, the textures, the rings and fibers) and I set about trying to code it. I had a lot of experience programming web applications and mobile apps but had never worked on computer generated graphics. So I took a quick course on three.js (a 3D javascript library) and learned how to construct scenes with models, lights and cameras. I then dove into the arcane world of shaders — small programs that run on a computer’s GPU and generate colors and textures based on math.

With these tools in hand, I constructed a simple scene in three.js with a single plane and a light. I wrote a custom shader to draw some mathematical noise, thanks the The Book of Shaders which is an excellent resource on using math to create graphics. Then I used some trigonometry (specifically the arctangent function) to map the noise from a regular coordinate system to a polar coordinate system, and a little bit more math to show only pixels that sat in between two concentric circles. The result was very encouraging.

With this initial proof of concept we continued forward. I mapped the shader onto a sphere instead of a plane for a more realistic shape, and after having a lot of fun moving the eye around with my mouse I decided to add some animations. After hours of tweaking animation parameters we had a somewhat realistic eye that would randomly look around the screen, blink, and dilate its pupil.

Next we needed Alina’s creative touch. I built a simple panel with sliders and settings so Alina could adjust the parameters of the noise algorithm. Using her expert eye for colors and details she generated a set of eyes that started to look very interesting.‍

To really turn it up a notch and add some more variety to the algorithm, I researched half a dozen more noise algorithms and spent a few days coding options for different base textures and fibers. Once I exposed these new options to Alina her creativity was unleashed.

We were now ready for the most important step — to peek into the soul of the machine. I wrote some code that varied the parameters randomly based on different probabilities every time a new eye was generated. This code would ultimately be informed by a unique hash generated by the Ethereum smart contract when a new eye is minted. Once the computer took over and started generating eyes our jaws dropped. We kept refreshing over and over and couldn’t believe some of the outputs that were generated.

Of course not all of the outputs looked good, so I began a long process of tuning, tweaking and pruning the algorithm, preparing it for deployment. We are proud of the final result and look forward to showing the world for the first time at Scope Miami, during Art Basel. We frequently find ourselves hypnotized, staring at the screen looking at a new eye as it changes infinitely, never repeating.
For more information about drop, please follow us in Discord and Twitter.

https://www.hypercube.art

Incorporate features that were not possible prior to the blockchain/NFT revolution.

Has been curated by a nominated expert curation board, guest celebrity curators and the Hypercube community.

Our initial focus is generative art, similar to that found on ArtBlocks, EthBlockArt, gen.art etc.

What is Blockchain-Native Art?

Whenever a new platform emerges, the first set of applications are simple translations of popular applications on the ‘old’ platform. e.g.

The first TV shows were simply radio shows with pictures.

The first websites were simply digitized magazines.

We are at the beginning of the NFT revolution. The first NFTs are simple translations of existing digital art — a photo or video stored on a filesystem, with the URL then stored in a token.

However, the most exciting developments on a new platform happen when applications are developed that are only possible on that new platform, and weren’t possible before. Movies with beautiful cinematography were’t possible on radio. Websites became increasingly interactive, personalized, social, mobile.

What types of art are possible on the blockchain that just weren’t possible before?

Generative art is one example, and ArtBlocks has been the biggest innovator in the space to date. Not only is the art stored as code, completely on-chain (not just a URL to a file stored on a server that could possibly change or disappear), but the art is not actually generated until the moment it is first purchased (minted) using randomized parameters that are impossible to predict, derived from the blockchain transaction itself. This means that neither the buyer, nor the artist, know exactly what the piece will look like until the moment it is minted. This wasn’t possible before and is an example of blockchain-native art.

This is only the beginning of what’s possible.

To be clear: we believe there are many amazing examples of NFT art being produced today that are not blockchain-native — photos, digital art, 3D animations and yes even cartoon PFP collections. We are fans and owners of many such pieces. It’s just not our focus with HyperCube because there are already a great many platforms supporting this art like SuperRare, Foundation, Rarible, Nifty Gateway etc. We are interested in helping to pioneer the next big genre of digital art and we believe it will be blockchain-native.

The best way to stay in the loop is Discord and Twitter.