The community NFT project, which is free from DMCA takedown claims and writing its own story, is now in place. It hopes to unify all CryptoPunks owners.
The first batch of Ethereum nfts that Larva Labs created in 2017 was made with buggy codes. They were then scrapped and replaced by the “V2” versions. Some of these have been sold for millions of USD each.
However, even though many NFT collectors might not have been aware of the “V1” NFTs that were discarded, the blockchain never forgets.
In the latter part of last year, CryptoPunks members created a wrapper program that saved the V1 versions and made them available for trading as new NFTs.
That’s when things started to get wild. The notoriously protective Larva Labs (a.k.a. Matt Hall and John Watkinson reacted against the V1 Punks, as they are often called. tweeted in January that they weren’t “official” CryptoPunks and they “don’t like” them.
Some V2 owners don’t like the rise in V1 Punks.
Larva Labs sold some V1 Punks at the same moment. The duo apologised in February for this move, calling it stupid and a bad decision.
Larva Labs spent the money to buy official V2 Punks FFTs from their owners. They also donated a matching amount of funds to charity. However, some Punks owners were disappointed by the poor handling. The whole episode was amusing to supporters of V1 Project.
It was a huge clusterfuck, right?” They were really under pressure,” V1Punks community member, hemba said to Decrypt. They were just tripping on themselves.”
An NFT is a receipt that proves ownership of an item. It can also be used to verify the identity of digital goods like profile pictures, artwork and collectibles. CryptoPunks led the charge in boosting the market to $25 billion of trading volume by 2021.
Except for a unique wrapper background color, the V1 Punks look identical to official versions. This means that every one of the 10,000 CryptoPunks NFTs has an almost identical version. And even the V1Punks are quite valuable. They start at 5.2ETH (about $10,000.00) on secondary markets.
Despite selling V1 Punks and engaging with the NFT wrapper programme, Larva Labs took action against the project by issuing a DMCA takedown note to OpenSea claiming a copyright violation – despite the fact that the NFTs originally originated at Larva Labs.
The V1 Punks were not listed on any NFT marketplace.
However, Larva Labs unexpectedly sold CryptoPunks IP in March to Bored Ape Yacht Club founder Yuga Labs. The firm was not in a position to file a DMCA lawsuit. Yuga Labs was not interested in the matter. The claim was withdrawn and the V1 Punks were redirected to OpenSea.
However, this is not the end for the V1 Punks saga. The creators tell decrypt.
The V1 Punks project launched its own marketplace with Rarible in an effort to tell its story and secure its future. As Yuga Labs contemplates its CryptoPunks plans and V1 supporters aim to unite the wider Punks community so that everyone can have a voice in what happens next.
The new home of CryptoPunks
Rarible started the conversation in the midst of the DMCA saga.
Sunil Singhvi, chief business development officer of the firm, stated to Decrypt his team was interested in partnering with notable NFT projects to help launch its white-label marketplace technology. It is built on Rarible’s increasingly multichain decentralized market protocol.
“This is one that’s very truthful to the world–a mythical project,” he said, describing V1Punks as “a team that wanted their legacy to be protected and wanted to stay around.”
FrankNFT.eth (notable V1Punks member) said that he was skeptical at first that Rarible’s outreach was genuine. He told Decrypt, “Honestly, it was something I didn’t believe.” “I said, “That’s a fraudster.”
The V1 Punks website already exists, but the Rarible marketplace is much stronger. It is fully customizable so that the V1Punks can tell their story and welcome their community. A portion of the marketplace fees will also go to the V1 Treasury. Frank stated that the marketplace fees could be used to fund future community-driven initiatives and projects.
It’s also a home for V1 Punks. Rarible has created a few custom marketplaces for NFT projects such as Solana’s Degenerate Ape Academy, and Ethereum’s Meta Angels. This allows them to have their own space and to be distinct from the millions of NFTs on larger-scale marketplaces.
Singhvi stated, “I think that the reality is–and Rarible clearly is a large, healthy marketplace-that it is not always easy to obtain visibility on a marketplace.” “You are, in some way, building someone else’s house.”
V1 Punks, a project that has so far generated over $70,000,000 in NFT sales per CryptoSlam, has had to go through the unique process of being removed form the largest marketplace. This gives them the chance to be more assertive in a controlled environment and maybe less dependent on third-party marketplaces.
Singhvi said, “If your house has vanished once,” “you’re always going looking to build a stronger home the second time.”
Unifying the Punks
The V1 Punks are entering a new era thanks to the Rarible-powered market. Larva Labs is widely credited with creating CryptoPunks, inventing the concept for tokenized profile photos with random traits, but the team was criticized for how it managed the project during the NFT bubble in 2021.
Although CryptoPunks prices have risen over the past year, Larva has remained largely hands off with the community. She doesn’t offer a lot of perks such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club nor guidance on how owners can commercialize their IP rights to their respective Punks.
Hemba, who claimed the most free CryptoPunks at launch in 2017–but sold most of them before the boom, hence his Twitter name, soldthebottom–described Larva Labs to Decrypt as being like an “absent dad” to the Punks community.
Even the Larva couple admitted to Yuga Labs that they were not well-suited to manage the demands and interactions of a high-profile NFT Project.
It is not clear how Yuga Labs will use CryptoPunks in the future. They will be part of Yuga’s Otherside metaverse game . The game has already attracted $892 million in NFT land sales since April 30, and is expected to continue to grow.
The firm stated that it would give IP owners full commercialization rights and “see what they create, and listen.”
Yuga will be more involved than Larva Labs, but V1 Punks won’t “wait for daddy to make moves again”, said hemba.
He described in a recently published manifesto the plans for the CryptoPunks in the five-year anniversary of the project. These include a party in June, a traveling exhibit to start later in the year in Dubai and participation in a documentary film.
He hopes all CryptoPunks owners, both V1 NFTs and V2 NFTs, can work together to shape the future of the project rather than letting Yuga Labs dictate the course. He suggested that CryptoPunks owners form a DAO (or decentralized independent organization) to act together as a union and work with Yuga Labs to ensure all voices are heard.
It remains to be seen if official (or V2) CryptoPunks holders will join V1 initiatives. Despite being derived from the original Larva Labs contract they are seen as frauds by some.
last week tweeted NFT collector Jimmy McNelis that Phunks were stolen IP that directly affected the legit Punks marketplace, just as V1 Punks. Both V1 and Phunks were bad news for OG Punks collectors and the collection. Larva Labs also suffered from the pressure. This is not Web3 in any way.
Although convincing V2 owners can be difficult, and Yuga’s view of V1 Punks at the moment is unclear, the project’s community seems to be trying to find common ground as well as being advocates for all CryptoPunk collectors.
Hemba spoke out about the V1 Punks, saying that they are choosing to follow their lead. “I believe it’s also an excellent example of what the V2 community should be doing, and what we might do together.”
