NFTs have drawn an enormous amount of attention since their conception within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They’ve ignited passionate conversations, made front page news in major publications, and led to record-breaking sales of internet-native assets. The rapid and widespread growth of the NFT community signals a massive shift in the digital landscape. As NFTs become a household name, it’s not too far of a reach to imagine a world in which they become a cornerstone of the economy at large. 

As NFTs continue to evolve, the technology breaks new ground, offering unprecedented utility and true digital ownership to a global community. With NFTs, we can embody unique forms of internet identity, explore more avenues for personal development, pursue new income opportunities for artists and creators, and even create novel forms of intellectual property in the age of the internet. The directions and possibilities that NFTs bring with them are endless.

The launch of Punk DAO is inspired by our belief that NFTs are the future of the digital economy, and their  global, mainstream adoption is inevitable. Our future financial system will be one in which the ownership and trading of art, media, ideas, and even memes will be as commonplace as the trade of stocks and cash are today. And, when we get to that point, everyone will appreciate the historic role of CryptoPunks as the fountainhead, and every major collection will want to own a part of that history in some form, if not their own Punk.

The Bitcoin of NFTs

There will only ever be one Bitcoin. Bitcoin is more than a currency – it’s a symbol of a societal paradigm shift. In the same way that Bitcoin represents a new era and serves as a store of value, we believe that, in the world of NFTs, the same will hold for CryptoPunks as Web3 continues to grow and expand. NFTs will be as ubiquitous as links on the Internet or profiles on social media, and the original NFTs – CryptoPunks – will increasingly be revered by collectors, creators, and investors as a store of cultural value. 

The project, created by Matt Hall and John Watkinson’s Larva Labs in 2017, was initially conceived as they toyed with the concept of character pixel generation. Upon their introduction to Ethereum, they immediately recognized the potential to allow these diverse, unique “punky-looking” characters (plus some Zombies 🧟‍♂️, Apes 🦧, and Aliens 👽, oh my!) to be owned by anyone, with complete verification and immutability. 

Larva Labs gave away the 10,000 CryptoPunks for free to anyone with an Ethereum wallet, along with a dedicated marketplace coded into the CryptoPunks smart contract that charged no fees or creator royalties. Since then, in 2021 (with help from OG Punk holders SnowFro and Deafbeef), all 24x24 CryptoPunk images and their attributes were stored permanently on the Ethereum blockchain, cementing their long-term provenance.

As Matt and John summed it up on the Larva Labs blog, “So the Cryptopunks (together with its market) are a purely decentralized project, with no reliance on corporate marketplaces, no fees, and no risk of censorship or regulation from centralized authorities.”

CryptoPunks were the first NFTs as we now know them, but their value goes far beyond their pioneering status. The project gave rise to a new primitive of internet scarcity through enduring provable uniqueness.They inspired the common ERC-721 token standard for NFTs, allowing tokens on the same smart contract to hold one-of-a-kind characteristics and ownership of digital items (stored on-chain or elsewhere).  

CryptoPunks also directly led the charge toward today’s popularity of NFTs as collectibles. As the first NFT profile picture (PFP) set on the scene, CryptoPunks are considered to be the primary driver behind crypto’s first consumer “product-market fit,” perfect for billions of social media users, and are the inspiration for countless PFP collections since. Eventually, NFTs will provide the financialization transport layer for everything, intangible and physical (as articulated by Punk6529), all started by a bunch of pixelated “punky” JPEGs.

CryptoPunks are timeless and emblematic. They cannot change from their current form, and they’re instantly recognizable, both nostalgic yet modern. Today, they remain rare as a project without a commercial focus, thriving because of its iconic status. 

Most importantly, CryptoPunks attract a specially vibrant and self-organized community of NFT “true believers”, which sets the stage for introducing Punk DAO. 

Minting Punk DAO: An ELI5

Punk DAO is created with the purpose of bringing together the CryptoPunk community, alongside investing in CryptoPunks, related projects, and the wider ecosystem. Punk DAO members have conviction that CryptoPunks are establishing themselves as invaluable assets and immortal works of art and technology. We also believe that Punks will act as the gateway for growing NFT innovation and adoption across crypto and real-world culture, society, and the economy. 

We know that many CryptoPunk owners have exceptional foresight in being among the earliest to recognize and build on the potential of NFTs, and we share an essential commitment to the original Punk values of decentralization and openness. We are thrilled to welcome these bright minds to strengthen the Punk community and brand, along with supporting creative NFT applications and the open crypto-economy. 

Within Punk DAO, there exists:

• PunkDAO Community: membership is open to all CryptoPunk holders

• PunkDAO Venture: membership is open on an application basis up to 99 CryptoPunk holders.

Ultimately, our goal is to grow CryptoPunk culture and value—what’s good for NFTs is good for CryptoPunks. 

The Future of Punk DAO: Time To Buidl

When we look toward the future of CryptoPunks and Punk DAO, all we can think is: Let’s Form Group 🤘! We want Punk DAO to be a major value-add to being a CryptoPunk, enhancing the community and the overall value of the project. We’ve already envisioned and taken first steps on a handful of directions for the DAO: 

• Building Together. Part of growing the appeal of Punks is to build capacity for them to do everything traditional art can, but better, faster, and more. Punk DAO is not just about convening and investing among available Punk holders, but building tools that any Punk holders can use anytime, permissionlessly. Punk DAO is actively developing the most competitive NFT lending solution and crypto native IP license pooling (thanks Yuga Labs 🙏!) exclusive to CryptoPunks, and open-sourcing the know-how. What better way for Punks to expand the footprint of CryptoPunks than by working together?

• Cultural Opportunities. Punk DAO plans to fully “seize the memes of production” through partnerships that bring new benefits to Punk holders and CryptoPunks and to the public at large. We'll collaborate with Web3 and mainstream brands, in the metaverse and in real life. This could include making DAO-owned Punks available and interoperable across NFT media, merchandise, and games, or even starting a Balajian Punks “network museum.” Your free-to-claim Punk DAO NFT will be your passport to claim your Punk DAO OG status and take part in these events.

• Venture Funding. With the Punk DAO Venture treasury, we will invest into NFT and crypto projects that further the Punk ecosystem and ethos, centered on Ethereum. We’ve already committed to 7 investments—2 founded by fellow Punks—in NFT & crypto gaming, the open metaverse, fiat-crypto on-ramps, middleware scaling, easier Ethereum indexing, and a Web3 studio. Stay tuned to read more about our portfolio soonTM. We’re always on the lookout for new projects to back and are fired up to meet with and champion founders who are building at the frontier of Web3. 

Learn More and Go Punk!

To learn more about Punk DAO, subscribe on Paragraph, continue the conversation in our Community Discord, and follow us on Twitter and Lens. Punks of Web3 unite with Punk DAO! 🤘