Block-tower(nameTBD) is an ever-evolving art-verse linked to a blockchain address[specific to installation] with Etheruem. This Art form is a few of the first of it's kind exploring blockchain technology in Art spaces. Users are encouraged to interact with the eth address, where each transaction hash defines and spawns a unique 'block' in the verse.
Cryptocurrencies work on decentralized databases whose main purpose is to secure and hold all transactions, Inside transactions, we also have the capability to store HEX data, which can represent a message or a file as well. As it's saved over a decentralized network, no single entity has the power to alter or truncate these messages. Any data that is saved in this manner becomes truly immutable.
Each block in the block-tower art verse reads the blockchain history of the address and any message that might have been sent with it.
Why?
- The installation serves as a purpose to spread awareness for the technology.
- As we may have taken our freedom of speech for granted, the exploiting power of authoritarianism in any form of systems is not recognized unless experienced from inside-out or we come across peer stories. In western culture, tech pioneers such as facebook and twitter have maintained a form of integrity in providing a sense of freedom of speech as in some form they have grown bigger than countries governments - ps - heres a lol ., however these databases are still controlled by central systems and can be manipulated if forced through higher levels. Plus these social media platforms in their closed environments can do stuff not visible to the public((https://www.boredpanda.com/tik-tok-reverse-engineered-data-information-collecting/)), however, most blockchain systems being open source, everything is publicly visible and maintained by the community which has now grown huge and decentralized over all around the earth. Some countries do a very good job in even blocking forms of social media (( I was super surprised to learn this after traveling, that people need to use vpn to access some social sites, however using vpn is always a good idea, so its great how they got advertised by censorship, such paradoxes!!)).
A great use of how decentralized blockchain systems serves as a purpose of individuality and freedom is: How a Chinese Student Avoids Censorship With The Ethereum Blockchain . where Yueluo, a Peking University Student, was silenced from making a formal complaint. After publishing her complaint on chinese media platforms it was silently removed. That is when she turned to the Ethereum network. The Ethereum network allows any user to send arbitrary messages as part of the data field. This is a smart way of encrypting text on the Ethereum network
you can view the forever immutable[as long as the internet is there] transaction (sent in 2018) at https://etherscan.io/tx/0x2d6a7b0f6adeff38423d4c62cd8b6ccb708ddad85da5d3d06756ad4d8a04a6a2 (( message in input data (change to UTF-8, under see more )). // https://cryptobulls.info/store-text-message-ethereum-blockchain-censorship-resistant .
Art has played an important role in the expression and reforming systems which needs to. However outside the blockchain context - another example is a digital library in online game minecraft, which hosts all the censored journalism and was getting used by reporters to exchange what would have been censored by propaganda: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/18/21184041/minecraft-library-censored-journalism-reporters-without-borders
Related work:
https://cryptograffiti.info/ This is one of the most fascinating art? form i found around the revolving concepts with cryptography message blockchain. However, they have gone a step ahead and included easier ways to even download a file that might be embedded in the hash. It also has a proof of existence tool which allows anyone to securely time stamp files without revealing their actual content. The site also offers inbuilt read and write message function. I would highly recommend reading help and about sections here and explore around if one is interested.
However for block-tower(this project) version1, aims only towards reading to a specific address and creating a good layout in unity. A part of the exploration for me is also how to use unity api and integrate blockchain functions with it.
Block-Tower while spreading awareness of the technology serves as an entity to showcase any messages encrypted onchain and an interactive environment to explore them. - reading live data through the transaction history of the address on Ethereum Network and is accessible from anywhere in the world.
what's art without some rebel!!
Related + method
https://www.codersblock.org/blog/2014/05/fun-with-bitcoin ( Unity - Firework on every btc transaction ) [[good]] -update websocket https://www.blockchain.com/api/api_websocket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVosBA3SKI0 bitcoin Real Time Transaction Websocket Unity
Visualization https://github.com/spectre1989/bitcoin_blockchain_visualiser
https://github.com/KevinSmall/blockchain3d Blockchain 3D: Open Source 3D and VR Blockchain Visualisations [[ good ] but no webgl - https://github.com/KevinSmall/blockchain3d/wiki ]]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS6aFZgV93A A Bitcoin Lightning Network powered game
how? chaos initiated!!
resources to come back to -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga0ji5zkOko (related unity eth plugin)
Enjin - erc20 coin promoting gaming over blockchain however is a subset(alt) of eth.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/blockchain-sdk-by-enjin-124133 (blockchain sdk by enjin)
https://forum.enjin.io/d/109-using-different-coins-with-sdk-read-all-transactions-of-an-address [self]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw24ySJoGYk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35IIpKqHWwo
Nethereum - .Net for ethereum
https://github.com/Nethereum/Unity3dSimpleSample
https://docs.nethereum.com/en/latest/unity3d-sending-ether/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuRFmlcWFaA
https://blog.e11.io/integrating-unity3d-with-the-ethereum-blockchain-part-1-deb24c698280 (3partgood)
https://medium.com/@juanfranblanco/nethereum-2-0-0-rc5-unity3d-integration-eb7664664813
https://gist.github.com/e11io/535475cf39ea51a3396753a8405fb6b6
DonnerUnity
https://github.com/donnerlab1/donnerunity Lightning based payment plugin
Etherscan.io [[ blockchain explorer for eth ]]
https://etherscan.io/apis#accounts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwxPqbseFrE Learn to Write Messages on the Ethereum Blockchain - George Levy
https://github.com/ana0/EthGame
https://github.com/dotrungkien/eth-unity-code-base/tree/master/game
https://github.com/Alex-Nick-Project/PlanetChain_UnityProject/tree/master/Assets/Scripts/Game/Wallet
After exploring a bit, Not implementing wallet systems as that takes away the security point and is not needed for the experience.. only a read in the environment through etherscan api.
dontclick
