Becoming Punk 4762
2022 to 2024
I expanded my Web3 network and knowledge base during the last bear market with a thorough investigation of NFT communities and projects, exploring provable digital identity as the currency of Web3 in a post-industrial, creativity-based Culture.
I selected CryptoPunks for digital identity because of the collection’s brand strength and historical importance. I chose Punk 4762 as my personal, provable digital identity because I appreciate the NFT’s aesthetics and find the combination of Punk 4762’s three traits - mohawk, shades, and cigarette - to best represent “Punk vibes”.
Soon after acquiring Punk 4762, I learned of V1 Punk provenance and reconnected the Punk 4762 NFT pairs, V1 Punk 4762 and CryptoPunk 4762. I next vaulted the ENS domain 4762.eth. The trifecta had been achieved - matching Punk pairs and ENS digits. Punk 4762 was now my digital identity, but still I was not “4762.”
I realized that one’s favorite traits, such as “hoody”, didn’t necessarily carry over to other collections and communities. If my digital identity was tied to a visual trait in one collection, I could potentially have no identity within another collection and community. I decided to collect only the 4762’s of other NFT collections. More than that, though, here is when I made the decision to become “4762” - not a name, not an image, not a pfp, but a number.
My investigation of NFTs finally led me to utilizing the Yuga Labs-granted and protected CryptoPunk Intellectual Property of Punk 4762 in launching the PUNK Armada NFT Collection.