Fusion is a collection of recursive Ordinals featuring abstract artwork inscribed on rare sats. The collection is the work of Billy Restey, a well-known art builder within the Web3 community who previously created BitBlocks, and Gabe Weis, a cubist artist and NFT creator who developed The Stoics. The project was intended to be an innovative experience for holders, with a two-phrase release that allows collectors to take a manual role in the creation of their Ordinal’s final product. Fusion, which launched Phase 1 on May 22, 2024, combines physical art with digital code and rare sats to create something truly unique.
What’s the History of the Fusion Ordinals Collection?
Fusion was the brainchild of two established artists in the web3 ecosystem. Gabe is a painter who travels around to do live painting, while Billy has described himself as someone who pushes pixels around but enjoys playing with cubist art. The two shared a desire to integrate rare sats and artwork, stemming from their early interest in Ordinals. The project began intentionally, with Gabe approaching Billy specifically to work on a new project. According to a Twitter Spaces conversation, there was an immediate acknowledgment of the connection between their work.
Phase 1 of the Fusion project involved getting mint passes into people’s hands, which would allow them to inscribe on-demand through Ordinals bot. The creators have acknowledged some complexity to the system, but they are alright with that because it disincentivizes those who are not really interested in anything but a quick turn on their Ordinals. Phase 1 launched on May 22, aka Bitcoin Pizza Day.
In Phase 2 of the Fusion project, which began on July 10, the rare sat that you inscribe on generates the artwork that becomes your final piece. There is a total supply of 3,333 Fusion Ordinals.
Fusion Collection Concept
The Fusion collection is art-forward and abstract. According to NFT Now, each inscription “is generated from recursive fractions of 14 of Gabe’s paintings, using the new Ordinals endpoints run through Billy’s latest algorithm.” As a result, much of the art features colorful blocks, lines and dots against a solid backdrop, which evokes a look somewhat reminiscent of art on a canvas.
For collection creator Billy, the artistic style of Gabe’s work was a big draw. “I fell in love with Gabe's work at first glance, then even more when [I] saw him painting live in LA,” he wrote on X. “It's been an absolute honor to work with him on FUSION—immortalizing his physical paintings on Bitcoin forever while creating something innovative and new on-chain.”
One popular symbol of that innovative spirit is the preview tool, which allows people to see what the output will look like for any given sat they want to inscribe on. This gives people a direct look at what their final artwork generation will appear as and allows (to an extent) for customization based on a taste. This is key, as the creators did not know exactly what the final artwork would look like for the project as a whole, because it’s ultimately up to what sats holders chose to use.
Fusion Collection Development
The project development essentially began with Billy inscribing 14 of Gabe’s paintings and hundreds of small pieces onto Bitcoin to use as inputs that would pair with various sats. Once the background development was complete, the phased release began. This process was similar to how another of Billy’s collections, BitBlocks, was launched.
First came the mint passes, which were available for sale on Magic Eden. Following the Magic Eden sale, holders were permitted to begin inscribing, with one pass equalling one inscription. The relatively long period of time made available to mint pass holders to complete their inscription was an important element of the building process for the creators, as it allowed collectors to take their time and aided the goal of having the best possible collection.
There were three tiers in play. Tier 1 gave carte blanche to those who owned pieces from Billy and Gabe’s respective previous collections. Tier 2 was dedicated to members of Ordinal communities who have previously done important work with rare sats in their own right or were felt to represent the space. Tier 3 was for the public, if there were to be any spots left. For collectors, there was only a network and inscription fee.
They also developed what they call the Goated Tier, which was for their “most celebrated collectors.” For this tier, they planned a raffle of “the full recursive paintings as ordinals as well as the fractional pieces (holders of 3+ BitBlocks, Stoic holders, Ordinal Shards, Cypherglyphs, etc).”
How to Buy Fusion with Leather
Leather wallet holders can purchase Fusion ordinals on the secondary market through Magic Eden or Gamma. At the time of this writing, they have a floor price of 0.00195 BTC.
