John Watkinson is a software developer from Canada who founded Larva Labs by collaborating with Matt Hall in 2025. He is also part of the creation of CryptoPunk, which is a non-fungible token collection on the Ethereum blockchain. His artistic interest focuses on pixel art, the creation of new methods to experience and transact works of art, and generative art. He shared the title of the Most Influential in 2021 by Coindesk with Matt Hall.
Education Pathway Of John Watkinson
Watkinson pursued a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. Both colleges are renowned institutions in science and technology.
A Glimpse Of John Watkinson’s Past Life
Watkinson and Hall met while pursuing their post-graduation degree at the University of Toronto. In the final year, they teamed up for a group project and discovered a shared interest in technology. They often worked together on computer projects, and they started meeting weekly at Matt’s apartment in Toronto. They both have explored web development and tested a Linux server from a closed-down company for $50.
John Watkinson’s Career Journey
It’s been around 20 years since John Watkinson and Matt Hall collaborated for work. They started working together in their final year of postgraduation degree. So, the career journey of both the persons are somewhat the same. They both started working on web and Java projects. After graduation, they both migrated to New York and started working for different companies and later joined the same company. Watkinson has developed an interest in mobile development and started writing games for small phones. Their passion for mobile development has expanded, and then he became a mobile developer when the smartphone market disappeared.
Later, he had an interest in blockchain technology, particularly Ethereum. The interest in Ethereum has arisen due to its ability to support more arbitrary contracts and its appeal to hackers and creative thinkers. Then, he co-developed CryptoPunks along with Matt Hall. This was his first Ethereum project, and it is inspired by the previous works he made on mobile space, pixel art, and games.
The images needed for the project were produced with pixel art, and the project was introduced as a fun pixel art project. He also gained experience in several other blockchain projects, such as Meebits and Autoglyphs.
Projects Co-Founded By Watkinson
Watkinson and Hall collaborated to develop Larva Labs, CryptoPunk, Autoglyphs, and Meebits. Larva Labs is a yech studio that focuses on software and digital projects. This project was developed in 2005, and later, it became popular for its creative work in mobile apps, digital art, and AI. They both have a shared interest in blockchain and incorporated this interest and knowledge for the creation of their other projects.
CryptoPunks was introduced as a fun experiment with digital collectibles after getting inspired by pixels and games. This is Ethereum’s first big NFT (Non-fungible token) project with 24×24 pixel characters. After this, they created Autoglyphs in 2019. Autoglyphs is an on-chain interactive art on the Ethereum blockchain. In 2021, the team created Meebits, which is a set of 3D characters from blocks. This project uses 3D designs that make the game more interactive and practical.
The Bottom Line
John Watkinson is a Canadian software developer who co-founded several projects such as Larva Labs, CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs, and Meebits. Watkinson turned his interest in pixel art and generative art into the creation of new projects. Every project was developed in partnership with Matt Hall. Matt Hall is Watkinson’s classmate. Both have shared interests, which turned out to be the creation of new projects.
