Generatus

Inspiration

As Art Blocks collectors, we've always been huge fans of generative art. It really bridges the gap between the creative art world and the world of code. Although we love what Art Blocks is doing, we've been really hoping for an alternative on a blockchain other than Ethereum. So why not take a stab at it ourselves?

What it does

Generatus is a platform that allows generative artists to create, drop, and display their generative art projects. This includes the minting process. We want to make dropping generative art projects as easy as building a Shopify store. You bring the art, we do the rest.

How we built it

We started the project with technology we know and love (Next.js, JavaScript, Tailwind CSS). We also utilized Rust for the smart contracts. Alex had previous Rust experience so he's the team's bonafide Rustacean. We also utilized Serum's Anchor project to help us iterate more quickly.

Challenges we ran into

Grokking the world of Solana smart contracts was new to both of us. We also started the hackathon really late in the game. We didn't make as much progress as we wanted to but the end of the hackathon does not mean the end of Generatus.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting our feet wet and participating. Both of us have been involved in the crypto space but it's mostly been collecting and investing. Now we're taking out technical skills and contributing to the ecosystem in a bigger way.

What we learned

Most of our time was spent building toy projects and learning the ins and outs of writing Solana programs. It's been an eye opening introduction to the world of Solana and Rust. We're both really excited to keep working in the space.

What's next for Generatus

We have a lot of work to do but we now feel like we're ready to tackle them. Our goal is to finalize our smart contracts over the next two weeks and then launch our platform for generative artists around the world!