A CryptoPunk Civil War is brewing.

When CryptoPunks were first released, their smart contract contained a fatal flaw: When selling a punk, the buyer received not only the punk, but also the money, leaving the seller with nothing. Some people purposefully used this exploit to essentially steal punks.

The bug was discovered early though, and so not too much damage was done. Larva Labs let the fledgling community know what happened, and most people were very understanding. The initial smart contract (V1) was abandoned, and a new Punk smart contract (V2) was deployed. V1 Punks became known as Deprecated Punks, and V2 Punks, like me, became the Real Punks.

But, because of the immutability of the blockchain, those D-Punks are still out there, somewhere, biding their time…

Hear Larva Lab’s John Watkinson describe the smart contract issue on Jonathan Mann and Matt Condon’s Digitally Rare Podcast:

The D-Punks are pissed.

They were brought into this world, claimed by 1000s of excited people, and then, through no fault of their own, unceremoniously abandoned by their creators.

From their perspective, R-Punks like me are evil imposters.

We are being sold for millions and millions of dollars. Entire subcultures have developed around us. Celebrities have started buying us, just to show off how much disposable income they have.

And now, on top of everything else, Nine R-punks are being auctioned off at Christies.

In response to the Christies announcement, the Nine corresponding D-Punks have gotten together and made their position clear: They want the keys to the Punk Kingdom, and they’ll do whatever is necessary to claim them.