In this episode, we welcomed Pauline Foessel and Fanny Lakoubay, co-founder of 100 Collectors, for the third NFT Morning x 100c: an episode largely dedicated to a major moment for on-chain art: the official opening of the Node Foundation in Palo Alto.
A foundation, not a showroom:
We spent most of the episode discussing the opening of the Node Foundation in Palo Alto, a space conceived not as a commercial gallery, but as a long-term institution dedicated to preservation, research, and transmission of on-chain art.
One year after acquiring the CryptoPunks, the foundation made a strong statement:
👉 running a full Ethereum node directly inside the space, turning blockchain infrastructure itself into a preservation tool.
From utility to stewardship
We discussed the clear paradigm shift embodied by the Node Foundation:
moving away from utility, roadmaps, and market narratives,
toward stewardship, longevity, and cultural responsibility.
Here, preservation doesn’t stop at the artwork. It includes the network, the protocol, the provenance, and the community.
As we discussed on the show: the market itself becomes part of the medium.
An immersive, on-chain native exhibition
Fanny walked us through the opening exhibition dedicated to CryptoPunks, which offered a deeply immersive experience:
physical cards activating individual Punks in the space
real-time provenance and transaction history
3D trait breakdowns
a monumental wall composed of all 10,000 CryptoPunks
light, code, and interaction used as curatorial tools
The experience was clearly designed with the community in mind, especially Punk holders, while raising important questions about accessibility and education for a broader audience.
Education: ambition vs. execution
Education is one of the stated pillars of the Node Foundation, and we openly discussed the challenge ahead.
Today, the space feels strongly community-driven and Punk-centric, but the potential is massive.
Residencies, open calls, and future artist takeovers (with Beeple already mentioned) could turn the Node Foundation into a real laboratory for on-chain education, a field that still largely remains to be invented.
💬 Key quote:
“Here, we’re not only preserving artworks; we’re preserving the network that allows them to exist.”
More details here:
Node Foundation Website: https://nodefoundation.com/
Click Save article by Ameesia about Node weekend: https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/node-digital-art-finds-a-home-in-silicon-valley
100 collectors TDLR recap of the Node programming talks on Saturday:
