The Story of Restoring A Digital Artwork That Is Always On Sale
Art restoration & conservation is a natural part of the lifecycle of physical art. In some cases, like in Japanese Kintsugi, the repair of an object is made visible, and is seen as desirable. What happens in the case of a digital artwork NFT? Or, perhaps, even more complicated: what happens in the even that it is also an artwork that is always on sale? Due to damage in the first artwork that is always on sale, along with the help of the patron, I restored it.
The Damage
In digital artworks, damage or degradation is more readily referred to as a bug: accidental issues related to the digital canvas of the artwork. Something went wrong. In some cases, the digital artwork could either be irrevocably destroyed or merely damaged. In March 2019, I launched the first artwork that is always on sale.
A year later, I was notified by Jason Smythe of a bug, damage in the smart contract that governs the novel property rights behind this artwork. Luckily, it didn’t entirely break it, but damaged it enough such that in order to become a patron of the work, you had to have deep knowledge of Ethereum, and the mempool Dark Forest, to avoid loss of funds.
To continue the experiment, the damaged artwork was left as-is, and a version 2 was instead launched that fixed the problems.
v2. With 100% patronage rate.
The Patron
Since I wanted to do good by the original patron, I had to get in contact with them. Perhaps we could still restore the damaged version. Due to the pseudonymous nature of the blockchain, I did not know who it is. Thus: I sent out a call.
After a few days, the message came into my inbox.
…and so we discussed how to fix the damaged first version. Due to various life events, however, the conversation fizzled out.
3 months ago, however, the patron got in contact again. Due to the nature of the bug, I had a plan. I wouldn’t throw away the old version, but merge it into a fixed version. The patron agreed.
The Damage & The Restoration
Being able to restore an artwork that is always on sale is luck. The damage could’ve been irrevocable, but luckily, the damage was unique. If someone bought the artwork and the previous patron could not accept the amount of ETH they are due, the sale would be blocked. This is a bug. It meant that if blocked in this manner, then the artwork would not be ‘always on sale’. This exploit, while known, was NOT used by an attacker, because blocking the sale of the artwork also means that they themselves can’t resell the artwork.
Thus, the bug itself, became the kernel of the restoration process.
1) Create a Restoration smart contract that buys the damaged artwork that includes the funds blocking bug. This would effectively block the sale of the damaged artwork. The Restoration contract would own the old, damaged artwork.
2) Create and issue the fixed artwork from this restoration process.
3) Block the sale of the restored artwork unless the old, damaged artwork is owned by the restoration contract.
4) Thus: the damaged artwork is forever, merged into the new, restored version.
The Constructor of the Restoration Smart Contract
The Act of Restoration, Executed By The Patron
The Bond, Forever Sealed and Restored
Enacting this restoration process is, however, not easy. It was made simpler with the help of the patron. Without them, the artworks could have been marooned in the dark forest of nefarious money bots, scouring for any ETH left dangling.
Thus, on February 8th, 2021, with the new canvas set up, the patron restored the artwork: merging the old, damaged artwork into the new, fixed version.
The damaged version was bought by the Restoration contract, and the fixed artwork was transferred into the hands of the previous patron. In the new version, hidden behind its canvas is the old artwork. It had been restored.
2 Million Years
Due to the nature of the bug, it is, however not fixed, forever. The old smart contract still deducts funds as patronage. However, the price of the old artwork is 100 wei, and with a deposit of 10000000 wei, the artwork will stay merged for 2 million years. If at that time, in some distant future, it still matters, however, the depositWei() function on the old contract does not require the patron. Thus, in 2 million years, like a sheen of new varnish, the artwork can stay, always on sale.
It is possible that hidden damage (bugs) still exist, or, that future damage might still occur. However, for now, 2 years later, the artwork is still always on sale, and it will, for now, remain always on sale for 2 million years.
