Nov 7, 2020

5 min read

The First Polkadot NFTs: SubstraPunks

Read my original article at Voice.

I have been writing quite a few articles regarding NFTs recently. I also talked about the future potential of such NFTs and how the ecosystem is going to explode in the future. One of the most important criteria in the valuation of NFTs is ‘rarity’. CryptoPunks is one of the first groups of NFTs (if not the first) ever created on the Ethereum Blockchain. An average cryptopunk currently sells for approximately 4 ETH ($1200)!

We have missed the CryptoPunk boat, but Polkadot has given us a second opportunity. The first NFT marketplace in Polkadot is launching soon with the first Polkadot NFTs created, SubstraPunks

Larvalabs the history of CryptoPunks in Ethereum Blockchain

Larvalabs is the creator of CryptoPunks. These are 24x24 pixel art images that were generated algorithmically. In total 10000 punks were generated with no single punk exactly alike. These punks were initially given away for free to be owned in the Ethereum Blockchain. The punks are usually boys and girls having different traits. The rarer types include apes, zombies, and an alien. The crypto punks are now sold in the marketplace. You need Metamask to connect to the portal.

Some interesting stats below:

• Number of Sales (Last 12 Months): 4,184

• Average Sale Price (Last 12 Months): 3.71= ($1,481)

• Total Value of All Sales (Lifetime): 15.53K=($6.2M)

• The average bid over the last year was 4.41 ETH ($1,759.28 USD).

Unique Network and SubstraPunks in Polkadot Blockchain

SubstraPunk NFTs were created by the Unique Network. Unique Network was the winner of Hackusama in ‘Build a Blockchain Category’. SubstraPunk is a Substrate based remake of CryptoPunks. 10,000 unique character images were created with a brand new set of face parts. Substrapunk images are auto-generated from 8 parts. Some of them are optional (like a beard or cigar), some are required (like the face). Some are uni-sex (like earrings or noserings), but some define the gender of the generated character (like lipstick or blonde hair for girls or a beard for boys). If the gender is not determined, the chance decides what it is going to be at the moment when they are generated.

The component parts are:

1. Face (2 options: black and white)

2. Beard, optional (7 options)

3. Earrings, optional (3 options)

4. Eyes/sunglasses (5 options)

5. Hair (12 options)

6. Mouth (6 options)

7. Nose ring, optional (1 option)

8. Cigar or a pipe, optional

The total combinations possible are 89820, but the algorithm randomly picked 10000 of them.

All SubtraPunks have now been claimed and trading is going on in an unregulated grey market.

A detailed analysis by Telegram user ‘nsai’ gage the below result (approximation and numbers might not add up)

Rarity by the count of traits

• 1 trait (21) — Very Very Rare

• 2 trait (228) — Very Rare

• 7 trait (395) — Rare

• 3 trait (1094) — Less Frequent

• 6 trait (2003) — More Frequent

• 4 trait (2766) — Very Frequent

• 5 trait (3493) — Abundant

Top 9 Rarest trait

1. Facial Hair (Mustache First)

2. Purple Lipstick

3. Red Lipstick

4. Round Eyes

5. Asian eyes

Rarity by Hair type:

1. Blonde — 118

2. Bubble — 561

3. Bald — 569

4. Caret — 570

5. Thin — 572

6. Pony Tail — 579

7. Up Hair — 856

8. Emo — 887

9. Down Hair — 1304

10. Orange Hair — 1306

11. Mahawk — 1337

12. Red Mahawak — 1341

Rarity by Eye type:

1. Round Eyes — 1952

2. Asian Eyes — 2001

3. Sun Glasses — 2022

4. Red Glasses — 2082

Rarity by Nose type:

1. Nose Ring — 5096

Rarity by Mouth type:

1. Purple Lipstick

2. Red Lipstick

3. Teeth Smile

4. Smile

Rarity by Accessories:

1. Pipe — 2065

2. Cigar — 3993

Rarity by Ear type:

1. Right earring — 2440

2. Two earring — 2451

3. Left Earring — 2495

Rarity by Facial hair type:

1. Mustache — 715

2. Regular beard — 729

3. Brown beard — 738

4. Mustache — beard — 747

Next steps:

• Substrapunks have been so well received that they will be moved to the Polkadot mainnet when it goes live next year.

• The Marketplace was tested within a closed group of 10 early adopters. The testing was hugely successful with a few minor bugs identified. Additional portal features (e.g, bringing in Filters, etc) were proposed.

• Voting features with be activated before the launch of Mainnet

I see a huge interest in Polkadot NFTs coming up. I would recommend testing the Marketplace when it comes up, this might turn up to be a good investment. Further details can be found in the Unique Network Telegram. Be careful about trading in unofficial forums.

I would appreciate it if you leave your point of view in the comments for further discussions.

Further reading

The World Of NFTs: Part 1 — The Present

The world of NFTs: Part 2 — The Future

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