History of CryptoCities
From early experiment in on-chain city ownership to a living collectible world - through discovery, gameplay, custom smart contracts, ERC721 wrapping, and multiple art phases.
Why CryptoCities matters historically
Early
Built and launched in the first generation of Ethereum NFT experimentation, before standards and conventions had fully settled.
Original
Not just a collection, but a city discovery system, game, and technical experiment in on-chain location ownership.
Technically novel
Stored core city data on-chain, used custom contract architecture before ERC721, and later preserved continuity through wrapping rather than replacement.
Still evolving
CryptoCities did not stop in 2018. It continued through new contracts, new art, new game layers, and a current collector-first direction.
Development and Early Influence
CryptoCities was designed in late 2017, while Ethereum collectibles were still being invented in public. CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties had already shown that on-chain assets could attract real communities, and their live contracts gave builders something concrete to study.
Built before standards settled
ERC-721 had not yet settled as the standard model for digital ownership. CryptoCities was designed from scratch around real-world location assets, custom ownership logic, and aggressive gas efficiency rather than the later marketplace template.
Learned from live contracts
Public contracts made on-chain ownership, token state, and game-like logic easier to study in practice. That early research directly shaped the technical thinking behind CryptoCities.
Pushed in a different direction
CryptoCities was not built as a clone. It adapted those lessons toward real-world location ownership, structured discovery, gameplay, and a highly gas-efficient custom contract built for large-scale place data.
What shaped the design
CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties showed that Ethereum collectibles could attract active communities
Their live contracts made on-chain ownership and token state easier to study in practice
CryptoCities adapted those lessons toward discovery, location assets, and gameplay
Gas efficiency became a major design priority as network costs started rising
Launch and Discovery
The contract went live in February 2018. What followed was a rapid, unplanned launch in which collectors began discovering locations before any polished rollout had fully taken shape.
The launch leaked
The public opening did not begin with a neat, staged announcement. The system was ready, but word spread early and collectors began discovering locations before the formal launch push had really begun. The result was a live, fast-moving rollout rather than a controlled reveal.
Discovery was structured
This was not a flat open mint. Players had to work upward through city sizes, with progression controlling access to larger locations over time. Discovery moved through the collection in a deliberate sequence rather than all at once.
Discovery shaped distribution
The ladder slowed the rush to the biggest locations, made bot capture harder, and gave the opening months a more structured and memorable release pattern.
How discovery worked
- Started with smaller locations
- Progressed upward by size
- Waiting times increased
- Not a flat open mint
Why it mattered
- Slowed the race to the top
- Reduced pure bot capture
- Spread access more fairly
- Made the launch distinctive
What was stored on-chain
- Latitude + longitude
- Country / location identity
- Features encoding
- Points / city size
Original vision
- More than a standalone mint
- Locations conceived as assets
- Ownership was core logic
- Extensibility shaped design
From Discovery to Game
By May 2018, CryptoCities had shifted from pure discovery into active gameplay. Cities became operational bases inside a territory system built around battles, fatigue, land control, and rankings.
Territory
Players could attack and claim land around their cities, gradually expanding local control. Territory was not static: it weakened over time if left unattended and had to be strengthened again to remain defensible.
Fatigue and pressure
Aggression came with a cost. Every battle increased fatigue, making later attacks weaker and leaving cities more vulnerable to counterattack. This created a daily tactical loop: attack too little and you fell behind, attack too much and you exposed yourself.
Gold, rankings, and daily play
Gold became part of the game economy, while player rankings reflected a wider mix of territory, city strength, and activity. Cities were no longer just things to own - they became bases from which players competed.
War had a map
The territory system created visible heat maps of conflict. Strong land faded over time, enemy territory could be worn down, and city choice began to matter strategically depending on where conflict was concentrated.
Experiments Beyond the Core
CryptoCities was built during a period of rapid experimentation. Not every idea survived, but the willingness to test new ownership models, contract relationships, and mechanics shaped what the project eventually became.
Countries, continents, and the world
Soon after launch, a separate geography layer expanded the system to cover countries, continents, and the world. It used a different ownership model and later moved to Liquid Lands, where it was a better fit.
Geography-linked royalties
A side contract routed commissions from city sales to parent geography owners. An early attempt to build layered economic relationships directly into the asset system.
Embedding and bundling
Smaller cities could be embedded into larger ones, creating a form of bundled ownership. The mechanic was retired as the project moved toward a cleaner ERC-721 and collector-first future.
Wrapping the Past, Not Replacing It
By now ERC-721 had become the standard for NFT ownership, metadata, and trading. CryptoCities upgraded - but preserved continuity instead of replacing its history.
Why upgrade?
The original system predated ERC-721. By 2021, tooling, marketplaces, and collector expectations had converged around a standard CryptoCities had never originally been built for.
Why wrapping was chosen
Rather than replacing historic tokens, CryptoCities introduced a wrapper model. Legacy tokens were locked and wrapped into ERC-721 tokens with the same IDs - modernizing the collection while preserving continuity and provenance.
A new visual language
The upgrade also introduced new hex-based terrain artwork, replacing the original city silhouette style. Each city gained a stronger spatial identity and a more distinctive collectible form.
What stayed the same
- City identity and features
- Token IDs
- Ownership continuity
- Provenance back to 2018
What changed
- Standard ERC-721 compatibility
- Modern marketplace support
- Updated metadata handling
- New visuals
How wrapping works
- Old token gets locked in place
- New token is minted (same ID)
- Ownership transfers across
- On-chain lineage fully preserved
Cities Enter a Larger World
The original 2018 vision imagined cities as assets that could matter beyond a single release context. That idea did not fully materialize in its first form. Liquid Lands gave it a broader and more playable expression.
CryptoCities moves into Liquid Lands
By 2022, upgraded cities and related geography assets were being used inside Liquid Lands. CryptoCities was no longer only a self-contained system; it had become part of a broader world game.
Gold shifts to Liquid Lands
On 30 October 2022, CryptoCities gold balances were migrated into Liquid Lands. This marked a clear shift in where the active game economy would continue.
Cities become playable locations
On 31 July 2023, city maps were released for all cities in Liquid Lands. For the first time, cities were not just collectible assets - they became playable locations in their own right. Owners could begin placing buildings inside them, laying the groundwork for item production, explorer equipment, and a deeper city-based economy.
A Living World, Not a Static Archive
Preserving lineage while moving into a richer visual form.
A third visual era
In mid 2026, CryptoCities entered its third major art phase. Rather than discarding the earlier hex-based identity, the new artwork builds on it - giving each city more atmosphere, more cinematic presence, and a stronger sense of place.
A living collection
CryptoCities is no longer treated as a fixed artifact from a single moment. It is being developed as a living collection - one that can gain richer visual expression over time while preserving continuity with what came before. The aim is not arbitrary change, but careful refinement: carrying the collection forward without breaking its identity.
Technical Appendix
For readers who want the deeper technical and archival record, the sections below trace the contracts, extensions, upgrades, and retained historical evidence behind CryptoCities.
| Contract | Deployed | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Original Cities | 9 Feb 2018 | Core city ownership, discovery, and game mechanics |
| Premium | 2018 | Countries, continents, and world geography assets |
| Dividends | 2018 | Geography-linked commission routing |
| Embeds | 2018 | Bundled city ownership mechanic |
| ERC721 | 14 Sep 2021 | Standard-compatible wrapper for cities |
| Wrapping | 14 Sep 2021 | Legacy-to-ERC721 migration bridge |
The original CryptoCities contract was a custom-built system designed before ERC721 became the standard. It stored city data directly on-chain: latitude, longitude, a feature encoding, a points value representing city size, and ownership / pricing state.
The contract managed discovery, purchasing, trading, and later gameplay extensions through a modular architecture that allowed new mechanics to be added without replacing the core ownership layer.
The Premium contract extended CryptoCities into countries, continents, and the world. These used a different pricing model and were designed to create a geographic hierarchy above individual cities.
The Dividends contract connected city sales to parent geography owners, routing commissions as an early form of layered royalties.
The Embeds contract allowed smaller cities to be embedded into larger ones, creating bundled ownership. This was later retired during the 2025 unbundling.
The ERC721 contract was deployed on 14 September 2021, providing standard NFT compatibility. A companion wrapping contract handled the migration path: legacy city tokens could be wrapped into ERC721 tokens with matching IDs, preserving identity and lineage.
This approach was chosen over a full replacement to maintain provenance. The original contract remains on-chain as a permanent part of the project's history.
Bundling was an early mechanic that allowed smaller cities to be embedded inside larger ones, effectively making the largest cities even bigger by absorbing others. The embedded cities were locked into the parent and could not be traded or used independently.
By late 2025, this system was fully unwound. All embedded cities were unbundled and restored to standalone ownership, retiring the proprietary mechanic and returning the collection to a cleaner model where every city exists as a first-class asset.
Each city in the original contract stored the following data directly on-chain:
- Latitude / Longitude - Real-world geographic coordinates
- Country - Stored as part of the feature data
- Features - Encoded feature data representing city characteristics
- Points - City size on a 1-50 scale
- Owner - Current owner address
- Price / state - Market and ownership state
This level of on-chain data storage was unusual for the period. Most comparable projects stored only ownership records on-chain with metadata hosted externally.
History that still lives in the collection
CryptoCities started early, experimented deeply, and kept evolving. That history is not just an archive - it lives inside every city, every contract decision, every art phase. The collection is still moving forward, and that combination of provenance and momentum is rare.