Chapter 01 — Mission

We’re working to help the open-source AI art ecosystem thrive.

Banodoco builds spaces, initiatives and tools for the open source AI art community.

Chapter 02 — Inspire

Inspire the movement.

Banodoco launches and stewards initiatives that inspire more people to care about open-source AI art.

  • An open-source AI art competition.

    The Arca Gidan Prize is an open source AI art competition.

    We wish to provide a reason for people to push themselves and open models to their limits.

    2026 winners announced.

    Learn more

  • Micro-grants for people pushing open models.

    ArtCompute gives micro-grants to those pushing open AI models, approved by AI.

    It is practical compute for people whose ambition has outrun their hardware.

    Visit website

  • An art and tech publication. Coming soon.

    2RP is an art and tech publication that aims to highlight the best of the ecosystem.

    Open work, open models, and the people making both.

    Coming soon.

Chapter 03 — Connect

Connect the community.

Banodoco brings together artists, builders, and shared knowledge to grow a living network for open-source AI art.

  • Where online becomes in-person.

    ADOS events bring the community together in the real world.

    We gather our community with people from the extended creative world to look at art, eat nice food, and create things.

    See events

  • The ecosystem’s collective intelligence.

    Hivemind is the open-source AI art ecosystem’s collective intelligence: a searchable corpus of what the community has already worked out.

    It drops into a coding agent and opens up the Banodoco Discord’s accumulated practice — messages, resources, and curated answers that cite their sources. Every question researched becomes a permanent entry for the next person.

    View on GitHub

  • The everyday door into the community.

    The Discord is where the community actually lives, day to day.

    Artists, engineers, and knowledge sharers, in one room — it is where the work gets shown, argued over, and picked up by someone else.

    Join the Discord

Chapter 04 — Owned

Owned by contributors

Banodoco is 100% shared with the people who contribute to the open-source AI art ecosystem — granted 1% per month, split between artists, engineers, and knowledge creators.

How ownership works

  • The dominant principle.

    100% shared

    Ownership of Banodoco is 100% shared with the people who build it.

    Aside from investor dilution, open source contributors will own all of our company. We believe that a company that’s built with the community should belong to the community.

  • Gradual distribution over time.

    Granted 1% per month

    Ownership is granted 1% per month, gradually, over time.

    Each month, 1% of the company is split between the people who contributed open-source work aligned with its goals.

  • Artists, core engineers, knowledge creators.

    Split between different groups — artists, core engineers, and knowledge creators

    Shared ownership is split between different groups: artists, core engineers, and knowledge creators.

    Since February 2024 the monthly 1% has been divided evenly across four groups — 0.25% each to core, infrastructure builders, knowledge sharers, and artists — and split within each.

Contributor index

16 contributors, grouped by the four ownership groups Banodoco grants to each month. Names are from its public ownership ledger at banodoco.ai/ownership.

  • enigmatic_eArtistMakes work with open models and shows it to the community.
  • thedorbrothersArtistMakes work with open models and shows it to the community.
  • NebSHArtistMakes work with open models and shows it to the community.
  • Hannah SubmarineArtistMakes work with open models and shows it to the community.
  • POMCoreCore contributor, on the ledger every month since it opened.
  • lone_samuraiCoreCore contributor to Banodoco itself.
  • matt3oCoreCore contributor to Banodoco itself.
  • Ian_GCoreCore contributor to Banodoco itself.
  • citizenplainKnowledge SharerShares the knowledge and tools the rest of the ecosystem builds on.
  • cyncraticKnowledge SharerShares the knowledge and tools the rest of the ecosystem builds on.
  • KlinterKnowledge SharerShares the knowledge and tools the rest of the ecosystem builds on.
  • ryanontheinsideKnowledge SharerShares the knowledge and tools the rest of the ecosystem builds on.
  • KijaiInfrastructureBuilds the open-source infrastructure the ecosystem runs on.
  • KosinkadinkInfrastructureBuilds the open-source infrastructure the ecosystem runs on.
  • melmassInfrastructureBuilds the open-source infrastructure the ecosystem runs on.
  • JuxtapozInfrastructureBuilds the open-source infrastructure the ecosystem runs on.

Epilogue

The open source ecosystem can accelerate a 2nd Renaissance

In a world with a thriving open AI art ecosystem, humans and artificial intelligence will maximize their collective creative potential.