🦸‍♀️ Cypherpunk Zero NFT Megathread

[rosenthvl]

In celebration of Zcash NU5 and the world’s first implementation of Halo cryptography, ECC is proud to present the Cypherpunk Zero NFT collection—a grand experiment in cross-chain community building.

Here’s what you need to know about the initiative and the upcoming public release of free NFTs👇

About Cypherpunk Zero

Inspired by Zcash and Halo cryptography, the Cypherpunk Zero Creative Universe is a collaborative effort between ECC, illustrator Stranger Wolf, Mighty Jaxx and select ecosystem partners. Consisting of a forthcoming series of webcomics, NFTs and physical collectibles, the project explores the relationship between privacy, self-sovereignty and creative freedom.

Our story is centered on Zero, a young cypherpunk hacker and freedom fighter, as she navigates the intersection of the real and virtual worlds, attempting to create a brighter future with a new set of revolutionary technological discoveries.

You can further explore the project, including the immersive comic prologue here (best viewed from a desktop device): https://halo.electriccoin.co

Why are we doing this?

We have several overarching objectives for the NFTs as follows:

• Provide ECC (and the wider Zcash ecosystem) with opportunities for creative storytelling.
• Align incentives of the NFT holders such that they each become a steward for ECC/Zcash brand values.
• Introduce members of an adjacent crypto community (in this case the Ethereum NFT community) to Zcash technology + privacy themes.

About the artist & artwork

We partnered with the insanely talented illustrator Stranger Wolf to create a collection of 10,000 unique, generative Ethereum PFP (profile picture) NFTs. The collection consists of six hand-drawn character types and over 100 different attributes of varying rarity.

Token allocations

Total supply: 10,000 unique generative NFTs on Ethereum Mainnet

• 4% of supply (the first 400 NFTs) was airdropped to the project’s early supporters who purchased the Zcash X Mighty Jaxx: Cypherpunk Zero Genesis Edition Toy.

• 72% of supply (7,200 NFTs) will be released to the public using a novel whitelisting mechanism that requires using a Zcash wallet supporting encrypted memos (more details below).

• 24% of supply (2,400 NFTs) will be held by ECC in the Cypherpunk Reserve, for use in future initiatives that advance Zcash and privacy within the Web3 space.

Note: Any NFTs not claimed during the public release will be absorbed by the Cypherpunk Reserve.

Public release details

NFTs available during the public release: 7,200

Price: NFTs are free. Participants just need to pay the fees to send a Zcash encrypted memo and gas to mint each Ethereum NFT.

What you need to participate:

• A Zcash wallet that supports encrypted memos, loaded with enough ZEC to send a memo (0.00001 ZEC per memo). You can browse and download supporting wallets here.
• A clean, unused Metamask wallet loaded with enough ETH to mint the desired number of NFTs (gas costs ~0.0075 ETH / 7,500,000 gwei per NFT).

Important dates for the public release:

• May 13, 2022 at 9am PT / Noon ET: Ethereum wallet whitelisting period begins
• May 27, 2022 at 9am PT / Noon ET: Ethereum wallet whitelisting period ends
• June 3, 2022 at 9am PT / Noon ET: Free minting period begins on halo.electriccoin.co
• June 17, 2022 at 9am PT / Noon ET: Free minting period ends
• June 17-onwards: Launch of the Cypherpunk Reserve & Zcash community initiatives

The mechanics of the public release are designed to be as fair as possible while spurring usage of the Zcash protocol. We also hope for the release to yield interesting community dynamics from a game theory perspective.

On May 13, 2022 at 9am PT/ Noon ET, the whitelisting period will begin. ECC’s official Twitter account will tweet the Zcash shielded address to which participants must send an encrypted memo containing the Ethereum address they plan to use for minting the NFTs. At the end of the whitelisting period, a minting period of 14 days will occur.

During the 14-day minting period (June 3-17, 2022), each Ethereum address submitted during the prior whitelisting period will be granted the right to mint a share of the public allocation that is directly proportional to the number of submissions received via Zcash encrypted memo.

For illustrative purposes, a few example scenarios follow:

• If 72 unique submissions are received, each submission will have the right to claim 100 NFTs.
• If 7,200 unique submissions are received, each submission will have the right to claim 1 NFT.
• If greater than 7,200 unique submissions are received, the first 7,200 will be granted the right to each claim 1 NFT.

Assuming ~200 unique submissions, each NFT holder could effectively become a small-scale Cypherpunk Zero media franchise and market maker—with NFTs aligning incentives around brand stewardship, price discovery + liquidity.

Note: only unique submissions will be eligible for inclusion in the minting period. Duplicate submissions do not increase your share of the allocation. Users suspected of trying to game the public release will be automatically disqualified at the sole discretion of ECC.

Anti-roadmap Roadmap

We’ve seen too many projects over-promise and under-deliver on their NFT roadmaps. As such, there is no formal roadmap.

Trust that we’ve got some amazing, exclusive perks in the pipeline for NFT holders—some expected, some unexpected. Buckle up and join us for the ride

Safety

Be aware: Scammers and bots can take advantage of NFT releases. Always follow good wallet hygiene and security best practices.

There are a number of good resources for staying safe, like this post from Bankless. A few, non-exhaustive highlights can be found below:

• Never click links from anyone other than official ECC sources. Our official ECC Twitter can be found here. The official Cypherpunk Zero Twitter can be found here. The official microsite where minting will occur can be found here. For other important links, see the “Important Links” section in this forum post.
• We will never DM or email you about the Cypherpunk Zero NFT minting process.
• Use a hardware or “cold storage” wallet whenever possible.
• Use a new Ethereum wallet when you participate in any NFT mint.
• Never participate in gas wars. If network congestion on Ethereum is high, set your gas low or wait for congestion to subside. This is why our minting period is 14 days long.
• If something seems fishy, report it to the community immediately.

Artwork license & terms of use

With certain limitations and subject to continued compliance with the full terms of use, ECC grants NFT holders an unlimited, worldwide license to use, copy, and display their purchased artwork for the purpose of creating derivative works based upon the art contained within the NFTs you own.

The Cypherpunk Zero NFT terms were designed to align with the Zcash ethos and highlight our commitment to a fair, open Web3 ecosystem. We took a similar approach when making the forthcoming Halo proving system available under MIT and Apache 2.0 licenses.

Important links

• Cypherpunk Zero Microsite

• Official ECC Twitter account

• Official Cypherpunk Zero Twitter account

• Cypherpunk Zero NFT Terms & Conditions

• Collection Rarity Matrix

• Opensea Collection Page

• LooksRare Collection Page

• Cypherpunk Zero NFT Smart Contract on Etherscan

Final notes

Thank you to all who are supporting this initiative

If you have questions, please leave them below and we’ll do our best to address them.

[tromer]

@rosenthvl

NFTs on Ethereum Mainnet

Hmm. If only we had some way for people to hold and transfer such digital assets with privacy. I would celebrate that indeed!

[secparam]

[aiyadt]

Good job putting this together @rosenthvl And thanks for incorporating the whitelisting idea via memos! Now if only I could afford the ETH gas fees

My experience with ALGO and ADA-CNFTs & low fees has been really good.

[amiller]

Congratulations on this announcement. I love the release plan that’s based on interaction with the shielded pool via memos, but also pragmatic for today with an Ethereum-based NFT we’ll be open to see on opensea right away.
Looks like a great campaign

[Shawn]

That’s a crazy idea, you might be onto something

We could call them Zcash Shielded Assets…

[tromer]

Exactly. I’d love to see a roadmap that takes us to ZSA NFTs traded on OpenSea, and makes sure the dependencies for that are all being pursued.

[aiyadt]

Today, OpenSea is reluctant to list NFTs from any ecosystem outside ETH, we can aim better by building a decentralized marketplace for ZSAs.

[zlawyer]

this is a fantastic idea. Kudos to everyone building this. Looking forward to minting!

[rosenthvl]

Thank you for the feedback!

I agree Ethereum Mainnet leaves much to be desired in terms of transaction costs. We did our best to keep the collection accessible + fair. Notably, we used gas efficient smart contracts that lower the cost to mint a single NFT to ~0.0075 ETH / 7,500,000 gwei and incorporated a 14-day mint period so participants can avoid gas wars.

If anyone is having trouble participating in the public release due to cost, please send me a Zcash encrypted memo and I’ll send you some gas money. Community first

Here’s my zaddy: zs1pj6qxy53grkjl7w0eedwljxujurml7mksrkklh3deyh490qr087fjdxs6pgqtmsyer0dzuaa7ra

[dismad]

@rosenthvl

a grand experiment in cross-chain community building

[gus]

@rosenthvl the Eth address needs to have the 0.0075 eth minimum balance ? And no previous history besides the transaction that funds the address ?

Best Regards

[rosenthvl]

Hey @gus ! It’s always best practice using a clean Ethereum wallet for any NFT mint but is ultimately up to you. Technically, there is nothing stopping you from using an Ethereum wallet with prior activity.

~0.0075 ETH / 7,500,000 gwei per NFT is the estimated gas cost associated with minting one NFT, but may fluctuate depending upon Ethereum network congestion. The total amount of ETH you need for the 14-day minting period (June 3-17, 2022) is ultimately dependent upon two factors:

• How many NFTs each whitelist participant is allowed to mint and;
• Of this allocation, how many NFTs you would ultimately like to claim.

As you may recall, a key element of the release mechanics are as follows:

During the 14-day minting period (June 3-17, 2022), each Ethereum address submitted during the prior whitelisting period will be granted the right to mint a share of the public allocation that is directly proportional to the number of submissions received via Zcash encrypted memo.

For illustrative purposes, a few example scenarios follow:

• If 72 unique submissions are received, each submission will have the right to claim 100 NFTs.
• If 7,200 unique submissions are received, each submission will have the right to claim 1 NFT.
• If greater than 7,200 unique submissions are received, the first 7,200 will be granted the right to each claim 1 NFT.

So put differently, you may have the opportunity (but not the obligation) to mint numerous NFTs. How many you decide to mint is ultimately up to you.

Hope that makes sense! Let us know if you have any further questions

[reinforcementwonder]

Hi, it is said that “the first 7,200 will be granted the right to each claim 1 NFT.”

I wonder if the order is based on the submission time of “Zcash encrypted memo”?

[rosenthvl]

@reinforcementwonder that is correct. In the event that Scenario C transpires, the order is based upon the submission time of the Zcash encrypted memo. For clarity, Scenario C is as follows:

• If greater than 7,200 unique [Zcash encrypted memo] submissions are received, the first 7,200 will be granted the right to each claim 1 NFT.

[tromer]

Edited to account for 7,200 whitelisting transactions being more than the capacity of a single Zcash block.

@rosenthvl

• If greater than 7,200 unique submissions are received, the first 7,200 will be granted the right to each claim 1 NFT.

If economically-rational participants assign substantial value to these NFTs, then, this free-for-all mechanism would collapse under Sybil attacks

To elaborate: suppose you’re the only person who really wants to become a “Cypherpunk Zero media franchise and market maker”. Then just before the very first block of the whitelisting period, you’d submits ~7,200 whitelisting transactions on the Zcsh chain, containing a fresh unique Ethereum address in its memo. All of these will get mined in the first ~4 blocks of the whitelisting period, i.e., within ~5 minutes. By the above allocation rule, you’d then be eligible to all (or almost all) the new NFTs.

Total cost of this “attack”: about $7.2 (0.00001 ZEC, worth ~$0.1, per transaction, times 7200). Or just send zero-fee transactions; IIRC those get mined too.

If multiple people assign substantial value to the NFTs, they will all do the above. Since that will create competition for the limited space in the pertinent blocks, they’d furthermore escalate by flooding the mempool with many more transactions in hope of theirs getting mined. Or by offering higher fees, in hope that the Zcash miners have functioning tx-choosing code (despite its practical irrelevance to Zcash at the moment). Either way, you effectively get a brief ill-defined auction whose proceeds go to miners and/or network providers.

So, not a great mechanism…

Awkwardly, my prediction is logically clear but empirically unfalsifiable: if we don’t see such a pathological NFT-grab then the logical conclusion would be that no economically rational player assigns substantial value to the NFTs. This leaves open the possibilities that no one cares about the NFTs, or that there are people who care but they’re not economically rational.

[tokidoki]

I think it’s hard to design NFT drop mechanism that’s sybli-resistant and privacy-respecting. The pragmatic approach to do it like described here, open the submission to everyone and then filter clear spams by checking the receiving Ethereum address.

If anything, it would be cool to see Zcash scalabilty being tested

What I think would be cool is to grant active Zcash community members early chance to claim an NFT. However, I also understand if that would be perceived as unfair to folks who are new to Zcash.

@tromer

economically rational

Are you implying that cryptocurrency users are rational actors?

[tromer]

@rosenthvl

A Zcash wallet that supports encrypted memos, loaded with enough ZEC to send a memo (0.0001 ZEC per memo)

The default (recommend) shielded transaction fee is one tenth of that: 0.00001 ZEC.

Is the above a typo, or an implicit additional rule in the auction that says you will reject bids that don’t manually override the default fee?

Note that the latter would also reduce the anonymity set of these transactions and decouple it from other shielded transactions.

[tromer]

@tokidoki

@tromer

economically rational

Are you implying that cryptocurrency users are rational actors?

Ironically enough, yes - in this context. The crypto ecosystem is very, very efficient in exploiting “free money” opportunities, and every high-profile airdrop I’ve seen, that had a clear Nash equilibrium, reached it.

Often with collateral damage.

[rosenthvl]

Hey @tromer - thanks for the feedback. It is well noted.

As @tokidoki pointed out, it is very difficult [often impractical] to design a fair NFT drop mechanism that is 100% impervious to sybil attacks. We do currently have checks/balances that should allow us to identify and disqualify submissions suspected of being a part of such an attack. If you have concrete suggestions for ways we can further mitigate risk of a sybil attack, my DMs are open. My sense is you know more about this than just about anyone, so your additional guidance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!