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In the limited beta, Bicasso was taking user-submitted profile pictures and turning them into a work of digital art in seconds.
Binance’s newly launched artificial intelligence-powered nonfungible token (NFT) generator has been churning out digital art at full capacity, reaching a cap of 10,000 NFT mints in just 2.5 hours after launch.
On Mar. 1, the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance launched an AI-powered NFT generator called “Bicasso” in beta.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told users “you can turn your creative visions into NFTs with AI,” following it up a couple of hours later with “Bicasso first pilot just completed with 10K NFT minted in 2.5 hours. The AI was a little stressed out, but caught its [breath] now.”
BICASSO first pilot just completed with 10K NFT minted in 2.5 hours. The AI was a little stressed out, but caught its breathe now. https://t.co/BBRevAdIUc
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 1, 2023
The system is an AI-powered image-generation tool similar to AI-art platforms such as DALL-E. Users can either upload an image such as a profile picture for the AI to work on, or can type in creative prompts that will generate a bespoke image created with AI.
According to initial mint data, 9,909 owners created at least one NFT as part of the limited beta. The images were part of the pilot so are not available for resale.
Users were eager to share their creations on crypto Twitter.
#Bicasso is a new AI-powered NFT generator that Binance released in beta on Wednesday. It allows users to create NFTs by typing in a creative prompt or uploading an image. Users can then mint their images as NFTs on Binance’s native BNBchain. Do you want to try it out? pic.twitter.com/3hDy2Ife5Z
— Yuki Eliot (@yuki_binance) March 1, 2023
Following the pilot launch Binance acknowledged there were a few glitches due to demand, stating:
“Our team is currently working to increase the server abilities to reduce errors and to make the minting process smoother.”
It added that those that missed out on the 10K beta quota can still sign up for the waitlist for the full version.
The most recent NFT, “Bicasso AI#10445” was minted just an hour ago, according to the platform.
Related: AI-generative art predicted to be next trend for NFT sector
Generative art is a new archetype in the art world that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system. On Feb. 28, renowned auction house Christie’s auctioned Taylor Hobbs’ “Fidenza #724”, an NFT created with a computer algorithm, for $440,000.
In August, Google Cloud AI transformed all 10,000 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs into machine-made works of art.
The community has been divided as to whether the NFT-like "digital artifacts" are the right fit for the Bitcoin ecosystem.
The recent launch of a nonfungible token (NFT) protocol on the Bitcoin mainnet has the crypto community divided over whether it’ll be good for the Bitcoin ecosystem.
The protocol, referred to as “Ordinals,” was created by software engineer Casey Rodarmor, who officially launched the program on the Bitcoin mainnet following a Jan. 21 blog post.
The protocol essentially allows for the Bitcoin version of NFTs — described as “digital artifacts” on the Bitcoin network.
These “digital artificats” can comprise of JPEG-like images, PDFs, video and audio formats.
The introduction of the protocol has the Bitcoin community divided however, with some arguing that it would offer more financial use cases for Bitcoin, while others say its straying away from Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer cash system.
Bitcoin bull Dan Held was one of those on board with the development, noting that it would drive demand for block space, and thus fees, while bringing more use cases to Bitcoin.
Why it's good:
— Dan Held (@danheld) January 29, 2023
- Brings more financial use cases to Bitcoin
- Drives more demand for block space (aka fees)
My take:
- If you pay a tx fee, it's not spam.
- Bitcoin is permissionless. Can't stop anyone from building it anyway.
Some have pointed out that these NFT-like structures have taken up block space on the Bitcoin network, which could drive up transaction fees.
BREAKING: NFTs ON #BITCOIN
— Bitcoin News ⚡ (@BitcoinNewsCom) January 29, 2023
Ordinals are taking up most of the BLOCKSPACE pic.twitter.com/Gxwq4vV8MI
Among those include “Bitcoin is Saving” on Twitter, suggesting to its 237,600 followers on Jan. 29 that “privileged wealthy white” people’s desire to put JPEGs as status symbols may exclude marginalized people from participating in the Bitcoin network.
Cryptocurrency researcher Eric Wall disagreed with the opinion that the in-built block size limit will prevent a rise in transaction fees.
Others, such as Blockstream CEO and Bitcoin core developer Adam Back wasn’t happy with meme culture being brought to Bitcoin, who suggested the developers to take the “stupidity” elsewhere:
"you can't stop them" well ofc! bitcoin is designed to be censor resistant. doesn't stop us mildly commenting on the sheer waste and stupidity of an encoding. at least do something efficient. otherwise it's another proof of consumption of block-space thingy.
— Adam Back (@adam3us) January 29, 2023
However, Ethereum bull and host of The Daily Gwei Anthony Sassano took a shot at the Blockstream CEO for wanting “undesirable” transactions to be censored — which many believe goes against the ethos of Bitcoin:
Adam Back and Luke Dashjr are both Bitcoin core developers who have encouraged censorship over the last 48 hours of these "undesirable" transactions
— sassal.eth (@sassal0x) January 30, 2023
So no, it isn't just Bitcoin maximalists - it's actual Bitcoin core developers
Related: Stacks ecosystem becomes #1 Web3 project on Bitcoin
In a blog post, Rodarmor explained that the NFT-like structures are created by inscribing satoshis — the native currency of the Bitcoin network — with arbitrary content.
These inscribed satoshis — which are cryptographically represented by a string of numbers — can then be secured or transferred to other Bitcoin addresses, according to notes in Ordinal’s technical documentation:
“Inscribing is done by sending the satoshi to be inscribed in a transaction that reveals the inscription content on-chain. This content is then inextricably linked to that satoshi, turning it into an immutable digital artifact that can be tracked, transferred, hoarded, bought, sold, lost, and rediscovered.”
The inscriptions take place on the Bitcoin mainnet, no sidechain or separate token is needed, the document states.
Inscriptions are finally ready for Bitcoin mainnet.
— Casey Rodarmor (@rodarmor) January 20, 2023
Inscriptions are like NFTs, but are true digital artifacts: decentralized, immutable, always on-chain, and native to Bitcoin. https://t.co/a4dK7zdITS
It appears that only 277 digital artifacts have been inscripted thus far, according to the Ordinals website.
Interestingly, Rodarmor — admitted in an Aug. 25 interview on Hell Money Podcast that Ordinals was created to bring memes to life on Bitcoin:
“This is 100% a meme-driven development.”