Rejoice, clan Pylons! Free mobile art publishing is live. Last week Easel was approved on the iOS App Store, it's now available on both Android and iOS mobile devices. You can use it to upload images, videos, 3D models, and more from your device to IPFS, get a permalink to them, and with the Pylons app you can put your content up for sale.

With this release, we have a product that's unique in blockchain. You can sell on-chain art from your mobile phone, for no upfront cost, without ever needing to buy or accept cryptocurrency if you don't want to.

Because Pylons chain is still a testnet, this is not a way for artists to generate revenue - yet. There are two currencies users can buy with: Stripe USD, which is in test mode and requires users to use card "4242 4242 4242 4242" and Pylons Points, which can be purchased through In-App Purchasing.  Because we are still a testnet, we don't have a redemption policy for creators yet. We will have one, though. Pylons Points acquired by creators will be redeemable for USD through a process to be unveiled after mainnet.

Give it a shot, and get warmed up. Mainnet soon.

Last week we launched our native in-app purchasing feature for our Pylons Points, which lets users buy low-ticket art, we've been making and sharing some work in our Discord, and a few people decided to make some purchases! Thanks to everyone who participated in building, testing, and using the feature. Here's a photo I minted in honor of our first few sales:

First Pylons Revenue

Photo of a victory sign in front of iOS dashboard displaying first Pylons revenuePrice: 8 PYLON

Built on Pylons

The photo costs about a dollar to purchase, and it's an edition of 500. Grab one with your Android or iOS device to memorialize the first native app store to blockchain integration!

We are working on getting our art minter approved for public release, so that everyone can join in making lightweight digital art. Hopefully very soon!

Next week we will have an update for you on the path to mainnet. We have been making good progress.

Have a cool mid-August!

Pylonians, hello, how's it going? We're doing great over here, thank you for asking. We just pushed out Pylons v1.0, a major upgrade to SDK 46 (the very first chain to get here.) We've upgraded our apps, web portal, indexer and everything is looking great! We've got more testing to do before we put real money into the system but things are in a good place.

Did we mention that we're about to put real money on Pylons? The recent upgrade adds support for In-App Purchasing of Pylons Points, which allows artists to sell digital goods to users using the mobile payment systems they are used to. This is a first, a blockchain that can directly accept payments from mobile platforms. Yes, it's very cool.

This has been a huge effort from everyone involved, including the Pylons team and our two external teams, RNS Solutions and Notional Labs. We're all very excited to be at this stage.

Coming up next, we intend to fully release our publishing tool (putting together store collateral now), and do a major IAP drop as well. Then we will build the remaining pieces we need for mainnet (mainly details of the token incentive model) and get out there with mainnet-1 before you know it.

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

gm! We have been working hard to get the upgrade out, and we are almost there! We are one of the first chains to upgrade to SDK 46, so we are encountering some bugs, but we have created an upgrade proposal and once that passes validators will trigger the upgrade handlers and upgrade to the latest node.

The version of Pylons chain being deployed when that happens has some features that are unique in the blockchain space. It can directly process receipts from the Google and Apple app stores, allowing people to buy and sell art using in-app purchasing (Pylons, Inc. still mediates this by creating the SKUs and handling payouts to KYCed sellers, since the app stores are not self service, but artists with App Store accounts will soon be able to create their own SKUs). The chain will also handle using Firebase App-Check to restrict account creation to real phones that are running the real Pylons app. This will do a lot to help with spam mitigation (since we don't have gas fees)

We also released our games SDK last night, and are looking to have a demo app for you by the next update. Exciting times at Pylons!

Have a great week!

Hi all,

It's been quite a week, we've been figuring out the iOS application process for Easel, (we've cleared two hurdles so far!) and we've been writing upgrade handlers for the new chain version. The next version will be based on SDK 46, and will support on-chain recognition of Google and Apple In-App Purchasing, which we are extremely excited about. It also leverages Firebase app check calls to begin to expand our spam mitigation toolset.

In-App Purchasing that is directly handled by a blockchain is, as far as we know, a first. Letting artists connect with users directly and sell them digital items using the payment methods that are most common in the world is going to be a game-changer, and we can't wait to get your feedback on it.

Opinionated spam mitigation is also very new in blockchain. We are going to be releasing tools for building free-to-play blockchain mobile games over the next couple months, and to do that we need to make sure users can get started without needing buy a gas token they don't care about. App check is one piece of solving identity spam attacks without a self-limiting gas fees system, and you'll get to try that as well very soon.

We are still hoping to have Easel out with the new chain running later this week, and are doing everything we can to make it happen.

Have a great week everyone!

Hail, people of the Pylons. You have all, I am certain, used the Pylons app to claim at least one of the incentivized drops over the last few months. I expect many of you have wondered how our team brings the offerings into being. Some of you have even gone looking and have found the beta version on Google Play.

We haven't broadcast its existence because it was still protean, struggling to find its ultimate form. Among other things, The Apple did not want an app that could not be used without the Pylons app, and so Easel had to be able to upload your content to IPFS without minting it onto a chain. So our artisans have labored to rebuild it in a new shape. And this week it will be ready. We are fixing the last bugs now, and we will be publishing Easel 1.0 later in the week. Behold:

Easel is like nothing you have seen before in digital item creation.

• It runs on your phone
• It supports images, audio, and 3D models as native salable items
• It does not hate you
• It lets you set pricing, royalties, and quantity to sell for any edition
• There are no up-front fees of any kind
• It loves you very much
• You can publish your work using Easel and share it directly onto social media
• When mainnet launches you will be able to list your work directly for USD

We can't wait for you to try it out.

Happy Fourth from the team here at Pylons. It's a day off for our US-based people, so no big update this week, but we're hoping to put together a larger update next week to make up for it!

No incentive for this one, but here's an edition of 1776 you can claim if you like the photo:

NYC 4th adventure prep

A New Yorker headed out on the subway to the kayaks, with paddles A-frame on her pack.Price: 1.99 STRIPEUSD

Built on Pylons

Hey there Pylonians!

Here’s an update from the Pylons Director of Engineering on the chain status and getting us ready for mainnet launch:

IAP (In App Purchase) support for Pylons App on the Chain

We are implementing Apple and Google IAP to issue ecosystem tokens to a user instantly upon receipt verification by the Pylons chain. This approach enables users to generate a receipt through ApplePay/Google Pay which will unlock Pylons tokens for item purchases. Ecosystem tokens are not cryptocurrency; they are like in-game currency that can be used for buying items but can’t be transferred between users. This feature eliminates any need to go to a crypto exchange or holding cryptocurrency. The experience of acquiring a digital item will be as seamless as using ApplePay/Google Pay to buy a coffee, a movie, or a plane ticket.

Spam Mitigation

One thing that makes the Pylons chain unique is our gas-free architecture, designed to power free-to-play experiences. On other chains, high gas fees might act as a deterrent to spammers. Without gas, we had to devise a mechanism to ensure spam is not an issue.

To handle this, we turned to web 2.0 for methods that protect the free-to-access sites we all visit every day. We have put systems in place to ensure transactions from malicious users will be monitored and limited as well as a transaction authorization mechanism for additional security. This is just about ready for more testing, and we will continue to build in new ways to keep the network up and fast for legitimate users.

Upcoming: Cosmos SDK 46 upgrade

We are working with teams that are heavily involved in the SDK 46 upgrade that’s still in progress. The SDK 46 upgrade will enable us to have better testnet features for easier development and will help with better Governance work through message proposals, as well as build a better platform in general supporting digital items.

Some highlights from the upgrade include:

New Module: x/group

Msg-based Gov Proposals

Baseapp PostHandlers

Transaction Tips and SIGN_MODE_DIRECT_AUX

We are very excited to be getting closer to the Mainnet launch day by day and will keep you updated every week.

Have a great week everyone!

This week we did our second drop with more than 2700 claims of Lavender Lake! Not only did we share art from our friend Jellotonin, users found a hiccup in the system that affected the user experience. (It's fixed now!) We're working to make digital item creation, sale, and collection easy and smooth, and through these drops we are getting indications that we're on the right path.

Please keep reporting bugs and issues to the support channel on Discord as you use the applications and build with the SDK; that's one critical way to participate in the incentivized testnet.

This week you can catch Josh, our GC, on stage at NFT.NYC. He'll be on a panel at the Edison Ballroom South about next generation protocols tomorrow at 2:10pm EDT.

Hello! Last week we did our first drop, To The Moon, in an edition of 1000, and it was fully claimed in under 48 hours. With just a handful of support requests in our first public push, we feel great about the quality of the Pylons app. Thanks to all who claimed, and hodl onto the photo to be eligible for more incentives at mainnet launch.

With the launch planned for later this year, we're very excited to go to market supported by longstanding and emerging partners in the Cosmos and beyond. I made some fun plans with some ecosystem partners at Osmocon and Consensus in Austin this week, and we're excited for you to see them.

Tomorrow we'll release a new piece by a different artist. Keep watch for @pylonstech on Twitter where we will post the link to buy!