29 Oct 2024/56 min/Jack Butcher
MLow x Jack Butcher Interview
The creator of Checks and Opepen argues that a large collection is one artwork owned by a network, and MLow tests the free mint gospel against what he has seen happen to ordinary artists.
Jack Butcher walks through the road to Visualize Value: a UK graphic design degree in 2010, eight years in New York agencies, a solo studio that burned him out within a year, and then the constraint that saved him, black and white diagrams that explain complicated ideas as simply as possible, posted daily until a few hundred thousand people were watching. NFTs arrived in late 2020 when a student asked to collect his work and he answered, what do you mean, they are just Instagram posts. OpenSea did not land for him; a Foundation invite did, and 1/1s followed.
The core of the conversation is Butcher's supply argument. The space, he says, inherited a mistake from the traditional art world: counting an artist's tokens the way you count canvases, when Warhol and Picasso left tens of thousands of physical works. His reframe is that a 5,000 or 16,000 piece collection is a single artwork whose real innovation is that a network can own it. He credits Schmrypto with the surface area idea: every circulating piece is a catalyst for discovery, unavailability only compounds in your favor after you have reputation, and before that, scarcity strangles the network you need. His prescription is to publish and let demand set supply, while admitting he is not even consistent with his own ideology.
MLow lands the episode's sharpest moment. Opening from that day's news, Foundation wiping its Instagram history for Rodeo, he grants that Checks at 8 dollars and Opepen free are the great cheap mint success stories, then warns against generalizing from someone at the top of the space, naming Zora, Zero One and Rodeo artists who are not benefiting from the model. Butcher concedes the point. From there they cover Opepen's mechanics and lore, artist coins, the dynamic tech behind Checks, and Butcher's closing bet that digital property rights are inevitable, with CryptoPunks, at a low billions valuation, already the most expensive portrait in the world.
What this episode teaches
- A collection is one artwork
Butcher says the true innovation is not 10,000 tokens but a single work a network can own, whether identical editions or algorithmic outputs. Matt and John thought of CryptoPunks as one project; it happens to be ownable in 10,000 fractions.
- Surface area is asymmetric by career stage
Crediting Schmrypto, Butcher argues every circulating piece is a catalyst for discovery. Once you have reputation, work people cannot collect compounds in your favor; in no man's land, the same scarcity blocks the network growth you need.
- Let demand set supply
For artists free of scarcity scrutiny, Butcher's prescription is to publish regularly and let demand at the time set supply. If network growth outpaces available supply the value rises; if not, it falls. That, he says, is your contact with reality.
- Do not inherit the platform's frame
Artists absorb a platform's positioning and treat one venue as the place for work they think is lesser. Butcher warns that collectors do not necessarily share that distinction, so the frame devalues work arbitrarily.
- Beware survivorship in free mint advice
MLow grants that Checks and Opepen are the standout cheap mints that became valuable, then argues it is a trap to generalize from someone at the top of the space, citing artists on Zora, Zero One and Rodeo who are not benefiting. Butcher answers, yeah, I see, that's fair.
- Design constraints that pose questions
Butcher frames Checks and Opepen as experiments that pose questions rather than answer them. Opepen's 80 piece sets, internal scarcity tiers and conditional reveal produced behavior nobody scripted, and many original assumptions were proven false.
- Build so the network carries the lore
A newcomer sees a set and thinks it is just four cubes; holders who were present transmit the story. Butcher says the most gratifying result is that the network does that job for itself, through the weekly Opepen Spaces with Boards.
- Illiquidity can be a feature
On artist coins, Butcher argues infinite fractionalization suits internet scale memes but exposes smaller artists to opportunistic chart traders. An object you actually want to own creates a different relationship than an infinitely divisible ticker.
- Digital property is inevitable
Butcher's closing thesis: once you see that the things you produce online can carry provenance and be owned, the normalization of digital money and digital property is completely inevitable, the same realization you reach studying Bitcoin long enough.
The conversation, topic by topic
From burnout to Visualize Value
Butcher studied graphic design in the UK, graduated in 2010, spent about eight years in New York ad agencies and product shops, then started his own studio around 2017 and burned out within a year, recreating everything he had fled with fewer resources. Visualize Value came out of that: daily black and white diagrams that flipped the client relationship, people now hired him because of the work he posted.
What do you mean, collect my work
In late 2020 someone in a Visualize Value course asked to collect his work, which he thought of as just Instagram posts. He had tried art fairs in New York and found reception astronomically worse than on a network of subscribers. OpenSea did not click; Foundation's curated auction interface conveyed the value proposition, and he began publishing 1/1s.
Foundation wipes its history for Rodeo
MLow opens from that day's observation that Foundation replaced years of Instagram posts with Rodeo content. Butcher reads it as L2s and cheap transactions widening who can participate, plus fiduciary pressure on venture funded platforms: the population that can afford free to low cost mints is exponentially bigger than the 1 to 4 ETH auction crowd.
MLow's free mint counterpoint
MLow credits Checks at 8 dollars and Opepen free as perhaps the most successful cheap mints ever, with Opepen packs still running every Friday, then argues artists risk copying an anomaly: on Zora, Zero One and Rodeo he has watched artists fail to benefit from the model. Butcher concedes the point is fair.
Token supply is not canvas count
Butcher calls it a short term mistake to equate token supply with physical output, noting Warhol and Picasso have on the order of 50 to 70 thousand physical pieces. Founders of large collections think of them as one artwork; the foundational difference is that a network can own it and emerges around it.
Surface area versus scarcity
Citing Schmrypto, Butcher lays out the paradox: you need the surface area of your work to grow the network that cares about it, yet artists cling to the scarce narrative. He admits he falls into the trap and is not consistent with his own ideology, since sequencing a career and holding attention still matter.
Derivatives he cannot buy back
When Checks and Opepen took off, artists flooded out open edition derivatives. Butcher has gone back for ones he missed and often cannot get them: holders either forgot they own them or will not sell out of sentimentality, evidence that high supply work can still be held tightly.
Opepen as a running experiment
Opepen's artificial scarcity mechanics, 80 pieces per set with tiers inside and reveals contingent on inclusion, let name recognition, story and mechanics drive value in ways he could only observe because holders express preferences in a decentralized way. Some assumptions proved true, a lot proved false.
The network carries the lore
What he is proudest of: people present at a release understand a set's relevance, a latecomer sees just four cubes, and the community closes the gap itself in the weekly Spaces with Boards. The original theory held that aesthetics should not be the point; the constraint should let a physical process artist and a Pudgy Penguins interpretation attract entirely different people.
Distribution against the old paradigm
Butcher calls distribution the central debate: an unknown artist remixing the Opepen constraint gets more eyes than posting to a small feed, and institutions can legitimize the space, but the fundamental difference remains that a hundred thousand people can own the thing rather than one winner of an auction. Opepen is a live hypothesis that globally recognized works need no centralized endorsement.
Artist coins and Dark Farms
MLow asks whether ERC-20 coins solve distribution better than NFTs, noting Dark Farms pulled it off while other artists nuked their accounts chasing meme coins. Butcher answers that memes at internet scale can hold that tension, but smaller artists face opportunistic chart traders; he is a freedom to transact maximalist who still finds NFT networks more personally fulfilling.
Dynamic tech and the black check
MLow praises the dynamic Checks displays, Keith Haring, Mona Lisa, the contract as billboard, and the endgame of burning down to one final black check, a communal inversion of Pak's Merge. Butcher says the work is designed so participants decide its shape, doubts the black check will ever exist, and credits Jalil's technical implementation throughout.
Opepen's origin and curation criteria
Opepen began in 2023 as a commentary combining Batzdu's geometric Pepes and Jalil's Scapes, with no plan; 16,000 visually identical PFPs seemed absurd, so remix culture became the format. A good set brings something new to the final capsule, like Snowfro's squiggle circles reducing the silhouette to arrangement, holding tension between departure and homage. He dropped the plan to document AI image model evolution across 200 sets, and expects the project to take decades.
MLow's practice and the next decade
MLow describes his own year long exquisite corpse collaboration with 12 artists, his hourly shuffling photographic works on Transient Labs' 7160 doppelganger contract, and his 30 AI subscriptions for daily everydays. Butcher closes with the punks book chapter he and Jalil wrote: measured by its cheapest fraction, CryptoPunks at one and a half to two billion dollars is the most expensive portrait in the world, next to the roughly 450 million dollar Christie's record.
In their words
“What do you mean collect my work? They're just Instagram posts. You can't collect them.”
Jack Butcher“The true innovation is the fact that this thing can be owned by a network and a network emerges around it and talks about it.”
Jack Butcher“You need the surface area of your work to increase in order to grow the network of people that care about it.”
Jack Butcher“I fall into the trap too, I'm not even consistent with my ideology on this stuff a lot of the time.”
Jack Butcher“Based on how much it costs to collect the cheapest fraction of that portrait, it is the most expensive portrait in the world.”
Jack ButcherCite this conversation
Jack Butcher in conversation with MLow, "MLow x Jack Butcher Interview," The MLow Show, 29 Oct 2024. https://show.mlow.xyz/e/2024-10-29-mlow-x-jack-butcher-interview.html. Quoted from a machine transcript.
Quotations come from machine transcripts. Check wording against the audio before republishing.