Counterparty misprints
While creating a new Counterparty token in November 2021, I was puzzled after checking the issuances tab on xchain.io. I saw another issuance dated back four years. The last line („Status“) was reading: „invalid: insufficient funds“. And that was the reason why I could claim that token in 2021.
I checked whether there are further cases like that. In the first step, the API “get_isuances” function returned 602 cases with an „insufficient funds“ status. (Note that there are other reasons for an invalid status such as trying to create a token with less than four characters or an already issued token name.) I checked if these tokens had been successfully claimed in the meantime via the “get_asset_names” function, which returns all observable Counterparty tokens. I combined the two requests and found 363 such unclaimed tokens. Specifically, only 16 of them were attempted to be issued in 2014.
For those interested in these special Counterparty tokens, I guide you through an example. Someone tried to issue SATOSHIDICE via Counterparty tx number 1,952 (https://xchain.io/tx/1952) on January 19, 2014 (17:11 GMT).
The XCP fee of 0.0000005 XCP was not paid because wallet “1Lv247acAnRtSrCQpBACvmdvdNSGtSzeB6” has never held any XCP. Hence, someone attempted to issue this token but failed to do so because the fees were not paid and the SATOSHIDICE token was not issued successfully.
Any trace of the SATOSHIDICE issuance attempt was invisible to the general public because it did not appear in the xchain.io token list. The token name was only visible via API because that way one can observe all issuances, including insufficiently funded ones.
In a second transaction, I claimed the SATOSHIDICE token with Counterparty tx number 1,822,063 (https://xchain.io/tx/1822063).
The token creation on December 15, 2021, was successful and the issuer’s wallet is “135qDvhy3sMP7Kqi5yyomYBB37d1H2cr84”. Note that technically I did not burn any tokens but rather chose an appropriate supply independent of the first transaction’s original supply of 100 million.
I interpret these tokens as a kind of misprint because unintentionally the registration did not work out as planned. It’s comparable to famous IRL misprints with the “wrong” color printed on stamps (“Blue Mauritius”). Or the few Twitter Eggs that were changed by some users and are also labeled misprints. Finally, the SATOSHIDICE token became visible again and is listed as token number 172 on xchain.io.
I set the supply to 200, added artwork metadata, and locked the supply. In contrast to most other early Counterparty tokens, SATOSHIDICE is in an active wallet, locked, indivisible, and comes with crypto-relevant artwork.
The only earlier Counterparty token that — at the time of writing — has artwork attached and is available for purchase is the famous TEST, the first user-created Counterparty token (issued on January 12, 2014).
SATOSHIDICE refers to a blockchain-based game that started in 2012. In the early days, SatoshiDice was among the most popular Bitcoin addresses. In 2013, SatoshiDice was sold for 126,315 BTC, worth around $12 million at that time.
I hope that these explanations clarify the issue of Counterparty misprints. The issuance process should be as transparent as possible for future collectors of this special kind of token.
Disclaimer
I claimed some tokens that were initially created in the years 2014 to 2017. I left the others for fellow vintage NFT connoisseurs. Many of them have been claimed in the meantime including a Fake Rare card.
Last updated on December 04, 2023.
