Blockchain Secured Art on Display with the PixelCon Frame

If you’re feeling creative, you can go to pixelcons.io and make an 8 x 8 pixel, 16-color picture on its web interface. While somewhat interesting in itself, the appeal of this particular website goes much deeper. When you create one of these art tokens, known as “PixelCons,” ownership of this unique shape is secured on the Ethereum blockchain.

What that is worth is up to you, but it’s a fun idea to be able to easily produce something that is uniquely yours with a few clicks of your mouse. If you want to show these and other tiny pictures off, the PixelCons-Frame allows you to do so as a 2.75-inch matrix embedded in a 3D-printed case. It’s powered by a NodeMCU ESP8266 module, and light is provided by 64 WS2812 LEDs.

The NodeMCU generates a web interface for it over WiFi, and the device can either display local images, or download new content from the Internet. The entire project is open source, so you can either build your own, or expand upon it to make something as unique as the displayed images.

Alternatively, these frames are available on Tindie for purchase; you’ll just need to supply your own 5V, 3A power supply!