Cryptopunk since 2019 and owner of the first AB101 collection, a full set of the first 101 Artblock projects 🟪. https://xitter.cf/t.co/3xRddnFGqn for ENS.
Joined March 2021
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Markets and prices may be down but minting is still so much fun. Very happy with the results 🙏
Great to see some new mints for "Art From Code"
This is # 88 in the collection of @Punk9512
Currently at 89 / 144 minted
Happy to contribute a few pieces, great selection!
EMULATION: Selections from the Art Blocks 500 is now open at the Museum of Art + Light (MoA+L) until August 16, 2026. @museumartlight
The exhibition presents twelve projects by ten Art Blocks 500 artists.
Discover the artists and their work 👇
charley retweeted
10,000 CryptoPunks. One physical space.
Walk with us for an immersive, in-depth exploration of @nodefnd with Larva Labs co-founders Matt and John.
(0:01) Introduction to CryptoPunks
(0:30) The CryptoPunk smart contract code
(1:43) Receipt printers
(2:18) The Infinite ETH node
(2:55) Timeline of Punks market activity
(4:01) Punk activity columns
(4:23) "The Node" room
(4:57) OpenSea's Punk
(6:19) Visualizing the full 10,000 collection
(6:42) Trait exploration console
(7:44) The "Trait Wall"
Hell yeah!
Celebrating a few of our recent Chromie Squiggle collectors 🫡
🏆 @Punk9512 completed their Type Set
🏆 @TonySopraNFTo with their first Squiggle (and it’s a fuzzy!)
🏆 @jp_moregainz with their first Squiggle
And an anonymous collector acquired both a Pipe and a Bold Squiggle for 24 ETH each 🏆🏆
charley retweeted
CryptoPunks, welcome to the @MuseumModernArt collection!
Punk 4018, Punk 2786, Punk 5616, Punk 5160, Punk 3407, Punk 7178, Punk 74, and Punk 7899 have found a permanent home at MoMA, where they’ll be preserved and cared for as part of the museum’s history.
The collective generosity behind this gift highlights the strength and spirit of the Punk’s community whom has carried the project forward.
This historic donation was made possible by @ArtOnBlockchain and Mara Calderon, @CozomoMedici, @judithESSS, @NTmoney, @kukulabanze, and @Rhyd0n. @larvalabs also contributed Punks from their personal collection as part of their long-term commitment to the work.
We’re proud to see that shared stewardship reflected at MoMA.
With thanks to @1OF1_art for helping shepherd this acquisition forward.
moma.org/artists/140561-larv…
charley retweeted
Squiggles and Punks @ MoMA
#9681 - Normal donated by @squiggleDAO
#6887 - Slinky donated by an anon collector
#2022 - Fuzzy donated by @gmoneyNFT
#8107 - Ribbed donated by my wife Mara and I
#4436 - Bold donated by @jdh
#1047 - Pipe donated by @VonMises14
#5465 - Hyper donated by an anon collector
#292 - Day 0 Full Spectrum donated by @kukulabanze
Hard to put into words how humbled and proud I am to share that eight Chromie Squiggles have been collected by the MoMA.
What started as a proof of concept for @artblocks_io and the blockchain's ability to generate entropy evolved into something much bigger than I could have ever dreamed of. Squiggles embody my soul as my signature as an artist and a technologist, and I'm grateful to each and every one of you that has ever explored, enjoyed, connected with and even criticized my work as you have all played a role in shaping who I am as an artist.
I appreciate every single one of the (as of the time of this post) 2,861 Squiggle collectors that continue to participate on this journey with me.
Thank you @Sam12_23 and @NiftyFiftyETH and @squiggleDAO for your support, encouragement, coordination, and overall dedication to my work.
Thank you @kukulabanze and @Noahbolanowski and @1OF1_art for so thoughtfully contextualizing my work and putting it forward for consideration.
Thank you to the wonderful collectors noted above that so generously donated their Squiggles.
Thank you @MuseumModernArt for your curiosity and appreciation not just towards the Chromie Squiggle but across the digital medium, over the decades, as a whole. Shoutout to @StuartComer, Michelle Kuo and Christophe Cherix for their vision and support and @mpierpont3 for actively participating in our community on behalf of MoMA over the years. It's a sincere honor to be among the 28,000+ artists in your collection.
Massive congratulations to @matthall2000 and @pents90 as eight @cryptopunks have also been collected by MoMA. I wouldn't be here without your inspiration and contributions and it's a huge honor to be recognized in this moment with you. So happy that Mara and I could play a role in contributing a punk alongside Larva Labs, @CozomoMedici, @judithESSS, @ntmoney, @kukulabanze and @Rhyd0n and happy for the (at the time of this post) 3,791 strong community of fellow Punk collectors plus @nodefnd and @NaughtalieStone as amazing stewards.
Seriously so much to be proud of and excited for.
Grateful for my wife Mara and my kiddos, friends, coworkers, and entire family for being so supportive over the ups and downs of the last few years.
Have so many feelings and so much to say (see my late night ramblings below) but at the end of the day this is a moment for every one of us that's here in this moment and future and I'm just happy to be sharing this experience with all of you.
🫂🫂🫂🫂
The blockchain is a recording format that captures an ephemeral moment in a permanent, publicly available, interactive and interoperative way aligned with a more democratized permissionless and transparent future.
--
As an early adopter of @ethereum, I had felt that there was something really special in there somewhere. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Somewhere inside of this technology was something magical waiting to be chiseled out of a block of stone. Then @matthall2000 and @pents90 launched @cryptopunks and it all clicked for me. The ability to prove authenticity and ownership over something digital. Fuse was lit. Was inspired to build @artblocks_io. Boom.
In the early days of the Punks discord I would often express a gut feeling that these little 24x24 pixel characters would end up in major museums. While I fully recognized at the time how foolish and delusional those statements were, deep down inside, deep in my bones, I truly felt it would happen.
Over the years that conviction grew as I watched a community grow around them in ways that only this technology could facilitate. It was a mixture of technological curiosity, speculation, social signaling, art appreciation, self discovery, and a desire to break out of the confines of what we had always been told art *should* be, and what could be considered art in the first place. All built and expressed in public, among a group of what started as anonymous internet friends and acquaintances that eventually evolved into true human relationships.
We have collectively gone through a lot over the last almost decade. Some massive ups and equally massive downs. Both in crypto/blockchain/web3 and in our everyday lives. We've "grown up", together, watching each other navigate all of this through real life things like people getting married, divorced, children being born, and friends passing. We've bought homes, we've lost homes. We've cheered on the successes of our peers and supported each other through the scams. We've all made mistakes, but we've learned from those mistakes as well.
It's all very real. All of it. It seems insane to even need to type that. But sometimes it feels like we're living a weird ethereal fantasy because often times our world, our jargon, our dialogue and our knowledge is just so far removed from everyday society that it all feels surreal.
What started as just a bunch of internet nerds is, in fact, a massive community of real humans, with real lives, with a shared passion that brings us all together.
AND IT IS INTERESTING.
Not just to us but to society as a whole.
But with all of the conviction that I and many of us have in what we do, the true dopamine hits come not from "number go up" (although admittedly hard to deny the impact) but from validation. Validation that there is something intrinsically valuable and interesting in what we're doing beyond the greed, speculation, and drama.
For me that validation comes in many ways. And most of that validation comes from within this community. Innovation, creativity, shared sense of purpose, builders artists and collectors having active and meaningful dialogue. The fact so many of us are still here after all that's gone down over the years is a true testament that we are doing something net positive and interesting.
But as we evolve beyond this weird little fantasy and echo chamber and acknowledge the reality and humanity of it all, and the outside world starts to understand and appreciate what we're doing beyond this all being just "crypto", it is quite meaningful for me personally to also get validation from outside of our community.
My focus has almost exclusively been on the artistic side of crypto. There are many tools in the Ethereum tool chest but the ones I focus on are the ones that support the durability, distribution, authenticity, and interoperability of artistic expression. And therefore the external validation that makes me and many of us think we may be just a *little* less crazy comes from the cultural institutions. It's the @ZkmKunst, @ToledoMuseum and the @museumartlight, the @theMoodyArts and @LACMA and @BuffaloAKG, @whitneymuseum and @MuseumModernArt plus countless others that have taken the time to see past the noise and the mania and understand that there's something interesting and special happening within our space.
While we have our own institutions evolving and maturing alongside us expanding outwards, others are looking in.
*note in a previous version of this post I attempted to tag a bunch of people but inevitably couldn’t tag everyone and I didn’t want anyone to feel left out so I scrapped it*
And at the end of the day we will all meet somewhere in between. Some form of homeostasis will be reached. Hopefully leaning heavier on our ideals of transparency, democratization, permissionlessness, and access. Blockchain does not solve supply and demand. It doesn't solve power laws. In fact it exacerbates these things. But it does solve for many many things that will continue to make our world a better place. The good far outweighs the bad. Sometimes it's harder to appreciate that than others, but it does.
Anyways, all in due time. But it is happening. It's undeniable. The blockchain is to the digital/generative medium what film was to the lens. And as such its impact on everyday life and society will be significant. It might be slower than our collective hopes and expectations, but it's happening. Zoom out. It's all there.
And if you're still reading this, it's all there in large part because of you.
charley retweeted
We are officially five.
We’re grateful for every artist who’s trusted us with their work, every collector who’s supported creative risk-taking, and every community member who’s helped shape this space.
Thank you for an unforgettable five years...
And @ArtOnBlockchain, @DaCaldera and @jeffgdavis: please enjoy!
charley retweeted
1/ On Losing Faith
Is it over?
Was it all a fever dream?
Have we run out of steam?
Is it time to pivot to AI for real this time?
2/ Everything is dead?
BTC: DAT premiums down, nobody cares
ETH: Stablecoin
Alts: Crushed
NFTs: Right click saved
Meme coins: As expected tbh
Zcash: Pumping! which ofc means "cycle is over"
3/ This is the worst cryptotwitter timeline I have ever seen relative to the environment.
Nobody is attacking us, USA is being reasonable and rational, no CEX has run away with our money, and yet, dead, dead, dead.
No narrative, no spark, nothing.
4/ Why?
I read the timeline and it tells me:
a/"nobody owns BTC" (odd, I mean someone has to own BTC, there is a ton of BTC)
and
b/ "the gamblers have liquidated themselves (again)" - true, but it was always like this
5/ This TL feels different. This does not feel like
"fuck I got liquidated", it feels like malaise, tiredness.
Like boredom, to be honest.
I know you think it is the price action but the price action is obviously downstream from psychology.
6/ I have a different view of what is going on.
I think almost everyone forgot what matters, chased after things that did not matter and, we are in the process of discovering they don't matter.
7/ What matters? Only decentralization, only permissionlessness. Nothing else matters at all.
Everything else about crypto is WORSE than a centralized database and always will be because that is how computers work.
8/ In my view, basically everyone "major" except vitalik has strayed from the light on this.
Let's start with Team BTC which USED to be very interested in how to build a network that become nation-state resistant.
This was the BTC of Antonopoulos, of Lopp
9/ We are 5 years into the BTC of Saylor and that BTC is 100% about driving price action.
It is about driving flows to BTC, about getting fully integrated with the USA financial system.
10/ It sounds nice, it sounds better than the system beating us with a big stick, but the net effect is that more and more BTC ends up in Coinbase Custody in New York State
Nothing wrong with that, but none of that BTC is nation-state resistant.
It is 100% non-resistant to the US government specifically.
11/ The problem with this is that with permissionlessness off the table, the only thing left to drive purchases of BTC is FOMO.
"there are only 21M, they are going to run out, you need to buy some before others do and it goes exponential"
12/ I mean, maybe that is true.
I am not making price predictions, I still own BTC and always will I think.
But it is cringe, and it is wrong.
13/ You can think about this by taking it to the extreme case and trying to understand which of the two scenarios adds value to the world.
14/
Scenario A: Blackrock owns all 21M BTC, everyone on planet earth owns shares in the Blackrock ETF and Brian Armstrong is in charge of making sure we don't lose Our Precious
Scenario B: Everyone on earth has their own BTC wallet and BTC is distributed in several billion places around the world and it is literally impossible for any government to stop BTC
15/ In Scenario A, BTC is a complete and utter failure. It is just a pet rock. Yes it is "rare" but it is also "100% seize-able by the USA government"
At which point, it might as well be an IOU from the USA government that it pinky-swears is rare
16/ "but it is not like this because other nation-states are accumulating and game theory blah blah blah"
No my brothers and sisters.
The exact scenario where your BTC get seized is a) centralized and b) hyperbitcoinization
Maybe the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is happening and it is your ETF and $STRATEGY (TM) capital stack all along (thank you for your contribution to our national security)
17/ To be clear, nobody is seizing your BTC (let alone your ETH) now because it is not important enough yet.
But, if it was, I dunno, I would not trust those centralized vehicles.
CEO, Board, shareholders, SEC, US government, state government, custody firm, their regulators all have an angle of attack on a DAT.
18/ If USA seizes BTC, other countries won't save you:
EU: "Thank god our dreams have come true, we can ban it also"
UAE: "grumble grumble, but fine we will go along"
China: "ban. unban. ban. unban. anyway so long as currency is not free-floating, BTC won't be free here"
Russia: "someone falls out of a window"
19/ Of course, BTC in ETFs is by no means the worst of it. The "crypto's main use is a casino" crowd is the worst.
This is not a zero-sum game, it is a negative sum game because it is rigged.
20/ "what about the JPGs huh?" -> I still love them.
The best ones are the best tokens in the world by far, rare, suffused with meaning, with no external dependencies and great to hold on-chain.
And beyond the art JPGs, I think that NFTs can do many more things, but this is on me to "show, not tell"
21/ I want to circle back to BTC because it is the easiest to reason about.
When people explained to me time and time again that it was a ponzi, I had a simple explanation of why it is not.
21/ BTC lets you do some things better than the existing system. "be sovereign over your money" or "send money to anyone on the planet within minutes" or "maintain an insurance policy against the existing financial system"
22/ I could not tell you how much value this had, but I knew it was not zero.
In fact, the value went up the more people used it, the bigger the network was, the more people you could transact with, the more resilient it was to government censorship.
These are the economics of a network system, not of a ponzi.
23/ If you take this away, if you stop building a network but instead just, at the extreme, just sell everyone shares of the ETF, well there is no network, there is no incremental network value being generated by the next buyer.
24/ In this model, BTC becomes more ponzi-like.
If a new participant does not make the network stronger by joining, they are not adding value, therefore there is a fixed pie and it is just value transfer to an existing holder.
25/ Again, take it to the extreme other direction -> assume we managed to move the whole economy to decentralized rails.
I think that world would be better, it would make better decisions, it would take advantage of the wisdom of crowds, there would be more transparency, less rent-seeking and the aggregate value of the world goes up because it is more productive.
Some % of the improved value of the world will get captured by the early participants to the network (which is normal and fair) but some % will be captured by everyone (as a late participant or consumer).
26/ But if we don't make the world better, if the world is exactly what it is, but also we play with a pet rock, this will not happen and, well, eventually playing with pet rocks gets very boring
27/ So what to do?
The same things you always should do:
a/ push yourself, and by extension, the world an inch, a foot, a mile down the pathway of decentralization.
many ways to do this, it is a journey, start today.
b/ remember, you, yes, you in the mirror have no business trading perps or day-trading stupid coins.
you are bad at it and your future self will be mad at your current self.
28/ If you must do it, carve out a budget and test how great you are across the cycle with your budget (1%, 5%, 10%, 20% of your portfolio, not all of it)
I am of course a dinosaur, but my total portfolio % of "putting money into stupid coins I have been FOMOed into it" is less than 1%. It has gone about as well as you might expect.
29/ Other than that, own some BTC, some ETH, some NFTs (good ones, that you like) in a self-custodial wallet, a small number of your favorite alts if you must.
And keep your job. Earn money, don't try to be a pro crypto trader, this is an imaginary job that only cobie and like 5 other people are qualified for.
I have always worked, every single day of my adult life. You should too.
30/ Crypto is a bad way to get rich quick, but a decent way to get rich slowly. In any case, you should have some stake in the decentralized world, in the digital world.
31/ I think in the end, "it" will be OK but "it" it not everything, it is not most things. As it always was, most coins will go to zero, most NFTs will go to zero. These are the rules of the game.
32/ Most of you are young. You have time, you have time into the ASI world, you have the greatest gift and wealth of all. You will be ok.
33/ Don't mope. It does not help anything. If you are bummed out, sad about your outcomes, there is only one sure thing that helps.
Get back to working.
34/ Even if you are young, life is short, your life is the important thing, money is just a game, just a tool, just an information system.
Don't anchor to your wealth, don't anchor to your ATH, it is not real, my ATH wealth has gone down 90% multiple times. Note it and just keep going.
If you are healthy, in a decent country, in a half-decent economic situation, you are better off than almost anyone who has ever lived
35/ If you have an opinion (even a dumb one) about Monad or Grifters, you are in the 0.001% most forward thinking people in the world.
Did you make a "mistake"?
Who cares, everyone makes mistakes - keep going, keep trying, keep making mistakes, eventually you will find your way, you will get a win.
This is how it goes.
36/ use a hardware wallet and even better a SAFE
37/ and to close again with the most important thing. decentralization is the only thing that matters.
if you go in that direction, if we go in that direction, in the end, it will be ok.
i have no doubt about this, i have never had any doubts about this, it matters so much more than you think it does.
/the end
charley retweeted
We're closing AB500 where it started.
The final 3 projects are Explorations by @jeffgdavis , @DaCaldera & @ArtOnBlockchain: our Day 1 artists.
Free mints for the AB community. If you haven't yet, create your profile and claim achievements. Snapshot soon!
charley retweeted
So, auction ended.
Settled at 0.096. I came in with high expectations. Seeing the response of this space was overwhelming. It gave me hope. Only 200 sold.
The way I went about this, I reckon it was too complicated. Too much trying to recreate 2021 energy. A standard mint would have sufficed.
You see for the past years I dedicated every waking moment to my art. To the promise I made in 2021. A sort of compulsion.
On top of that, I've spent almost every dollar I made into this. Wanting to achieve the very best. The final version of this art. The way it always was meant to be.
And I do not regret this one bit. But, it does mean right now, is not easy. Because here's the thing. I know the art is good. In fact. I know many many people care deeply about it.
But it's not seen. Not enough. So I am not giving up.
I am keeping the mint open.
Fragments at 0.096eth.
We still Breeze
charley retweeted
A monumental moment for me. Midnight Breeze: Fragments of the Lonely Road Mints October 16th
I know, there’ve been a lot of announcements lately. But this one? This one fucking scared me. Announcing a mint means you’re all in.
No more waiting. No more hiding. This is the jump. For nearly 4 years, I’ve been building this. Painting, tweaking, refining, losing my mind some days, chasing a vision most people wouldn’t even see.
And now it’s real.
This isn’t just another NFT drop. It’s the most complex generative animated collection this space has ever seen.
Every frame hand painted. Every sound designed. A window into a world that’s been living in my head for years.
And now it’s yours too.
If you’ve burned? You know what to do.
If you’ve watched from afar? Now’s your moment.
So like it. RT it. Bookmark it. Shout it from the rooftops or whisper it to your favorite degen chat.
But whatever you do, don’t miss it.
Because this is the one. The one I’ve bled for. The one I’m proud as fuck of.
Let’s make the timeline feel it.
-Dutchtide 🍃
charley retweeted
In other art v. protocol news...
Portal #6 has been made whole again! It left the fractional vault after meeting the reserve bid. Fun to see it back out in the wild.
Also, ty @purphat for originally sharing 5% of the token pool with me to match normal artist royalties.
If you hold $PORTAL, @Punk9512 shared a link for redeeming your share of the sale in #blocktalk in the AB discord. The original site is defunct, so you need to visit an Arweave reconstruction.
charley retweeted
So much of my time here I have spend dreaming. Dreaming for the day that has now arrived.
For years I spend my days grinding to fulfill a promise made by a 25 year old right after having the biggest night of his life. @midnightbreezey sold out in 30 minutes. And for someone who had less then 5000$ in the bank, suddenly making 1.5 million dollars was kind of insane.
Euphoric I said "v2 will come for those who hold a breeze"
Little did I know how much that single promise would affect my life. I have spend majority of my late 20s painting this world. And been very critical of what this space is about. I wanted to be a voice you could rely on. Someone that shows up, is approachable, but also be the change I'd want to see.
Everyday looked the same for me, make coffee, walk dog, turn on pc, paint until dinner, walk the dog again.
I sometimes quite literally went insane. The pressure was high. I had to make this project real. And there was always so much to do. Art direct, animate, color grade , composite, 3d , sound effects , music, development, management like countless hats to wear all the time.
The Vision however, called me. There was no way I was gonna give up, or quit. Though every vibre in me wanted to. My health , my personal life, they demanded it. But I did not stop.
And that persistence has let to today. It has let to an industry that doesn't care. A timeline that can only talk about something if its $ related. And a world that is more chaotic then ever before.
And amidst it all, I fulfilled my promise. Fragments of the Lonely Road is here. And I do not think you will ever understand what it means.
But, I do know, that this art. This project. This vision.
It has been worth it.
So now, if you made it all the way down here. I want you to rally. I want you to make noise. I want you to share with the world what this is about. I want you to be the storm that says, "shit can be different". And I will be the wave, and show, why that's the case.
GM. STAY BREEZY AND...
(you say it in the comments!)
charley retweeted
Warp, by espina, transforms the loom into generative art: patterns stretched across time, space, and binary threads.
Released 4 years ago on Art Blocks Factory.
charley retweeted
5 years. 500 collections.
Preserving an era of on-chain generative art
Laying the foundation for our next chapter
This is Art Blocks 500
Happy birthday to 10 years. The ticker is $ETH.
Thanks to everyone who joined the 10 year anniversary Livestream.
To memorialize the occasion, the ecosystem will be able to mint a free, commemorative Ethereum Torch NFT.
Minting will end on July 31st at 4PM UTC.
Mint the commemorative NFT. ethereum.org/10years/