Thus far blockchain has been the site for exciting innovation in the realms of finance, governance, identity, and culture. Recently there’s been a wave of migration of creator-focused projects like Decent, Sound, Manifold, and more to the Superchain with Zora and Base, which has provided creators with additional platforms to reach art lovers. With this influx of projects to L2, the barrier to entry for onchain creation is the lowest it’s ever been. In order to highlight and reward this burgeoning creative activity we’re thrilled to announce the We ❤️ The Art creator contest, which will allocate 1,200,000 OP to creators!

What is We ❤️ The Art?

Think of it like American Idol for onchain art. We ❤️The Art is a creator contest with a 1,200,000 OP prize pool judged by a number of respected figures in the onchain creative space. It's a celebration of creative freedom, and an open invitation to creators worldwide to express themselves on the cutting edge of blockchains.

Similar to how achieving the Superchain vision will be accomplished through cooperation and coordination among many different stakeholders, W❤️TA is also an example of what’s possible when creative communities come together. This is similar to why Optimism was created to begin with: to build a fairer, more human-centric platform for coordination and to give back to the public goods which enable it.

Art is one of humanity’s earliest public goods, and so it’s only fitting that Optimism—with the invaluable help of our partners and collaborators—helps to enable and reward it.

Onchain creation unlocks unprecedented sovereignty over their works and community for the creator, facilitating a closer, richer connection between artist and patron. We're thrilled to host a creator contest which celebrates the new wave of creators and communities moving onchain.

What's In It for Creators?

Exposure, community, and rewards in the form of a piece of the 1,200,000 OP prize pool. Prizes will be split among four distinct places and categories, for up to 188 potential contest winners.

This is an OPportunity to have your work recognized by a panel of judges with deep knowledge of the space, gain exposure for your onchain works, and potentially be rewarded with Optimism's governance token.

Prize Tiers

The 1,200,000 OP prize pool is split evenly among four distinct categories, each with the same four prize tiers - resulting in 47 winners per category.

Please note that each winner will need to pass KYC in order to receive their prize.

• 1st tier: 50K OP prize (2 winners per category)

• 2nd tier: 20K OP prize (5 winners per category)

• 3rd tier: 7K OP prize (10 winners per category)

• 4th tier: 1K OP prize (30 winners per category)

Contest Categories

• A.I Art - Art created through generative AI tools like Stable Diffusion.

• Generative Art - Art created end-to-end with code.

• Music - Musical creations of any genre.

• 1of1s - An open creator category which includes anything not covered in the other three categories above.

How to Participate

Create a collection of onchain artwork and deploy it to OP Mainnet utilizing one of the NFT tools and/or marketplaces we’ve partnered with for the contest.🎨

Visit the contest site and submit your creation to any one of the four contest categories. 🖼️

Submission deadline: January 8th, 23:00 UTC

Judging period: Jan 9th to Jan 30th

Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges from the NFT space. 📋

Winners will be announced shortly after the judging period. 🏆

Let’s Make Some Art (With Heart)

We ❤️ The Art is an opportunity to come together to celebrate the diverse talent and imagination of digital artists innovating onchain. Whether you're an experienced creator or someone who’s been waiting for that spark of inspiration, we invite all to be a part of this experience.

Good luck--we can't wait to see what you create onchain!