Dogeparty: NFT meta-layer on top of Dogecoin (Part 1)
Dogeparty is a meta-layer on top of the Dogecoin (DOGE) network for non-fungible token (NFT). It became operational in August 2014, went silent in May 2016 and was relaunched in August 2021. This article deals with the first active period ranging from 08/2014 to 05/2016. A second part concentrates on the time period after the relaunch.
Dogeparty uses a very similar framework as Counterparty for Bitcoin. However, transaction confirmation times on Dogeparty are typically 10x faster than traditional Bitcoin transactions (1–10 minutes) and only cost 1 DOGE.
History of Dogeparty — 08/2014 to 05/2016
In the first period, 19,947 Dogeparty assets were minted. The vast majority of activity happened in the first two months. The project was later abandoned by the original developers in the second half of 2016 and Dogeparty wallets became inoperable. Nevertheless, wallet information was stored securely on the Dogecoin chain.
First user assets
I will discuss some notable assets (mostly) based on JP Janssen’s timeline which I extended with some of my own data work. I suggest watching my YT video about how to check minting and artwork dates if you are not familiar with Dogeparty.
LTBC: the first user asset was minted on August 13, 2014 with transaction index 19 at Dogecoin block 335,669.
THEONE: the first real NFT, i.e., with a (locked) supply of one indivisible token, was issued on the same day (transaction index 2,408 at block 335962).
BKEYCHAIN / BKEYCHAINUSA: one of the first tokens redeemable for a physical product (a Bitcoin keychain). They were minted on August 15, 2014 and October 26, 2014. More info in Adam McBride’s Medium article.
The vast majority of 2014 Dogeparty assets were naked, in the sense that they do not have any artwork attached. Many of these tokens were issued by (nowadays) inactive wallets and are not up for distribution at the time of this writing.
First assets with historical artwork
JOLLYROGER: is the first Dogeparty asset with an on chain transaction documenting when its artwork was attached for which the image has not been changed. The token was minted on August 19, 2014 (transaction index 13,590 at block 342,893) by Daniel Spiller (Twitter handle: @spiller_crypto). The artwork is from Open Clip Art Library displaying a Jolly Roger („pirate flag“).*
Fun fact: in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies, they use this type of flag with a skull over crossed swords flown on the Black Pearl. Initial supply of JOLLYROGER was 1,650 but it was burned to 550 and the supply was locked. It is also an indivisible token.
On the same day, but some blocks later at 342,999, Daniel Spiller also issued MILKYWAY. The artwork is from Open Clip Art Library displaying an infrared picture of the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Daniel was a supporter of SETI@home, an experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Everyone could participate by running a program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. The total (locked) supply of MILKYWAY is 300.00000000 which resembles the approx. 300 million meters that light travels per second. The supply has not been changed since issuance. 0.1 MILKYWAY have been dropped to JOLLYROGER holders on March 29, 2022. Besides, another 2014 asset with 2014 artwork, NISSANGTR, has been dropped to JOLLYROGER holders on November 03, 2022.
There are other interesting Dogeparty assets with vintage artwork attached: Like LTBCOIN (minted on August 13, 2014) and BITBEG (minted on August 15, 2014) for instance. Both have an icon (48*48px png file) displayed on dogeparty.xchain.io but there is no on-chain transaction documenting when the artwork was added. A key dev involved with Dogeparty from the beginning revealed that these icons were added to the tokens as a dogepartyassets.info service (precursor to coindaddy.io) some point in time after the token was minted.
There are a few other popular Dogeparty assets with artwork from 2014. One of the best known examples is BACON. It’s artwork was added on November 16, 2014 via a json file (transaction index 26,538 at block 461,088). It displays a 48*48 png file which is used as an icon in the Dogeparty block explorer (dogeparty.xchain.io) and by the wallets. It is a divisible asset with a supply of 499,999 and an unlocked supply. It is a widely distributed asset with 30 wallets holding more than 1,000 BACON (note that many of these wallets have not been active for many years).
Besides these Dogeparty assets with ongoing distribution, there are some gems that have not been moved for many years. Like MINICANVAS, which shows a photo of a small IRL painting (note that the xchain explorer is not displaying the artwork but that you need to copy the Imgur link into a browser).
Counterparty NFTs with 2014 artwork
It is interesting to compare these early Dogeparty assets with Counterparty assets to gain another perspective on how unique these Dogeparty assets with 2014 artwork actually are. In principle, there are eight Counterparty assets with some kind of artwork metadata (provided in parenthesis) that were in place before JOLLYROGER was minted.
I. No artwork displayed on xchain
The json file for these three assets is not working anymore and no artwork is displayed on xchain.io:
1) ROCKMINER: minted on April 22, 2014 (http://www.rockminer.com/xcp_info.json)
2) DUNNECAP: minted on April 25, 2014 (https://www.multibet.io/DUNNECAP.json)
3) BITSPOT: minted on May 13, 2014 (http://www.bitspot.co/bitspot.json)
There was a json file in an earlier asset description but it was replaced with some text in later issuances. In any case, the json file is not working anymore:
4) LIBERTEMINING: minted on August, 17, 2014 (http://libertemining.com/liberte.json)
5) NXHD: minted on August 25, 2014 (http://www.hashdollar.org/cw.json)
II. Artwork displayed on xchain, json file not working
There are two assets that show an icon on xchain.io even though the json file itself is not working anymore. Besides xchain.io showing the icon (using a local copy of the icon), it is not clear whether the json file has been updated after the issuance date. A json file, without any further on-chain action (such as broadcasting the asset’s name and a fixed link), is not immutable and hence the actual date of the artwork is unclear.
6) MEAT: minted on July 08, 2014 (http://danielpbarron.com/MEAT.json)
It has an unlocked supply of 150,000,000. None of them are up for distribution and the asset is dispersed across many wallets.
7) DEVON: minted on July 28, 2014 (tokens.devonweller.com/DEVON.json)
The website itself is still accessible but the json file is not working. It has an unlocked supply of 1.
III. Working Imgur link to artwork
There is one interesting asset left. Its artwork is not directly displayed on xchain.io, but if you copy the Imgur link into your browser you can see a little ant (Figure 3). The asset has a locked supply of 1,000. Nine wallets hold the total supply and none of them has showed any activity in the last three years (8 of 9 wallets are without any activity in the last six years). None of the cards are up for distribution.
8) FORMICACOIN: minted on July 29, 2014 (#34;image": http://i.imgur.com/KZjKrMc.png)
All in all, at the moment of writing this article, except the inactive FORMICACOIN, there seems to be no earlier Dogeparty nor Counterparty asset with visible and immutable artwork that was available before JOLLYROGER. That is pretty interesting because one could mint Counterparty assets already in January 2014 (compared to August 2014 in case of Dogeparty).
Note that I only focus on available artwork and do not consider other relevant characteristics of Counterparty assets such as being the first Counterparty token (TEST), the link to a physical good (such as UMBRELLA), being related to an ebook (JPJA), or being the first 1/1 asset with artwork added later on (OLGA) to name a few exceptional cases.
Putting Dogeparty NFTs into perspective
Borrowing from White Rabbit’s timeline, and focusing on 2011 to 2014, one observes that Dogeparty NFTs play a vital role in this very early period. Particularly, as it pertains to assets with available artwork at the time of issuance. JOLLYROGER comes directly after legendary assets such as Blockheads and Twitter Eggs (and the probably inactive FORMICACON). And after other Namecoin assets with artwork like the punycodes and other Namecoin assets with artwork attached (the latter not mentioned in the figure).
I do not want to dive into the heated discussion concerning Namecoin assets being up to regular renewals because I respect different opinions and preferences. But for those collectors who favor non-renewal NFTs, might be due to the operational risk of missing a renewal or the pure convenience of not having to take care of it, JOLLYROGER is the first non-renewal NFT with the earliest artwork that is available in the market.
Historical assets with contemporaneous artwork
There is a growing list of 2014 Dogeparty assets that were naked in the beginning but received artwork after Dogeparty’s relaunch (like the famous TEST Counterparty asset).
The first active OG Dogeparty member that was using his 2014 Dogeparty assets in that way is the Dogermint team (Twitter: @dogermint). GOLDENSHIBE: their most popular asset was minted on August 14, 2014, and then hand-drawn artwork by Honolulu tattoo artist JoBiz was added on November 05, 2021. It has a locked supply of 999 and is an indivisible token.
Another artist (Twitter: @littleshibeOG) aims to build a whole DogeWorld based on various connected Dogeparty assets. DOGECAR: it was minted on August 13, 2014 while the artwork was added on January 15, 2022. The art was commissioned by NASCAR driver Josh Wise for a T-shirt (yea, the Dogecoin-sponsored dude!). It has a total supply of 3,000.
The Runner game assets were issued by Paul Schmitzer (issuer of UMBRELLA on Counterparty). RUNNER is the Dogeparty Runner game entry token that was issued on August 15, 2014 with a total supply of 100 (indivisible token). There are eight further tokens to be used in that early token-based game. The project website is again accessible. The new content regarding Dogeparty Runner is available on Medium. See also the detailed bitcointalk thread and the web.archive.org version of the project page.
Further noteworthy Dogeparty assets (in alphabetical order):
- NOISE: minted on August 23, 2014, artwork added on December 28, 2021, locked supply = 1,156,748.1 (Theo Goodman)
- OLGA: minted on August 13, 2014, artwork added on November 20, 2022, locked supply = 1,000 (JP Janssen)
- RAWMILK: minted on August 15, 2014, artwork added on January 23, 2022, locked supply = 11,111 (Christian Burns)
- TURNTABLE: minted on August 19, 2014, artwork added on January 05, 2022, represents the first audio enhanced Dogeparty asset that was minted in 2014 (Doggfather)
The number of these 2014 Dogeparty assets with recent artwork is growing quickly. Potentially, there could be thousands one day given the large number of assets that were minted in the first months after Dogeparty was launched the first time.
Endnotes
*Note that technically one can change the artwork behind an Imgur link (setting the link to private and then changing / replacing the artwork). In the case of JOLLYROGER (or any other asset using clipart), one can easily verify these potential changes by comparing the displayed artwork with the clipart. Also note the discussion in the Dogeparty NFT History wiki with respect to BACKPACK, an early token that was also issued by Daniel Spiller.
Useful resources
Dogeparty wallets: At the moment, there is a light browser-based wallet available at https://wallet.dogeparty.net. A more powerful desktop wallet (more suitable for active artists) is available at https://dogeparty.net/wallets/.
You find many helpful how-to videos ranging from wallet creation, buying Dogeparty NFTs via a vending machine (so called dispensers) using your DOGE, or creating your own Dogeparty NFT at https://dp.university/curriculum.
The Dogemint team put together a very comprehensive Dogeparty guide, covering all relevant topics for serious collectors and artists.
There is also a very thoughtful Dogeparty timeline by HarryBTC.
Most community action takes place on Telegram: https://t.me/DogepartyXDP. There are regular giveaways and you find very helpful project members in case you have further questions.
Dogeparty is a long-term project that is not only run by some of the most experienced NFT developers but is also supported by five Dogeparty community members via Dogeparty Foundation: https://dogeparty.net/foundation/.
You love the artwork but do not want to dive too much into the protocol-specific details? An increasing number of Dogeparty assets are also available via OpenSea EmblemVaults (same as your fav Counterparty assets).
Further sources: check out WhiteRabbit1111‘s updated timeline, the overview on OLDNFT.com, or w3b.eth’s 24hr NFT clock.
Disclaimer
None of the information is financial advice and I highly suggest you to do your own research!
