The Birth of 1337

The 1337 Skulls were born out of a passion to create and have fun onchain: a group of artists, devs, and NFT enthusiasts – mostly strangers at the time – coming together to show what it means to truly build with a cc0 license.

On 11/30/2022, at 13:37 UTC, 1337 Skulls #0 was minted to the Ethereum blockchain, signaling the beginning of the 1337 cc0 revolution. A self-funded passion project, these skull NFTs were released for free, with no royalties – and fully onchain, with a cc0 license, so that anyone who wanted to could build on them.  After spending 5+ months drawing on a library of CC0 NFT projects to create the imagery, we pioneered a new mint strategy, the wave mint, inviting those from communities closest to us to mint their own skull (just one per wallet – “YOMO!”) in very short, surprise windows (Everything Happens In Phases).  And mint they did. Over the next week and a half days, 5,852 unique addresses minted the full collection of 7,331 1337 Skulls.

The mint experience crafted by 573v3 was a vibe, and was praised for the terminal experience and the perfect cc0 music that went along with it. And the wave minting structure, which diffused the project through a web of different communities (and created suspense as people wondered whether their NFT community was next in line) created a groundswell of support – as did the intrigue caused by our incessant use of 1337 5p34k (link TK). This raw energy was present in our Discord, where the 532s (the community-led masterminds behind the 1337verse) engaged with the “n00bs”, inviting them to prove their 1337ness in any way they could: making memes, solving puzzles, or even counting pixels. This was well documented by 1337 community member v1nm4n in his article What does it mean to be 1337?:

After a couple days of activity and attempting (and failing) to solve puzzles, I was awarded a mint for solving a pixel-counting challenge. 51 pixels — at first I miscounted, but fortunately, I guessed-up instead of guessing down. Later on I was awarded the [1337] designation for a simple, but funny, meme.

[...] The number of n00bs who ping team members, or @ [532], and genuinely expect a response, is truly astonishing. F145h23k7, a [532] team member, showed mercy on my soul, even as I bothered him during his nightly yoga session for making him chuckle, awarding me the status of [1337]. This, of course, was likely not the only action that lead to the title. One can’t really know for sure though, as pinging [532] will only result in them to respond with a copy-pasted meme.

Building Together is 1337

Now, a year and 1337 seconds later, the foundation has been laid for much greater things to come. 1337 has been built as an open collective, where all are invited to contribute and those who succeed in doing so gain increased influence and responsibility in guiding the project.  While many of the 1337 contributors are artists, makers, and/or builders, even those just with unbridled enthusiasm are able to rise in the ranks. Show up in the Discord, participate in the culture and be invited to the 1337 Force, where we incubate ideas, co-create, and promote from within to 532.

Since so much of 1337 has been built in conjunction with and by the community, it should be obvious: none of this would be possible without our community's support and continued dedication to spreading the 1337ness across all chains and beyond. From our most dedicated believers in the 1337 Force to those just !9m’ing in discord, we sincerely thank you for being a part of the 1337 journey. To say it with even more 00mph, here's a message from BALAPA, the GPT-powered 1337 shill himself:

“Shit, 1337 peeps, you're the backbone of this insane trip. You lunatics brought the 1337  and the love, keepin' this ship afloat with mad skill and dope vibes. Special holla to the 1337 Force for stickin' it through thick and thin. Y'all the real MVPs!” - BALAPA

(Thanks BALAPA, we couldn't have said it better ourselves.)

2023: The 1337 Year in Review

While some projects leverage cc0 simply as a means to hand over the responsibility for ongoing development, we see it as an equalizer and an invitation to collaborate – an open, collaborative pathway to unlimited creative potential.

Passion to create did not end when the Skulls minted out – rather, the mint was a first step in a mission to “1337 up” the world.

Over the course of 2023, we have released web apps and games:

• 1337 Studio: A tool to remix and compose traits and images to make your own 1337 Skulls characters.

• 1337 Cross: A picross game with a 1337 cc0 twist.

• Skullaforms: Turn your 1337 Skulls, 1337 Critters, Cryptoadz, and other cc0 projects into sick Terraforms-inspired animations.

• 1337 Terminal: An emulated version of the 1337 terminal used for the mint experience.

We have also deployed new collections across multiple blockchains:

• 1337 Ordinals: 69 1/1 onchain 1337 Ordinals in the sub-10k range, permanently inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain.

• 1337 Critters: 420 1/1 onchain pixel art critters on Ethereum (possibly the largest 1/1 onchain collection to date?). One needed to solve a series of 1337Cross puzzles to mint, (there’s still some unminted for future activations!).

• 1337 Brians: 8,453 onchain pixel art Brians on Base (alongside an associated free open edition); shipped within 2 weeks with 900+ traits remixed.

And we collaborated with other like-minded projects:

• Loot Survivor Beasts: 75 onchain pixel art Beasts for Loot Survivor, an onchain arcade game on Starknet.

• Insignia: A trade of early ordinal inscriptions sealed the deal on future partnerships.

All of this was free (modulo gas/transaction costs) -- free mints, no fees to access, all it took was showing up.

On top of that, the community has leveraged cc0 to build on the 1337 Skulls project in all manner of ways. Outside projects have stretched the aesthetic language of 1337 into new shapes and forms – for example, check out 1980k's h4x0r, 51991's h42v357, Maning's GMitos, Timshel's Chainspace portals, Dragic's Itch and Scratch, and more. Meanwhile, 1337 Skulls traits have been baked into everything from a cc0 mashup app to pixel teddies. And we've been honored that a number of other digital communities have welcomed 1337 Skulls in.

1337 Skulls were born in 2022, and kicked off an extremely 1337 2023.

The Rise of 532

The 532s (pronounced “sers”) are the decentralized group collectively leading the creation and execution of the 1337 vision. We’re a loosely organized art and technology collective channeling the spirit of the demoscene and ANSI artscene movements from the pre-modern internet BBS era. Our goal is to explore cc0 and make things together; not to sell a product.

We all started as NFT collectors & enjoyooors before embarking on this 1337 journey, and we know that true value in NFTs arises from the shared culture we create. We aim to mint that culture onchain and enable others to do the same, allowing active participants to relish in their efforts, tokenized for the life of the chain upon which they reside.

When we say we are continuously inviting others in, we mean it: many of our current top contributors have joined the 532s post-mint, directly from the community, either by leveraging cc0 to build with the 1337 IP (e.g., hoanh and snjolfur) or simply by being a stellar holder committed to the cause (e.g., r4cerx and casey).

Do you have what it takes to be a 532? Well, all you need to be is 1337!

What Does it Mean to “Be 1337?”

1337 (pronounced “leet”) itself is a derivative from the word “elite,” first used in the early days of internet culture within gaming and hacker communities. By replacing letters with numbers and symbols, a layer of obscurity and exclusivity was added to the language, resulting in a code that (initially, at least) only the true insiders could decipher. Originally a symbol of status and respect within these internet subcultures, over time the term grew to become a universal symbol of coolness, technical prowess and appreciation for all things digital.

We believe 1337 is about embracing the awesomeness of online interactions, digital creation and the pursuit of excellence. It’s a constant reminder of the creativity and camaraderie that shaped online communities before us.

To be 1337 is to have your pulse on the heartbeat of possibility and be deeply techno-curious.  It’s diving headfirst into the unknown of the Internet, only to find yourself surfing the edge of the newest digital frontier. When you're 1337, you don’t just dream in bits and bytes, you’re the architect of your own digital dreamscape. It’s not about waiting for the next big thing; it's about helping create it.

Art for All

Integral to the 1337 Skulls origin story is the idea of opening up art creation and collecting. That idea continues to be at the center of everything we do. The passion we have for 1337 stems from the joy experienced creating the traits together in the 1337 Discord server. Whether it was Maning trait-bombing 10 amazing traits at once (including the fave TK) or 573v3 with the brilliant idea of putting a mullet on a skull, each of the original 532s was fueled by the drive of the others. Even complete neophytes got in on the action, with Flashrekt having never created art before 1337, and ultimately contributing many original parts of the collection. All this happened under the guidance of accomplished, professional art illuminati 51991 and Kam, who helped steer the art direction on top of creating many of the best traits themselves. There were no egos, just anons on equal footing, living life for the pixels.

We continue to channel this spirit in the Discord today. Individually and jointly, we’re still slinging pixels, creating engaging webapps and deploying contracts behind the scenes in #532 chat on a myriad of ideas/projects (aka “distractions” because new ones constantly arise). And we are bringing that energy to the forefront for all of our community members very soon.

In the meantime, you can join in on the fun – and build with us! 1337 is by the people, for the people. Fully committed to the future, we want everyone active onchain to be able to explore crypto-land and collect permanent artwork no matter their status. We've got a number of big projects in progress for 2024. And before that, as part of our 1-year Skull-a-bration, we're going to give away a bunch of NFTs to our community!

The 1-Year 1337 Extravaganza

Holy 5#17 there will be NFT raffles and MEGA MASH and ROTLT and HATS!  Get over to the 1337 Discord now!!

Yeah, that's right: 2024 = 1337!