From culture to product, the ultimate guide to Bitcoin Puppets

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: KAYLAN SLINEY

Original compilation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Bitcoin Puppets, a collection of 10001 unique PFPs hand-drawn by 12-year-olds in MS Paint, has now taken Web3 by storm. At launch, its floor price was 0.408 BTC ($26, 775).

However, what may seem unexpected and relatively overnight success to Xu long people has actually been long years in the making. Let's explore the intersection of culture, community, and Crypto Assets together.

A Brief History

In order to respect the privacy of the project's founder, Le Puppeteer Fou, we will preserve this history like Dunkin' Donuts coffee: light and sweet.

Legend has it that the master puppeteer has been an artist for longing and previously leaned more towards abstract portraiture. He and some key Puppets first met on the Wassies by Wassies Discord server during the original heyday of Ethereum NFT (non-Fungible Token). Their own private chat was subsequently created, and this growing collective of friendships became the foundation of the community we now know and love.

Prior to the creation of Bitcoin puppets, the master puppeteers had made collectibles such as Lasogette, an artistic aesthetic of 7, 777 generated PFPs, issuance on Ethereum networks, and Ord Puppet Inu Undoxxed Millionaires (O.P.I.U.M.), which made up esoteric and absurd collectibles, which issuance become OrdinalsNFTs.

O.P.I.U.M. is widely considered to be the predecessor of the puppet, and one of the reasons for this is the similarities between the two collections. But it turns out that the aforementioned famous private Discord also makes some wonderful contributions to each collection.

For example, everyone in the chat can submit text for a logo held by the O.P.I.U.M. puppet, resulting in traits like "Thicc Goddess Connoisseur", "Hustlin Apothecary", and "Digital Prophet".

Design puppets

When designing the characteristics of Bitcoin puppets, the "puppeteer" continues to engage his community. In the process, he maintained his allegiance to the sheer whimsy, sheer creativity, and patent-absurdity of the original O.P.I.U.M. collection.

Here are a few examples:

• two chairs t-shirt trait is the puppet's "KomUNiTy MaNAgEr" W 4 nkpire submitted by Michael Saylor on "How many chairs are you sitting on?" The evolution of retoristic (regarding full support for Bitcoin), Puppet Master adds a twist, turning one into red and the other blue (referring to the choice between the outcomes in Hacker Empire).
• The pink pipe trait is a reference to BennyTheDev's work, and after the release of $TRAC, he started developing the PIPE protocol, and some members of the Discord group started calling it "trac pipe" (a reference to "crack pipe").
• The "coffee time" cup feature in the puppet is derived from a vignette similar to the classic "What I Ordered vs. What I Got". OG team member Hillshills ordered a physical mug with "Rise and Grind" written on it to match her favorite O.P.I.U.M. feature. After a long and painful delivery process, she ended up with the disappointing words "Coffee Time". However, a new legend was born.

Initial minting

Puppet minting launched on January 3 on InscribeNow. Although the minting was quickly completed (with some suspicions of robotic activity), the public reaction to the art was markedly divided. Even among the proponents, there are divisions: some supporters absolutely love and resonate with the art of the series (including the cursed puppets in it), while others may not personally appreciate this fringe aesthetic but recognize that there is something special about this collection. Those who opposed it unabashedly criticized it.

However, the polarization of opinions only seems to fuel the fanaticism of believers. Early community members redoubled down on their efforts and bought more long collectibles on a large scale, while fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) people continued to lurk on social media, infiltrating X's space.

But the price of puppets continued to rise, with few setbacks along the way, leaving unbelievers in the dust.

But is it all that surprising?

Puppet Manifesto

Web3 is both an ever-evolving and unpredictable shorter, as well as vulnerable to relentless copy-and-paste. Since PFP projects that are so long want to "get it right", they more often replicate elements that have failed before.

Often, PFP projects are designed and marketed to represent a "community" that has not yet been given sufficient time to be identified, curated, or nurtured. 10,000 strangers buying a picture and expecting "numbers to pump" doesn't make up a community. Some groups are able to find their common ground and support, and with enough attention, resources, and effort, may be able to build some support. Longest other groups, however, are simply diluted bills, weighed down by unfulfilled promises and unmet expectations.

The puppet master subverts this narrative. No roadmap, no commitment, no board. He neither became the center of attention nor disappeared into the shorts. He simply positions himself as a stable, supportive presence that allows the holders to form the art and connections that best suit them. If you pay a little attention, you'll find cleverly set easter eggs, like the middle finger cursor on the website or the poetic quirks of the O.P.I.U.M. White Paper, which are gentle reminders not to take ourselves too seriously.

This complete and complete ban on expectation means that everything in the future will be purely organic, community-driven, and one of surprise and delight.

Let's not forget the original teams who spent years building relationships, forming sticky narratives, and amassing a ton of lore. Their emotional investment in the founders, the nature of the project, and each other means that the scaffolding of the community is already there when the "outsiders" join. Relying on a narrative that ultimately boils down to "no expectations" for each other, newcomers are warmly welcomed, but they never deliberately seek recognition.

Let them zero in

With people's insatiable thirst for puppets, a distinctly counter-intuitive maxim echoes through the halls of X: "Send them to zero" and perhaps this sounds like a sarcastic cry, but it's actually a friendly reminder that we're all on this train until the end. This is the only place on the internet where objective success is considered a failure.

Even in the face of soaring prices, the oft-repeated phrase "I was promised zero!" is a reminder that "puppets" have no expectations of their holders: just art, fun and a nice vibe. When they finally go to zero (like all things), one can only hope that they enjoy the journey.

There is no cooperation, but there is a lot of long derivation

Puppets are subject to the VPL (Viral Public License), which is similar to the more familiar CC0 (Creative Commons zero) license. VPL copyleft means that anyone can use this work for their own purposes and creative pursuits, including products and spin-offs, at any time.

Master puppeteers are staunch supporters of the "theory of non-cooperation" in order to avoid compromise, dilution, and commodification of art.

However, he not only allowed, but encouraged, the wider use of puppet intellectual property under the VPL. In their ephemeral public ecosystem, puppets have been spawned from countless derivatives. Some of the most similar collectibles so far include:

Each new derivation is exciting, as they promise to grace the legend of the "puppets":

A collection of memes, products, and playlists

Puppets are already routinely made into memes, commoditized, retouched, and playlists (and even albums) – all actively revered by puppet masters and the community at large. This collection has even inspired an AI syndicated radio station (called "RAIDIO") created by Lukas Kalmar called Puppet PR Radio.

Community activities aren't just limited to making the world's best memes and print merchandise (although the stickers are particularly good). Members have joined ETH Denver, NFT. NYC and other places are also planning to attend a Bitcoin event in Nashville, Tennessee in 2024.

Honorary titles

While the puppeteer makes it abundantly clear that he is not interested in "project operations" in the traditional sense, we can't help but notice how passionately he supports and participates in community activities.

Puppet Masters has created a rising collection of 1-on-1 puppets to recognize individuals he believes have contributed to the puppet community and/or the Blockchain space as a whole, including Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor and figures like DeeZe and ThreadGuy.

Most long of these puppets were custom-made and elaborate as a gift to the intended recipient, and a small number were made without considering the recipient, but eventually found their rightful owner. Recently, Puppet Masters announced a new set of accolades at X, including custom puppets for Ansem and BGS.

$PUPS

The power of puppets has spilled over to fungible tokens. $PUPS was launched as a meme coin that promised no roadmap, no utility, and only memes. Originally a BRC-20 with a Solana bridge, the $PUPS hope is to migrate to the Rune Network at Halving on April 19th, which is labeled PUPS•WORLD•PEACE.

While this project is neither affiliated with O.P.I.U.M. nor Bitcoin Puppets, it has been incorporated into the ecosystem and has been welcomed by the puppet community. In honor of the early puppet holders, on March 17, 2024, a collection called "Rune Puppets" (more commonly known as "Rune Puppy") was Airdropped to Bitcoin Puppet Holders.

A portion of the PUPS supply (22.3%) is reserved for distribution to rune puppies at the time of migration. Holders are Airdrop one of two rarity tiers, common or rare, the rare rune puppy will receive a multiplier bonus for which it will receive, and the remaining supply (77.7%) will be distributed to Token holders of BRC-20 and Solana bridge at a ratio of 1 to 100.

Conclusion

Centered on pure intent, puppet culture offers an artistic expression that reflects the Fluctuation and sometimes Illogic of Financial Activity in the Crypto Assets Market. While they are not without naysayers, or some may consider their art vulgar, the puppets proudly challenge traditional categorizations, celebrating their creativity and (anti)culture. By the way, they still want world peace.

At the time of writing, the puppets are just three months old. In the years of humanity, this was just a baby barely holding its head up in its belly, but in the years of Crypto Assets, it was already an anxious teenager. In the coming Bull Market bubble, there will inevitably be twists and turns, but as a project that has already created a group of millionaires from a crowd that "has no expectations", people should be more grateful.

It will be very interesting to see how this collection and the community continue to grow (or separate) together.