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Crypto Reacts: The CryptoPunks V1 NFT Collection Turns Five Years Old

The creators deployed the original CryptoPunks smart contract five years ago today. It’s a historic day for sure. Those pioneering NFT projects created a Billion-dollar industry. So, why is the crypto media so silent about the CryptoPunks NFT collection’s fifth anniversary? Because we’re talking about the legendary CryptoPunks V1. The creators, Larva Lab, celebrate the anniversary on June 22nd. The day when they deployed the V2 contract.

Which one is the real anniversary, though?

Related Reading | CryptoPunks v1 Delisted By OpenSea As Legal Battle Heats Up

Without taking sides, Bitcoinist is going to check out the twitterati’s opinion and stories on the subject. Despite the media silence, over at Twitter people are celebrating the CryptoPunks’ fifth anniversary. It’s only fair to hear them out… but first…

What Are The CryptoPunks V1, Exactly?

In a recent post, our sister site NewsBTC explained the situation:

“Back in 2017, prehistory for the NFT market, LarvaLabs distributed 10.000 CryptoPunks V1. However, there was a fatal mistake in the governing smart contract. After a transaction, it allowed the buyer, not the seller, to withdraw the money. The buyer could literally have its cake and eat it too, leaving the seller completely in the red.”

The easiest way to fix the mistake was to abandon that contract and deploy a new and improved one, and that’s exactly what Larva Labs did. It seemed like an innocuous mistake, what could possibly go wrong? The V1 contract remained on the blockchain, collecting dust. Last year, on the CryptoPunks V2’s fourth anniversary blog post, Larva Labs reminisced: 

“Four years ago today we spent $8 in transaction fees to start a small, weird but cool experiment in digital ownership on the blockchain. And for the first three years of this experiment that’s what it was, really cool and interesting – but small. In the fourth year, a good portion of the world suddenly decided owning digital items on the blockchain sounded like a good idea.”

It happened gradually, then suddenly. “For the first three years the Cryptopunks did $866K of sales volume. In year 4, they did $361.7M,” Larva Labs explained. Now that the CryptoPunks are historical artifacts of the utmost importance, someone found the old V1 contract and figured out how to wrap them in a new smart contract that doesn’t have the know vulnerabilities of the original contract.

Related Reading | Going Once…Twice…Nowhere: Sotheby’s Halt CryptoPunks Auction After Owner Pulls Out

The rest is history. And here it is, the rest of the story.

ETHUSD price chart for 06/09/2022 - TradingView

ETH price chart on Coinbase | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com

Crypto Reacts: What Did Original Minters Say About The Anniversary?

  • First of all, there’s an official town-hall meeting about the CryptoPunks V1 anniversary over at Twitter Spaces today:

  • Observe the date, here’s an image of Larva Lab’s original Twitter announcement of the project.

  • An original CryptoPunks minter reminisces, “Today is a very special day. Exactly 5 years ago, June 9th 2017, I sat down to claim 350 Cryptopunks. I was mesmerized by Larva Labs visionary ideas and their astonishing digital concept that opened new thought-worlds for me and our whole space. An experiment to change it all.”

  • The self-proclaimed “#1 claimant of CryptoPunks in 2017” gives the collection its just dues. “Happy Birthday to CryptoPunks, the single most important and influential crypto art project. The project that defined what’s now known as ‘NFTs’. Without Punks our newly forming world would have never been the same.”

  • Yet another original minter reflects, “It’s been 5 years since I started exploring NFTs thanks to CryptoPunks. Minting and experiencing this interaction with the chain was enlightening. Here is to another 5 years of having fun in this space. Happy birthday Punks.”

  • This artist finally says what you’ve all been thinking, “Today marks 5 years since cryptopunks  came into existence. Can you imagine 5 years !!! Since this was dropped !!! And in a way is kinda paving every single person in this space”

Love it or hate it, this is NFT history right here. Happy fifth anniversary to the V1s.

Featured Image: The original announcement tweet. | Charts by TradingView
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Eduardo Prospero
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