billyrestey
Block— Collect

Technical artist · On Bitcoin since Feb 2023

billyrestey

est. 1989

Generative, recursive and 3D art, inscribed directly on Bitcoin.

Ten collections through the Ordinals protocol, from 100 AI crystals in the first weeks of Ordinals to 500 structures that morph in real time. Featured at Sotheby’s and in WIRED.

Collections
10
Collectors
4,498
Secondary volume
60.28 BTC
First shard inscribed
#8,575
Latest drop · 2026Sold out Structures 500 generative structures shifting and morphing in realtime.

Collections

Ten on Bitcoin · newest first

  1. 2026500StructuresLong-form generative
  2. 2025300RecursionsAlgorithmic, on uncommon sats
  3. 202569 ed.SupercycleRecursive HTML, animated
  4. 20241,229FusionRare-sat generative, with Gabe Weis
  5. 20241/1SemipermanentRecursive HTML, sold at Sotheby’s
  6. 20236,523BitBlocksRecursive HTML, free mint
  7. 20232,784VoxelsGenerative gradients
  8. 2023400MetablocksRecursive, 256 megapixels
  9. 2023256CypherglyphsGenerative glyphs
  10. 2023100Ordinal ShardsAI crystals, sub-16k

Project breakdowns

How each collection works on-chain

Apr 2026 · Generative

Sold out

Structures

An architectural exploration of time, shape, and form on Bitcoin.

500 generative structures shifting and morphing in realtime, rendering the ceaseless rhythm of human production.

Brick by brick, block by block.

engine
A JavaScript inscription that draws every structure in realtime
renderer
99 bytes of HTML that loads the engine
delegates
Each piece is 0 bytes and points at the renderer. All 500 are children of one parent
pieces
500 · 11 traits · 14 structure classes
inscribed
25 Apr 2026 · block 946,609

May 2025 · Recursive HTML

Minting closed

Recursions

Sourcing inscription data on Bitcoin, this algorithmic collection reconstructs early Ordinals into abstract collage.

Inscribed on 300 uncommon sats in one transaction, confirmed in 17 seconds, with parent/child provenance and metadata, taking up only 45kb of data on-chain using recursion.

I was deeply inspired after visiting the Picasso museum during NFT Paris. Cubism, the rawness, the oils, the output, the man, the history. I wanted to create something raw, but digital.

Instead of paint, I started to riff with early ordinal inscriptions, code, and AI. Through minimalism, reconstruction and collage, I started to get some really cool results, recursively arranging early inscriptions.

Admittedly, I wasn’t initially impressed with early inscriptions. I thought they were crude, lazy, pixelated garbage. They’ve grown on me. I now view them as historic artifacts by pioneers to be celebrated for years to come.

After generating thousands of outputs I curated them down to a low-supply collection of 300 of my favorite works. Self-curation was important for Recursions, as my recent installations BitBlocks and Fusion allowed the minter to curate the outputs.

uncommon sats
Each the first sat of its block, gathered and inscribed together
container
About 150 bytes each: a seed number and a call to the algorithm
algorithm
12.6 kB of JavaScript that rebuilds early inscriptions into collage
on-chain
45kb for all 300 · confirmed in 17s
mint price
0.0029 BTC
inscribed
5 May 2025 · block 895,406

Jan 2025 · Recursive HTML

Edition of 69

Supercycle

Celebrating milestones in blockchain technology by recursively calling inscriptions on Bitcoin to use as individual pixels.

As the universe expands, so does Bitcoin: immutable on-chain cultural records for future generations.

pixels
Image inscriptions already on Bitcoin, loaded by ID
animation
A 4,139-byte HTML inscription arranges them and sets them moving
editions
69 delegates, each 0 bytes, all children of the main inscription
inscribed
7 Jan 2025 · block 878,159

2024 · With Gabe Weis

Sold out

Fusion

An experimental generative art project using rare sats to create abstract, minimalist artwork, inscribed by the community using their own satoshis.

By Billy Restey and Gabe Weis. After inscribing 14 of Gabe’s paintings to Bitcoin, fractionalized as 350 pieces, the code used these fragments to abstract into the final block arrays.

paintings
14 of Gabe Weis’s paintings, inscribed and split into 350 fragments
sats
Collectors brought their own: palindromes, vintage, block 9, black, uncommon
container
99 bytes of HTML that calls the shared script
script
Abstracts the fragments into the final block arrays
pieces
1,229 · mint price 0.002 BTC
first block
851,728 · Jul 2024

May 2024 · Sotheby’s

Sold · Sotheby’s

Semipermanent

Semipermanent updates every 10 minutes using Bitcoin’s block height, creating a stasis of both permanence and impermanence.

Using the latest techniques in recursion and sat endpoints within Ordinals, this piece explores mutable immutability, while paying homage to the ord protocol by Casey Rodarmor.

libraries
Two script inscriptions, loaded by reference
block hash
Fetches the latest block hash from Bitcoin each time it is viewed
image
Draws from an image inscription, seeded by that hash
result
A new state with every block, about every ten minutes · now —
inscription
70,605,961 · 762 bytes
inscribed
2 May 2024 · block 841,813
sale
Sotheby’s · $7,800 · 21 bids

Dec 2023 · Recursive HTML

Free mint · Sold out

BitBlocks

User-generated, code-based art on Bitcoin.

Each BitBlock takes up just 190 bytes on-chain yet renders as a 2300×2300 pixel image: 6.5GB of data occupying only 1.4MB on Bitcoin.

BitBlocks pioneered a community-driven mint. Anyone could enter any Bitcoin inscription ID to generate a unique piece, with official collection indexing awarded first-is-first.

10,000 pieces were inscribed by the community in just 9 hours, resulting in 6,523 unique works from over 1.3 million possible seed combinations. Infrastructure by OrdinalsBot.

container
190 bytes of HTML on Bitcoin
seed
Any image inscription, chosen by the person who minted it
algorithm
One JavaScript inscription shared by all 6,523
render
2300 × 2300 pixels, drawn in the viewer’s browser
pieces
6,523
first block
822,087 · Dec 2023

2023 · Long-form generative

Free airdrop

Voxels

Long-form generative art distilling vivid sunset and sky gradients into primitive blocks.

Each piece uses its own inscription ID as the seed for the algorithm.

libraries
Two script inscriptions, loaded by a 198-byte renderer
delegates
Each piece is 0 bytes and points at the renderer
seed
The piece’s own inscription ID sets its gradient, depth and divisions
pieces
2,784 · 100% airdropped to holders
block
848,794

Jul 2023 · Recursive · 256 MP

Sold out

Metablocks

A 256 megapixel artwork on Bitcoin.

Inscription by inscription, this recursive ordinal references 400 other inscriptions to return the full artwork for your viewing pleasure.

tiles
400 WebP inscriptions, 800 × 800 pixels each, quality 75
grid
One 75 kB CSS inscription lays the tiles out
renderer
One 19 kB HTML inscription returns the whole artwork
artwork
16,000 × 16,000 pixels · 256 megapixels
made in
Houdini and Photoshop
inscribed
7 Jul 2023 · block 797,665

Mar 2023 · Generative

Sold out

Cypherglyphs

256 inscriptions exploring the intersection of cryptography and visual language.

One of the highest-volume generative art collections on Bitcoin Ordinals, Cypherglyphs encodes data into abstract glyphic forms.

glyphs
Generated, then saved as small WebP files
inscribed
Each image written directly to its own sat
inscriptions
#504,821 – #513,863
date
18 Mar 2023 · block 781,291
mint price
0.014 BTC

Feb 2023 · AI

Sold out

Ordinal Shards

100 generative crystals created with Stable Diffusion in 2023.

One of the earliest 100-piece collections on Bitcoin, inscribed at block 775,360 (inscriptions #8,575 – #15,651).

Initially launched on Ethereum, it onboarded hundreds of collectors to burn their NFT and receive the Ordinal once user-friendly wallets existed.

generated
100 crystals made with Stable Diffusion
ethereum first
Launched as NFTs; holders burned them to receive the Ordinal
inscribed
Each image written directly to its own sat
inscriptions
#8,575 – #15,651
date
Feb 2023 · block 775,360

2023 · Also inscribed

3 works

Striations

A small series of abstract sculptures on Bitcoin that blend AI images into layered, organic forms, drawn from the layers of the natural world. Selected for the Gamma × Xverse open call at Ordinals Alley.

Timeline

Feb 2023 → today

  1. Ordinal Shards

    First collection. 100 AI crystals, inscriptions #8,575 – #15,651.

  2. Cypherglyphs

    256 generative glyphs, a supply chosen for SHA-256.

  3. Striations

    Selected for the Gamma × Xverse open call at Ordinals Alley.

  4. Metablocks

    A 256-megapixel work rebuilt from 400 inscriptions.

  5. Voxels

    2,784 gradients, each seeded by its own inscription ID. Airdropped free to holders.

  6. BitBlocks

    Free open mint with OrdinalsBot. 6,523 works, 190 bytes each.

  7. Semipermanent at Sotheby’s

    Lot 6 in Natively Digital: Art on Bitcoin. Sold for $7,800.

  8. Fusion

    1,229 works on collectors’ own rare sats, with Gabe Weis.

  9. Supercycle

    Recursive HTML, edition of 69.

  10. Recursions

    300 works on uncommon sats, inscribed in one transaction.

  11. Structures

    500 generative structures, inscribed in a single block. Sold out.

Press & sales

Sotheby’s · WIRED · Decrypt · NFT Now

About

Seattle, WA

Billy Restey is a multi-disciplinary technical artist in Seattle who makes digital art on Bitcoin.

The work moves between code, generative systems, 3D and AI, and most of it is inscribed directly to the Bitcoin blockchain through the Ordinals protocol. A longtime Bitcoin holder, node runner and miner, Restey began inscribing in February 2023, weeks after Ordinals launched.

Since then the work has leaned into techniques native to Ordinals, such as recursion, rare-sat provenance and pieces that respond to the chain itself. The practice grew out of VFX compositing, 3D and design direction. Work featured at Sotheby’s and in WIRED.

For commissions and collaborations, message @billyrestey on X.