Collection Portrait
What is the CryptoPunks collection drawn toward?
This study gives the collection a way to answer, one position at a time. Each of the 10,000 Punks contributes the exact color it carries there, or transparency. These states are counted, and the most frequent eligible one is selected.
Black is part of the palette and helps define the Punks’ outlines and internal details. One rule treats it as a color alongside the rest of the palette. The other treats it as a structural element and excludes it from selection to see how the other colors shape the answer.
matches of the 186 visible pixels ().
matches of the 145 visible pixels ().
What is selected
At each pixel position, the most frequent state is selected under two rules that differ in how they treat black.
- 01
All 10,000 Punks share a 24 × 24 grid of 576 positions.
- 02
At each position, every Punk contributes one state: an exact color or transparency.
- 03
The states are counted, and the most frequent eligible one is selected under each of the two rules.
- 04
The selected states form two portraits: Dark Answer and Bright Answer.
From 10,000 images to a collection portrait
Which colors does the collection select?
The grid has 576 positions. Across all 10,000 Punks, visible pixels occupy 410 of them. The remaining 166 positions are transparent in every Punk. These 410 positions form the collection’s combined occupied area.
Occupied is not the same as selected. For Dark Answer, a color wins at 186 of these 410 positions. For Bright Answer, black is excluded from selection, and a non-black color wins at 145 positions.
At positions where color wins, Dark Answer uses three of the collection’s 221 colors. Black wins at 132 positions, and the remaining 54 use two colors.
Bright Answer uses the same two colors and 13 others. Of the 132 positions where black wins in Dark Answer, 91 take another color and 41 become transparent.
221 colorsDark · 3Bright · 15 Ordered by pixel count across the collection · most frequent on the left
Degrees of agreement
How much of the collection shares each selected state?
Most frequent does not always mean a majority. At each position, the collection is divided among exact colors and transparency. A state can win even when fewer than half of the 10,000 Punks share it.
Across all 10,000 Punks, the selected color occurs at frequencies of 12.13% to 91.50% in Dark Answer, with a majority at 48 of its 186 visible positions. In Bright Answer, the range is 2.53% to 30.31%, with no majority at any of its 145 visible positions.
Runner-up: #FFF68E · 253 · States: 8
Runner-up: #D29D60 · 932 · States: 44
Runner-up: #AE8B61 · 2,677 · States: 27
State diversity
At each position, the 10,000 Punks contribute exact colors or transparency. The number of distinct states ranges from 1 to 44 across the grid.
At eight positions, most Punks have a visible pixel, yet transparency wins in both answers. At x8 y6, 7,956 Punks are divided among 30 colors; none occurs as often as transparency, shared by 2,044 Punks.
Ties and one-Punk leads
Dark Answer has two ties and three positions where the selected color leads by one Punk. Bright Answer shares these five positions and adds one more tie. When the leading counts are equal, a tie-breaking rule determines the selection.
What the collection is drawn toward
Each Punk answers in the colors it carries, one position at a time. The choices made through agreement among the collection’s members form two recognizable portraits: Dark Answer and Bright Answer.
These characters are created by the collection itself. We read them as an expression of its desire to remain a portrait when seen as a whole.
From the portrait to the Punks
All 10,000 Punks contribute to both answers. Compared pixel by pixel, every Punk matches at least 12 visible pixels in Dark Answer; 1,765 match none in Bright Answer.
Collection findings
Closest Punks
No Punk matches either answer in full. #3318 is closest to Dark Answer, matching 153 of its 186 visible pixels. #8212 is closest to Bright Answer, matching 71 of its 145 visible pixels.
Farthest Punks
Three Punks match the fewest visible pixels in Dark Answer: 12 of 186. In Bright Answer, match none; groups with 1–3 matches are shown below.
Inspect a Punk
Select a Punk on the map or enter its ID to compare it with both answers. Select a pixel in the Readout to see each Punk’s state at that position.
Method, source, limits
A state is one of the collection’s 221 exact colors, including black (#000000), or transparency. Each Punk contributes one state at each position on its original 24 × 24 grid. Coordinates range from 0 to 23, with (0, 0) at the top left, x increasing to the right and y increasing downward. Transparency is an observed state, not missing data.
At each position, the most frequent eligible state is selected under two rules. In Dark Answer, black is eligible alongside all other colors and transparency. In Bright Answer, black is excluded from selection. Both rules use the same state counts from all 10,000 Punks. Transparency is eligible in both.
A position is visible in an answer when an exact color, including black, is selected there. Positions where transparency is selected are excluded from its visible pixel count.
By default, a state’s frequency is its count at a position divided by 10,000, expressed as a percentage. A majority requires strictly more than 50%; across the full collection, this means more than 5,000 Punks.
In Fig. 05, Without black divides the selected color’s count by the number of Punks without black at that position. Transparency remains included in this denominator. This setting changes the displayed frequency while keeping the selected color and its count unchanged.
A Punk’s match count is the number of an answer’s visible positions where the Punk has the same exact color. Its match percentage expresses this count as a share of the answer’s visible pixels: 186 in Dark Answer and 145 in Bright Answer. Pixels outside these positions and shared transparency do not contribute to the count.
When frequencies are calculated across all 10,000 Punks, the average frequency of the selected colors over an answer’s visible positions equals the average Punk match percentage: 39.43% for Dark Answer and 16.25% for Bright Answer. Both averages summarize the same matches, grouped by position or by Punk.
When eligible states share the highest count, transparency is selected if it is among the tied states. Otherwise, the color with the lowest index in the source palette is selected. This follows the palette order in the source data.
Dark Answer has two tied positions, giving four possible combinations of tied states. Bright Answer has three, giving eight. The portraits shown on this page use the rule above throughout.
Across these combinations, the visible pixel counts, palette sizes and average match percentages remain unchanged. #3318 remains closest to Dark Answer, and #8212 remains closest to Bright Answer.
Some counts depend on the tie resolution. In Dark Answer, #AE8B61 occupies 40–42 positions and #DBB180 occupies 12–14. The highest match count ranges from 152 to 153 for Dark Answer and from 68 to 71 for Bright Answer.
Matches require the same exact color at the same position, rather than perceptual similarity. The findings apply to the existing collection of 10,000 Punks.
“Recognizable” is a visual interpretation, and “drawn toward” is used as a metaphor. Selecting the most frequent eligible state produces a result at every position, but does not guarantee a recognizable portrait for other sets of images.
The portraits show the exact selected colors. In match masks, unmatched portrait positions are shown in a neutral color. In Fig. 05, square area represents frequency. These display choices do not change the selected states. The background behind each image belongs to the interface, not to the portrait.