THE ARCHIVE
From CryptoPunks to Punksville
On-chain facts apart from old marketing copy and folklore. Every entry below says how sure we are.
- June 2017Widely-cited history
CryptoPunks V1 launches
The original CryptoPunks contract goes live, free to claim for anyone with an Ethereum wallet. A bug in the purchase logic is discovered shortly after.
- June 23, 2017Widely-cited history
V2 airdrop
Larva Labs deploys a fixed contract and airdrops the corrected CryptoPunks (V2) to every V1 claimer - the collection most people mean when they say "CryptoPunks" today.
- Early 2022Widely-cited history
V1 resurgence
A wrapping contract makes the original V1 punks tradeable again, reviving a long-dormant provenance debate between V1 and V2 holders.
- February 2, 2022
Verified on-chainV3 Punks deployed
The V3Punks contract is deployed at 0xD33c078C2486B7Be0F7B4DDa9B14F35163B949e0 by icymind.eth - a legacy-free, community-run collection explicitly not affiliated with Larva Labs or Yuga Labs.
- 2022Verified on-chain
V3 Artifacts
A companion collection (V3Artifact, 0x5647717E536E4a6D3e6cde2d848fb6D933dB7Acb) launches with both a public paid mint and a Merkle-proof-gated allowlist claim.
- July 2022 onwardVerified on-chain
Spirits of Punksville
The SpiritsOfPunksville contract references V3 Artifacts directly on-chain. A Spirit costs either the live mint() price (0.0069 ETH) or one Artifact through consume() (gas only). Token IDs do not carry over. Color can match. Rarity rank does not transfer.
- Late 2022Widely-cited history
Community builds Punksville
Punksville was already the village in the community lore. Icymind's mint site, v3punks.io, never shipped that place as a real site. After the Spirits launch did not take hold and Icymind was not heard from, the community built a Punksville site themselves. That site was not v3punks.io.
- March 2023Verified from the old repo
Community Punksville goes quiet
The last commit to that first community-driven Punksville frontend, March 31, 2023. The three contracts stayed live and usable. That community site did not see further updates.
- 2026Verified from the old repo
This Punksville site
A new community site at punksville.io. Daily boxes from live holdings, public boards, and a DEMO of the winner's vault choice. The weekly chair is not seated. The three contracts are unchanged.
In the project's own words
The following is adapted from the first community Punksville site's account of V1, V2, and V3. It is historical marketing copy, not independently verified fact.
Launched in June of 2017, the cryptopunks were free for anybody with an Ethereum wallet to claim. Enthusiasts quickly jumped on the opportunity, but there was an error in the source code when making purchases. Shortly after the bug was discovered, a newer version was released and the V1 claimers were airdropped the CryptoPunks we know today (V2). In early 2022, a resurgence of the V1 contract happened after a developer made a safe wrapping contract that enabled V1 punks to trade safely again.
The V1 resurgence sparked debate and division in the punks community over which contract was more legitimate. While V1 and V2 holders argued about historical provenance, a select few members of the community got fed up. Icymind, the person behind the V3 movement, noticed this sentiment and spun up the V3 contract - prominent collectors, punk owners, and enthusiasts came together to form V3.
V3 is not an official child of Larva Labs like V1 and V2, but instead a natural, emergent phenomenon that arose from the community itself - an ideology about looking forward rather than litigating the past.
Attributed to Icymind
The community's own mythology
FictionPunksville was already the village in that four-chapter fiction, a parallel V3 universe the official mint site never built. The first community site published those chapters. It is not history and it is not on-chain fact. It is community writing, and it maps allegorically onto the real Artifacts → Spirits mechanic documented on the on-chain page.
Chapter I: The Village
Once upon a time, there was a small village hidden in the mountains called Punksville. In the beginning, everybody was happy and productive - farmers, engineers, teachers, and other professions worked together for the betterment of the collective community.
Over time, the village grew into a thriving economy, and the rest of the world took notice. But with prosperity came division: newcomers and old villagers began to argue over the village's resources, and Punksville split into two feuding factions.
One night, an elderly villager - his home just vandalized in the conflict - fell asleep angry and heartbroken. A mysterious spirit appeared to him in a dream, claiming to be from a parallel future universe called V3, where the two factions had long since set aside their differences and adopted an ethos of peace, unity, and love.
He woke to the sound of another window shattering. Inspired by the dream, he gathered a handful of villagers and told them to meet him at the Punksville shrine.
Chapter II: The Dig
The villagers gathered at the shrine, and the elderly villager described his vision of the V3 universe. "How would we go there?" a boy asked. He explained: mystical artifacts, left behind by a future civilization, were hidden in the mountains - blue, titanium, and black - and only the most determined would find them.
Legend held that in the V3 universe, these artifacts could be consumed to transform a physical body into a spirit of pure energy, ascending to a higher dimension. The villagers marched for the mountains to dig.
Chapter III: The Portal
Exhausted and covered in dirt, the villagers tallied their haul: 764 blue, 163 titanium, and 12 black artifacts. Arranged in a circle, the artifacts began to glow and rotate - and in a blink, the villagers were transported to V3.
But V3 was gloomy, cracked, and empty - nothing like the utopia from the dream. The elderly villager realized their mortal eyes simply couldn't perceive it yet. To truly see V3, they would need to become spirits themselves - and legend spoke of a volcano that could consume an artifact and complete that transformation.
Chapter IV: The Spirit
At the volcano's edge, the elderly villager lifted his black artifact. His vision blurred; a familiar energy flowed into his hands. In that frozen moment, he understood: every sliver of experience had led here. He was finally free of the illusion. The transformation was complete.
#MOV3MENT
The community around V3 Punks developed its own shorthand, still visible in that first community site's Discord section:
Honoring the original punks
The V1/V2/V3 provenance debate above is real, and this project has no interest in relitigating it. Whatever recognition My Punksville gives to V3 Punks holders, it gives to holders of the original Larva Labs CryptoPunks (V1 and V2) too - connect a wallet that holds either and it's surfaced with equal prominence, not as an afterthought. We have no more control over those contracts than we do over the three collections this site is actually about; see docs/ARCHAEOLOGY.md for exactly which addresses and why.
V3 Punks, V3 Artifacts, and Spirits of Punksville are not affiliated with Larva Labs or Yuga Labs - a distinction the original community was explicit about from day one.