The Fungible Collection
By Pak • 12- 14 April • A novel collection of digital art redefining our understanding of value

Chapters å

The Fungible

The Fungible started on April 12 and ended on April 14th. It was released in collaboration with Sotheby’s exclusively on Nifty Gateway, a marketplace specializing in the sale and auction of non-fungible tokens.

The sale yielded a total of $16,825,999 USD between April 12 and April 14.
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Digital Art

Digital art captures numerous forms of creative media constantly in a state of evolution, redefinition, and novelty. Since its nascence in the 1960s, it has grown into a pervasive mode of artistic expression. Digital Art has flexed, expanded, and evolved limitations of our human creativity, using technology as an augmentative tool to create new mediums and styles for consumption. In collaboration with technology, artists have not only unlocked their own creativity, but found new ways to engage viewers and collectors by leveraging the capabilities of technology. As technology evolves, so does digital art, providing an ever-expanding opportunity for experimentation and exploration on the part of both artist and observer.

The Fungible Collection

The Fungible collection by digital artist Pak is a pinnacle of creative technological experimentation through the lens of fine digital art. By leveraging blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), The Fungible not only provides collectors with novel assurances of scarcity and ownership, but exposes them to the unique features with which technology can endow artwork. Through this collection, Pak scrutinizes our understanding of value. What does value mean, and from where does it derive authority? Core to the collection is the Open Editions, which allow collectors to purchase as many fungible cubes as they wish during the sale period for a fixed price. As the collection reveals itself over the course of the sale, Pak continues to challenge the collector community with this question of value while simultaneously providing a unique journey into and through digital art.

Pak

Pak is an artist at the forefront of digital art and crypto media. An anonymous creator, Pak has been active in the world of digital art for over two decades, leveraging evolving technology to create boundary-pushing artwork. They are the founder and lead designer of the studio Undream and creator of Archillect, an AI built to discover and share stimulating visual media. In the burgeoning NFT space, Pak has established themselves as a leader of striking artwork, novel token mechanisms, and evolving media.


'The Fungible' Collection

Open Editions

Open Edition

April 12 | 1:00-1:15pm ET, price per unit $500 (19,737 cubes sold)
April 13 | 1:00-1:15pm and 1:45-1:55 ET*, price per unit $1,000 (3,268 cubes sold)
April 14 | 1:00-1:15pm ET, price per unit $1,500 (593 cubes sold)

Fungible Open Editions is Pak’s further investigation of our understanding of value. Fungible Open Editions will enable collectors to purchase as many fungible cubes as they wish during the sale period. These fungible cubes can be purchased individually or many at a time, and will deliver its collector a different set of NFTs based on the total cubes they own.

The individual NFTs are: A Cube (1), Five Cubes (5), Ten Cubes (10), Twenty Cubes (20), Fifty Cubes (50), Hundred Cubes (100), Five Hundred Cubes (500), Thousand Cubes (1,000).

Examples:
Collector purchases 1 cube, they will receive a single NFT: “A Cube”.

Collector purchases 6 cubes, they will receive 2 NFTs: “Five Cubes” and “A Cube”, summing up to 6 cubes in fungible value.

Collector purchases 26 cubes, they will receive 3 NFTs: “Twenty Cubes”, “Five Cubes” and “A Cube” summing up to 26 cubes in fungible value.

Nifty Gateway experienced issues with processing credit cards during the 1:00-1:15 Open Editions sale on April 13th. The sale was restarted from 1:45 - 1:55pm ET with the issue resolved.

Complexity

Edition of 100 | Reserved

The growth of NFTs has proven the extraordinary value that emerges from closer relationships between collector and creator. Complexity is a collection of 100 NFTs that will be given to the following 100 individuals who purchase the most Open Edition cubes by the end of day 3.

The Cube

Edition of 1 | Reserved

The Cube is a unique, “one-of-one” NFT that will be given to the individual who purchases the most Open Edition cubes by the end of day 3.

Equilibrium

Edition of 4 | Reserved

Equilibrium is a "four-of-four” where each edition will be sent to the winner of specific criteria:

The Cryptographer (#1 of 4): The person who solves the puzzle will be rewarded one of the four Equilibrium NFTs. See here for Pak's puzzle.

The Hunter (#2 of 4): The collector who acquires any piece of art by Pak from its initial marketplace for the highest amount on the secondary market will receive one of the four Equilibrium NFTs.

The Influencer (#3 of 4): The individual that posts #PakWasHere to the biggest social media audience will receive one of the four Equilibrium NFTs.

The Oracle (#4 of 4): The person who most closely estimates the total sale of the entire collection prior to the auction beginning on April 12 will receive one of the four Equilibrium NFTs.

The Builder

Edition of 30 | Reserved

The world of NFTs today is the latest in a long, vibrant history of digital artwork. The Builder is a set of 30 NFTs that will be given to artists, builders, and creators who have paved the way for Pak and other NFT artists. The recipients, to be determined by Pak, are those without whom extraordinary leaps in the evolution of media and art would not have happened.

The Switch

Edition of 1 | Auction
Final Bid: $1,444,444 USD
Start: April 12 | 12:00pm ET
End: April 14 | 1:30pm ET

The Switch is a unique, “one of one” NFT that demonstrates the evolution of artwork in the digital realm. The Switch is developed to be used with a public call by it's owner. It can be used once and it's effect is immutable. So, what does the switch do?

The Pixel

Edition of 1 | Auction
Final Bid: $1,355,555 USD
Start: April 12 | 12:00pm ET
End: April 14 | 2:00pm ET

The Pixel is a single pixel statement. It is created to validate.

The Pixel is a digitally native artwork visually represented by a single pixel (1x1). It is a token that signs the most basic unit of a digital image in a traditional global auction house. It is a tiny mark to carry digitally native art to a potential future history.

The Pixel


Non-Fungible | The New Market For Rare Digital ItemsJoin The Atlantic's Nick Thompson as he talks with Sotheby’s Max Moore, Atelier Founder Li Jin, and University of Maine Professor of New Media Jon Ippolito about the rise of NFTs in the world of digital art.
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Non-fungible tokens

Every asset for sale in The Fungible Collection is a non-fungible token (NFT). Though relatively new even in the realm of blockchain technology, NFTs represent a paradigm shift not only in the world of digital art, but in the world of art and media generally.

NFTs are unique digital assets with verifiable scarcity. The novelty of online scarcity cannot be overstated. For the entire history of the internet, scarcity has been impossible to determine. Content flowed freely, but it flowed too freely for anyone to confidently keep track of when artwork or written media was created, distributed, owned, shared, or purchased. NFTs are revolutionizing online media, starting with artwork.

Glossary & FAQ
  • Blockchain
    A ledger technology enabling the maintenance of a decentralized, secure, and transparent database of peer to peer transactions.
  • Non-fungible Token (NFT)
    A type of blockchain-based digital asset with verifiable scarcity and uniqueness. NFTs have grown in popularity as forms of digital art.
  • Ethereum
    A leading blockchain technology that currently powers the majority of the NFT market, including The Fungible Collection.
  • Nifty Gateway
    A website providing an NFT marketplace for people to browse, mint, buy, and sell NFTs from artists and collectors.
  • Mint / Minting
    The process of creating an NFT and registering it on a blockchain network like Ethereum. “To mint an NFT.”

FAQ

  • What is The Fungible?
    The Fungible is a collection of artwork created by Pak, an anonymous leading creator in the world of crypto and digital art. The Fungible collection includes Open Editions, a series that allows a creator to buy an unlimited number of NFTs during the time of the sale. Along with Open Editions, The Fungible will include other NFT assets for auction.
  • What is an NFT? Is it a passing trend in the world of art?
    A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital asset with verifiable scarcity. A digital asset, in this case, is a piece of art. Prior to the advent of NFTs, online artwork was notoriously difficult to value and trade, by virtue of the fickle nature of ownership and scarcity on the internet. NFTs eliminate those issues, allowing digital assets to be verifiably scarce, and enabling ownership to be immutably recorded over time.

    NFTs are powered by blockchain, a distributed ledger technology that enables peer to peer transactions on an open source database. NFTs are traded on this ledger, enabling a robust and permissionless marketplace for artwork.
    Learn More
  • How do I participate in The Fungible Collection sale? Do I need cryptocurrency to participate?
    The Fungible Collection sale will happen from April 12 to 14 exclusively on Nifty Gateway. To participate, create an account on Nifty Gateway. You can participate in the sale with a credit card; you do not need cryptocurrency to pay.
  • How much did ‘The Fungible’ collection go for?
    The Fungible collection sale happened from April 12 to 14 exclusively on Nifty Gateway .

    The total sale amount of the collection was $16,825,999 USD.

    23,598 Open Edition cubes were sold for $14,026,000 USD.

    The Switch sold for $1,444,444 USD at auction.

    The Pixel sold for $1,355,555 USD at auction.
  • Why conduct the sale on Nifty Gateway?
    Nifty Gateway is a leader in the still-nascent world of NFTs and crypto media. Pak has previously released art collections on Nifty Gateway, and Sotheby’s is proud to continue partnering with experts in the blockchain ecosystem.
  • How is KYC handled for The Fungible Collection sale?
    Participants in the sale will register and pay on Nifty Gateway and go through any KYC criteria required by them.
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