— Issue #2
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​Read this newsletter in 'light mode'

First of all, this was not the second newsletter I had in mind. I wanted to give you some life updates, show a preview of the work I'll be releasing soon and share the first outlines of a more abstract work I started working on.
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However, this broadcast became a documentation of a mistake I made on the blockchain, and how I tried to fix everything as best as possible.
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I had some sleepless nights over it – trying to think of a solution and at the same time being intrigued by the mistake (since it's something I thought I would never do..)

It all started with the desire to gift my parents (especially my dad) something they've wanted for more than 10 years – which would help them a lot in their routine).
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Now, due to my art practice and the amazing collectors I have, I had a chance to give it to them. They deserve it, and I felt it would be extra special coming from me; the son that they've been such a great parent and teacher to. They took care of me and I want to take care of them.
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So when I received a message to make a deal for an old artwork of mine, this felt like a great opportunity.

For more than three years, I've been holding on to The Moon, my first ever HTML artwork. It has an interesting mechanic, if I might say so myself: the collector could click on 'the dot' (black circle with a small yellow dot) and flip the artwork to show the Purple Side.
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It was my second token on my official 1 of 1 contract, the first one being The Dot itself, and I made this new contract to be able to conceptualize new pieces with the two most important symbols (Moon & Dot, in case that wasn't clear yet) I work with.
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I love to use these two symbols in a lot of my work and there will be a separate newsletter on them in the future, to explain more on why they are significant to me.

I view The Moon as one of my most important works. Of course my opinion as the artist isn't always in sync with what the market says, but I was completely fine with holding it for a while to wait for the right collector.
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​Kanbas was the first collector to bid fairly, but at that time we didn't talk much in person and therefore I didn't know their collecting vision, so I wanted to wait still – as this work is quite phenomenal, in my humble opinion.
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​By the way, my longest and most loyal collectors will always have a place in my heart and therefore I can let go of my gems with a good deal for them.​
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At some point, I had two special collectors for The Moon that I have big respect for: Thor and Nerfpidgey). With them, I was okay with letting the work 'go' for exactly the amount I needed for my parents' gift. I could have gotten them the present some other way without selling this particular artwork, but I wanted the story to be that 'The Moon' realized my dad's dream.

I came to close the deal with Thor, a collector and supporter for a little while now: he has three 1/1s and around 7 editions from me. I asked for his address and I got his ENS to transfer the work to.

But this is where it went wrong: I didn't properly follow up on all the actions. Doing multiple things at the same time, being a little bit on 'automatic pilot' mode, I searched "gmonke.eth" in Google so I could see the full address connected to it. However, a thing that never happened before, did happen: Google gave me another address for another ENS (see picture below).

It soon became clear to me that it all went wrong and I had to contact "monkey.eth" to get the NFT back. I found his Twitter profile and I am now still in process of maybe getting the NFT back from him.
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So, I now learned it the hard way to be mindful of your actions and double check everything, never searching for these type of things in Google but through ENS itself instead, and double checking the address with the collector (even if that feels a bit stupid/boring in the process).
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It was a human error that has been made by others before (in others mediums as well), but I've been feeling so bad about it.
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However, after 2-3 days of agony – in the early morning, whilst talking with Thor – I got an idea...

Since The Moon was originally minted via a Manifold contract, which allows creators to change the metadata of NFTs, it gave me the option to “black canvas” the piece – turning it into a blank and renaming it DELETED. Not ideal at all, but it meant I could mint a new version of the work for Thor.

But then I realized it might actually be better to document this whole situation properly and create provenance for the new The Moon.
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At dawn yesterday (07/09/2025, 4AM BRT), I changed the metadata of the “lost” NFT into a flat orange square titled Mistakes Were Made in a Wallet I Control. It carries the original description of The Moon plus a record of what happened. Maybe one day I’ll get the NFT back, which would be great. But if not, this mistake has become a new artwork in itself, alive in the world.

Before making this move, I spoke with collector friends to make sure I handled it in the most ethical way. I wanted to make sure to change the metadata before any sales happened (there was already a bot offer sitting there). If it had sold first, the situation would’ve been much harder, and changing the metadata then would not have felt right.

I was really upset about the mistake, and also about the bad experience I passed on to Thor. But at the same time, I feel at peace with the new outcome. I was able to bring the concept of The Moon back in an ethical way – to a safe home rather than leaving it in the hands of a bidding bot (possibly). In the end, the mistake gave birth to two artworks.

I also love the new title and the flat orange square. To me, it feels like The Moon was taken away from its initial spot, only to be reborn in a new and exciting way.
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I want to give a shout out to Thor, Nerfpidgey, DinoG from SILK, 0x_Joe, An Loremi, Daniel Dennehy, DFarmer, Nina Knaack and many others friends that was there, helping and giving their honest thoughts!​
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And of course, big thank you to Andrew Mitchell (@uncut_hems) for being able to help me bring The Moon fully on-chain now 🧡