Alonzo Graduation

A collection of 23 unique NFTs cataloguing the growth of the Cardano ecosystem around the Alonzo hardfork event.

Information can be beautiful and art can be informative. In the Alonzo Graduation NFT collection we have endeavored to show this by producing both beautiful and informative NFTs, blurring the boundaries of what some would call art and others would call information. We also, tentatively, want to say that we believe we have produced one of the -if not the- first collections of information NFTs on the Cardano blockchain.

The Alonzo Graduation NFT collection was created by yours truly, Built on Cardano

The Alonzo Graduation NFT Collection was initially conceived as a funding mechanism for all that Built on Cardano provides. Built on Cardano is proudly independent and all the information contained on our beautifully designed platform is thoroughly researched and not funded by the projects that we write about.

This was a conscious decision made very early on and it is written into our founding principles which are focused around organization, exploration, community, and information. We live in a world where if you don’t pay to use a product or a platform then you, de facto, commit to being the product yourself. This means that you consent to having information about you and your usage stored and shared with whomever the platform sees fit.

Our users are not the product, they are the consumer and we are their gateway, their map, and their guide through the disorganized, decentralized world of Cardano.

Because of the non-capitalist way in which we chose to approach the production of our content and the usage of our platform we found that the many funding avenues followed by traditional media and information companies were closed to us. As a result, and because mere passion alone does not put bread on the table, we had to get creative about how we try and fund ourselves whilst also sticking to our values.

Alonzo Graduation is a timestamped, NFT collection that blends art with the information people want to read. Using our original content to produce these NFTs is the novel way we choose of raising funds to support our work and our efforts.

Our final why has been alluded to throughout this piece and it is based on one of the defining factors of NFTs, and blockchain technology in general. That is the timestamp. Through timestamps, and the immutable metadata attached to them, it can be proven when our NFTs were created and what period of the ecosystem they were representing.

More importantly the timestamping of this historic moment in Cardano provides us with a window into the past where we can look at what existed before it could prove its own existence on-chain. Not all the projects we have listed on our site will survive and bear fruit. Weeks, months, years, and decades from now people will be asking: who was there? Who existed “back then”? Who were the true pioneers and visionaries who shaped the future that we live in today?

The Alonzo Graduation NFT collection provides the people of the future with a verifiable window into that past. With the Alonzo Graduation NFT collection you can own a verifiable snapshot of Cardano’s history.

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Glossary

On-Chain

These are all the on-chain NFTs, and on-chain NFT collections, that currently exist on Cardano. Many people consider on-chain NFTs to be better, or more special, than off-chain NFTs.

In regards to the on-chain vs off-chain NFT argument, the image represented by an off-chain NFT is found by following a link, typically stored on the IPFS, from the NFTs metadata. This can be changed by the person who uploaded it. The image represented by an on-chain NFT is coded into the metadata and is, therefore, immutably coded into the blockchain's history. This is usually, but not always, in the form a language that your browser understands, allowing your browser to interpret that information and display the NFT.

NFT

If you’re looking for a Cardano NFT then you’ve found the place for you! listed here are all the projects that feature NFTs in some form on Cardano. NFTs are no longer just the PFP collections that made them famous, although many do still exists and you can find Cardano NFT projects here, NFTs are assets with multiple different types of utility, depending on which project’s NFTs your buying.

A Cardano NFT is a native asset on Cardano which means that, unlike on other (specifically EVM-based) chains, an NFT is not managed by a smart contract, meaning that it behaves and is managed differently to the chain’s base asset, ada. On Cardano NFTs behave the same as the chains base asset as they are native to the chain.

On this page you’ll find everything from Cardano NFT projects to DeFi projects and decentralized identity (DID) solutions that have incorporated NFTs, to the Cardano NFT marketplaces you can use to purchase NFTs.

Metadata

Metadata is an element of a Cardano transaction that can be inputed by the user or automatically generated. It is stored on the blockchain with the transaction that it was sent with. This means that, just like the transactions themselves, metadata is immutable, i.e. unchangeable, and stored forever on the Cardano blockchain.

Anyone can add metadata into a transaction and that metadata is then stored on the blockchain. Many wallets allow you to add custom metadata to a transaction.

Metadata can only be made up of characters i.e. numbers, letters and punctuation, and cannot be a file type, i.e. you cannot unload files like PDFs or MP3s to the blockchain. The size of the metadata you can add to a transactions is limited to 16KB, and a character is, typically, 1 Byte, so that means you can add up to 1600 characters as metadata with any transaction.

Metadata can be used for many purposes the most common is to give some form of context to the transaction. Metadata has been used to store supply chain data, to send arbitrary message to be stored on the blockchain, and to store the hash of a document (allowing the blockchain to be used for proof-of-existence). People have used metadata, on the testnet, to immortalize the Cardano whitepaper, by writing it onto the blockchain as transactions across multiple transactions.

Many block explorers allow users to view and search transaction metadata. Remember, anything you add as metadata to a transaction will always be publicly available on the blockchain.

DeFi

Here are all the Cardano DeFi projects complete with descriptions and tags. If you’re looking for a Cardano DeFi exchange, a lending protocol, a launchpad, a Cardano stablecoin, or platforms on which to tokenize real world assets then you’ve come to the right place. The Cardano DeFi ecosystem is maturing and, as it does, we will continue to list the new Cardano DeFi projects here. If you look at Cardano in 5 years this list will be substantially different, some projects will have left it, but many many more will have been added.

If you’re looking to simply swap Cardano native tokens then a Cardano DEX is your best choice. If you’re looking to utilize your crypto holdings for a loan then take a look at all the Cardano lending and borrowing platforms on offer and choose which one fits your needs. There is much more utility in the Cardano DeFi world and we invite you to explore it here!

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