Farewell, CryptoPunk 7804
The Mona Lisa of Digital Art
Hi y’all,
Below is the unedited script from The Good Time Show on March 12, 2021. Dylan Field, CEO & Co-founder of Figma, gave a riveting speech about selling CryptoPunk 7804 a couple days prior, for $7.5M USD. He sold it to Perugglia, who had an incredible Tweet thread, which is also worth reading.
If you want to listen to the speech, I recommend it. It’s ~5 minutes long. You can listen to it here.
Below is the full transcript, without commentary. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Dylan Field | The Good Time Show
March 12, 2021
"So, for those who don't know, CryptoPunks was the first Ethereum crypto art project.
It was created in 2017 by two visionary artists, Matt Hall and John Watkinson. There are only 10,000 CryptoPunks, which anyone could claim for free in the early days. And of those 10,000 CryptoPunks, there are only 88 Zombie Punks, 24 Apes, 9 Aliens and exactly one Alien Punk smoking a pipe. Its name is 7804. And I personally believe that in 100 years, we will look back on 7804 as the Mona Lisa of digital art.
My relationship with 7804 started in January 2018, when I bought it for 12 ETH, or $15k USD. At that point most CryptoPunks traded for about $100 or $200. So why'd I pay $15k for this picture of an alien? It wasn't just how rare it was, though it was rare. 7804 compelled me. It had gravitas. I found it to be absolutely magnetic. And I had a sense that others out there would feel the same way. I also believed that the question of ‘what is art?’ would propel the crypto art movement forward.
So, what is art?
And what does it mean to own art?
What does it mean to have a relationship with art?
In the case of crypto punks, the answers to all these questions are unclear, which is part of why I personally find the project so, so fascinating.
Let's start with ‘what is art?’
You might say that CryptoPunk's art piece is the algorithm Matt and John used to generate the CryptoPunk images. Or, you might claim that the art piece is each individual Punk. I personally believe that the actual art piece is the CryptoPunks community, which has been feverishly speculating on, and trading Punks and discussing Punks over the past three and a half years. This might sound absurd to people listening, but many of us in the community have formed deep relationships with our Punks. We see them as our avatars. We discuss them ad nauseam. We even dream about them. The Punks become deeply intertwined with our identities. They effectively function as masks.
So, why did I sell 7804?
To be completely honest, it’s because I want to see 7804 become the patron saint of digital art. Or, perhaps, the patron alien, if you will. It bothered me that it was not universally acknowledged that 7804 was the best most valuable CryptoPunk. It bothered me that it was not a symbol for the entire crypto art movement. And there's a paradox, because 7804 cannot be seen as a symbol for the crypto art movement unless it changes hands. So, I priced it at 4200 ETH, which was extremely aggressive, yet still believable price point, for someone who resonated with 7804 as much as I did, knowing that if it was bought at that price point, it would bring even more attention to CryptoPunks as project, and also to 7804 as a piece of art.
7804 was purchased earlier this week by a mysterious figure known only as Puruggia. Peruggia is of course, a reference to Vincenzo Perguggia, who stole the Mona Lisa, on August 21st, 1911. This theft was heavily covered in the news and made the most of the most known piece of art in the world.
Since purchasing 7804, Peruggia has made a beautiful statement on twitter, which I encourage all of you to read. And, as I reflect on it, selling 7804 has been surprisingly emotional for me, which I think speaks to its power. It's emotional, not because I think I could get more money from it—rather, because I had a relationship with the work. As I reflected on the sale, I also felt a very deep bond to Peruggia, the new owner of 7804. And I don't know who Peruggia is, I don't know what their gender is, or what ethnicity they are, or where they live. But I have finally found someone who appreciates 7804 as much as I do.
So, with that, it's time for me to change my mask…
Hopefully it's updated for all of you.
Peruggia: if you're out there listening, enjoy your time with 7804. But please know that owning 7804 is a paradox, and possibly a curse. Because, if you appreciate 7804 as much as I do, then you'll stop at nothing to make sure it is seen by everyone as the most valuable piece of digital art. And because of that, your time will be limited with it. And when you sell, which you will, you will forever live with the question of why you parted ways with a digital Mona Lisa.”
If you enjoyed this, check out my extended post: WTF are NFTs?
And please forward along to anyone you think may enjoy this, and subscribe to my weekly newsletter.
See y’all in The Metaverse,
Brendan J Short