Rafael Lima Wins Grant to Create Hicetnunc

In July, Rafael Lima won a Tezos hackathon for a micro-funding project titled Hicetnunc. The grant was meant to fund a project “geared towards users in the e-sports community that [would] allow them to take part in crowdfunding.” By November of 2020, it would pivot again, “evolv[ing] into a tool for creating micro-funding DAOs for any purpose,” according to this interview with Lima. In the interview, Lima goes on to mention that future plans make include “Crypto art” and “NFT stores.”

The interview also explains the origin of the name Hicetnunc, inspired by existential philosophy from readings of Paul Virilio. Lima elucidated: “It concerns an existential praxis, a structure in perceiving references and making decisions upon them.” The following year saw Hicetnunc deploy on Tezos, kicking off NFTs on the platform in earnest and starting a surprising global digital art revolution that was particularly impactful and led by artists in the Global South, including Brazilian Lima.