Can blockchain technology bring a new dawn to the art market?
The blockchain revolution is about decentralizing money and power from centralized institutions. The technology can improve efficiency and transparency, but it also raises questions about the future of existing dealers and auction houses.
Bitcoin was the first widespread use of distributed technology, and its price climbed to an all-time high of nearly $20,000. It’s one of the fastest growing assets in history. Since then, the bitcoin prices have fluctuated wildly, and the bitcoin application scene has been even wider than the tulip mania in the Netherlands in the 17th century. A growing number of start-ups are embracing blockchain in every industry, from finance to energy, health care to food, and even the arts.
Blockchain has become a part of the artist’s practice, both the subject itself and the medium. New artistic movements of art emerge in an endless stream. From Bitcoin graffiti art to French artist Youl’s “ The Last Bitcoin Supper.”
Simon Denny and others have seen blockchain and cryptocurrencies as themes for years, in 2014 their works were sold for $3,000 on eBay . Other examples include Plantoids, a work about blockchain, who interact with fans via bitcoin and donations from ethereum. CryptoKitties, a virtual game that allows players to buy, collect, breed and sell various types of virtual cats, can be traded and interactively via digital currency.
At this year’s codex auction, some exclusive editions sold for as much as $140,000, attracting a new breed of collectors who may not be so keen on more traditional forms of art.
To understand this, we need to lower the bar for blockchain to meet the core principles that underpin technology: transparency and accountability. These two areas are the notoriously opaque art industry lacks. A handful of art registries based on blockchain technology document the provenation and trading history of works of art. Including Artory, which was founded in 2016 by TEFAF President Nanne Dekking, and the agency’s partners, all of whom are subject to intense scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Codex, founded by Mark Lurie in 2017, stores provenances for artworks and collectibles. About 5,000 auction houses now use the company’s registry.
And so on and so forth. With the development of science and technology, it brings unprecedented new experience and convenience to people’s life, but it also provides strong support for the “technology” of counterfeiting. Nowadays, many fake artworks have reached the point of distinguishing the genuine from the fake. As the most cutting-edge technology in the Internet, blockchain has brought a new dawn to the art circle and the collection circle.
Blockchain art isn’t just about buying a work of art online or simply paying for it in cryptocurrency. With the advent of this technology, the art market is about to change dramatically. This is because blockchain technology improves some disadvantages of the art market, such as the source, transparency, copyright, ownership, valuation and authenticity of artworks.
Global investment in art-related blockchain projects is growing. Important legal barriers to data privacy, cybersecurity and competition law remain. Jonathan Kewley, a london-based technology lawyer, predicts that global regulatory oversight will be one of the main issues facing blockchain companies and users.
The birth of blockchain is not only an important milestone in the Internet field, but also a major breakthrough in the financial field. It has triggered a series of products: digital currencies, smart contracts, distributed mechanisms that have spurred change in the global arena.
New technologies are constantly changing our lives, our economies, and even our world. With the new Internet technology gradually developing from the bottom level and becoming an essential “daily necessities” for people, blockchain has also become a focus of worldwide attention.
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