1) How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Punks:

If this comes across your timeline you likely believe that in the future the world will grow more digitized and decentralized. If not I doubt a guy who values MS Paints at over $13,000 per pixel will convince you otherwise.

2) If you’re anything like me- your current self has learned a lot of things about digitization that your past self doubted. Each unnecessary purchase I made or other investment I held when bitcoin was $100 was me financially voicing an opinion that bitcoin is worth under $100.

3) Each quarter I left in my change jar was me deciding it was better than used to fund @VitalikButerin building @ethereum because my past self underestimated innovation. Each lot of bitcoin I’ve sold was me fighting innovation and financially choosing other assets.

4) If you’re a participant in cryptocurrency markets who has less holdings than you’d like- it’s probably safest to just keep accumulating your preferred chain. Avoiding the NFT and Punks craze is likely the prudent decision.

5) That said scarcity is what this whole space is about and many people miss the forest for the trees. When I see (fellow) bitcoin maximalists belittle other digital investments it makes me feel that they’ve simply gotten lucky and do not understand why this space is valuable.

6) Whether they think 10 minute blocks are a lucky number, or that a cherry-picked version of certain things Satoshi believed in 2009 is a requisite trait for a digital asset to be a good investment is beyond me.

7) Each investment in this space is a bet that over time people will allocate more resources in that direction. The arguing I see over which chains/projects are “better” is something I find strange as your goal should be to speculate on adoption for your intended time horizon.

8) And here is my time horizon surrounding punks: I think the cryptocurrency space is going to both produce and eventually be joined by all of the wealthiest people on earth. Those that embrace technology will outperform those that fight it which is a tale as old as time.

9) I’ve seen extremely prominent figures in this space mock my purchase. I feel exactly the way you do when someone asks you what bitcoin is backed by. I know you don’t “get it” yet but you will. Just like they’ll get it a few cycles from now.

10) If anything this has informed me just how early I am. Many of these same people buy art, or trading cards, or other collectibles. Is it because that card feels better in their hand than a cheaper card? Or that painting looks better than a cheaper painting?

11) No. They buy it because they are fine paying the market price for something they like with resources they’ve earned. It is a testament to their accomplishments that they can afford such luxuries.

12) As society progresses do we expect this trend to change? As wealth disparities between rich and poor grow progressively larger do we expect demand for scarce assets to decrease? Do we think the world will grow less digital?

13) Cryptopunks were first. A floor punk is 2,100 times scarcer than the bitcoin I cherish so deeply. Much like bitcoin’s biggest advantage being that it was first to gain adoption- as were cryptopunks.

14) Not only that but the distribution model was incredibly fair. Everyone had an equal chance to participate and those who believed in them were enriched. There was no slew of pre-sales, shilling, and seed rounds like we see with most assets in the space.

15) I look at @larvalabs, @scott_lew_is, @zoink, @citizen2890, @seedphrase, @sethspalding, and others I’m sure I’m missing and realize you guys are visionaries. You valued what I believe to be the scarcest assets in the space before anyone else did. And I applaud you.

16) What is scarcity worth? I like to view the Mona Lisa as the scarcest asset. If the French government were facing bankruptcy and needed to sell assets and put it to auction what should it sell for?

17) Long after @elonmusk is priced out- would the U.A.E government and the high value their country places on scarcity be able to outbid superpowers like the U.S Government and Chinese government? What’s the right price? 0.01% of world wealth? 0.1%?

18) My framework for valuing punks is:
A) how large is the global demand for scarce assets?
B) how likely is it that in the future the most valued assets are digital?
C) how likely are the first NFTs to be viewed as the scarcest?

19)
D) among scarce assets what % of that value should be placed on the most esteemed?
E) how likely is Punk 7804 to be viewed as one of the most esteemed?

I think it requires very minimal faith in innovation to reach a conclusion this space will be more valued in the future.

20) And thus from my estimates I think the 4200 ETH I spent on this punk is virtually a rounding error. Much like my namesake I may have acquired what will one day be viewed as the scarcest asset for a cost basis of roughly $0.

21) Are NFTs a bubble? Absolutely.
Are cryptopunks? You betchya.
But so was bitcoin at $30.

Time in the market beats timing the market. It always has. And it always will.

22) Much like how one of my idols @ptj_official felt in May when buying bitcoin for the first time- I feel that the small percent of my portfolio I’ve allocated into this speculative space will be my best performer.

23) Also @justinsuntron my condolences on losing the auction. Us anons have a way of winning these things ;). I sent you something as a small token of my appreciation for helping to grow the NFT space. Red on white seemed appropriate:

24)
https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks/details/1649 https://etherscan.io/tx/0xbe09e0681bdd320064dd924fb5edf9187bde77ca2cb71fcf4904d577848054b2

25) If you want an asset that'll be worth far more in 20 years at a fraction of the cost I suggest you acquire one of my colleagues. Let’s grab a drink sometime whether on my planet or yours.