In the alpha version, the 6529 Museum District features NFTs owned by Punk6529 and other OM team members, with approximately 25 galleries displaying over 2000 NFTs.
Inspired by physical museum districts such as the Houston Museum District or Museumsquartier in Vienna, the project aims to leverage private collections to promote the idea of decentralized art and self-governing metaverse.
Generative art meets power jumps
For now, most artworks in the district come from the 6529 Museum of Art, one of the largest generative NFT collections in the world that currently holds approximately 1950 ETH worth of NFTs, according to Nansen.
The largest of the 6529 Museum District’s exhibitions is the Genesis Gallery of the Generative Art Museum, which Punk6529 calls their “contribution to the generative art community” and a “horizontal view of early generative art.”
Others include NFT photography and Sunshine Square, a long, dark gallery that leads to a vast outdoor area dominated by Summer.jpg, an artwork by XCOPY.
Apart from 6529 Museum of Art collections, the district also houses three Bharat Krymo exhibitions, two spaces curated by Batsoupyum, the Bonafidehan Gallery, and the AC Collection. Visitors can use VR sets or computer keyboards to move around, including the option to jump from rooftop to rooftop for a bird’s-eye view.
Towards an Open Metaverse
The 6529 Museum District has over 2,000 buildings that are not yet active. Each can host up to 100 spaces, which means that the entire district could accommodate up to 100,000 citizens, but the team envisions something even bigger.
In the Twitter thread announcing the alpha version of OM, Punk6529 stressed that while the technical aspects of the project are already clear, the social organization that allows “scaling beyond ETH/crypto degens” is still in the works.
The thread outlines the basic principles of the project, including the transition from Punk6529’s oversight to a “horizontal, brand-neutral” metaverse with thousands of self-governing districts. For now, OM is powered by OnCyber, a Web3 engine that allows artists and collectors to exhibit their NFTs in custom immersive environments.
During the alpha phase, the team will test new districts and collect feedback from early adopters. In beta, Punk6529 expects to address issues like on-chain governance, programming interface and bridging to the physical world. Beta rollout is expected this summer.
