THROUGH THE DIGITAL LOOKING GLASS
Entering the world of CryptoArt you would be forgiven for thinking you’d passed through a magical looking glass. Imagine Nike declaring bankrupt meant your beloved Air Jordans just vaporised into thin air. That doesn’t make sense does it? What about digital objects? If the Fortnite platform just, died, so would all the fancy skins you shelled out for right? Maybe...
So, what value is there in a single pixel? Most would say not much. ‘It’s just a data point that holds information about hue, saturation and brightness right?’ Sure. That statement isn’t untrue but at what point does a collection of pixels in the form of an image become not only valuable but digitally rare, even unique and securely so? Enter the magic mirror and into the realm of MR703, NFTs, Larva Labs and Crypto Punks.
Before we get to discussing the rise of characters like the enigmatic literal-overnight-multi-millionaire art collector; MR703, we need to understand why London Bridge is falling down due to the rise, and rise, of NFTs.
NFTs
Prior to the rise of Blockchain technology, digital art that existed online could be replicated infinitum by just about anyone; nothing was sacred. Queue the rise of the meme. Technically speaking, if memes represent the dark humour of our collective psyche, on the flipside of that meme-coin is the NFT; a non-interchangeable, cryptographically-sealed token that encapsulates a digital-things’ value. I like to think of it as Digital Object Permanence.
That might sound like a bit of a mouthful but the dawning reality for digital media artists, collectors, curators and savvy blockchain tech investors, is that NFTs hold a LOT of financial and cultural value for a very bright future.
NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, which essentially means that ‘some-digital-thing’ is a certifiably unique source object; it’s irreplaceable, which assigns it a certain amount of intrinsic value, like a rare minted postage stamp or a unique and precious painting. Perhaps even more value than stamps and paintings as they can be forged, whereas NFTs sealed by unfathomably large strings of numbers within blockchain ledgers and verified by a trustless (decentralised) system, arguably cannot.
All copyright and ownership details of a specific NFT work of art are stored on a blockchain assigning the same amount of rarity potential and value growth as a physical piece on permanent display at the Louvre in Paris. The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$850 million in 2019. An interesting side note here is that a key reason the Mona Lisa became so famous is because it was both stolen in 1911 from the Louvre, and 28 months later when the art thief tried to sell the work was recovered. After the painting was recovered its value skyrocketed. The Mona Lisa, as well as being a unique and valuable painting embodied a unique and valuable story. It had become enigmatic.
Fast forward back to 2018, the 25-year-old Cock Foster twin brothers cofounded Nifty Gateway, a platform marketplace built on blockchain dealing in NFTs, or “nifties.” Their venture into the NFT-space was validated just one year later, when their startup was acquired by another set of twin brothers often credited for the foundations of Facebook’s platform framework, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Years later, the twins x twins platform logic is bearing juicy fruits.
Fast forward again back to 2021, some of the timelords out there might be forgiven for saying “Yeh, yeh, NFTs aren’t really a ‘new thing’ per se”. Truth is, more so, NFTs have come of age - in a BIG way. The provenance of the medium as well as the object and the community that underpins is becoming a force to be reckoned with. Even more recently, audiovisual artist Grimes is currently releasing NFTs on Nifty Gateway and, surprise surprise, Elon Musk allocates US$1.5 billion to Bitcoin shares. Momentous.
At this point in time we are seeing an evolutionary stage in digital and collectable art ripening on the timeline as it is putting more and more seeds of autonomous value growth back in the hands of creative communities and collectors who are able to design, mint and trade their digital artworks via the use of quickly evolving blockchain technology. Platforms like Super Rare, Rariable, ArtBlocks, Open Sea, Makers Place, Known Origin and Mint Base just to name a few.
In addition to these market places, gaming platforms sell plots of land to artists, collectors and curators in decentralized virtual worlds and lending protocols now accept NFTs as collateral. It’s BIG business, and we should start paying attention to adapt education pathways to prepare the next generation. Wait, who are we kidding, they’re leading the charge! NFT projects like CryptoTrees are driving sales with the incentive to reforest with digital sales linked to tree planting. Forward thinking.
Now you get the picture with NFTs, let’s dive into one of the most explosive recent developments in the NFT space. CryptoPunks.
CRYPTOPUNKS by LARVALABS
In a recent episode of the somewhat underground podcast Digitally Rare, Jonnathan Mann and Matt Condon interviewed the creators of the groundbreaking ‘CyptoPunk’ collection, Matt Hall and John Watkinson from Larva Labs. You can listen to the podcast here, later.
Matt and John created 10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. Although it launched back in 2017/18 this particular project is building huge momentum in 2021 and has been featured in Mashable, The Financial Times, The Paris Review, Salon, The Outline, BreakerMag, Christie's of London, Art|Basel, The PBS NewsHour and The New York Times, just to name a few.
To get a sense of how explosively disruptive and in demand these CryptoPunk collectables now are, as you read this, sales of 24x24 pixel art images generated algorithmically are through the roof with $1.5 million shifted over the past 48 hours and $13.4 million over the past week according to CryptoSlam. One of the pixelated pictures sold for a whopping 605 ETH in late January. However, it is emerging that an even rarer punk with zero attributes owned by the enigmatic digital art collector MR703 will go for between US$1.5-2 million in the months to come and who can say in the years to come. This is astounding considering he originally acquired his vast collection of CryptoPunks for next to nothing.
MR703
MR703, named as so due to his original holding of the largest collection of Punks held by an individual, is a mysterious breed. Part creative technologist, part investment strategist and 100% digital art enthusiast had an initial collection of CryptoPunks worth around US$9M-$14M. MR703 was recently interviewed by Crypto Art publication Loop-News. You can read the full article here but some key takeaways from the interview are:
When LarvaLabs created CryptoPunks, MR703 seeing the collection as innovative in its combination of 8-bit aesthetics combined with top-notch technology, claimed punk after punk, making sure he focused on combinations of rare attributes as far as they were still available and ended up with a very respectable collection not only in size but in terms of rarity of punks.
The true magnitude of the treasure he has been sitting on for approximately 3 years dawned on him when in early 2021 bids started to flood into his account hitting $760k within a few hours
MR703, instead of dumping all his punks immediately, has held on to around two thirds of his original collection. He saw the potential of CrytpoPunks to inspire a new generation of artists and collectors saying, “It would not surprise me to see major artists releasing work on the blockchain. NFTs in Sotheby’s and Christi’s. Major galleries and museums. That is a fairly easy prediction. Before that, the majority of the establishment is probably going to deride it as a fad, not real art. Similar to what has been said about Matisse, Picasso and Renoir in their - early - time. You have to be an Albert Barnes to get it - cannot expect that from everybody. Will it be 5 or 10 years? Short term predictions are near impossible - long term the view is clear.”
2021 has seen many influential people enter the NFT space but as CryptoPunks are considered the OG’s of NFTs, MR703, now an anonymous multi-millionaire from just one third of his CyptoPunk collection sales in the last month, recognises that he is still sitting on millions and millions of dollars worth of art, “…it seems that some relatively large sums are being put into CryptoPunks as well as other NFT projects. CryptoPunks are unique for being the first. I think this is what Flamingo DAO meant when they said that ‘providence has the value’. It is a very simple concept really: who was first?”
MR703’s level headed awareness of the space within which he is now suddenly a big player remains grounded in cultivating quality of awareness in valuing the growth of creative technological legacy over time, “…CryptoPunks are a store of value in a way, sure. But if you do not own a single painting or sculpture that is in the price range of a floor punk (US$5,000), think about why not? Are you in it for the art or for the supposedly mad gains? Also, do not put 100% of your savings into punks or NFTs. Maybe get one or two and put a framed art print of them on your wall to raise some eyebrows. What if you put money into punks that you might need someday to pay rent when the NFT market is in a lull? I was that person - don’t be that person. If you can #hodl for 5-10 years then see above”
SO, HOW DO I GET MY PUNK & NFTs ON?
As I mentioned before there are many platforms and marketplaces starting to open up on the NFT front as I mentioned before such as Nifty Gateway, Rariable, ArtBlocks, Open Sea and of course the LarvaLabs CryptoPunk Site. If you want to get started with your new side hustle collecting career you’ll need Metamask.
Download and install a Chrome browser plugin called MetaMask. This will allow websites (that you authorize) access to an Ethereum account.
If you made a new account, buy some Ether. The MetaMask plugin has a button that will allow you to buy Ether from Coinbase.
Once you have the plugin installed, visit the LarvaLabs website which will recognize it and add buttons that allow you to bid on, buy and sell punks directly in the interface.
If you’re an organisation or gallery interested in acquiring a larger collection of Punks then organisations like Open Law offer advice on how you might want to move forward in negotiating a larger deal en par with with the pedigree of MR703.
Join the CryptoPunks Discord group and skulk about stealthily learning from the cross talk.
Just for fun check out Famous Punks