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SitePoint NFTs – or how we floated rhinos on the OpenSea

Alex Walker
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This morning at SitePoint we’re launching our first foray into the world of NFTs!… <insert triumphant trumpet blasts> … 🎺🎷🎺

Rhinos on the OpenSea

After 20+ years and over 100 book cover designs, we’re releasing a strictly limited run of our latest design work as purchasable digital art.

From 12:00 midday on Thursday, October 21 (PDT) there will be 10 Origami Rhinos available for bids.

Things to know

  • There will not be ‘multiple prints’ or thousands of variations available. Each piece is a one-off original creation – never to be released again.
  • Each Rhino contains a 12–month SitePoint Premium Subscription that can only be unlocked by its owner.
  • The sale is by auction that will run for 3 days and conclude on Sunday 24th October at midday (PDT)
  • The artwork is a crisp scalable vector graphic (SVG) displayable in any modern web browser or OS at any resolution without ever pixelating.
  • All proceeds from all sales will go to a very relevant charity – The International Rhino Foundation.

Secure your own Rhino NFT here

Why is it a Rhino?

The first SitePoint book cover was produced back in 2001 and the idea of a publishing a print book was a total experiment for us at the time. The book was wildly successful but I didn’t spend a long time on the cover design and it hasn’t aged well.

Happily, things did improve as we learned and got better, moving from blocks on to a series of powerful beasts.

The evolution of our PHP book over 20 years

The seventh edition is due to launch in November (to place this one) and takes forward the vector origami motif I’ve been using since 2014. This rhino design is the perfect piece for us to dip our toe into the NFT water.

What is an NFT?

An NFT (Non Fungible Token) is a item of digital artwork (potentially an image, 3d model, video, or sound).

However, unlike standard digital files that can be copied and reproduced infinitely, each NFT exists at a specific address on the blockchain. If I sell my NFT to you, I no longer have access to it.

As is the case with old Jazz records, antique watches and rare comics, NFTs allow artists and musicians to create digital artwork with built-in scarcity.