THE RISE AND FALL OF HEN (.xyz)
DECEMBER 29TH, 2021
On November 12th, a bomb was dropped; hicetnunc.xyz founder, Rafael Lima called it quits; his site, which was one of the leading digital marketplaces, vanished into the ethers.
No one saw the demise of Hic et Nunc (HEN) coming (unless, of course, you did clearly see it coming). HEN’s Twitter account ominously stated one word: ‘Discontinued;’ NFT enthusiasts who navigated to the site, sadly found this:
Yes, November 12th was a day that will live on in NFT marketplace infamy.
Was it too much, too soon for HEN? Having only launched in March 2021 – it was quite a run for Lima’s site. By May, HEN’s daily users toppled that of NFT mega-giant marketplace: OpenSea.
Sure, the platform supported thousands of artists across Planet Earth – but by November HEN hit its Icarus moment – propelling it too close to the NFT marketplace sun; you could put a fork into Hic et Nunc - because it was done.
Let’s unpack: The disappearance of Hic et Nunc is the stuff conspiracy theories are made of. Speculations abounded. One hypothesis was that empresario Rafael Lima was run over by a bus (he wasn’t). Artist Joanie Lemercier, speculated that Lima “got overwhelmed and decided, overnight, to close the site.”
AI artist, Mario Klingemann, an early adopter of Hic et Nunc, gave his Rashomon perspective. His viewpoint reflected that of the HEN community on Lima’s exit. Klingemann, said on Twitter that Lima went scorched earth - and “in an irresponsible act of rage decided to leave and turn the off-switch on everything he has access to.”
Klingemann added: “It will probably need some time to reorganize ourselves and sort through the rubble, but hic et nunc was always more than the creation of a single person.”
hicetnunc-community – a group brought together through the love of Hic et nunc (whose Twitter account trumpets: ‘Continued’) – recapped the main talking points on the site’s takedown; directing followers to a statement byViolet Forest, a close partner to Lima, who took the founder’s side on why he discontinued hicetnunc.xyz.
Forest claimed that Lima’s Frankenstein creation, HEN - got taken over by those who loved it. She believes that: “Hicetnunc, Rafael's project and name, was hijacked by the ‘community.’
She cited events, such as at Art Basel, that were being planned under the Hic et Nunc banner – without being signed off first by Lima. Forest stated that actions, such as this and beyond, showed no respect for Lima’s vision.
Further, another big snafu was community members were planning to create a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) so they could make decisions about HEN – without consulting Lima first.
Forest went on to say: “I do believe Rafael cared about the art and a social cause, but was constantly distracted and eventually worn out by people calling him names, belittling him, and harassing him to give up his website to the ‘community.’”
The big question is, now that the hicetnunc.xyz has been ‘discontinued’ – what happened to all that artist content that was estimated at over 500,000 NFTs?
Enter Web 3.0.
“As far as I can tell the damage so far is mostly affecting the facade of the hen ecosystem: the .XYZ website and the twitter account,” Klingemann expressed on Twitter. The 500k+ OBJKTS minted and the smart contracts are still there and can be accessed through other community sites, like https://hicetnunc.art/.”
As you may (or may not) know, HEN was built on the Tezos blockchain – and that’s the beauty of the decentralized Web 3.0; it’s upholding its revolutionary potential for artists – where users remain in control of their content. Though the front-end went down; the back-end didn’t go down – keeping the artists’ NFT work safe; as users seamlessly transitioned to alternative platforms.
According to The Art Newspaper, on November 12th, the Whitworth gallery canceled its 44 NFTs on Hic et Nunc – and two minutes later they were listed on objkt.com. Though hicetnunc.xyz is gone – the blockchain remains safe and strong – and no single person can shut that down.
As Klingemann said: “In a decentralized project there is no such thing as an ‘official’ channel/fork/site/representative. Things grow organically in a self-organizing fashion. Anyone claiming to be an ‘official’ something is to be regarded with skepticism.”
Klingemann added: “I think it is important in this situation not to panic or spread hearsay but rather see this as a chance to turn this crisis into an opportunity to complete our vision of a truly decentralized NFT ecosystem.”
The HEN community might’ve momentarily been knocked to the mat - but look how quick they jumped back up. The community consensus is moving towards a rebranding that ensures that the assets minted on HEN will stay decentralized and pinned on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) in order to not get lost.