Autoglyphs are the first "on-chain" generative art on the Ethereum blockchain. They are a completely self-contained mechanism for the creation and ownership of an artwork.^[10][11]

Overview

The Autoglyphs project was created in April 2019 by CryptoPunk creators, Larva Labs. Noted as the first on-chain generative art on the Ethereum blockchain, 512 Autoglyphs were available to anyone willing to donate a creation fee of  0.20 ETH ($751 at the time) to Larva Labs’ chosen charity, 350.org. ^[12][13]

The Autoglyphs NFTs are a highly optimized generative algorithm, wrapped inside an ERC-721 interface. While many ERC-721 NFTs store data off-chain, an important distinction of Autoglyphs is that art is inside the contract itself, ensuring the art is on-chain.

Partnership

On Tuesday, September 2, 2021, the global talent, sports, and entertainment agency, United Talent Agency (UTA), announced the company had signed Autoglyphs and other Larva Labs projects. UTA will work with the NFT collectibles and intellectual property (IP) for Cryptopunks, Meebits, and Autoglyphs across television, film, licensing publishing, and video games.^[12]

Technical Details

The Autoglyphs are a highly optimized generative algorithm capable of creating billions of unique artworks, wrapped inside an ERC-721 interface. While ERC-721 is the standard for "non-fungible tokens" (something that the CryptoPunks helped define), it is generally used to manage ownership of digital items stored elsewhere. The key difference with the Autoglyphs is that the art is inside the contract itself, it is literally "art on the blockchain".

This becomes obvious if any glpyh creation transaction is examined on the blockchain. The event data contains the full output of the generator, and hence the artwork itself.^[1]

Notable Sales

Autoglyphs sold out roughly 4 hours after its launch, collecting 76.8 ETH from transactions and donating roughly $16,300 to charity.  There were a total of 66 token holders, and Autoglyphs cracked the top 10 on OpenSea almost immediately after the last token was created.

On September 1, 2021, sold for 460 ETH (~$1,800,000) on OpenSea.^[2][3] Also on that day, Autoglyph #486 sold for 444 ETH (~$1,700,000).^[4][5]

On September 15, 2021, Autoglyph #336 sold for 384.375 ETH (~$1,400,000).^[6][7]

On August 28, 2021, Autoglyph #381 sold for 381 ETH (~$1,250,000) on OpenSea.^[8][9]