<Crypto>Poetry

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Decentralized <Crypto>Poetry




What did you do last summer in Web3?



I wrote poetry, poems inspired by the space of the New Web, and imprinted it in this space with the help of blockchains interfaces and dApps.

Questions that worried me in those days and still disturb me are present on the Home page. I have found answers to some of them, and I continue to search.

The small but growing collection of poems ~ Proof of Rhyme ~ is the current <beta> version of the decentralized book that I continue to publish in progress.





Proof of Rhyme





<Crypto>Poetry is the net art project that explores the possibilities of creating poetic texts in Web3 space and is based on its main principles and technologies: decentralization, cryptography, and blockchain.



Proof of Rhyme is the collection of poems, the decentralized book, the result of poetic experiments, and at the same time, a «consensus algorithm» that establishes the formal «truth» of the poem and allows it to be added to the book and into the blockchain.



Named by analogy with consensus algorithms such as Proof of Work or Proof of Stake, the Proof of Rhyme algorithm not only indicates the specifics of creating poetic texts in a cryptographic environment but also affirms the fundamental principle of the existence of a poetic text in general — ῥυθμός, which in ancient Greek means «measurement, rhythm» and from which the word "rhyme" comes. Such a double etymology makes it difficult to choose a name for the protocol because it could well be called Proof of Rhythm (lat. rhythmus). Both of these aspects - rhyme, and rhythm - are important in poetry, but still, I settled on the Proof of Rhyme as the most representative of my poetic artifacts.



As you know to add the next block to the blockchain, it is necessary to present some proof of the «truth» of the transactions and their consistency with the previous ones. In the Proof of Rhyme algorithm, a rhyme (more precisely, a poem as a set of rhymes) is presented as the result of the work done (compare with Proof of Work: compute hash = find a rhyme) and is added to the blockchain according to specific rhythm (see «block time»). Adding a poem is done using blockchain interfaces and decentralized applications, which are usually used for more serious purposes. It can be said that the addition of a cryptopoem to the blockchain is a kind of a poetic hack. There is a process of saturation of the extremely rationalized structure of the blockchain with the substance of imagination and poetic inspiration. It looks like a punk strategy of parasitizing on some ready-made infrastructure, like squatting buildings in a big city under the jurisdiction of the Respublica literaria. A kind of guerrilla decentralization second level. A real poetic <crypto> punk. ☺



Of course, in many ways, this project is just a poetic fantasy based on the utopian dream of the special poetic blockchain that would implement the ideas and approaches presented here. But still, I would like to invite brave developers and poets to try to create the blockchain on the Proof of Rhyme protocol. We may even have to organize DAO for this - <Crypto>Poetry DAO.



Every poet wants to be printed and read. But a cryptopoet needs, first of all, to be printed on the blockchain and read by the Virtual Machine. And let every cryptopoet find his CryptoMuse.





On chain comments





The Ethereum blockchain proposes to use decentralized ENS domain names, which are analogs and prototypes of NFTs. With access to the domain control panel, you can create "orthogonal" poetic lines within the lines of a poem by entering rhymes into the form fields of the interface as additional data or as domain subdomains. In this way, poems are obtained that internal branch and expansively scatter in the most bizarre directions. The final assembly of the poem takes place at the level of the wallet account, the holder of the poem. This approach provides an opportunity to make the authorship and ownership of the text both individual and unrestrictedly collective.


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The NEAR blockchain provides a method for creating wallet accounts in both human-readable forms (in the form of words) and machine-readable format (in the form of hash) using near-cli. At the same time, the parent account can be continued through the chain of sub-accounts, resembling the subdomains structure. Therefore, the method of creating cryptopoems is almost the same as in the ENS medium.


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A more classic approach to versification is offered to the poet by the Everscale blockchain: using an account created in the Ever Serf dApp, you can send a poem in a decentralized environment with automatic recording to the blockchain through messenger. Thus, by sending poems to another account, you can turn them into a poetry collection that anyone can read using Everscale Explorer.





Frequently imaginary questions





- What is the idea behind the <Crypto>Poetry project?



- The idea of <Crypto>Poetry is to study and master the poetic aspects of the human-machine language, based on which the New Internet is being created. The Semantic Web and Web3 are created by laying paths of mutual understanding between man and machine as a new subject of culture. The poet, in this process, complements the functions of the programmer and developer, whose tasks are to rationalize technological moments and optimize the code. The poet brings elements of play, wordplay, wit, irony, bugs and glitches, and even craziness. Without them, the language of communication will remain the language of instructions and orders, but not a fellowship of equals. The task of the Semantic Web is to create a human-like machine rather than a machine-like person. How is this possible? The answer is probably hiding somewhere between the <Crypto> angle brackets.



- What is the feature of <Crypto>Poetry?



- One of the main goals of the <Crypto>Poetry project is to erasure the boundaries between the technical and artistic aspects of the creative process. Generally speaking, writing and publishing poetry in the Web3 space is a specific activity and not like what we usually keep in mean (writing with a pen on paper or printing in a printing house). The cryptopoet not only composes a poem but also correlates it with the future process of publishing into the blockchain. This means that when writing a text, he must also think like a publisher. A true cryptopoet publishes himself, and the various tools of this process require competence. Their study takes some time... Cryptopoetry is a great way to spend time exploring the Web3 space.



- Why are there so few poems in the Proof of Rhyme book?



- There are more poems. But to publish them, that is, to integrate them into the blockchain using its tools and mechanics, some preparation and the right attitude are required. Publishing poetry on the blockchain requires concentration and inspiration at the same time. This condition is strange, paradoxical, and quite rare. But at the same time, it's very driving.



- Why were these particular blockchains used for the project?



- It just happened. The process of learning Web3 is quite chaotic. It is necessary to study not only the blockchains but also the social, software, and technological ecosystem surrounding them. However, not everything of that can be used for poetry, and not everything gives rise to exciting ideas. Or some features are not available for implementation at the moment. But the deploying of poems on other blockchains is planned too. Art-in-progress.



- What kind of abracadabra of letters and numbers next to poems?



- {Chain:Ethereum} >> Under the header of the poem is the public key of the wallet account that combine various lines into the poem. After the poem, there are hashes of poetic lines (label hashes of ENS domains); it's a machine-readable version of the poem. {Chain:Near} >> Under the header of the poem is the hash of the transaction that created it on the Near blockchain. After the poem are the hashes (public keys) of poetic lines, a machine-readable version of the poem. {Chain:Everscale} >> Under the header is the accounts IDs of the sender and recipient of the poem as the message sent via the Ever Surf chat. After the poem is the ID of the message, by which it can be found and read in the Everscale Blockchain Explorer.



- Will it be a picture book?



- Yes, illustrations will be over time. And possibly the soundtrack as well. It would be interesting to collaborate with some artist or musical group who could sing the poems or mix them with their music, for example, use them as samples, like in hip-hop or techno. It would be nice to change the consensus of what a book is in contemporary web culture.



- Will there be NFTs?



- In part, this book is already NFT: lines of poetry on Ethereum are ENS domains in the ERC-721 standard. But when the book grows into a full-fledged publication, it seems logical to make it in the form of its own NFT. Then all the technologies used in the book, including ERC-721, will be combined into one object. NFT within NFT.



- I don't understand this poetry! What should I do?



- Don't worry. These poems can be read like ordinary (at least in their human-readable versions). But, indeed, in some ways, they may seem strange. As if they have written tongue-tied person who does not know English well. Or as if they were translated by Google Translate. At the same time, they need to read just simply and humanly. For example, the line «allyouneedis.near» reads All You Need Is Near. By the way, this poem was written to the tune of the chorus from the song by The Beatles - All You Need Is Love, so you can try to sing it. Check it.

Also, to better understand these poems, it is better to be aware of the topics of crypto culture and crypto history in general and to know some points from cases of those blockchains on which poems are printed. It is important.