TwitterEggs — The NFTs From Namecoin
The NFT market has been absolutely on FIRE this year. It seems like every time a news article pops up, it’s about another record-breaking NFT sale. But here’s the thing, the NFTs making the biggest noise are usually the ones with historical relevance. What does that mean exactly?
Popular memes and internet sensations have been going for insane amounts of money. Take the “Charlie Bit My Finger” Youtube video for example. The creator made it into an NFT and sold it for over $750,000. But that’s not all, the first Twitter message ever sold for $2.9 million.
Unfortunately, most of us won’t get a chance to own something that historical. In fact, the age, uniqueness, and limited supply are precisely what makes these NFTs so valuable. But what if you were able to own something with just as much history, for a much smaller price.
Social media has gone through numerous reiterations and changes over the course of the last decade. Facebook has evolved from a simple personal forum to an all-in-one source for just about anything. Twitter has also gone through numerous revisions which has led to the platform we now know.
One of those Twitter reiterations is actually well known due to one particular feature: the default account image was an egg. These beloved profile pictures featured several different colors of a single egg. The image became so popular that Twitter eventually had to change it because users didn’t want to add their own profile picture.
Unfortunately, the TwitterEggs are no more. Instead, all we get is a bland outline of a person, that is until we inevitably change it to something more likable. But all is not lost, because several of these infamous TwitterEggs were preserved on the Namecoin blockchain.
What is Namecoin?
Namecoin was the first real “altcoin” and was a fork of Bitcoin, it is the only other project that Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi has worked on. Much like Ethereum, the goal was to provide functionality beyond a simple payment processing and monetary currency system. In the Ethereum whitepaper, Vitalik described Namecoin domains as non fungible assets.
Namecoin introduced a new transaction type that allowed blocks to store distributed key-values. This would allow it to act as a decentralized name registration database.
In 2014, Onename was launched on the Namecoin blockchain. This DApp allowed users to automatically store their Twitter, Github, and Facebook username and profile data as a decentralized key-value on the blockchain. You might get where this is going now — TwitterEgg profile pictures have been stored on the Namecoin blockchain as early as 2014.
Up until recently, there was no way to transfer them from the Namecoin blockchain to any other chain. However, Emblem Vault finally integrated a bridge between Namecoin and the Ethereum blockchain. Now, these rare Eggs have found their way to the most popular blockchain in existence.
The TwitterEgg NFTs
When people first started uploading their profiles to Namecoin, several of them imported the TwitterEgg image. The process automatically linked the profile picture to an NFT, officially creating a TwitterEgg NFT. While these NFTs were owned at one point, the Namecoin project lost steam, and most users didn’t renew their accounts. This meant their NFTs were up for grabs.
That’s where the TwitterEggs collection comes in. A total of 277 eggs were scraped from the blockchain, with 14 different color possibilities. These eggs were minted over the span of two years, 162 in 2014, and 115 eggs in 2015. The eggs have evaded mainstream attention for now, but with the recent bridge to Ethereum, that may be about to change.
Now that TwitterEggs are available to a mainstream audience, these NFTs will get a lot more attention. In fact, since their bridge to the Ethereum network, TwitterEgg NFTs have been trading between 15–80 ETH each.
So how can you score a piece of the pie (or egg)?
How TwitterEggs are bridged to Ethereum
Emblem Vault is a wallet based on the Namecoin blockchain that holds the TwitterEgg NFT in a vault. It then mints an ERC721 NFT that has ownership over the vault assigned to that specific TwitterEgg. The owner can then sell, transfer, or claim the vault. Check out this article for a more detailed explanation.
A word of caution for potential buyers: Scammers can choose to mint a vault without having to assign a TwitterEgg to it. So they may try to sell you a vault that has no value or NFT attached. Be sure to verify the information displayed in these images.
How to purchase your own TwitterEgg
Purchasing a TwitterEgg NFT is relatively straightforward and utilizes the popular OpenSea marketplace.
- Make your way to the Emblem Vault on OpenSea
- Find a TwitterEgg to your liking
- Select the NFT and confirm the data to ensure isn’t a scam (method mentioned above)
- Place a Bid or Buy Now
- Once you purchase your TwitterEgg, you now own the NFT container that is attached to it. You can then swap or sell this, or claim it to get the private key to your egg on Namecoin.
Now, as an official owner of one of the oldest PFP NFTs, you have a number of things you can do. Firstly you can Nest your profile picture on Twitter and secondly you gain access to the egg DAO. It’s primarily a chat dedicated to like minded people sharing ideas and projects, however the DAO will be built out in the near future.
Owning a piece of history
Some of the priciest NFTs have been historical items in the internet world. From original memes to GIFs, NFTs provide the key to owning a real piece of internet history. As the internet ages, these items will undoubtedly continue to gain in value as they represent a historic moment in time.
TwitterEggs are another historic part of internet history. Not only do they represent a lost feature of Twitter, but they are a part of the second oldest blockchain in the world. As some of the oldest NFTs in history, they offer a true look at the tokens before they became what they are today.
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