Strata Genesis White Paper

Abstract

Strata Genesis is a fully minted collection of 10,000 generative core samples on Base, and all 10,000 opened together on Sunday 1 November 2026 at 9am NZT.

Each core grows from a single seed with no hand edits. It is laid down as eight beds of rock, and each bed takes one of 16 minerals, a grain and eight tones. Rarely, a bed traps one of eight fossil types.

The mint was free, limited to 2 per wallet, and sold out. Until the reveal, every token showed the same sealed image, so nobody got an early look at art, traits or rarity. At the reveal, the seed recipe was published, so anyone can rebuild any core from its number.

The idea behind the project is simple: time turns everyday activity into geology. It grew out of New Zealand's volcanic landscapes, where a single day can become a layer of rock.

The idea

Strata treats a token the way a geologist treats a drill core: a record of what was laid down, read from top to bottom.

Rock keeps ordinary things. A day's activity lands on the surface, later beds bury it, and a core drilled through the layers brings it back as a readable column. Strata uses that image to give generative art a physical logic: depth, sediment and burial, not decoration.

The fossils carry the same point. Four come from deep time and four from our time, and they sit in the same rock. A trilobite and a handset are treated as equal evidence of something that once existed.

The landing page lets anyone try this. Write down your day, and the rig buries it and drills out a test core. Test cores borrow Strata's look but not its recipe, and they are not part of the 10,000.

Inspiration

Strata was inspired by New Zealand's diverse volcanic landscapes, where the ground shows how quickly a moment can turn into rock.

New Zealand sits on the boundary between two tectonic plates, so its volcanic history is close to the surface. Lava flows, ash beds and exposed cuttings show one event stacked on the next.

An eruption can lay down a layer within hours, and that layer stays in the record. Geologists use ash beds like these as time markers. Each Strata bed works the same way: one thin band that holds its place in the order it was laid down.

That variety carries into the collection. Basalt, Obsidian and Tuff are volcanic rocks, and they sit among the 16 minerals beside sediments such as Sandstone, Limestone and Chalk.

How a core forms

Every core comes from one SHA-256 hash, in four steps with no hand edits.

1. Seed. Each token's seed is the SHA-256 hash of "strata-genesis:" plus its token number. The recipe that produces it was published at the reveal.
2. Split. The hash is cut into eight beds of eight hex digits each, read top to bottom.
3. Settle. Each bed takes a mineral, a grain and eight tones.
4. Fossilise. When a bed's first byte matches its last, it traps a bone-coloured fossil, at odds of 1 in 256 per bed.

Because a hash is 64 hex digits, it divides exactly into eight beds. Each bed's eight digits then do three jobs:

Grain controls contrast. Higher grain values spread a bed's tones further from its base colour, so coarse beds look rougher than fine ones.

Depth is part of the reading. Each bed spans 40 m, so a core runs from 0 m at the surface to 320 m at its base.

The collection

The collection is 10,000 unique cores, each built from 8 beds, 16 minerals and 8 possible fossils.

Minerals. The 16 are Basalt, Shale, Slate, Ochre, Sandstone, Limestone, Chalk, Jasper, Hematite, Malachite, Glauconite, Coal, Clay, Tuff, Obsidian and Amber.

Fossils. Each is a bone-coloured 3×3 glyph.

• From deep time: Trilobite, Ammonite, Fern, Bone
• From our time: Handset, Earbud, Key, Coin

Bed-level odds

Every bed rolls the same odds, so no mineral or grain value is rarer than another at bed level. Rarity appears only when beds combine into a core, and through fossils.

Core-level odds

Across eight beds, those odds compound: about 3% of cores should carry a fossil, while an all-one-mineral core is effectively out of reach.

The eight beds alone allow about 4.29 billion mineral sequences, before grain and tone are counted. All 10,000 seeds are unique.

Rarity census

308 cores carry at least one fossil, and only Strata #8523 holds two: Fern and Fern. It ranks first in the collection and is also the collection logo.

A core's dominant mineral is the one in the most beds. Ties go to the mineral listed first, which is why Basalt leads and Amber is the rarest.

A core's grain trait uses the average across its eight beds, so extremes are scarce.

This table counts every core carrying each fossil. The metadata lists #8523's Fossil trait as Fern + Fern, so a filter on Fern alone shows 45.

Neighbouring beds of the same mineral read as one, so a core's Beds trait counts its visible bands.

The site also calls out these rare finds. They are labels only, so they add nothing to Strata rank.

Seams

A seam links two cores. When both hold the same mineral across consecutive beds at the same depth, one layer can be traced between them, like rock across neighbouring boreholes. The Seams page went live after the reveal, and anyone can recount these figures from the public seeds.

The counts cover all 49,995,000 pairs of cores. Each tier means at least that many beds in a row, and between any two cores only the longest run counts.

Every core has at least 3 Seam partners and at most 32, with about 14 on average. No two cores match across all eight beds.

Strata #2119 and #2494 are the only twin cores. They share their top seven beds and split only at the deepest, Tuff against Jasper. Their minerals match, but grain and tone come from each core's own seed, so the art is not a copy. Six more pairs share six beds: #1340 and #3472, #1877 and #7177, #2679 and #3910, #3364 and #8629, #4207 and #6263, and #8693 and #9000.

Seams compare two cores. They are not traits in the token metadata, they add nothing to Strata rank, and they give holders no extra rights.

Technical architecture

Strata is an ERC-721 contract on Base, with art generated from each token's seed and displayed through token metadata.

Generation is deterministic, so the same seed always gives the same core. The contract records who owns each token, and marketplaces read its token URI to find what to display.

These details were read directly from the contract and from OpenSea on 31 October 2026:

Before the reveal, every token resolved to sealed metadata on IPFS, which let all 10,000 change together at one moment. Revealed metadata and images are hosted on OpenSea.

Mint and distribution

All 10,000 cores were minted across three stages, and no more can form: the contract's maximum supply and total supply are both 10,000.

The mint was free at 0 ETH plus network fees, with a limit of 2 per wallet. Those terms replaced an earlier plan of 0.005 ETH and 20 per wallet, which still appears in some older promotional material.

The reveal

All 10,000 cores opened at once on Sunday 1 November 2026 at 9am NZT, which was Saturday 31 October at 4pm ET, 1pm PT and 8pm UK.

Until then, every token showed the same sealed image, so holders and buyers all saw the same thing. The landing page never held the data either: rankings, fossil counts and the recipe were not in its source.

Four things opened at the reveal:

• Art and traits for all 10,000 cores
• Mineral rarity: how many cores each of the 16 minerals dominates, from most common to rarest
• Fossil census: how many cores carry a fossil, which ones and which fossil each holds, plus the token number of the two-fossil core
• Seed recipe: the single line that grows every core

The recipe is the lasting part. Now that it is published, anyone can rebuild any Strata from its number and check it against the token.

A second collection for holders, the next deposit, is planned. Details come after the reveal.

Verify any core

Anyone can confirm a core without trusting the team, using the public recipe:

// token N, from 1 to 10,000
seed = sha256("strata-genesis:" + N)   // 64 hex characters
bed i = seed[8i .. 8i+8]               // 8 beds, top to bottom
  char 1       -> mineral (1 of 16)
  char 2       -> grain (0-15)
  last 24 bits -> 8 tones, 3 bits each
  byte 1 = byte 4 -> fossil
    char 3 mod 8 -> which fossil
    char 4 mod 6 -> its column
    rows bed-1 to bed+1, kept on the grid

1. Run the recipe with the token number to get its SHA-256 hash.
2. Split the hash into eight beds of eight hex digits.
3. Read each bed's mineral, grain and tones, using the table in How a core forms.
4. Compare the result with the token's art, traits and the seed in its description on OpenSea.

Holder rights

Each holder may use their core's art for personal and commercial purposes while they own the token. These rights pass to the next owner on sale. The Strata name, logo and brand remain with the creator, and the creator may show any core to promote the project. No use may be unlawful, hateful or imply endorsement by Strata.

Team

Xenonixz

I drill into hashes and log what I find. Field notes from the digital sediment. Creator of Strata.

X · OpenSea · Team page and project log

Risks and disclaimers

Strata Genesis is a digital art collection, not an investment, and this paper makes no promise of value, return or liquidity.

• No financial rights. A core gives no share of revenue, profit or ownership in any project or company.
• Market risk. Prices can fall to zero, and buyers may find no market at all.
• Rarity is not value. Traits, rankings, rare finds and seams describe how common a feature is, not what a core is worth.
• Future plans can change. The second collection has no published terms, and its timing and details may change.
• Technical risk. Smart contracts, the Base network, IPFS storage and marketplaces can all fail or change.
• Wallet safety. The team cannot recover lost keys or reverse a transaction. Only the OpenSea link on the official site should be trusted.
• Marketplace terms. The 5% creator earnings are set at marketplace level, and other marketplaces may treat them differently.

Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice. Check the rules that apply where you live.

Official links