CryptoPunks

FREE TO CLAIM

In June 2017, Matt Hall and John Watkinson of Larva Labs released CryptoPunks: 10,000 unique, algorithmically generated characters on Ethereum. Each original portrait occupied just 24 by 24 pixels. Hairstyles, accessories and facial details made the tiny figures distinct, drawing on punk and cyberpunk culture.

The initial claim had no purchase price, but it still required an Ethereum transaction and a network fee. An Ethereum wallet could claim a Punk and then keep it, offer it for sale or trade through the project's built-in marketplace. The experiment asked whether a digital collectible could carry the feeling of ownership associated with a physical one.

Collectors began using Punks as profile pictures, turning a small image into a public identity. The collection helped establish the familiar pattern of generative traits, limited supply and communities formed around avatars. It also influenced the later ERC-721 token standard. CryptoPunks became a defining early profile-picture collection.

The images' blockchain history has two stages. In 2017, the contract stored a cryptographic hash linking it to the composite image of all 10,000 Punks. The image pixels themselves were not stored there at launch. Larva Labs announced a separate on-chain home for the images and their attributes on 18 August 2021.

Here, an original copper-haired character meets a pixelated reflection in a rain-soaked shop window. Their shared features turn the idea of choosing an avatar into a personal encounter. The street, shop and receipt are imagined staging for a digital claim, rather than a reconstruction of a real June 2017 exhibition.