We think humanity is entering a new paradigm of greater prosperity, freedom, collaboration and creativity. As robots take over most of the dull, mind-numbing jobs, humans will be free to explore their creativity in ways that existed only before the industrial revolution.
We think that a new golden age is upon us with the arrival of cryptocurrency. Artists are perfectly positioned to bring this new message to the world because they tend to think in very symbolic, big vision ways that can impact society on a mass scale.
Slothicorn = crypto creative commons.
Slothicorn is part of the Creative Commons and Open Source movements. Slothicorn seeks to create a more open, creative and collaborative world within the cryptocurrency space. While utopian.io serves the needs of open source software developers, Slothicorn serves the needs of creatives who want to contribute crypto art to the creative commons collective. Never before has there been a way to economically reward artists who make crypto creative commons contributions. Now there is. Steem is the vehicle and we see how this is possible with the utopian.io model. We don’t know where this collective is headed in the future, but Steem works now, so let’s start here today.
Since there are already tons of generic creative commons photo sites like Unsplash, Pixabay, etc., we’ve decided that the way to create the most value is to create a niche, specialized place dedicated to crypto art for the commons. I did not come up with the slothicorn image, as it was already an internet meme. I don’t own it. It exists as some collective hallucination.
I decided however, to purchase the domain, slothicorn.com and I drew my own Slothicorn logo. You can draw your own slothicorn logo, too. Slothicorn don’t care. Slothicorn is already full of magic. Slothicorn doesn’t have to slap a patent on its magic claws. Its magic just exists and is ready to be shared.
Slothicorn represents the new “We” economy of decentralized DACs.
View this video of Brock Pierce talking about the new We Economy:
What does crypto creative commons mean?
The short answer: art whose theme is about cryptocurrency (any of them) and which also carries the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC By 4.0). See below for a full definition.
All cryptocurrencies were born from the Bitcoin protocol, which is open source code. Bitcoin directly and indirectly gave birth to the 1310+ cryptocurrencies that you now see on Coinmarketcap. If Bitcoin had not been open source, that list on Coinmarketcap would look very empty. If not for open source software, we would be in a bad state today. I, along with many others, use open source software for mostly everything nowadays.
We believe Open Source and its artistic twin, Creative Commons, is the future.
We now have the tools (blockchain, Decentralized Autonomous Communities) to monetize creative works for the commons and in the process, make the world a much better and more interesting place.
As we know, the current advertising model is broken. Guess who the current advertising model employs to craft annoyingly catchy ads? Artists. Slothicorn thinks artistic talent should not be applied to Kool Aid ads, but instead to decentralized cryptocurrency artwork. People like me (creative thinkers) don’t usually care where the money comes from (i.e., which cryptocurrency coin), just as long as we get to be creative and use our imaginations without going broke. Artists dream of being free to create without the constant worry of money nipping at their heels.
Slothicorn aims to merge the worlds of art, money, technology and cryptocurrency.
We also aim to become a community where new, experimental crypto art forms can be born and supported. We are dedicated to sharing, exploring and nurturing creative experimentalism within the crypto art creative commons world. We think we can be a bridge between existing cryptocurrency communities because we will be creating art and graphics that the different crypto tribes can all use for free.
Every artist will be putting their crypto wallet address at the end of the post, so people from the various crypto communities can tip if they choose to do so. So, for example, if you create art that contains thematic elements from Monero, you’ll put your Monero wallet address at the bottom of your post, right after the Creative Commons License. Example posts will be forthcoming soon. Please only put the type of currency wallet that your art pertains to. Don’t put all your wallet addresses at the bottom. It looks really desperate.
In this way, your post can travel to the Monero community on Reddit, or anywhere else where Monero people hang out online. They will be able to share and use your art, which in turn will create more value and goodwill for the Steem blockchain (increasing the value of the Steem token, which means you’ll have more money). They might even decide to give you additional tips in Monero currency. This will hopefully also grow the different crypto communities within Planet Steem.
But how will this make money?
By creating something of immense value to the emerging cryptocurrency markets, we feel that we will be adding to the happiness and wellness factor of the crypto world, which is actually the most important element in any economic system. Artists are our main concern, so by having each post contain a wallet addresss which corresponds to the particular cryptocurrency project it relates to, we think that artists will be the direct beneficiaries of their artistic works. I have already successfully done this model. Sample posts coming soon.
So, what is crypto art?
Crypto art has thus far been defined as any art that has merged with a cryptocurrency offline paper wallet. It’s an emerging art form which is best exemplified by the site, https://cryptoart.com/product/chinese-girl/
Here’s an example by the artist, Alexander Fedosov:
That is one type of crypto art. Coin_artist is one of the earliest pioneers of crypto art and she created cryptographic art puzzles for Bitcoin, Decred and now PinkCoin. She creates digital treasure hunts using art, cryptography and cryptocurrency. Her work is a big inspiration to Slothicorn. She along with her colleagues seem to be the original crypto artists. (The history of how this Bitcoin puzzle art emerged would make a very interesting article).
Another emerging type of crypto art is Crypto Kitties, which is technically crypto collectibles. I recently learned that the source code for Crypto Kitties is closed source (not cool). Too bad they released that project on Ethereum instead of a functioning blockchain.
We want to expand the definition of crypto art to include art that contains themes from any of the cryptocurrency coins (coins, not websites! So don’t create art for Steemit, Busy, DTube, etc. since those are projects which may want to control their image, plus the Steemit logo is covered by copyright. You can contribute to the development of Steemit, Busy, etc through utopian.io, not Slothicorn. You can create art for Steem, though. Coins are open source code and are found on Coinmarketcap)
Slothicorn will support creative commons art which contains themes/logos/stories about the different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Steem, EOS, Bitshares, Doge, NEO, Stellar Lumens, PinkCoin, Dash, Ethereum, POWR, NEM, RLC, Monero, all of the coins, etc.
You can create art for shitcoins, but not scamcoins. There’s a difference. (but not BitConnect or any other coin which is suspected of being a scam. We reserve the right to reject any submission which is proven to be connected to a scam.)
You can also create art that explores the themes of blockchain, decentralization and other associated themes to the crypto life.
Will we be accepting written articles?
Not right now. We want to focus on crypto art and build that community first. This could change at any time but for now it’s only crypto creative commons art. Our team of Slothicorn writers will most likely be writing the bulk of articles that cover the crypto art movement.
I hate to say this next bit, but I have to based on prior experience: if you currently don’t think of yourself as a creative artist, but you’re thinking along the lines of “oh, cool, I’ll try to milk Slothicorn for as much as possible so I’ll create a bunch of shitty art to reap as much rewards as possible,” I’ve got news for you: don’t even try.
Slothicorn is going to be pretty difficult as far as what gets upvoted by us. If your art is not up to snuff, we reserve the right to reject it. Don’t get mad at us, get more creative. Get more disciplined. Push yourself harder. Slothicorn is not going to be a free pass. We are not interested in upvoting shitty submissions. And yes, art is entirely subjective, and yes, we will be judging subjectively.
We will piss off some people in the process.
Art competitions have judges for one simple reason: most art is subpar.
Moderators are needed to separate the gems from the dung. This is how value is created. Value is not created by simply upvoting every speck of dust that passes in front of your nose. That’s called Universal Basic Income. There’s nothing wrong with UBI, but Slothicorn will not be doling out rewards to everyone. Not everyone puts in the same amount of effort. Not everyone is talented at art and creativity.
There is no equality when measuring a piece of artwork. One person can hate what another person likes. And since this is our project, we get to decide what makes the cut. If you’re upset by our decisions, make your own project, and do it however you want.
We have a limit to how many submissions can be made to Slothicorn: 1 per day (or 7 per week in total. Artists can be creative at different times, so you can make 3 submissions in one day, if you want, as long as you don’t go over the 7 limit per week.) We don’t want people to crank out shit that is going to waste our time.
Because Slothicorn is a Creative Commons project, we need guidelines for people. It boils down to this: if you re-post someone’s art that is tagged Slothicorn, and don’t add anything to it, meaning, you just ripped off someone else’s work trying to pass it off as your own, you won’t be upvoted by us and you’ll be added to Cheetah’s blacklist. Even though we are using the Creative Commons With Attribution license, it doesn’t mean you can profit from posting someone else’s work. We realize that this is a gray area but our code of conduct will spell this out clearly. Just don’t do it. It’s not going to be worth your time creating new fake accounts. You will be caught and you will waste both your and my time. And I hate when people waste my time.
I realize that this will be a bit difficult in the beginning, but I think it’s worth trying. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives.
Cryptocurrencies are open source, so we, at Slothicorn feel perfectly positioned to reward artists who contribute artistic works to these cryptocurrency coins. Many artists (myself included) are already doing this kind of crypto creative commons work. We feel we can bring together the isolated crypto tribes through a crypto creative commons community. We get our inspiration for this “When we share, everyone wins” philosophy from the Creative Commons and Open Source movements. Other people who inspire us are coin_artist and Brock Pierce.
About the Creative Commons License we plan to use:
You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
• The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
Read more about this Creative Commons license here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Note from Slothicorn: As was mentioned earlier, if you copy and paste Slothicorn crypto creative commons art without adding anything of your own, and/or in an attempt to pass it off as your own creation, you’ll be added to our shitlist and will be banned from participating in the Slothicorn community. You’ll probably end up on Cheetah’s blacklist as well. Choose wisely. Samples on how to create a Slothicorn post will be coming soon.
RANDOM IDEA:
Just imagine if Crypto Kitties had been launched on a blockchain that could actually handle the transaction volume. I’d have an entire litter of kittens by now. But no, Crypto Kitties revealed the fact that the Ethereum blockchain has a long way to go as far as scaling.
Just imagine if we created a similar crypto game with virtual sloths and unicorns. We could send out our virtual sloths into the wild to mate with wild unicorns. Think about that for a second. People would probably go nuts. Virtual chimeras. Real life chimeras are scary, but virtual chimeras would be really interesting. Idea sex doesn’t really get any better than this.
Stay Tuned,
Slothicorn
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamslothicorn