First seen at Curio DAO

Every epoch in the evolution of society leaves a trail. Usually, if it’s not by way of skulls and bones, or fragmented ruins, it’s through tools, texts, art, and attire — in other words, artifacts.

And this, too, is how ‘Historical NFTs’ will be remembered.

Historical NFTs

Historical NFTs chronicle the NFT culture; they help tell the story of how the movement came to be, technologically and artistically (and even literally, like the 2018 project, CryptoCards, which details milestones in Bitcoin’s evolution up to that point).

Historical NFTs are those minted before non-fungible tokens became popular; the likes of CryptoPunks, MoonCats, and CryptoKitties, to name a few. Historical NFTs are those that pioneered: Curio Cards, the first art project on Ethereum that helped define the standard for modern NFTs; Etheria and Pixelmap, which offered token utility in the form of blockchain-based real estate; Spells of Genesis, the first mobile game on the blockchain featuring card trading; RarePepes, card art which incorporated the Pepe meme to provide satire and retelling of culturally significant moments; and PunyCodes, ASCII art from 2011 created on NameCoin.

Most of these projects were brought to light thanks to ‘NFT archaeologists’, such as Adam McBride. They were rediscovered through the blockchain’s public ledgers; and then shared as meaningful, impactful artifacts. And together with the widening NFT landscape, they’re preparing a crypto generation to navigate a metaverse-rich future.

Culture Is Data

Before computers, cultural and historical artifacts were all physical. They might’ve been buried inside ancient tombs, below volcanic ash, or at the bottom of the ocean. And only found by archaeological teams, or random good fortune.

While large-scale archaeological digs are still turning up the physical remnants of past civilizations, our lives are becoming increasingly digitized. According to a recent report, 16–64-year-olds spend an average of seven hours online per day. Much of that is on social media, but also for work, research, entertainment, and ‘general browsing’. These and other online activities occur alongside the creation and exchange of vast amounts of data. Whether images, videos, GIFs, or PDFs — whichever the format, these files are stored as digital objects containing information. Sometimes, such an object is shared with the world. And, sometimes, it’s simply a wall of text among thousands of other files; meaningless unless compiled into a program, perhaps as an ‘easter egg’ in a fantasy video game, or as part of a tutorial guide on pixel art.

The propagation of digital files means the trail is online. As humans create, meet, and shop through digital devices, their data becomes part of our modern story. Even if private, that data is also part of our digital pre-metaverse world, which already contains more cultural artifacts than can be consumed in an entire lifetime. This reflects an old principle — culture traced through artifacts — in a new medium: the metaverse on the blockchain.

NFTs Are Metaverse Assets

For the metaverse to be ‘real’, it will certainly need public digital assets — what NFTs are today. In fact, NFT monetization is exactly what has propelled work on a metaverse, a term which seemingly first appeared in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 Cyberpunk novel, Snow Crash. Even before that, William Gibson depicted a virtual world as ‘cyberspace’, first in his short story, “Burning Chrome”, and then in his popular debut novel, Neuromancer, which defined the Cyberpunk genre.

Although these ideas have been around since the 80s and 90s, it might’ve been hard to predict which technologies or companies would snowball the metaverse into existence. Certainly, given Facebook’s forays into virtual reality (VR) with Oculus Rift, and its global hold on personal data, the company was always a strong candidate to commercialize the shift. In fact, Curio Cards artist and Web3 technologist Robek World predicted the social media behemoth would lead the Metaverse charge, back in 2017.

With the adoption of blockchain and the explosive arrival of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the metaverse is now, seemingly, a focal point of our future. That’s because these two technologies, together, are able to create an expressive, decentralized, digital asset economy. Files can be traded as goods because blockchain offers the infrastructure to securely store and monetize them. This creates the virtual economy we use today, for example through marketplaces like OpenSea, LooksRare, or even NFTfi. Importantly, ownership of NFTs in these economies is decentralized, and reliant on no group, or company, specifically. This means a future metaverse can exist freely, founded on this open virtual economy, where NFTs prove ownership of digital goods transferred publically via blockchain.

The value ascribed to digital assets has become clear with the rise of NFTs. Since 2021, NFT trading has reached exceptional heights — even without the record-breaking, historic auction house sales — and eyes around the globe are firmly on the space. This influx of investment and attention has brought with it an entire community of Web3 enthusiasts, creators, and builders, too. And within that community, you have stories, characters, and memes — the NFT culture.

Historical NFTs As A Cultural Movement

NFT culture is as varied as the many projects in the space; whether profile picture collections inspired by CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, or communities built around the work of innovative artists like Beeple and Dmitri Cherniak.

In all of these projects, NFTs are artifacts of the digital kind. And all of them are part of a moment in history: the dawn of NFTs. But then there’s a group of NFTs that carry an intrinsic, historical value: Historical NFTs. Some collectors call these Historical NFTs ‘grails’ — rightfully so, in the digital sense. Some also refer to them as vintage; certainly, there’s a difference between projects that changed things and those that were ‘merely’ early. In any case, we may look at all NFTs from today as ‘historical’ someday. Perhaps, far into the future, someone will enter an old metaverse library, a blockchain-based ledger, to unravel our digital journey: when we went from NFT-loving cryptokids to a fully virtual world. And Historical NFTs will be there to tell that story.

This article was made possible by Curio DAO contributors with an insatiable interest in Curio Cards’ story and its place in art history. 

Written and edited by: OCRipley, Daniel Friedman (Artist of cards 24–26), Crypto Lurker, and Clio Beruete.

Contributors are always welcome; read more about the DAO and how to join here, And visit the Curio Cards Discord to get to know the community.