<aside> 🗣
LATEST: Cryptoart Conservation: Overview & Current Efforts // our August 2026 working document >>>
Also: DRL at NFC LISBON (w/ pictures!) >>>
</aside>
<aside> 🛠️
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
**Visit our restored Async V1/V2 and report issues.
DONATE directly via digitalrescuelab.eth — a new fundraiser is coming soon.
Follow us on X.
Read the below, and stay tuned.**
</aside>
<aside>
🔗 LINKS
START HERE > Overview & Updates (this page) Visit and test artworks here > Async Classic Art Editor Revival V2
READ > Cryptoart Conservation: Overview & Current Efforts (August 2026 working document)
REPORT ISSUES regarding artwork & site functionality here > Async Resurrected (Google form)
**DONATE > Juicebox | Fund Your Thing campaign is now CLOSED! Thank you for your donations. We’ll start a new campaign soon. Meanwhile, please donate directly to digitalrescuelab.eth
VIEW DONOR COLLECTION > Friends of DIGITAL RESCUE LAB - Collection | OpenSea**
FOLLOW > Digital Rescue Lab (@ArtRescueLab) on X
</aside>
<aside>
📺 DIGITAL RESCUE LAB on THE WIP MEETUP // 12 March 2026
Bard Ionson & Karen Eng on the origins of DRL. Click image to view.
</aside>
<aside>
TECHNOLOGY Async Classic viewer rebuilt, restoring viewing and layer-change functionality for V1/V2 Classic pieces. Broken dependencies were identified following the Async API shutdown, and replacement tooling is in development. Async.art domain restored.
Recent updates include improved wallet and layer views, downloadable artwork previews, a large-screen display mode controllable from a mobile device, and Preview mode, which now allows anyone to explore layer combinations regardless of NFT ownership.
The Arcana Crypto Tarot (a complex custom Async build) was restored in late 2025 as a proof of concept, and was integrated into the Classic viewer in July 2026. Other custom-coded and data-dependent works have not yet been tackled. Complexity mapping for Blueprint and Dynamic Blueprint pieces ongoing.
Current work includes auditing metadata and IPFS references (CID audit) to identify missing or unpinned assets and prioritise further restoration.
FUNDRAISING The Juicebox campaign (for immediate funding), launched 16 February 2026, is now closed — thank you to everyone who contributed. A new campaign will follow. Direct donations continue to be accepted at digitalrescuelab.eth. Artizen longer-term match fund launched and completed. Hybrid crypto/fiat funding routes are under consideration; restoration cost estimates in progress.
COMMUNITY Presented at NFC Lisbon, June 2026, helping to broaden DRL's mission beyond restoring Async, opening new conversations around long-term stewardship, preservation infrastructure, and community education. Read summary.
COMMUNICATIONS This live document active and updated periodically. Telegram group of early contributors established; public updates being shared via X @artrescuelab.
In August 2026 we published Cryptoart Conservation: Overview & Current Efforts, a working document setting out the scale of the problem, the distinct layers of work it requires, where DRL has begun, and what remains unanswered.
We’re still in the early stages. Please follow this page and our X account for updates as the work unfolds.
If you’d like to get involved, you’re welcome to DM @artescuelab or @oculardelusion on X.
</aside>
(Compiled from the November 2025 proposal, updated March 2026)
Digital Rescue Lab (DRL) is a community-funded initiative to recover, stabilize, and preserve early blockchain artworks whose visual layers, metadata, or rendering systems have broken due to platform shutdowns or infrastructure decay. Many works minted on early platforms such as Async and KnownOrigin are now invisible, unviewable, or stranded in partially nonfunctional infrastructure. These works represent cultural artifacts from the first decade of cryptoart, and without coordinated intervention many risk being permanently lost.
In November 2025, the Arcana Crypto Tarot (WOCA / Async) was successfully rescued by artist and technologist Bard Ionson, demonstrating that digital conservation of blockchain artworks is possible. The process required specialized engineering, archival investigation, and coordination. Scaling this work will require broader community participation.
Following this proof of concept, the DRL team began a pilot restoration effort focused on Async Classic (V1 and V2) works. A rebuilt Async Classic viewer now allows most V1/V2 artworks to be publicly viewed again via restored rendering and layer-change functionality. Ongoing work includes identifying broken dependencies following the Async API shutdown, auditing metadata and IPFS references, and developing replacement tooling where necessary.
The DRL team is developing the structural systems, documentation standards, and workflow architecture needed to coordinate engineering, archival work, governance, and community participation. The aim is to make restoration work repeatable and sustainable as additional platforms and artworks require rescue.
Our goals include:
Recovering endangered works
Beginning with Async artworks (V1 and V2 Classic pieces, as well as complex custom builds such as Tarot, Blueprint, and Dynamic Blueprint).
Tasks include repinning media assets, auditing metadata and CID references, rebuilding metadata structures, restoring viewing and rendering functionality, and reverse-engineering dependencies when platforms or APIs fail.
Documenting the conservation process
Publishing public conservation-style documentation, archiving metadata notes and contract findings, identifying technical failure points, and creating open-source guidance for recovering artworks from defunct platforms.
Building a shared cultural archive
We envision a Museum of Lost Crypto Art: a digital space housing restored works alongside their technical histories and cultural context, modeled on conservation and library-archive practices. Exhibitions could take place in metaverse environments or hybrid physical spaces.
Developing sustainable models for long-term stewardship
Ideas under discussion include preservation funds or escrow systems for pinning and infrastructure maintenance, sponsorship models, collector and artist contributions, and partnerships with conservation labs and digital archives.
Funding models under consideration include using crowdfunding platforms to raise funds for individual rescue missions, and allowing community funders to help prioritize which works should be restored first. Additional options include artist or collector contributions.
Funds currently route through a multisig wallet.
A possible example split for a rescue mission:
60% to technologists performing the rescue
20% to archivists, coordinators, and administration