About

Learn more about how the stitched.eth ecosystem brings real-world utility to NFTs by embedding them with legally-enforceable intellectual property - worldwide, exclusive copyright interests

What is the stitched.eth project all about?

stitched.eth is bringing real-world utility to the blockchain by embedding exclusive, legally-enforceable intellectual property interests (specifically, exclusive copyright interests) into NFTs (we call these “Design NFTs”) and creating an ecosystem wherein anyone with a crypto wallet can trustlessly trade in this real-world property and even use their copyright - not just sit on it - by manufacturing physical clothing and art with blockchain provenance, thereby creating limited-edition collectible fashions from real-world artists that may or may not be otherwise participating in the blockchain world.

stitched.eth makes it easy for anyone to trade in copyright interests trustlessly on the blockchain. You don’t have to hire a lawyer or negotiate directly with the artist. You just use your crypto wallet to buy the Design NFT. It’s that easy. And it’s almost that easy to get the art out there in the world.

Once you have the Design NFT, you can use our ecosystem to communicate with the artist to get the art produced for your collection. Or you can even request that the artist have the clothes produced themselves. Now that the art you have an exclusive license for is actually on the clothes, you just need to get those clothes out to the masses. That’s made much easier to do because our ecosystem ensures your customers, and the artist’s collectors, that the art is legitimate and limited edition, collectible pieces. You don’t have to do that at all. It’s all on the blockchain. So now you have a financial incentive to invest in manufacturing the art and promoting it because you can sell the pieces to real collectors and capitalize on any appreciation of the copyright interest.

What problems does this solve?

The stitched.eth ecosystem solves problems for artists, collectors, clothing manufacturers and everyone who wears clothes. Click on the links to learn more about the problems that we're solving for each group.

How artists are chosen

Artists can apply to join the stitched.eth ecosystem by submitting an application or by contacting the dev team on instagram or twitter. stitched.eth screens the artists and invites approved artists to create clothing samples. Photographers then shoot the samples, share the samples on social media, and the stitched.eth community can vote their $THREAD tokens on what artists and samples get included in the ecosystem (more info on this below). The stitched.eth community can also independently recommend and vote on artists and specific artwork.

The stitched.eth community will determine what artists get invited to join through a decentralized voting process, open to all token-holders. The stitched.eth token is called $THREAD and lives on the Polygon Matic network at contract address 0x64138094AFAe67c9796E2C9d250C977e3D813573. $THREAD holders vote in proportion to the number of tokens they hold. stitched.eth airdrops $THREAD tokens to its community based on investment, usage and participation in IRL events. $THREAD is also available for trading on decentralized AMM exchanges including Quickswap and Uniswap. 

If you would like to join us an artist, please reach out to our core devs on instagram and twitter and we can give you more details. We want to work with all kinds of artists, especially those who have interesting ideas about how to use apparel in their practice. Keep in mind that you will have to work directly with the Design NFT holders to produce the garments and that you will be responsible for making sure garments are delivered to the design NFT holders along with garment NFTs. Make sure you take a few minutes to read more about how all of this works on this website.

What copyright does the artist give to stitched.eth?

For each artwork that artists wish to make part of the stitched.eth ecosystem, artists assign their copyright in that artwork to stitched.eth (via a wet-signed contract) but the artists reserve their rights (1) to use the design on any medium other than clothing, (2) to refuse to produce the design for any particular licensee/NFT-holder, and (3) to use any other designs on apparel that haven't been licensed to stitched.eth. 

stitched.eth then creates derivative works of the artwork for clothing to embed into Design NFTs so that each Design NFT has its own exclusive copyright. By embedding the rights that stitched.eth received from the artist originally, the copyright has the same limitations, and stitched.eth adds a yearly usage allocation restriction - each year there is a maximum number of reproductions that the Design NFT holder can use, but those yearly usage allocations add up over time if they are not used.

Per the terms of the stitched.eth license agreement, the artist can say "no" to any particular design request, but the artist also cannot make any reproductions of the artwork on clothing without the approval of the corresponding Design NFT holder. Of course, the artist can make reproductions on items other than clothing. 

The Design NFT holder must negotiate directly with the artist to manufacture garments featuring their artwork. That process does not involve stitched.eth except that we provide the technology to ensure that the artist is communicating with the true Design NFT holder. 

In the event that the artist and the Design NFT holder cannot agree on a reproduction run, then the yearly allocation goes unused, continues to accumulate with the Design NFT, and the Design NFT holder may choose to retain the Design NFT or sell it to someone else who can then use the allocation.

What makes exclusive copyright interests special?

You can only sue for copyright infringement if you own an exclusive copyright. 

For example, BAYC owners can’t sue for infringement on their own accord because they own only a nonexclusive license.

Each of our Design NFTs are embedded with an exclusive copyright so that the owners of the Design NFTs doon't have to rely on stitched.eth to do anything - truly decentralizing the stitched.eth ecosystem.

Just visual art?

No, not just visual art.  This is also a great ecosystem for poets and other types of artists that might be hard to “collect” in the traditional sense. It’s also a great ecosystem for artists who want to expose more people to their message than a small collector base. 

How to acquire the copyright-embedded "Design NFT"

Anyone can buy our copyright-embedded Design NFT. We recommend that you use  the official links found here on our website to make sure you're getting authentic Design NFTs. 

How to produce clothes

First, you'll need to buy one or more Design NFTs. Each Design NFT is embedded with an exclusive license to create a fixed number of garments per year featuring the artwork of the Design NFT. 

The terms of the license are available to review in the metadata of the Design NFT. You should review the license terms before you purchase the NFT, and if you plan on producing clothes, it would probably be a good idea to reach out to the artist before you purchase the NFT to make sure that they are going to be on board with your planned use. You can even negotiate your contract with the artist before purchasing the NFT. But if the Design NFT is sold before you're able to buy it, you may not be able to purchase it at a later date - whoever purchases the Design NFT will control it until they transfer the ownership of it. 

All of the Design NFTs come embedded with an exclusive copyright license, but the license requires you to obtain artist approval before the artwork is reproduced. You should expect that the artist is going to want to be paid a royalty or fixed fee of some kind. If the artist does not approve of your use, or you are not able to work out a deal, then the terms of the license prevent you from reproducing the artwork. However, you still own the exclusive rights to the artwork, so the artist is also not allowed to reproduce it, and you can either continue to hold the NFT or sell it on any NFT exchange platform that you wish. 

You can request that the artist apply the art to fabric, or you can work out a deal to apply the art yourself (so long as it's approved by the artist). Some of the artists may be able to produce clothing themselves or have contacts with manufacturers to be able to get a collection produced for you if you so choose.

As soon as the artwork is applied to a garment, it is important to register that with stitched.eth so that we can record that use. 

How to buy the clothes?

If you want to collect the garments themselves, you'll need to buy them from a retailer! Check out our instagram or twitter to find some retailers, or you can consider becoming your own retailer by purchasing a Design NFT. 

I’m a degen. How do I make money from this?

It’s okay, we like money too. In the stitched.eth ecosystem, there is value everywhere. When you own a Design NFT with the copyright embedded into it, you are getting a legally-enforceable, exclusive copyright interest. This means that clothes featuring the art featured in your Design NFT will not get produced except through you. So if there is value in the art or the artist, then there will be a demand for the products you have the exclusive right to control.

These are not regular tokens. This isn’t a ponzi scheme and doesn’t require liquidity to be locked up. You are getting real-world intellectual property, the value of which is determined by the value of the art itself.

You can either buy the Design NFT and do nothing and hope the value appreciates and resell it; or you can buy the Design NFT to make clothes and sell the clothes.

We think our Design NFT holders will get the most out of ownership by actually producing the clothes - that’s because (1) your artist gets more famous from all the people walking around asking your customers who the artist is that they’re wearing, (2) you can make immediately money from selling the clothes without selling your art, (3) your specific Design NFT gets more and more famous, and (4) you might then be able to benefit from additional appreciation if you choose to sell the Design NFT at a later date.

What is a "Design NFT"

A Design NFT is an NFT (non-fungible token) in the stitched.eth ecosystem that we have embedded with an exclusive, legally-enforceable copyright interests. Anyone with a crypto wallet can trustlessly trade in this real-world property and even use their copyright - not just sit on it - by manufacturing physical clothing and art with blockchain provenance, thereby creating limited-edition collectible fashions from real-world artists that may or may not be otherwise participating in the blockchain world. 

All artists in the stitched.eth ecosystem assign stitched.eth the copyright in specific artwork via a traditional wet-signed contract. stitched.eth then creates variations of the original (called “derivative works”) to be applied to clothing, each with its own copyright. Then stitched.eth signs an exclusive license agreement for each derivative work that grants the holder of the Design NFT featuring the derivative the exclusive right to reproduce the work with some limitations - for instance, as discussed above, the artist has to approve all uses, and there is an annual quantity limitation. Each of these contracts are part of the Design NFT metadata, along with the URL tracking the allocations available (and already having been used) at any given time, and a digital file of the artwork.

The Design NFT holder also gets access to our communication channels where we have limited access to only the artist and the NFT holder. That way the artist knows they are communicating with the real NFT holder when an order is placed. The Design NFT holder can then work out a deal directly with the artist and pay the artist directly.

How does stitched.eth ensure that the art is limited edition and legitimate?

stitched.eth builds some limitations into the exclusive copyright license. Specifically, (1) a fixed number of units available for production per year - this number is particular to each Design NFT and found in the metadata of the Design NFT itself and (2) a requirement that the artist approve all uses of the art - so while you may own the exclusive right to reproduce the art on clothing, the artist can say no to any particular use (accordingly, you probably want to negotiate with the artist before buying the Design NFT if you plan on manufacturing clothes).

Once the artist produces the artwork to the manufacturer's spec as the manufacturer and the artist have agreed upon, the artist will notify stitched.eth (or if the manufacturer is producing the art, then the manufacturer will do the notification), and stitched.eth will note that the yearly “allocation” for that Design NFT is diminished by the number of units that were produced.

The allocations for each copyright-embedded Design NFT are listed on unique pages of our .eth domain. Each page will record all allocations that are used and outstanding and how many allocations have accrued to date. That way, everyone can inspect this public record, which all potential Design NFT purchasers should do prior to purchase so that you know how many allocations the Design NFT has left for this year.

stitched.eth also offers manufacturers the ability to create NFTs for each garment (that do not have copyright interests embedded in them; we call these “Garment NFTs”) for listing on the webpage for that specific Design NFT. That way, when the manufacturer sells the clothing, they can transfer the Garment NFT along with it, and the collector can then ensure that they are getting authentic product and the public can track the number of authentic products out there.

Where does the money go?

Design NFT holders are required by the terms of their copyright license to order their allocations of physical garments directly through the artist or otherwise obtain artist approval. This means that the artist and the collector have to negotiate directly, and the money flows from the collector directly to the artist. stitched.eth does not take a cut of any money paid to the artist for the allocations.

Accordingly, since the agreement for the physical garments is made directly between the artist and the collector, the artist has an obligation to deliver the goods according to the terms of that agreement.

The only source of revenue for stitched.eth is from the initial sale of each NFT in the series and a percentage of each subsequent resale of the Design NFT. 

How does it all work?

It all begins with the artist. 

An artist creates an iconic design or work that can be translated onto apparel. That might be a stencil, a graphic image for screen printing, an applique ...or whatever else the artist can imagine.

The artist assigns the copyright in this design to stitched.eth. The copyright assignment reserves the artist the rights to use the design on any application other than apparel. By virtue of doing this, the artist does transfer the right to reproduce that artwork on any other clothing, but the artist maintains the rights (1) to use the artwork on any other medium, (2) to refuse to produce the artwork for any particular licensee, and (3) to use any other artwork on apparel that haven't also been licensed. 

"Artwork" in this case means any "work of art" as defined by copyright law - so it includes any kind of art, from visual art to poetry. 

stitched.eth then creates a series of derivative works and exclusively licenses each of those derivative-work copyrights into ERC-721 NFTs by embedding the pdf of a wet-signed exclusive license agreement for each derivative into the metadata of an NFT - each of those NFTs is a Design NFT. A pdf of the copyright assignment from the artist to stitched.eth is also embedded into the NFT metadata of each Design NFT. The exclusive license agreement specifically references each of the derivative works and prevents stitched.eth from making any further derivatives. 

The Design NFTs are then minted and made available for sale. At that time, no one else in the world can reproduce the specific artwork on clothing except for the holders of those minted NFTs.

The exclusive license restricts the Design NFT-holder's reproduction rights by: (1) limiting the number of reproductions per year - the exact number of which is specified in the contract - except that the number of reproductions can accumulate over the years (these are the artwork "allocations") and (2) requiring the artist to approve any and all reproductions of the artwork. 

Accordingly, the artist can say "no" to any particular production request of the Design NFT-holder, but the artist also cannot reproduce of the artwork without the approval of the Design NFT holder.

The Design NFT holder negotiates directly with the artist to get approval for manufacturing garments. stitched.eth provides the platform for communication with and access to the artist, but stitched.eth plays no role in those negotiations and is not entitled to any royalties from the manufacture or sale of the garments.

In the event that the artist and the Design NFT holder cannot agree on a reproduction run, then the yearly allocation will continue to accumulate with the Design NFT, and the Design NFT holder may choose to retain the Design NFT or sell it to someone else who can then use the allocation. 

Whenever the artwork is used on a garment, stitched.eth registers each reproduction on a page on this website that is dedicated to the particular Design NFT (the location of which is embedded in its metadata). The manufacturer can mint (or pay stitched.eth to mint) Garment NFTs that can be used to authenticate each garment and stitched.eth will register those Garment NFTs on the same webpage. The manufacturer can then transfer the NFT to the crypto wallet of the purchaser of the garment. The metadata of the Garment NFT should include, at least, an image of the garment, the name of the Design NFT artwork, and any other identifying information from the manufacturer.

If a Garment NFT is minted and registered on the stitched.eth website and the garment is conferred together with the Garment NFT, the garment can be authenticated simply by proving that the owner has the corresponding NFT in their wallet. 

All of the updates are hashed on IPFS, so even if every core dev dies off in a plane crash, the IPFS hash will remain for anyone else to take over the project or confirm a garment's authenticity. 

What blockchain do you use for the NFTs?

We use two different blockchains for the NFTs.

The Design NFTs with embedded copyrights are built on the ethereum blockchain.

The Garment NFTs that stitched.eth mints built on the Stacks blockchain. However, manufacturers are free to use any other blockchain. Regardless of what blockchain is used, the Garment NFT addresses will be listed on this website.

How can I contact the team?

Join our community on Discord and chat with us. The stitched.eth core team is online all the time, happy to help you out with any question!