1337
What an exciting few weeks it’s been working on the 1337 Skulls project. An art project built by community members who are deeply immersed in the cc0 and on-chain Web3 culture. Skulls for the communities 💀💀💀
Before I dive in, I wanted to thank Flashrekt for inviting me to be 532 in 1337. It’s been an absolute honor to work with this team made up of 51991eth, Skominers, 0xDith, Maniinng, kamtang, Cham_boss, epikur, quantized, WrongNebula, monno. The conversations in our 532 channel are inspiring and innovative. None of this would be possible without creative cc0 projects, especially ones like Blitmap and the Chain Runners where we all met.
What is 1337?
1337 Skulls is a collection of 7,331 pixel art skulls, deployed fully on-chain with a public domain license. 600+ traits created from new, original art and referencing 30+ existing cc0 NFT projects. Free mint. 0% royalties. No roadmap. Just 1337. The origin story of 1337 can be seen here.
This is more than a collection of 7,331-pixel art images. This group of passionate creatives pushes art and innovation forward through cc0 and on-chain endeavors. I’ve seen every team member in other discord servers, sharing galleries, and enthusiastic about these beliefs. Quantized summarized it best here…
“1337 Skulls is the first project to elegantly integrate a whole culture of CC0 art into a single package... made by people who are deeply immersed and enmeshed in that culture”
What does 1337 mean?
Leet (or "1337"), also known as leet or leetspeak, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet.
A derivative of the 80's software piracy scene. Originally "elite" was used to show status on a BBS. Commonly the people who cracked the software, or had sysop access on a board would be referred to as Elite. Later it became common to just use "leet." With the internet explosion, it was later used to describe hackers as well as crackers. Due to it being great to be known as leet, newbies started adopting the term and using it to describe themselves, often with numerical variations.
More sound bites are open-sourced on our website.
What makes 1337 special?
Art, Technology, Culture. No more, no less. If you're a collector of art, technology, and innovative experiences then 1337 is for you. 0xDith summarized it best here…
Love pixel art & on-chain art
Know what cc0 is & believe in it
Love internet subculture and obscure memes
Don't care about price go up or down
Without getting too technical, the below image visualizes what makes this NFT so unique. Without pointing to the prominent such as Cryptopunks, Nouns, and Chain Runners as all innovative on-chain projects.
1337 is a centralization of history into a single project delivering visuals as on-chain code to the Ethereum blockchain, not simply jpgs living on a server.
1337 culture and open source
Everything we do is public domain and open-sourced to enable and inspire Web3. 1337 is a movement driven by a community passionate about cc0, on-chain, and subculture. We open-sourced everything from our visuals and sounds to the mint strategy, free for all. We hope to inspire the 1337 meme and content culture by providing these assets.
Future 1337
Our mission continues as a group of artists, strategists, and Web3 enthusiasts. 1337 will continue to communicate, contribute, and inspire the broader Web3 ecosystem into the future. This project has helped place a spotlight on the ongoing cc0 conversation. Articles, threads, and discussions about cc0 are being had, leading to new beginnings and inevitable innovations. Do we design systems for cc0, education playbooks for brands, and all ideas are 1337.
Important Links
Read more about cc0 here: https://a16zcrypto.com/cc0-nft-creative-commons-zero-license-rights/
Checkout our open-sourced content here.
Join the 1337 community Discord and follow me on Twitter, I will post a follow-up with a few 1/1 custom clothing designs in the coming week.
