This post is dedicated to publicly organizing and critiquing a public list for Counterparty’s vast historical assets/tokens and projects we have seen since Counterparty’s inception.
The goal for this list is to eventually put them into a cool Historical Timeline to be published on Counterparty.io in a new page titled “History”. This, and other website changes were previously published in this Counterparty Forum post: Updating Information on Counterparty.io - #8 by davesta
The planning of this History page also includes a Counterparty Developer Timeline, but it has already been started here: Counterparty Developer Timeline for Counterparty.io
Let’s just focus on assets/tokens and project history here and keep Developer updates separate.
I’ve come to notice there is a significant amount of assets and projects to cover. How many should we include? Which one’s shouldn’t make the cut? Or which ones should? And why?
Goal
It is my hope that the changes stated in the previous posts as well as publishing this data below will bring more education to the current and future Counterparty community. If not, at least we will be finally updating the website to show current information about this space.
In my opinion most people in other cryptocurrency spaces are naïve of the history of Counterparty and how many giant leaps have already been accomplished.
I invite you to verify, critique and comment on this post to perfect this list so all can benefit off of the goal of publishing this content on Counterparty.io
Acknowledgments
First off I’d like to give a huge shoutout to all the digital archaeological digging done by JP Janssen (@JPJA) , Whiterabbit1111, Doggfather, HarryBTC, Blackstar, Jake Gallen and a few other people in the community like RarePepeNews, Scrilla, @theo_goodman, Joe Looney, Nutildah/dogermint, Jdog, LiteBit, Sebuh, ZeroG, Helene, Rob Mitchell and so many more that I have a hard time keeping track of all of the beautiful people who have helped compile this information. If I haven’t included your name, know I give you all the love in the world.
I have pulled my information mentioned below from this API call and a few other sources:
The filtered XCP asset list from JPJA
these podcasts:
these interviews:
Exploring the Vintage NFT Space with ZeroG
this show:
and these articles:
https://jpjanssen.com/a-timeline-of-non-fungible-tokens-on-counterparty/
https://jpjanssen.com/timeline/counterparty.html?asset=OLGA&issuer_msg=off
Creative Design
Similar to the Developer Timeline, I am imagining this timeline to be a linear/flat infographic that has certain events “expand” upon hovering over them with more in-depth information about each asset/project and its significance. The final product could look something like:
or could look something like:
but, without trying to plagiarize WhiteRabbit1111’s work, I have always enjoyed this style of timeline:
It is my intention to reach out to an experienced graphic designer for this project as I believe the timeline should follow a few guidelines for the creative side of things:
- The Color scheme should be matching the Logo and Color Scheme of Counterparty.io (need a well seasoned pro to get this feeling right)
- The timeline should be readable and scrollable (maybe even zoomable) on a mobile device as well as Desktop.
- We could possibly find someone who is excited and knowledgeable about XCP that may have many more hours of experience (and/or pool some donations to pay them for their work).
Formatting
I’m thinking we will have to come up with the specific things and points of information to include here that are most important. Maybe we could just signify:
Date:
Timeline Asset/Project:
Significance:
Related Links:
Issuer:
Timeline Data
Date: Jan 2, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: XCP
Significance: XCP is technically Asset ID #1 on Counterparty and was created through a proof-of-burn by burning a certain amount Bitcoin to bring XCP into existence.
Related Links: https://counterparty.io/news/why-proof-of-burn/
https://xchain.io/asset/XCP
Issuer: Counterparty Community
Date: Jan 13, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: TEST
Significance: This is the first user tokenized asset to be minted on Counterparty. It had no text, image, audio or any data associated with it. Years later when this historical token was re-found, the creator of the asset decided to add some key information and some community art to represent it. It was created by the Bitcointalk Forum user by the name of ‘jimhsu’ when he was testing the Counterparty Protocol. TEST was also used for testing the Counterparty Decentralized Exchange. At the time Etherscan founder, Matt Tan was also one of the parties involved in testing Counterparty functionality. TEST is considered the first ‘Fungible’ user asset created historically on the Counterparty protocol. It was even created before the protocol required 0.5 XCP burned to create a named asset.
Related Links: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/Qmf8AEoLbUoJBA7z2xh8bbV7SiUGYZufHvh9msDQecEmNq
[ANN][XCP] Counterparty - Pioneering Peer-to-Peer Finance - Official Thread
https://xchain.io/asset/TEST
Issuer: jimhsu
Date: Jan 14, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: First Broadcast
Significance: The first broadcast using the Counterparty Protocol simply included the Message: “CoinDesk BPI USD”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/tx/927
Issuer: 1Pcpxw6wJwXABhjCspe3CNf3gqSeh6eien
Date: Jan 14, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: LEET
Significance: The first divisible asset that was issued by a user was LEET. It simply was the first asset that could be broken down into smaller units. Possibly considered the first truly fungible asset that did not have “whole units”. The total supply was a meme number (1337.00000000 Units).
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/LEET
Issuer: 1JfTCVaBjX1KQ32GLYxXDXTzYzuPYcwroA
Date: Feb 8, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: SFMSTOCK
Significance: SFMSTOCK is the first Counterparty asset to include a description added to the asset. The description simply stated “SilverFishMiner” to denote more information on the token. It seems related to a Chinese cryptocurrency miner company named “SilverFish”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/SFMSTOCK
Issuer: 1SFSTKsMyrofjX5kiqnbGfdb5vi7mGa63
Date: Feb 9, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: XCPBET
Significance: XCPBET is the first Counterparty Asset to include an exterior website link to the description. It forwarded to “xcpbet.com”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/XCPBET
Issuer: 1XCPBETx1GXXYSeFCZVaP1B7f9d83pfCh
Date: Mar 12, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: LTBCOIN
Significance: Let’s Talk Bitcoin was a bitcoin centered podcast and website created in April of 2013. Adam B. Levine, Andreas Antonopoulos, and Stephanie Murphy are the most well-known contributors at Let’s Talk Bitcoin, but the network was comprised of a multitude of freelance (autonomous) editors, contributors, and sponsors, plus their rapidly growing audience. The idea behind LTBcoin was to generate a finite number of coins and then distribute those coins over a five year period based on a pre-defined distribution protocol. In this manner, contributors, members of the audience, and every other stakeholder can earn LTBcoins while maintaining a vested interest in the overall health of the network. LTBcoins were earned by producing or consuming content on the website and used as currency to buy items such as merchandise and advertising on podcasts. LTBCOIN was also listed on major centralized cryptocurrency exchanges at the time, including Bittrex and Poloniex. It may be considered one of the first “altcoins” made on the Counterparty Platform.
Related Links: https://web.archive.org/web/20230131224146/https://letstalkbitcoin.com/
https://xchain.io/asset/LTBCOIN
Issuer: 3MAmfj1J3jBCf1XGmqXWjne2WstMNkE6T8
Date: Apr 8, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: UNIT
Significance: UNIT is the first time in Counterparty history that the user locked the token supply. While some earlier tokens have been locked later in time, this is the first token to use the “lock supply” function.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/UNIT
Issuer: 1LNwwEjJzK9H8M61NuQvcmwFiZ5u2Y7wn4
Date: Apr 9, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: MICE
Significance: In April 2014, three tokens with the name MICE and the description: “<:3_)~ squeak!” made their way into the Counterparty database. They’ve been hiding ever since, not to be seen even on the xchain Counterparty block explorer, but they are visible in the Counterparty Database. This asset is one of the most “hidden” historical tokens.
Related Links: xcp.dev
Tips for Bitcoin NFT Archeologists – JP Janssen
Issuer: 1BGSqmCnkdyB7W2T15rSBS4qXBdY3LZn1t
Date: Apr 22, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: ROCKMINER
Significance: ROCKMINER is the first asset to include a JSON reference in the description of the asset which was “http://www.rockminer.com/xcp_info.json”. It seems related to the mining company called RockMiner which was founded in 2013.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/ROCKMINER
Issuer: 1ABBDuY1CJuPNtZR8r3qPGzRYkqpcCPGr1
Date: May 28, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: SWARM
Significance: SWARM was a token representing the Swarm Corporation which funded “coin-powered accelerators to incubate and coach young businesses”. It was the first project on Counterparty to try to facilitate a ‘crowdfunding’ process like Kickstarter, but backed on Counterparty assets. The Swarm official website stated at launch: “accepted companies will raise more money faster and with reduced costs. Swarm companies will offer investors real equity in turn for investment dollars instead of being limited to gifts or early access to products.”
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/SWARM
https://swarm.com/
Issuer: 1CNTKYtdVJ3f1Xrjhi8ceV3DrKVN5yda1W
Date: Jun 4, 2014
Time Asset/Project: TATIANACOIN
Significance: A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tatiana Moroz has been a vocal advocate in the Bitcoin community since 2012. She was a part of the community in the “Let’s Talk Bitcoin” podcast and was helped by Adam Levine to create a Counterparty token that represented crowdfunding for her music. TATIANACOIN is considered “the first musical artist coin and the alpha for the concept of artist tokens”. Owning this coin meant you were funding the recording of Tatiana’s “Keep The Faith” album. The album cover is made from the original signed artwork by Ross Ulbricht while he was in prison. He gave it to her as a birthday gift. As mentioned on her website, “From as early as 2015, Tatiana had conceived of a token that would contain her combined music and artwork. She minted a run of 100 tokens for this purpose in 2015. Then in 2017, she minted tokens to contain all her albums to date. These include the TATIANAMOROZ (100 coins), minted Oct 10, 2015 and the TATIANAALBUM (900 coins), minted on Feb 10, 2017, among others.”
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/TATIANACOIN
https://www.tatianamoroz.com/tatiana-coin/
Bitcoin for Musicians: Tatiana Moroz Makes the Case for "Artist Coins", Blockchains and More — SonicScoop
Issuer: Tatiana Moroz
Date: Jun 12, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: OLGA
Significance: OLGA was the first asset to be truly “Non Fungible” using Counterparty as it is a 1/1 piece that is not divisible into smaller units. This asset also contained significant intention and meaning. OLGA was used as a gesture of love whereby JP Janssen dedicated a token to his sweetheart ‘Olga’ with the additional text stating ‘My Eternal One & Only’. It is also the first Token to include a non-English language as well as non-ASCII characters. Approximately a year later (August 2015) he added a message (using the Broadcast function) to the metadata in base64 format which contained an image of a light pencil drawing of them kissing. This is considered one of the first assets with a text description, and with the metadata added in August of 2015, OLGA is also considered the first “Image Embedded NFT” on the Counterparty protocol. JP also added a message along with the image which translates to: “My dear eternal Olga! Congratulations on your birthday!”. The theory behind using these functions and formats was so the data would be saved ‘on-chain’ and accessible without any exterior links, and of course, to express that there is only one OLGA.
Related Links: https://twitter.com/jp_janssen
FAQ About OLGA – JP Janssen
https://xchain.io/asset/OLGA
Issuer: JP Janssen
Date: Jun 15, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: SEBUH
Significance: Even though SEBUH was minted 2 days before on June 13, 2014, the updating of the description with { “;image”;: “;Sebuh.com is available at DomainMarket.com. Call 888-694-6735”; } was the first instance of a token including an image reference with a Counterparty Asset. The description has been changed since and now links to “sebuh.com”. At the time Sebuh used this locked, non-divisible asset and sold them for 0.144 BTC in which you could redeem the SEBUH tokens for a RBox Rockminer through his website. Years later in 2022 he stated “a collector messaged me on Facebook. He was after some really old Bitcoin miners. We traded a few miners with them for SEBUH tokens. So I shipped a Prospero X1, Ice fury, Redfury, and Technobit NF1, to Equador. It’s now part of a museum.” This token is also considered one of the earliest tokens to include a physical item related to a Counterparty Asset. Learn more about Sebuh and his story here.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/SEBUH
https://twitter.com/Sebuh_com
ANN: SEBUH token Rockminer Rbox Group Buy and Investment Option
https://youtu.be/06EgYWxpxzw
Issuer: Sebuh
Date: Jun 28, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: JPJA
Significance: JPJA is one of the first tokens to give “shares” for a separate outside product within a Counterparty Asset. On June 28th the description of JPJA was changed to “1 share = 1 % of eBook tips. See JPJA.net” which provided a way to ‘own’ a piece of an eBook titled ‘The Economics of Bitcoin’ by JP Janssen. This is also the first reference to an eBook on any Counterparty Transaction or Asset. This was published on the Bitcointalk forums as an experiment and funds were distributed to holders according to terms set on the asset.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/JPJA
[ANN][XCP] Counterparty - Pioneering Peer-to-Peer Finance - Official Thread
JPJA (2014) – Book NFT & DeFi Pioneer – JP Janssen
Issuer: JP Janssen
Date: Jul 2, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: Counterparty BitBowl
Significance: Containing a set of 32 tokens representing each team in the NFL, the BitBowl was one of the first instances of tokens issued for the purpose of sports wagering or gambling in general. It was announced on the Bitcointalk forums in August of 2014, but many of the tokens were minted a month prior in preparation for the BitBowl. The token list includes asset names that are the exact names of football teams like CARDINALS or BRONCOS, but one token was already taken which was the ‘Bears token’ and it was represented by the asset: BEARSB.
Related Links: ANN on Bitcointalk
BitBowl homepage
Issuer: nutildah
Date: Jul 4, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: FLDC
Significance: The FoldingCoin initiative was created by Stanford University and allowed individuals to contribute their spare processing power to simulate complex protein folding. The project rewarded contributors in the token FLDC to keep track for their contribution to research which can potentially lead to the creation of life saving drugs and treatments for an array of diseases and illnesses. In order to mine FoldingCoin, a user has to download FoldingCoin client over Folding@Home network and configure accordingly.
Related Links: https://foldingcoin.net/
https://xchain.io/asset/FLDC
Issuer: Robert Ross
Date: Jul 11, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: SJCX
Significance: The STORJ project was originally backed on the SJCX token on Counterparty. SJCX was the original utility token for the project, which was used to pay node operators for sharing hard drive space and bandwidth on the Storj network. It could also be used by customers to pay for usage of the distributed storage network. Unfortunately, when the BTC mining fees became very high at one point around 2017, it became very expensive to send payouts to thousands of node operators every month so the project leaders decided to migrate the token to Ethereum which at the time had low gas fees. Storj still openly thanks the Counterparty community for being there for their idea when it was originally established. This asset also historically became one of the 12 cryptocurrencies officially approved of by the Japanese government in 2017 and was also used for ‘token controlled access’ to a section on the Let’s Talk Bitcoin website.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/SJCX
Migration from Counterparty to Ethereum
Issuer: 17VLRV4y7g15KNhCepYvgigHHvREzbEmRn
Date: Jul 14, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: EARLY
Significance: Before Collabland & ETH itself, EARLY was one the first tokens used for ‘token-gated access’, allowing holders to visit an exclusive section of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin website. Let’s Talk Bitcoin host, Adam Levine posted on the Let’s Talk Bitcoin blog an overview of this system titled “Token Controlled Viewpoint (TCV) Genesis, Characteristics and Early Use Cases”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/EARLY
https://twitter.com/dogermint/status/1596147412619300865
https://web.archive.org/web/20221206125716/https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/tcv
Issuer: 15ra6w1RmFrL7q3VeJniQ55W91QGjehbRW
Date: Jul 24, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: FFLTEAMA
Significance: This is a very interesting sports related betting project setup by Joe Looney and Let’s Talk Bitcoin which rewarded users for betting on the owner of a fantasy football team. The teams and football side was taken care of with the Yahoo Fantasy Football service, while the finances and asset creation was done with the Counterparty Protocol. The tokens FFLTEAMA through FFLTEAMN represent an individual Fantasy Football Team (A through N) which you could bet on and possibly receive a return on. Though that was only true if the team did well enough that season. The return on investment was through the LTBCOIN token. Adam Terwilliger wrote in this Let’s Talk Bitcoin article about the experience of owning a team in this fashion: “I have also given someone, who knows very little about fantasy sports, the ability to invest in an experienced fantasy sports competitor. They can check out my profile, look at my body of work, and ultimately decide my worth to their investment.” Check out the results of that specific season here.
Related Links: https://web.archive.org/web/20230128025524/http://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/investing-in-fantasy-is-reality
https://web.archive.org/web/20161118004726/http://joelooney.org/ltbcoin/ffl/
https://xchain.io/asset/FFLTEAMN
https://xchain.io/asset/FFLTEAMA
Issuer: 1CRrFNBPg951C1s8VoobEtT62sFoQbmAo2
Date: Jul 29, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: FORMICACOIN
Significance: FORMICACOIN is the first asset to specifically have a “PNG” image associated with the token description. The description reads: [“image”: http://i.imgur.com/KZjKrMc.png] and the picture resembles a small ant. There is also a FORMICACOIN with the same name on the Dogeparty Protocol, but was minted a few weeks later and did not include an image link.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/FORMICACOIN
Issuer: 1NLLTaxJRTSMi9JAemNSZxpCmcKGY4uJ4G
Date: Aug 4, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: BOOKBAG
Significance: Inspired by the JPJA token and story, science fiction writer, Michael G Zigler, Jr. tokenized his own book on a Counterparty token named BOOKBAG. The book even has a defined economic model. The book was titled “Order of the Bookbag” and was the first book in a series. The entire book is preserved on Wayback Machine.
Related Links: https://web.archive.org/web/20141006184421/http://www.zigler.us/Bookbag/index.html
https://xchain.io/asset/BOOKBAG
Issuer: Michael G Zigler Jr.
Date: Aug 12, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: BKEYCHAINUSA
Significance: A man by the name of Rob Mitchell, who hosted The Bitcoin Game podcast in affiliation with LetsTalkBitcoin, minted BKEYCHAINUSA with the intention to sell a physical Bitcoin keychain within the USA. The description on the token reads: “Bkeychain.com Keychain mailed to USA”. These tokens could be exchanged for the keychain which Rob was producing and selling through Amazon, and his website. Adam Mcbride wrote in this medium article, “[Rob] was also very interested in what use cases tokens could have in solving real-world problems”. At the time, Rob had a company called Paperclip Robot that sold Bitcoin keychains, but BKEYCHAIN and BKEYCHAINUSA were special in the case that they were sold on a LetsTalkBitcoin auction and represented a separate way to distribute these keychains. This was one of the first use cases, if not the first, for a physical object connected to a Counterparty token. The difference between BKEYCHAIN and BKEYCHAINUSA is simply the fact that one token was for international shipping and the other was for shipping within the USA. There were also tokens by Rob, with the same names and same function minted to Dogeparty in September of 2014.
Related Links: https://adamamcbride.medium.com/2014-keychain-tokens-146b69f0f605
https://xchain.io/asset/BKEYCHAIN
https://xchain.io/asset/BKEYCHAINUSA
https://web.archive.org/web/20150808000217/http://auction.letstalkbitcoin.com/auction/5-bitcoin-keychain-tokens-us-intl-shipping-incl-2
Issuer: Rob Mitchell
Date: Sep 23, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: TOPCOIN
Significance: TopCoin is a Counterparty project created by Josh Jones, co-founder of DreamHost, and his partner Michael Blend. Consumers are rewarded TOPCOIN for domain name purchases made at partner companies in the Topcoin ecosystem, and those companies in turn accept up to half the purchase price of new domain name registrations in TOPCOIN at a value of $1 per TOPCOIN. The closest “real-world” analogy to this use case of a Counterparty Token is frequent flyer miles, except that Topcoin may be used across a broad range of product classes and are easily exchanged for other currencies.
Related Links: https://counterparty.io/news/counterparty-update-070416/
https://domaingang.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/topcoin-whitepaper.pdf
https://xchain.io/asset/TOPCOIN
Issuer: 12usRXrQVYRsS7yCZTgeQujfDMuDXJwbLr
Date: Sep 27, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: NILI
Significance: Artist, Nili Lerner released her NILI Coin tokens which represent proportional ownership of her artwork. These coins included NILI, ICOKE, IDISNEY, ITOYOTA, IEBAY, ITWITTER, IAPPLE, IBEATLES and IUSA. She stated on the debut Bitcointalk post that NILIcoins were created to “promote a competitive credit-provides ecosystem”.
Related Links: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782161.0
https://xchain.io/asset/NILI
Issuer: Nili Lerner
Date: Nov 5, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: UMBRELLA
Significance: LiteBit came up with the idea to mint 600 UMBRELLA tokens to represent a ‘right-to-claim voucher’ for a physical umbrella that he would batch order later in time. He posted the token and idea on the Bitcointalk forums. The idea was to make an orange bitcoin umbrella to stand out in the sea of black umbrellas throughout the world. On Nov 13, 2014 the description “bitcoinumbrellas.com” was added for users to be redirected for their purchase to that website. It is considered one of the first assets on the Counterparty Protocol to represent a physical object that could be purchased. The art for this piece (by M0d3D3b0) and it’s subasset (UMBRELLA.ORIGINS) was added at a later date. LiteBit commented later saying he also considered this asset to be an early type of crowdfunding project as well.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/UMBRELLA
https://xchain.io/asset/UMBRELLA.ORIGINS
https://twitter.com/LiteBitCo
Issuer: LiteBit
Date: Nov 7, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: GEMZ
Significance: The GEMS mobile app was created to have users own their personal information when using a ‘text messaging’ app through cryptographic protocols. The creator, Daniel Peled stated that companies like Whatsapp and Facebook are making money selling information to advertisers and that on GEMS “the messaging side is just like any other messaging application, we use a server infrastructure, but the ownership and the reward model is built using blockchain technology”. The Counterparty token used in relation to this project was GEMZ.
Related Links: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/10/19/gems-bitcoin-app-lets-users-earn-money-from-social-messaging/
https://xchain.io/asset/GEMZ
Issuer: Daniel Peled
Date: Nov 21, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: MYSOUL
Significance: Artist, Rhea Myers tokenized her soul conceptually with the asset MYSOUL on the Counterparty platform. She had done this minting as well on the Dogeparty Protocol a few days prior with the same asset name. She simply put in the description of both “My soul.” Not a single MYSOUL was ever traded nor did the Asset Ownership ever change hands on either chain it was minted. Rhea still holds the entire supply of her soul. Rhea was an early innovator with art and blockchain and many of her works are seen as artistic milestones in the cryptocurrency community.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/MYSOUL
https://rhea.art/art/index.html
Issuer: Rhea Myers
Date: Dec 9, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: A111111111111111111
Significance: This is the first numeric asset (which is a Counterparty asset you can mint for no XCP fee) on the Counterparty protocol. It was minted with the description stating “First Numeric Asset”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/A111111111111111111
Issuer: 1CRvrpEd1Afw1ZXDBzhcS4MN2TbnLzSYKL
Date: Dec 18, 2014
Timeline Asset/Project: A5308205037694922000
Significance: This is the first numeric asset to be a true ‘Non-Fungible Token’ or in other words: the first 1 out of 1 non-divisible numeric asset.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/A5308205037694922000
Issuer: 1ByhdvpAK7P2PA63KW5GvGkFmRH3SBTyUG
Date: Feb 6, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: BITCRYSTALS
Significance: BITCRYSTALS was used for one of the first successful ICOs back in 2015 and is used in the game Spells of Genesis. From the initial supply of 100,000,000 units, 30% were kept by EverdreamSoft, the token issuer, and the remaining 70% were offered on sale during the “BitCrystals Token Sale”. As stated on the official website “BitCrystals (BCY) is the official currency of Crystal Suite. They are distributed for users’ engagement in the Crystal Suite products, but also in partners’ games.” This asset’s supply would eventually be partially burned and released on the ERC-20 contract on Ethereum as well. The company stated they did this “in order to adapt the coin to our current multi-chain product strategy.” This asset also historically became one of the 12 cryptocurrencies officially approved of by the Japanese government in 2017. At the end of each month, the equivalent of 50% of the cards and in-game sales income in BCY is burnt.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/BITCRYSTALS
https://crystalsuite.com/bitcrystals/
https://spellsofgenesis.com/
Issuer: 1MSu9tdgzo4eNLFUYAEQEEwppMNimqHGFC
Date: Mar 11, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: FDCARD
Significance: Arguably the historical holy grail of tokenized assets within the Counterparty community. It is the first digital game collectable ever tokenized to Counterparty (and was before Ethereum went live). FDCARD is card #1 within the Spells of Genesis game which was the first game to leverage blockchain for in game assets (aside from currency purposes). The FDCARD is also one of the first instances of tokenized cryptoart (Artist: Alejandro Hurtado). Many of the pieces in the collection reference cryptocurrency culture at the time of minting. The company EverdreamSoft, founded by Shaban Shaame leveraged the Counterparty platform to tokenize a series of assets on the bitcoin blockchain for use in their game Spells of Genesis which still remains active today. FDCARD was originally distributed to participants of the innovative FoldingCoin project as a reward for contributing their idle computational power. The original tokenized assets are now highly sought after collectibles constituting historical artifacts that pioneered the emergence of this entire new asset class and the associated industries and economies that are now emerging from it today.
Related Links: https://spellsofgenesis.com/
https://xchain.io/asset/FDCARD
Issuer: 1PWqaoM6xhfmbHWFMqcLGMeAXcx8DvT3iK
Date: Mar 31, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: RIGA
Significance: The first ever video associated with a Counterparty asset is RIGA. This token included the description “youtu.be/HOTLkZCCqaI - EU’s Greatest City” when it was originally issued. It is unclear the meaning of minting this asset, but points to simply showing the viewer “EU’s Greatest City”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/RIGA
Issuer: 1K2eXP3wsX4W5HjnkNKsqX1fgRPhFA5RNv
Date: Jun 23, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: A714159941780378900
Significance: This is the first asset (named or numeric) that the Token Ownership Rights as well as the whole token supply was burned. Since the Ownership rights were burned, even though the asset is ‘unlocked’ it will never be possible to issue more tokens of this asset. This asset was minted with the description: “Company A bond”. It was burned to the address: 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/A714159941780378900
Issuer: 1BNMWG7KKSM4X1AEBjRrbPzKr3EmeZqgp1
Date: Jun 24, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: SATOSHICARD
Significance: Through a collaboration between Spells of Genesis and the SaruTobi’s Island, the SATOSHICARD is recognized as the first ever tokenized metaverse asset on the Counterparty Protocol. SATOSHICARD was integrated into both of the two blockchain games by two different developers, providing different utility in each. This was the humble birth of a “metaverse” asset, and according to Whiterabbit1111 SATOSHICARD “served to be the first crack in the walled gardens of the multibillion dollar gaming industry”. The game itself was in beta by Sep 2016 and then released in May 2017, and remains active to this day. A few examples of tokens like SATOSHICARD include: SATOSHILITE — “The Imitator”, GOXCARD — “The stealing of Mountain Gox”, BLOCKSIZECD — “Battle for Block Size”, ETHERERUMCARD — “Sir of the Ether”, and many more. Learn more about this card by reading this article.
Related Links: https://mandelduck.com/sarutobiisland/
https://spellsofgenesis.com/
https://xchain.io/asset/SATOSHICARD
https://www.redlion.news/article/the-legend-of-sarutobi
Issuer: 1EewCNrN1oypSYZE81HBiqrjuhkLcz1qXR
Date: Aug 6, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: SALVATION
Significance: This token, named SALVATION, was the first time Token Ownership Rights for a named assed was transferred to a burn address. Unlike A714159941780378900, the Token Ownership Rights only were transferred and not the total supply. This, in effect was the first use of ‘locking the description and locking any subasset’s to be issued’ while keeping the total supply liquid to buy/sell or move around. SALVATION was sent to the burn address: 1SaLvationGodsMarveLousGracaLgYQS. It was minted with the description stating “SAVE UR SOUL FROM SIN & ITS CONSEQUENCES”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/SALVATION
Issuer: 18AHSWhk7xU6TB2sZJnZKLyGneB452nmG7
Date: Oct 10, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: A18340712565681460000
Significance: This is the first time an asset (named or alphabetical) was locked without minting a single token. In other words, the Alphabetical Token was created but no tokens were issued (0 supply) and then the creator locked the issuance so no tokens could ever be added. This would be considered a “Token Ownership Rights” only token with a 0 supply.
Related Links: https://www.xcp.dev/asset/A18340712565681460000
Issuer: 1ENKkgvMqjPmC3Wst631jbpaC3ULkYgkgL
Date: Dec 19, 2015
Timeline Asset/Project: SARUTOBICARD
Significance: A young iOS developer in Australia by the name of Christian Moss released a game on the App Store called SaruTobi’s Island where players tapped the screen to spin a monkey to see how far they could get him to fly. Christian wanted to let SaruTobi players purchase in-game items with Bitcoin but Apple’s iOS App Store terms didn’t allow it. Instead he let players collect small amounts of Bitcoin as they played. In June of 2016, Christian implemented this functionality by making the Spells of Genesis SATOSHICARD, SARUTOBICARD, and CNPCARD playable in Sarutobi. This asset, along with SATOSHICARD marked the first instance of a Counterparty tokenized asset becoming interoperable between two independent games.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/SARUTOBICARD
https://spellsofgenesis.com/
https://mandelduck.com/sarutobiisland/
Issuer: Christian Moss
Date: Jan 6, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: MTM Series
Significance: The Mind To Matter series is a collection of tokens which are considered one the first examples of true cryptographic music ownership (or music NFT’s) on the Counterparty protocol. The tokens included were MTMALBUM, MTMPRODUCER, MTMCOLLECTOR and MTMSONG which represented tokenized ownership of Adam B. Levine’s EP titled “A Little Color”. The process included buying and owning one of the tokens above to access Adams album. At the time the cost was either $5 in bitcoin, $7 with credit/debit, $2.50 worth of LTBCOIN and a couple other payment options. It was an early use of ‘token controlled access’ that allowed token holders to prove they held the token to access the music.
Related Links: https://www.mtmseries.io/
https://xchain.io/asset/MTMALBUM
https://xchain.io/asset/MTMPRODUCER
https://xchain.io/asset/MTMCOLLECTOR
https://xchain.io/asset/MTMSONG
Issuer: Adam Levine
Date: May 6, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: NINJASUIT
Significance: NINJASUIT is the first Counterparty asset native to the game SaruTobi’s Island and would eventually be realized as the first NFT gaming “skin”, the first NFT power-up and it marked the first instance of an NFT being used in a play-to-earn game. Christian Moss realized that he could “link a user’s Counterparty mobile wallet to SaruTobi and the app would be able to read what tokens they had in their wallet. Based on their token inventory NINJASUIT could grant access to various features in the game.” The art on the token represented the power-up that could be used in game which was involved a double-jump where the in game character, “instead of falling will jump mid-air giving you another chance”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/NINJASUIT
https://mandelduck.com/sarutobi/ninja/
https://twitter.com/MandelDuck
Issuer: Christian Moss
Date: Aug 9, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: WILLCOIN
Significance: Force of Will is a Japanese fantasy series with a physical trading card game included. Each set of cards also included “chapters” of the overall story series. In August of 2016, FoW combined IndieSquare’s Counterparty API services with EverdreamSoft’s dashboard for game management and asset registration. FoW utilized blockchain game items and planted the seed for a generation of games and applications with interoperable assets and items. Eiji Shishido, CEO of Force of Will, explained the decision to use Counterparty protocol saying, “The borderless nature of blockchain technology inspired us. FoW is not an online game currently but we wanted to bring in a new value to the game industry. We wanted to offer FoW players a whole new experience and the new value proposition based on the cutting edge technology.” Force of Will released their cards as tokenized assets along with a currency ‘WILLCOIN’ on bitcoin via Counterparty. It had been intended that a game would be launched in which the assets could be used, however the game never eventuated.
Related Links: https://www.fowtcg.com/
https://www.econotimes.com/TCG-Force-of-Will-partners-with-two-Counterparty-based-projects-to-launch-blockchain-based-online-simulator-next-month-264564
Date: Sep 9, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: RAREPEPE
Significance: Looking through a historical lens, RAREPEPE is considered an integral part of the birth of the global cryptoart movement as it is the first project on Counterparty to invite any artist from anywhere in the world to participate. The project centers around a central theme of an internet meme called ‘Pepe’ that was originally a character in a comic titled “Boy’s Club” by Matt Furie. Some of the initial posts about this project came from the Bitcointalk forums. The project was closed in February of 2018 ending with 1774 different distinct pieces of art regarded a The Rare Pepe Directory. Many include references to cryptocurrency culture, internet culture and culture in general. This was also the case as per the art in Spells of Genesis, but this time from many different artists. Many projects emulating this ‘open arms artist invitation’ have been created since including, but not limited to: ‘Fake Rares’ and ‘Dank Rares’. Series 1, Card 1 of The Rare Pepe Directory is titled “RAREPEPE” was minted by a user named ‘Mike’ with the description stating: “The most rare pepe that has ever existed”. RAREPEPE is the genesis card in the collection. While there is reference to ‘Pepe’ in a previous token description named CLIO, RAREPEPE is the first to include Pepe artwork on a Counterparty token and definitely wasn’t the last to do so.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/RAREPEPE
http://rarepepedirectory.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20191105144553/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1617264.0
Issuer: Mike
Date: Sep 22, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: FEELSGOODMAN
Significance: This is the official asset that was reserved for the original Pepe artist named Matt Furie. It was intended by the creator of Rare Pepe (Mike) to always reserve a place for the comic artist who created the Pepe character. When it was issued in 2016 by Joe Looney, the image shown read “Reserved for Matt Furie”. In September of 2021, Matt Furie requested ownership of FEELSGOODMAN and was given the asset ownership by Joe. Matt then updated the image with his art submission and distributed it on his own terms via his Pegz DAO which did cause some public backlash and a lawsuit.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/FEELSGOODMAN
https://xchain.io/tx/1715404
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypj37/rare-pepe-nft-is-not-rare-enough-dollar500k-lawsuit-alleges
https://www.pegz.fun/
Issuer: Joe Looney
Date: Sep 26, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: UFOPEPE
Significance: The Rare Pepe collection spawned a significant amount of experimentation on Counterparty, one of which was UFOPEPE. This card is considered the first GIF to be linked to a Counterparty asset. It was minted by a user named ‘Mike’ who was the creator and curator (sometimes called ‘scientist’) of the collection. While there was a token created before that mentioned ‘gif’ named MEMETOKEN, UFOPEPE is the first true use of a piece of artwork in GIF format that was minted with the token originally.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/UFOPEPE
Issuer: Mike
Date: Oct 7, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: RAREPEPESS
Significance: This card is highly considered the first Counterparty asset to reference any sport within artwork attached to the description. Even though it’s sister card, RPEPEARMANDO is posted earlier in the Rare Pepe Directory, RAREPEPESS was minted first. The original description included the art for RAREPEPESS along with an inscription that read “SALAMI SUNGLASSES”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/RAREPEPESS
Issuer: Yoni Terenzi
Date: Oct 13, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: DJPEPE
Significance: This asset was a token of many “firsts” in the Counterparty Community. The first of which was to include a curated music playlist of original music written by Scrilla that could be listened to as ‘token access controlled’. When a user proved they owned this specific Rare Pepe card in their RarePepeWallet they could access the content. This included a playlist of original music by Scrilla, which would change periodically over time, and even include pre-releases of songs before the general public had heard them. Within Joe Looney’s RarePepeWallet, this feature was included as a ‘Bonus Content’ button in which you could access this content when you owned the DJPEPE token. When DJPEPE was accepted into the Rare Pepe Collection, it was the first to begin experimenting with attached content. Other tokens like PEPENATION for example, even though earlier in the series, added content at a later date. DJPEPE specifically is considered the first “audio-visual” tokenized asset on Counterparty because of the relation to the easily unlockable content and it’s accompanying art in Rare Pepe, though it went on to do much more. DJPEPE has had its own twitter account since 2017, has attended rare cryptocurrency events, has its own brand, has a variety of subassets created from the original token for various purposes, has live “DJ’d” events and has become a major meme personality within itself. Learn more about DJPEPE on its Youtube account here.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/DJPEPE
https://rarepepewallet.com/
https://youtu.be/rBkCLYxsUCQ?si=JZ-GkaU_-kpeuR_H
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/23/much-pepe-scenes-first-rare-digital-art-auction/
https://youtu.be/ZG1H5uJwYt4
Issuer: Scrilla
Date: Oct 16, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: PEPEBALT
Significance: Minted by the legendary Counterparty Developer, John Villar, PEPEBALT is the first token that included a playable game on a Counterparty asset itself. PEPEBALT is also a card in the Rare Pepe Collection. Villar wrote on the card itself “It looks and acts like a game, but it isn’t a game, it’s just a tech demo”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/PEPEBALT
Issuer: John Villar
Date: Oct 26, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: GORILLAGLUE
Significance: After DJPEPE, Scrilla went on to make this specific asset which represented a music album and was given to people who purchased his mixtape titled: Gorilla Glue mixtape. If a buyer bought the Limited Edition Mixtape and Cassette version on his bandcamp sales page, they were given a code redeemable for a GORILLAGLUE. It was the first Counterparty musical token to directly represent a physical album purchase and was also used it as a proof of concept to pitch to bandcamp on the idea of integrating tokens with their platform. After little response from bandcamp, Scrilla eventually even minted the email sends and responses to the SuperRare platform. The token itself even had the cover art for the mixtape attached at the time of issuance. GORILLAGLUE went on to be used in the token.fm project as a proof of concept.
Related Links: https://rarescrilla.bandcamp.com/album/gorilla-glue-mixtape
https://xchain.io/asset/GORILLAGLUE
https://superrare.com/artwork-v2/₿₳₦đ₵₳₥₱-20660
Issuer: Scrilla
Date: Oct 30, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: GUARDIANCARD
Significance: The Age of Chains project, which was inspired by Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, is a very early blockchain trading card game set in an intergalactic clash of cultures, billions of years in the future. The game provides 1 on 1 player vs player battles. Age of Chains is a very early innovative project with in-depth artwork that has been tokenized into cards and Counterparty tokens for use in the game. GUARDIANCARD is the first card in the series.
Related Links: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1692890.0
https://www.ageofchains.com/
https://xchain.io/asset/GUARDIANCARD
Issuer: 198G9eUjQuCn9Y21Pj4z6Cbx5JxnkoeQWL
Date: Dec 20, 2016
Timeline Asset/Project: BITGIRLS
Significance: In 2016 and 2017 there was a Japanese TV Show that aired in Tokyo and the surrounding area (14.3 million households) featuring Japanese women known as ‘BitGirls’. Episodes aired on a weekly basis, and participants could use Torekabu-nushi (Trading-share-card holders) to cast votes after each episode. The voting included having the girls wear different costumes and change standing positions during each show. Each girl’s performance on TV would affect her popularity, thus increasing or decreasing the value of her token, and influencing viewers’ trading behaviors. Investors could then trade the BitGirls currency on the Zaif exchange. This early innovative approach was effectively one of the earliest forms of ICOs or ‘governance tokens’ before a name had been given to that approach.
Related Links: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/japanese-tv-show-bitgirls-brings-bitcoin-and-digital-currencies-to-the-masses-1476209323
https://news.bitcoin.com/cryptocurrency-tv-show-bitgirls/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-rebranding-in-japan-bitgirls-tv-show-to-sugarcoat-mtgox-drama
https://rarejapanesenfts.com/collection/bitgirls/
Issuer: 1PH4KzJ7VpwPZR3VnP8anmcMTjJEGt73Gz
Date: Jan 23, 2017
Timeline Asset/Project: SUPERBOWLFAL and SUPERBOWLPAT
Significance: Minted by Theo Goodman, these tokens name SUPERBOWLFAL and SUPERBOWLPAT were one of the first uses of a Counterparty based betting platform. They were used for the 2017 American Football Super Bowl between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. Owners of the winning team could redeem them on the Counterparty Decentralized Exchange using PEPECASH from the Rare Pepe project.
Related Links: https://theogoodman.medium.com/a-historic-super-bowl-87f8016e51b3
https://xchain.io/asset/SUPERBOWLFAL
https://xchain.io/asset/SUPERBOWLPAT
Issuer: Theo Goodman
Date: Feb 3, 2017
Timeline Asset/Project: DieCast Club Collection
Significance: The Diecast Club is a popular supplier of physical miniature car models for collectors. The company was founded in 1988 as a family business and then bought out by Collectable Brands in 2017. The interesting history behind this one is that EverdreamSoft (Spells of Genesis) and Collectable DieCast shared an office building during this early innovation period. After coming to understand each other’s business, it was agreed that an attempt would be made to transition the interest of collectors from the traditional physical medium to the digital realm by tokenizing their goods on the BTC blockchain via Counterparty. In order to draw attention to these assets and reward users, EverdreamSoft partnered with Christian Moss and coordinated an innovative distribution of some of these assets in connection with a geocaching app called Takara. The unusual method of distribution and innovation forged new ground in this new space of ‘air-dropping’ digital assets.
Related Links: https://collectablediecast.com/
https://medium.com/book-of-orbs/takara-diecast-token-giveaway-campaign-details-14e5ffe6922d
https://medium.com/book-of-orbs/diecast-collaboration-and-orb-giveaways-99a6ff1b0c7f#.5rvu0v5se
https://everdreamsoft.com/
Issuer: The DieCast Club
Date: Apr 8, 2017
Timeline Asset/Project: WACKNAKAMOTO
Significance: Memorychain was a Japanese user-generated content collection aiming at depicting and commemorating significant events, people or projects in the blockchain industry. There were multiple artists and a community telegram that curated and voted on submissions. Information about this early community and project is hard to come by now. However these amazing artworks laden with blockchain history are left as valuable relics from this period. The first asset of the collection was WACKNAKAMOTO. Lead innovator Koji Hagigashi has recently written an article providing some amazing insight into this early project and others.
Related Links: https://medium.com/@coin_and_peace/history-of-vintage-nfts-in-japan-the-almost-forgotten-part-of-nft-history-5f15ce50a828
https://rarejapanesenfts.com/nft/wacknakamoto/
Issuer: 15MDXC3YkR5sHL34c41YMonkxJP7RKeLK1
Date: Nov 23, 2017
Timeline Asset/Project: WACHHELM
Significance: Skara - The Blade Remains was set to be a Free-to-Play game set in a fantasy world by creator Pablo Rodriguez. WACHHELM is the first issued token on Counterparty in relation to Skara. Whiterabbit1111 wrote about this project stating: “The creators apparently intended to develop a game within which the assets would be used, however this never eventuated. Given the timing of high bitcoin transaction fee’s during this era, one could guess that the sudden frosty winds of the bear market that came a short time later knocked all plans off the table”.
Related Links: http://skarathebladeremains.com/
https://www.newsbtc.com/press-releases/skara-token-sale-pioneers-new-video-games-esports-business-model/
Issuer: 15mWQFbcioTdgaEzD8xqbJwk3bdq49hish
Date: May 22, 2017
Timeline Asset/Project: COINDADDY.FIRST.SUBASSET
Significance: This token is the first recorded subasset after CIP4 was introduced to add the subasset feature to the Counterparty Protocol. Despite it’s deceiving name ‘COINDADDY’ is the main asset and “FIRST.SUBASSET” is the subasset itself. The name is also in reference to the historic minting and asset service named CoinDaddy. The asset description was “First Subasset” and the supply was set at 420.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/COINDADDY.FIRST.SUBASSET
https://coindaddy.io/
Issuer: 1Lfm6jXgCQi8LvjpgFHa2F4hdr1uJVa5t4
Date: Aug 10, 2017
Timeline Asset/Project: MININGPEPEL
Significance: Similar to A18340712565681460000, MININGPEPEL is the first named counterparty asset to be locked without any token supply issued first. This means the total supply of MININGPEPEL is 0 cards total. The description minted along with the token stated “PEPE HUMAN CLONING”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/MININGPEPEL
Issuer: 1KYJySPCTYFCToK4zPghtDtaZzRAHjtA2v
Date: Oct 3, 2017
Timeline Asset/Project: MODERNPEPE.ART
Significance: This asset is the first asset historically on the Counterparty Protocol to be a subasset that is locked at one single indivisible token. It is considered the first ‘Subasset NFT’ on Counterparty. It’s parent asset, MODERNPEPE, is an official card of the Rare Pepe Directory. The subasset, MODERNPEPE.ART seems to denote a 1/1 physical framed canvas print of the art in MODERNPEPE as the description reads “Original ModernPepe Framed Canvas”.
Related Links: https://xchain.io/asset/MODERNPEPE.ART
Issuer: 1JAuET9GmkADQarX5ZsgHXuHjJzwesfAKg
Date: Jan 15, 2018
Timeline Asset/Project: BITCORN
Significance: BITCORN is an asset and in-game currency tied to the blockchain based game called ‘Bitcorns’. This project borrows elements of its game play from idle games, like AdVenture Capitalist, board games, like Monopoly and Risk, and app games, like Farmville, but combines them on the blockchain using the Counterparty Protocol. The first asset’s in the Bitcorns project, HELIPAD, YACHTDOCK and LAMBOGARAGE were released as a ‘trio drop’. This project also invited any artist to create their own asset to be included in the project, which would ultimately be included in the game mechanics as well if accepted. The project required a burn of 1000 BITCORN to submit. Another asset worth mentioning is the final asset of the project, which is BRAGGING and was a 1/1 ‘Non-Fungible Token’ distributed as a prize at the end of the project to the largest holder of BITCORN.
Related Links: https://bitcorns.com/
https://xchain.io/asset/BITCORN
https://xchain.io/asset/HELIPAD
https://xchain.io/asset/YACHTDOCK
https://xchain.io/asset/LAMBOGARAGE
https://xchain.io/asset/BRAGGING
Issuer: 19QWXpMXeLkoEKEJv2xo9rn8wkPCyxACSX
Date: Mar 23, 2018
Timeline Asset/Project: KALEIDOSCOPE
Significance: One of the more underground and unknown projects is KaleidoscopeXCP. This project is known for accepting literally any asset that is submitted. It was created by nathansonic and is largely regarded as possessing a unique mysteriousness. KALEIDOSCOPE was the official first asset in the directory. Because of the ‘open arms’ ruleset, some tokens with earlier mint dates, such as BITROCK are also apart of this directory.
Related Links: https://www.kaleidoscopexcp.com/
https://xchain.io/asset/KALEIDOSCOPE
https://twitter.com/nathansonic
Issuer: nathansonic
