A couple of months ago I was granted what I view as the highest honor possible for a collector, artist, and student of CryptoArt history; when I was given the opportunity to curate a complete series of Fake Rares. Having had time to reflect, I wante

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A couple of months ago I was granted what I view as the highest honor possible for a collector, artist, and student of CryptoArt history; when I was given the opportunity to curate a complete series of Fake Rares.

Having had time to reflect, I wanted to share some thoughts…

🧵

about Rare Pepes, Fake Rares, and the broader Pepe ecosystem, which I believe to be the strongest community driven art movement to exist to date.

In 2005 @Matt_Furie’s imagination gave birth to a lovable and relatable character which I view as the Mickey Mouse of the internet.

Shortly after, Pepe, along with the phrase ‘feels good man’ began to gain some traction as a meme across various message boards, eventually making its way to 4chan in early 2009.

4chan for better or worse acts as a breeding ground & accelerant for memes, enabling quick virality.

As a wide variety of Pepes started to proliferate on 4chan over the years, Pepe started to make his way out into the broader world gaining popularity on numerous other social platforms, amongst internet influencers and even with celebrities such as @katyperry and @NICKIMINAJ.

This newfound popularity amongst ‘normies’ didn’t sit well with 4chan as they started to feel their meme of choice and symbol of their culture had been appropriated and stolen by outsiders, jeopardizing it’s sanctity.

In response, they began efforts to turn Pepe into a hate…

symbol, creating tons of angry and offensive versions of Pepe with the goal of making Pepe so offensive to outsiders that it would become distasteful for anyone apart from their community to use.

Pepe was nazified and quickly became associated with racist and repugnant meanings.

Things came to a head when Pepe made his way onto the radar of Donald Trump and became the subject of a tweet, which the media latched onto, seemingly sealing his fate as a symbol of the alt-right to the broader world.

Pepe was officially labeled as a hate symbol by the @ADL.

Soon after, Matt Furie teamed with the ADL in an attempt to try to reclaim Pepe, but his efforts were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of hateful Pepes that were proliferating.

Matt called on other artists to contribute to the cause starting the Save Pepe campaign.

While control of Pepe spiraled out of control and had seemingly been lost forever, another niche corner of the internet began trying to reclaim Pepe in their own way, making use of blockchain technology to preserve and exchange their own visions of Pepe.

Enter Rare Pepes…

Rare Pepes were born on September 9th, 2016 when a community member known simply as ‘Mike’ uploaded and minted RAREPEPE, also known as the Nakamoto card, to the Counterparty network; sparking the creation of a community led art movement which remains growing to this day.

The Rare Pepe directory was subsequently created, officially establishing the Rare Pepe project.

The directory rules were simple. Submissions needed to adhere to some basic formatting and originality guidelines, and could not depict Pepe in overtly hateful or NSFW manners.

With the directory established and a Telegram group of interested participants growing, the community needed an appropriate wallet for storing their cards and a safe market for trading them.

@wasthatawolf solved for this need, creating and launching RarePepeWallet.

RarePepeWallet represented the first user-friendly platform for the storage and exchange of provably scarce digital collectibles backed by blockchain tech.

CryptoArt historians such as @artnome view the advent of RPW as the onset of the CryptoArt movement as we know it today.

Enabled by this new technology, the community continued to grow under the watchful eye of the Rare Pepe Scientists who ensured that submissions adhered to the established standards.

A total of 1774 cards were accepted into the directory before it was closed for good in 2018.

Despite the closing of the directory, collectors stuck around and continued to grow in number throughout the lengthy broader crypto bear market.

Pepe had started to transform from a symbol of hate, into a show of possibilities for decentralized communities and digital assets.

Following the closure of the directory, Pepe would continue on his own path, with Matt Furie successfully litigating against numerous alt-right groups and with Pepe becoming a surprise symbol of the Hong Kong protests in 2019-2020.

The broader narrative around Pepe was turning.

With NFTs growing vastly in popularity in 2021, some original members of the Pepe community felt it was time to revive the Pepe within our space.

Led by @ScrillaVentura, the @FAKERARES_XCP project arose to fill this void, revitalizing Pepes as a community driven art movement.

Fake Rares Series 1 launched in September of 2021, a little over 5 years after the original Rare Pepe project launched, giving new life to the meme which birthed CryptoArt as we know it.

Fake Rares are a love letter to the original project and a way to carry on the legacy.

In the year since launch, many of the most popular original artists have returned to the scene to create cards, while tons of new artists have made their own contributions to the movement, often paying homage to legendary cards from the original project.

Fast forward to Series 8 which I was given curatorial oversight of. I viewed this as an opportunity to bring some of the most successful artists on Ethereum into the mix, bridging the ETH and BTC communities while familiarizing newcomers with the history and roots of CryptoArt.

With the dust having settled, I like to think my goals for the series were accomplished. Interest in making Pepes seems to be at an all time high, while many collectors who were dismissive of the frog last year are now amongst the most ardent fans.

The thoughtful contributions of some of the most respected artists in our space have served to cement the narrative around Pepes as a symbol of community, diversity, equality, and a meme for all to enjoy; showing the power of good to prevail over evil and reclaiming Pepe for all.

Pepe to me represents the very best of CryptoArt and blockchain technology when used for good.

Pepe brings us together and has enabled new opportunities for artists all over the world, empowering creators while documenting the spirit and power of crypto in an immutable fashion.

In closing I’d like to thank all artists who have contributed to Rare Pepes, Fake Rares, Dank Rares, and Fake Commons; and to the community of collectors who have supported this movement.

I’d also like to thank @MattKaneArtist for inspiring me to share my thoughts.

#NOTKAMOTO