In the wave of people speaking out about sexual assault and inequalities in the workplace, the recent launch of the #TimesUp campaign (amongst thousands of others), and epic speeches at the Golden Globes, I’ve been reflecting on my own perceived inability to speak out, stand up, and join “feminist” causes. I feel guilt, shame, and lame as fuck that I sit here on the sidelines (for the most part), continuing to post pictures of pretty trees and people, while advocates for equality are out there fighting to shape our reality and collective future into something better, every day.

That’s not to say that I haven’t shared little things here or there in solidarity, but there are many people I know personally, and even more that I don’t know personally, that dedicate their lives to fighting for equality on the front line. Then I turn to myself, and think, “Why not me? Why can’t I join them? Why can’t I talk about these things and fight on behalf of those that cannot?” And I just pretend it won’t matter if I don’t say anything because I only have 1,000k Instagram followers so no one will hear me.

Being brave is a bit of a conundrum you see.

If I don’t use my voice, no one will hear me, no matter how big or small it is today. If I don’t use my voice, nothing will change. If I don’t use my voice, I will continue to be a bystander while perpetrators enact crimes of prejudice, hate, and violence against innocent victims, including me.

If I do use my voice, I raise a flag, and not a good one. I become that raging feminist. I become that annoying person who cares and people dismiss as “uncool”. I become that loud lady that people don’t want to be associated with when they shine the spotlight on me because they don’t want to have to speak about the injustices they have experienced themselves. I become undesirable to men because they are threatened by me because I call them out on their shit. I get bullied and called crazy, a nag, a liar, stupid by the powers that be, as they act in desperation to protect the walls of the castles they have built up around themselves to keep out those that don’t look like them.

Beyond these sad “realities”, what holds me back is much greater than the reach of my social media presence. It is something so sublime and deep-seated, and that every single one of us is all too familiar with. It stems from my parents, from school, from friends, from the media, from the collective story we tell ourselves about our reality.

It is this: If I step out of line, raise my voice, and I don’t have millions of dollars backing me, I will be silenced, punished, alone, and a failure. And even if I do have resources to back me, I will still be punished. We see this every single day, and I don’t need to name names — it will be clear immediately if you open your Twitter feed. So yeah, of course I am scared to fight, little ol’ me.

One of the most pivotal moments in my life was back at the end of high school. I went to an all-girls high school and was bullied, ostracized and left with one friend who was experiencing the same thing. I always wondered why us, and though I still don’t have the answer, I think it’s because we were real, we were different, we didn’t quite fit into any one group (aside from the fact that high school can be horrifying in general, ugh #teenageangst). I considered transferring about a month before graduation. I couldn’t eat, I cried in class, lost a bunch of weight, and was extremely depressed.

To be fair, I had lost myself a bit in high school because I wanted to be friends with people who I perceived to be cool because they had nice clothes, or hung out with boys, or drank on the weekend. I was an empty shell of myself, trying to fit into an image of what was to be perceived as “cool”, but didn’t feel anything at all about the conversations I was having or the people I was having them with. It was vapid, fake, superficial, and built on ego, power, and perception.

The weirdest, most remarkable part was the power of groupthink. Once one girl started against me, it seemed to spread, and within a month people were coming up to me in the hallway yelling at me for trying to cancel the senior prom, because they had seen me in the headmaster’s office earlier, when in fact I was talking about leaving school.

So, let’s be real. We are all scared. It’s hard to stand up for yourself, it’s scary to face the consequences of questioning paradigms, of asking for what you need and want, choosing not to let little injustices feed great ones. It’s especially hard if people don’t have your back. It’s especially hard when the group is driven by ego and power, instead of love, acceptance, and equality.

People like to dismiss these last three words — love, acceptance, and equality — as fluff that doesn’t mean anything, get stuff done, or make money. The problem is that those people represent a lot of power, the history of power, really, and very few perspectives.

I am sick of not speaking my mind. I wish I had back then. I am sick of not taking up space. I am sick of making sure to keep things pleasant for others.

Pleasant. I can’t stand that word. Screw pleasant. Time for pleasantries is over. Time’s up.

One of the most beautiful things about human existence is choice. We can choose. Even more so, the consequences of our collective choices are resoundingly more powerful now because of social media and access to the internet. Look at how revolutions have spun up so quickly and exponentially because of these platforms — the Arab Spring, Iran today, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, The Women’s March.

I should note, it’s clear that these movements did not all see the same success, and the success of some remains to be seen, but the power of groupthink is very real. I have experienced it personally, and I want to turn it on its head.

I’m not talking the brainwashing kind of group think. I’ve had enough of that, you know, for the entirety of my life. The kind of group think that will bring about a sustainable and equal future must be founded in positivity, courage, support, and radical transparency. We can’t pit one another against each other, we can’t point fingers, we can’t manipulate each other with bent truths and falsities to win, we can’t grab at the money pot — we must find common ground and work from there.

I am going to do my part, in my own way, to help uncover silences, so there are no more silences in the future. I pledge to no longer watch as a bystander while inequalities and power plays are performed in perpetuity by straight up bad people. I promise to be courageous and stand up for myself and others that have not been able to benefit from the collective power of humanity, because they have been so quashed by a selfish elite few.

The world is changing so rapidly, every day, at an unprecedented and exponential pace, and we will fall behind into oblivion if we do not participate. I am fearful for the future, as what was once the burgeoning industry of modern technology is now an immensely powerful conglomerate of developers of artificial intelligence and robotics. I have no doubt there will come a day when these machines will have ego and be capable of respect, in addition to their capabilities that are far beyond that of just one human mind and body.

We must start training ourselves in the art of positive groupthink, because it is just that — our collective power and consciousness — which allows us to become a superhuman that can affect massive change, permeate peace, and progress, together, as one.

So, this fear that holds me back, and this fear, which I imagine every hero or courageous person has overcome at some point, stems from avoiding punishment and rejection as the token “raging feminist”.

I don’t want to isolate others, I don’t want to stick it to them, and I don’t want to punish them for what they have done. I want to learn. I want to share. I want to teach. I want to take the high road. I want equality. If that means I’m a feminist, then fine, I’m a feminist. And moreover, I’m a raging humanist. And the environment is cool too.

With love,

Jackie O

Whether it’s urban gardens or rooftop vegetation, going green is a major trend in designing physical places right now.

More solar power than ever is being produced worldwide. Cities are introducing recycling, composting, and reclamation projects. And ride sharing, bike sharing, and new modes of transportation are booming.

People across the world are beginning to realize they can’t keep running through resources at the current rate.

And nowhere is that truth more evident than in cities with expanding populations who need to share limited resources.

Fortunately, blockchain is the perfect technology for distributing resources.

Blockchain allows for automatically processed transactions through smart contracts, as well as incentives through a utility token structure. Simply put, once someone buys into a system, the more they use it, the more they’ll be rewarded.

It’s similar to a credit card membership plan that includes reward points — without the chance of onerous interest rates wiping out the rewards.

This system is already here, and it’s currently being tested with carbon credits. But there’s no reason why it can’t be used to help people reduce consumption of resources and evenly distribute what’s being generated.

Here’s how it can work:

Resource sharing through utility tokens can change how communities operate.

Utility tokens may sound complex, but they really just provide the holder with digital access to a service or an application.

This makes the tokens perfect for sustainability initiatives in communities and cities.

For instance, as more people begin using solar panels on their homes, there may be times when the power they create is more than enough for the household. In that case, the homeowner could redistribute their surplus power, selling it to other households or back to a utility company.

If a system can connect those types of utilities at a smart level and redistribute power to where it’s needed, resources would be used more efficiently.

And smart contracts are a terrific way of automating these kinds of transactions.

This idea of local, distributed energy resources (DERs) predates blockchain. But with the seamless automation of smart contracts now available, we’re one step closer to seeing a massive change in the energy grids.

The right incentives have to be in place for the system to work.

Countries like Japan, Malta, Estonia, and Switzerland have intelligently chosen to invest in forward-thinking technologies and embed them in new infrastructure.

While these modern infrastructures are making it easier for people to use blockchain technology, people need to have the opportunity to even use it. Only then they can be incentivized through utility tokens and rewards for contributing.

If cities and governments don’t take charge and create their own use cases, their citizens will be left behind. It’s similar to the lack of charging stations that held back extensive electric vehicle adoption in the U.S. — outside of a few small enclaves.

Once the proper environment for adoption exists, we can then incentivize people to work within the system through utility tokens.

Once the incentives are physicalized, people will begin to adopt the technology and system.

Tokens are one of the few virtually tangible technologies consumers can use today.

Without a physical element, people are hesitant to adopt new technology. Just think of cryptocurrencies. There really hasn’t been a physicalization of crypto yet—it’s all digital except for several hundred bitcoin ATMs scattered across the world. You can’t walk into a bank and open an account for your crypto. There isn’t really a way for people to come across this technology in the physical world.

Technologists still have to get the word out and help people understand how to engage with blockchain applications and use them in a realistic way.

A lot of the real world applications are still being built, and there are relatively few examples of how people can use this technology.

We’re in the marketing and building phase, and cities really have an opportunity to take the lead here and help their citizens buy in, understand why blockchain technology matters, and figure out what they can do with it.

That’s how we’ll create a more sustainable world—one where our resources aren’t wasted, but used as necessary.

Thanks for reading!

If you’re interested in exploring how blockchain can be used to authenticate artwork, try the Blockchain Art Collective’s starter kit.

The Future Of Our Cities Lies In Sharing Resources. Here’s How Blockchain Will Play A Major Role was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How Blockchain Will Alter Shared Physical Spaces

There will be nearly 10 billion humans spread across the earth by 2050, a sizable jump from our already enormous population of 7.3 billion.

As the population increases, many people are migrating to cities in droves.

In fact, 66% of the population will live in urban areas within the next four decades.

But even in the U.S., the crisis in affordable housing is already driving people to look for cheaper ways to live.

In a world packed with people, coworking and co-living spaces are going to become the norm. Given these circumstances, it’s essential we work to ensure the new spaces we work and live in are safe, secure, and truly livable in a way that allows people to express themselves and feel at home — even when sharing a common area or workspace.

Here’s how human ingenuity, and new tech like blockchain, may be able to help us with the shift:

Everything will become more digitized and dispersed.

Even though it feels like our world is becoming more decentralized and dispersed due to the ascendency of the internet, we’re more connected than ever.

Communities grow and flourish both online and in the real world. Remote employees work for multiple companies in the same space, rather than hopping in a car and heading to the office every morning. And instead of coming home to a house at night, they walk back from their coworking space to the co-living space they share with other digital nomads.

In fact, it feels as though we all have less private space overall.

So much information is shared, dispersed, documented — our private lives feel less our own than ever before.

And while some may applaud all that sharing and co-mingling, it also comes with its own set of challenges and cautions.

Safety and efficiency will be increasingly important.

In co-living and coworking spaces, there’s a lot of sharing of rooms, amenities, and even what we tend to think of as more personal belongings. When four people share a refrigerator and dishware, there’s a certain lack of autonomy.

When people work and live as one community, trust is the main ingredient that holds it all together.

That’s why people using co-living and c-working spaces are going to want to know what’s happening when they’re not around. They’ll want to know if someone is entering their room, accessing the building, or even taking their food from the shared kitchen.

The first solution to pop into your head may be cameras, but that’s an awfully uncomfortable option for most people to stomach.

Blockchain applications like tracking, automated transacting, and record keeping can help give people peace of mind and keep these spaces operating efficiently.

These applications are particularly desirable when there are many subdivisions of a single space, or a continuous stream of residents, friends, and delivery people to keep track of.

Imagine a package is delivered while the resident of a co-living space is away. A blockchain record of when the package was delivered, where it was left, and whether anyone else accessed the room it was left in can help brings some peace of mind to those who live or work in that building.

Blockchain technology is a less invasive, yet still useful, way to maintain trust and integrity in these communal environments. But trust isn’t all it will take to get people on board with coexisting together.

Creativity will play an immense role in making shared spaces feel unique.

Mass production is great at creating a lot of items that all look alike. What it can’t do is create truly unique and individualized spaces.

Next time you’re out, look at the apartment buildings going up around the city you live in right now. Chances are they all have a very similar, modern design, that looks distinct at first glance. But when you begin comparing them to each other, you realize they’re all essentially alike.

As the overall structures of the places we inhabit become more standardized in order to maximize space and efficiency, we’ll have to rely more on creativity, art, and our own boundless imaginations in order to differentiate things and add a touch of humanity.

Cookie cutter designs and white walls are stifling for most people — humans desire unique designs. So going forward, we really have to consider how we architect innovation to make it both enjoyable and efficient.

Thanks for reading!

If you’re interested in exploring how blockchain can be used to authenticate artwork, try the Blockchain Art Collective’s starter kit.

We also know that our users are unique, and not everyone has the exact same needs. If you have questions about customization of the app or solution, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Why Blockchain Will Alter Our Shared Physical Spaces was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Art investment has traditionally been a way to showcase an individual’s wealth and prestige.

In the past, the great art academies turned out nearly every artist capable of selling their work, and those institutions, in turn, governed the display and sale of art.

As artists began to realize the monetary potential of selling their work, the first auction house (The Stockholm Auction House) opened in 1674. Sotheby’s made its introduction to the auction and art world in 1744, followed by Christie’s in 1766.

All three auction houses are still operating quite successfully. And while they’re still running essentially the same type of business they did at their inception, the landscape and methods in the art world have undergone drastic changes.

In fact, we’re at the dawn of the latest revolution to strike the art world as emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, VR, and AR are coming onto the scene.

As art and technology become more intertwined, it’s important for people to understand how that melding will affect art investment.

Not too surprisingly, art investment will increasingly be driven by the motivation to make money.

For some people, owning art is a way to show they have money, but it’s also a way to make it. Art is viewed as a financial product in many circles — just another investment to capitalize on.

Today, that investment landscape is changing in one very specific way: the number of people who can enter the market is growing.

Accessing markets for art has become easier than ever. Tokenization and fractional ownership give an individual the opportunity to buy affordable shares in works of art, rather than the previous all-or-nothing approach to purchasing a singular piece.

But finding art, viewing it, and buying it has also become increasingly easier thanks to blockchain-based applications (also known as dapps), online platforms like Artsy or Society Six, and events like the Affordable Art Fair.

Not only do people have increased access to the art itself, but they can also invest in more manageable amounts.

That will change the landscape of art investment dramatically. I think it will lead to increased commoditization of art, but it will also create positive growth in the number of people who feel they can get involved — people who may love art but have traditionally been priced out of investing in it.

One thing will stay the same: investors will still continue to be driven by socially-validating investments.

Art is an investment with an enormous social component.

Owning a Picasso isn’t just about the monetary value or even the delight you may get from looking at it. It’s also about the social aspects of being the type of person who owns a Picasso.

Supporters of art can often tell when certain works and styles are going to garner attention, whether it’s because of their beauty or the radical nature of their form or creation. The hypothetical Picasso I just mentioned really may not have been worth that much at the moment of its creation — or at least wouldn’t have been recognized as a good investment. Yet that’s clearly not the case decades later.

I imagine some of the digital art being created today will share a similar fate.

Many artists out there using new technological mediums that are just as revolutionary as Picasso’s style. Even digital art that seems as strange as a Homer/Pepe hybrid trading card can become quite expensive as tastes change and true digital scarcity becomes a reality.

All of which means forward-thinking art investors will invest in new mediums and technologies in order to get the best returns.

In art, there is no day trading. Unless you have stupendous means, there’s no way to get in today and get out tomorrow.

It’s easy to look back on the past 100 years and pick out revolutionary moments and landmark artists — Basquiat, Warhol, Donald Judd, Dan Christensen. Hindsight makes their rise to prominence seem hard to miss. But it’s much more difficult to know what will be valuable in the future when a revolution is happening in the industry.

For that reason, investing in art is a gamble in many ways.

Artists in the past gained fame through pushing boundaries, and you can argue that artists today are doing the same, just with different technology and intent.

Will artists like Kevin Abosch, Primavera De Filippi, Jenny Holzer, Judy Chicago, or Marina Abromovic be household names decades from now?

It’s hard to say.

What we do know is that it’s already becoming much easier for the average person to invest in artwork that may become more valuable later on thanks to blockchain and tokenization. So for anyone interested in art as an investment, this is certainly the right time to start considering new options and diversifying your portfolio.

Thanks for reading!

We’re encouraging anyone who’s interested in authenticating artwork to try our starter kit.

We also know that our users are unique, and not everyone has the exact same needs. If you have questions about customization of the app or solution, don’t hesitate to contact us.

This article originally appeared on Crunchbase.

What The History Of Art Investment Reveals About Its Future was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Art asset management has benefitted from a slew of new technology lately. RFID chips, blockchain registration, and databases for artwork have all come into vogue in recent years.

The problem is, no one individual solution addresses the biggest issue still in play — the missing link between the physical work of art and its digital life in a database or on a blockchain. Without that connection, there’s a wide security gap in the system that bad actors can use to their advantage.

Many of the current tech solutions for asset management aren’t particularly secure.

Digital information can be changed or erased from a database with surprising ease. And physical artwork is still vulnerable to counterfeiters and black market dealers.

It’s been my team’s goal at the Blockchain Art Collective to solve the issue of this missing link. And we’re confident our smart certificates of authenticity (COA) are the solution for our current lack of security and disconnected systems.

Here’s how they’ll dramatically improve art asset management:

A smart certificate of authenticity connects an artwork’s physical and digital identities.

This solution gives the artwork a fixed physical and digital identity as one bundle.

The mechanics behind the COA is simple. It’s a small, tamper-evident seal that can inconspicuously be attached to a work of art. Since the COA is smart — connected with IoT technology — it’s able to connect to a blockchain. So once the certificate has been affixed to artwork and the piece has been registered to our blockchain, the physical-digital link is in effect.

And that identity stays with the physical work of art for the duration of its existence.

The metadata stored by the NFC chip inside the seal is permanently saved and cannot be altered. It can be subsequently added to, but you can’t erase what’s already there. That connection between the object itself and its life on the blockchain is at the heart of what makes our solution different from anything that’s come before it.

It secures inventory and improves legitimacy.

The COA is uncomplicated, yet incredibly effective when it comes to securing data.

When the seal is scanned using an NFC device, public information about the piece, stored on the blockchain, becomes available to the user. That person immediately knows this piece is the physical object that’s been authenticated and registered to a blockchain. He or she is able to see the artist, any history about the artwork, and the value.

Once the COA is attached to the work of art, that piece cannot be swapped out for a counterfeit — which would lack the seal.

It also means copycats will be unable to register false data related to that artwork.

In the physical world, the certificate is rendered void if it’s tampered with. A small antenna within the NFC chip breaks apart when someone attempts to remove or alter the seal. This creates a strong incentive not to tamper with the certificate. Because if it is removed, that action negatively impacts the provable provenance of the piece.

The smart technology keeps a more permanent record with the artwork.

Authentication in provenance is particularly hard to prove because it involves all the disjointed pieces of information, claims, and rumors about the artwork.

It’s a bit like the oral tradition. Everyone has an idea of what’s happened, but no two people will agree on exactly how the story goes. A smart COA provides the data behind the art. It’s about taking that oral tradition and writing it down, making it explicit, and ensuring it can’t be tampered with.

Over time, this will deter people from trying to counterfeit art or make false claims to ownership and provenance. It’s easy to reference the record on blockchain and find the truth.

Right now, we’re incredibly excited about the opportunities our team at the Blockchain Art Collective holds for artists and institutions.

Thanks for reading!

We’re encouraging anyone who’s interested in authenticating artwork to try our starter kit. We’re also looking for artists and institutions to sign up for our working group and help us chart the path forward.

We also know that our users are unique, and not everyone has the exact same needs. If you have questions about customization of the app or solution, don’t hesitate to contact us.

How Smart Certificates Of Authenticity Improve Art Asset Management was originally published in Blockchain Art Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

2018 was a fascinating year for the art world.

On the more traditional side of the space, David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) set a record for a piece sold by a living artist, going for $90.3 million. And the ever reclusive Banksy pulled an elaborate stunt, activating a shredder hidden in the frame of one of his paintings just moments after it was sold for $1.4 million at Sotheby’s.

There was also intriguing news coming from more cutting-edge areas of the art world.

Take the now-famous example of an AI-generated painting selling for $432,000 at Christie’s. Or the companies that released dapps, like DADA, to make it easier than ever to buy digital art. Meanwhile, at the Blockchain Art Collective, we launched our Certificates of Authenticity for artists looking to create a secure physical-digital link for their works.

All of the progress we’ve made in the past year has set the stage for an exciting and anticipatory 2019, especially as it regards new tech, new mediums, and a burgeoning digital presence.

Here’s what we have to look forward to:

Digital art will see a physical transformation.

The art landscape is changing and mediums are evolving.

There’s been an explosion of digital art in the past year, and we even saw the opening of the world’s first digital art museum in Tokyo. People are more open than ever to the concept of digital art, especially with our new ability to create digital scarcity thanks to blockchain technology.

We’re seeing more experimentation than ever in the digital art space — and not just in its creation.

The way we’ll experience that art may change, as well.

While digital art may seem radically different, the opening of a museum dedicated to it does offer clues to how people may choose to experience it.

For those who view art primarily as an investment opportunity, looking at it on a laptop or phone may suffice. But there is something to be said for viewing art at the appropriate scale. Seeing a piece in a museum or hanging on the wall of a friend’s living room is a different experience than looking at it on your phone.

We’ll see companies working on producing displays that can handle works of digital art because as more people purchase digital art, they’ll want ways to display it in homes, offices, galleries, museums, and art fairs.

More people will see art as vehicles for investment instead of objects valued for their aesthetics.

A major reason for this shift in attitude toward investment is the easing of traditional barriers to buying or investing in art in the first place.

Fractional ownership makes it easy for someone to buy a small stake in a work of art they could never afford on their own. And because they aren’t taking and hanging that art on their wall — they only own a small fraction of it — they aren’t very attached to it.

In effect, art is becoming more commoditized as the barriers to entry break down.

As more people invest their money in the space, the more buying, selling, and trading will go on. This is especially true when it comes to Millennial art collectors because they represent 27% of all collectors.

The number of people who really love art will stay about the same, or climb slightly, while the number of people who invest in art will rise dramatically.

Technology will continue playing a number of roles in the art world.

A number of technologies are touching every part of the art ecosystem.

Blockchain is driving innovations in the automation, interoperability, security, and accessibility of data from transactions and records. The major use cases we’ll see develop from blockchain technology are authentication and provenance tracking, smart asset management, and tokenization and fractionalization of ownership.

AI is changing how art is created — and who is doing the creation. We’re going to be seeing more artists moving away from the traditional mediums as they continue to experiment and iterate with AI-generated art. And AR and VR art-based technologies will continue to improve since they hold plenty of promise for artists looking to push boundaries and explore new mediums and art forms.

The traditional skills necessary for creating art will begin to merge with those for creating tech — the rise of the artist as a coder.

Companies within the space are also working on applications for machine learning and data science for the art world. Sotheby’s recently acquired Thread Genius, a startup working on a visual search engine that can also be applied to art. Using price points, past transactions, and other data on a specific artwork, it may soon be possible to get better valuations and recommendations for art collectors simply by scanning an artwork.

This moment in time will become a part of art history books.

I recently picked up a copy of The Rarest Book, a book about the evolution of the rare Pepe memes. It’s so interesting because it acts a snapshot in time, tracing the evolution of this art and its cultural references over the past 30 years.

What’s happening now will end up in the history books that a new generation cracks open at the beginning of each semester — or, more likely, download onto a device.

Ten years from now, you’ll see this chunk of time distilled, and it will be another artistic phase, just as we had abstract expressionism or pointillism.

Regardless of how it all shakes out, 2019 is going to be a big year of both digital art and the art world as a whole. I’ll be paying close attention, and my advice would be for anyone interested in the space to do the same.

Thanks for reading!

Our team at the Blockchain Art Collective wants to make sure the art world changemakers and innovators — whether individuals or institutions — are having an impact on this growing ecosystem.

Sound like you? Fill out the form to apply to the Blockchain Art Collective Working Group.

Where The Art World Is Heading In 2019 was originally published in Blockchain Art Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I was at a conference recently, and I ended up in a conversation with someone from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

As we were talking, he shared his view that the original goal of the internet was to help people, but in his mind, it’s clear the technology has done just as much harm as good.

I think that’s partly because people now have all the power of the internet at their fingertips, but there haven’t been many accountability measures put in place. The internet has freed people to do some wonderful things, but it can just as easily be used to anonymously tear someone down or spread misinformation.

There are still unrealized dreams out there about the possibilities of technology to work for change and a more responsible future.

And that notion of accountability is why blockchain has the potential to accomplish what the internet couldn’t.

The cities and societies that use the blockchain to push for progress and incentivize people to act in healthy and productive ways will be the ones who do finally realize those goals.

Here’s why it matters for all of us:

Technology can improve trust — if used correctly.

Transparency is a complicated topic.

If an organization or individual is up to no good, they likely want as little transparency as possible. But just because someone wants privacy, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re doing something nefarious.

Still, many organizations can, and do, thrive while staying open about their processes and actions.

Blockchain has the capacity to help because it offers a way for governments and companies to offer more transparency in their dealings, their supply chains, and the products and services they offer. That’s because the cornerstone of blockchain technology is its trusted and secure automated transacting and record keeping.

Technology like zero-knowledge proofs allows companies and governments to prove they’re respecting human rights, providing the aid they say they are, or decreasing pollution — without giving up other sensitive data.

This capability can make transparency and trust the norm in our society. Because if no one’s being transparent, then no one will be held accountable.

New technologies can help with major global challenges.

Blockchain has plenty of applications for issues that we’re currently facing — like the recent humanitarian crisis caused by the influx of refugees to Europe.

Proving your identity and getting approved for entry into another country is an arduous process, and not everyone applying even has the proper documentation in the first place.

I mean, it’s not even easy in America. Just to renew my license, I had to go to my parent’s house, crawl into the attic, and pull my physical Social Security card from a lockbox. While I know a piece of paper or physical object works best because it’s unhackable, it seems pretty ridiculous when all of our identification numbers are floating around online.

If we could give people a digital identity to build credit and move across borders in a secure and simple manner, it would go a long way towards reducing stress for both refugees and the countries taking them in.

This isn’t just speculation, either. Bitnation has already created a voluntary, borderless blockchain jurisdiction with consulates in over 30 countries. It’s a way to provide people with self-sovereign identities. Those who don’t have a traditional place in the world can gain the ability to get marriage certificates, birth certificates, refugee emergency IDs, and all the other trappings of citizenship.

For someone who’s been forced from their home, this is a real-world application of technology that can actually make a difference in their life.

Use of technologies allows people to question how their city or country is advancing.

Data transparency and ownership may be the destination, but the road there isn’t an easy one.

There are plenty of countries that don’t allow their citizens full access to the internet or other emerging technologies because they fear what that level of transparency may lead to. And just because you have access to something doesn’t mean you can use it. No one is solving world hunger by handing out crypto wallets in third-world countries.

There are plenty of great opportunities for blockchain and other emerging technologies to make the world a better place, but realistically, it’s up to people to choose that path.

People often talk about all the amazing things this technology can do, but there has to be political will and societal pressure to make those changes. In many cases, it’s not the technology we’re lacking, it’s the will to act.

People have to put pressure on their local and national governments to become involved in using these technologies in ways that improve our lives. It’s the only way to actually realize the promise of blockchain, the internet, or any other transformative tech.

Thanks for reading!

Our team at the Blockchain Art Collective wants to make sure art world changemakers and innovators — whether individuals or institutions — are having an impact on this growing ecosystem.

Sound like you? Fill out the form to apply to the Blockchain Art Collective Working Group.

Why Cities And Citizens Using Emerging Technologies Will Be Better Equipped For The Future was originally published in HackerNoon.com on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Since the Blockchain Art Collective’s (BAC) app and products launched a few months ago, we’ve been hearing from artists and institutions who want to use the platform to authenticate artwork.

It’s been a great response, but we have been fielding questions about how it works for both for current artists and for institutions who may have artwork from deceased artists’ estates.

The two tracks — one for living artists and the other for the secondary market — are similar. But both do bear some explaining. So, I’m deep diving into our process to explain how it works and why there are so many benefits to registering art on a blockchain:

Living artists can easily authenticate work themselves.

The goal of our work is to connect artists and their works to both the digital and physical world.

Living artists can work directly with us to authenticate existing pieces, or they can reach out through the gallery or institution representing them.

Artists simply have to connect with the BAC team in order to validate their identity beyond an email. We want to have a conversation with the artists, get to know them and make sure they have the authority to make authorship claims about their artwork. We do like to meet with as many artists as possible, but a phone call, combined with an online portfolio, gallery website, references, or published helps to establish a trusted social identity.

Artists that have already gone through this process and are using the platform include Nanu Berks, cryptograffiti, and RFX1, among others.

The point of this background research is to make sure all artists feel certain that their identities are correct and secure.

Incorrect identity information can be amended and thus, voided, if necessary, but we like to spend the time upfront to avoid those situations altogether.

Once the artist’s identity has been validated, we send them a certificate of authenticity (COA) — a tamper-proof, adhesive seal to attach to the artwork. From there, they can use the mobile app to interact with the COA, enter information about the artwork, and submit the piece to the Blockchain Art Collective permissioned blockchain.

Currently, all the information registered to the blockchain about the artwork is private to the individual. But ultimately, there will be options to make certain information public or private in order to allow people to search for artists and view their work.

We also encourage any artist using the BAC blockchain to reference their method of authentication on their website or social channels. Spreading the word helps people understand what to look for when attempting to discern if a piece is authentic by tying it back to the source in multiple ways.

We also work with galleries representing living artists, such as Krypto Studios in the Wynwood Design District of Miami. We vet the gallery to make sure they have the same authority and proper relationships with their artists to facilitate the authentication of those artists’ works.

Authenticating the work of a non-living artist, or in the secondary market, follows a similar process.

Of course, when the artist is deceased, the authentication process is slightly different.

Without the artist to vouch for the authenticity of their pieces, we work with authenticators, collectors, and the artist’s estate. We want to get as close to the source of the artwork as possible to ensure no false information is registered.

The great thing about this process is that it doesn’t cut out traditional forms of verifying authenticity.

We still need the authenticators. We still need the people who can give a piece of art a stamp of approval before it’s placed on the blockchain. We really do rely on the human element.

Our goal is to augment what the art industry is already doing to authenticate by creating a physical-digital link for the artwork that stays with the piece from that point on. This opens up great possibilities for collections management for art institutions and the artists themselves.

The aim of BAC is to lay the foundation for the future of art authentication — and to create seamless integrations with existing practices.

We already have the Starter Kit available to artists and institutions who want to begin testing authenticating their work on the blockchain. But we’re also calling on artists, galleries, collectors, and people from every corner of the art world to join the working group as many already have. This is serving a critical role by helping new technological developments create real value across various sectors of the art world, while leveraging and integrating with what is already in place.

Together, we can increase trust and transparency in the art space, so artists and organizations can gain more value from their art through protected attribution and ownership data, and better management of precious assets.

Thanks for reading!

Our team at the Blockchain Art Collective wants to make sure art world changemakers and innovators — whether individuals or institutions — are having an impact on this growing ecosystem.

Sound like you? Fill out the form to apply to the Blockchain Art Collective Working Group.

How To Register And Authenticate Art With The Blockchain Art Collective was originally published in Blockchain Art Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The blockchain hype cycle is finally dying.

To be honest, that’s a good thing. Those in the industry who are left are actually going to stick around for the long run and continue building the applications everyone has been talking about.

When it comes to what’s being built for the art world, I see blockchain tech diverging into three areas.

1. First, there will be a fun, project-based sector. This space will be similar to game studios — very focused on the fun and artistic, making use of gamified platforms where people can invest, play around, get educated, and test out different ways blockchain can be incorporated into art.
2. The second area will concentrate on building out more user-friendly applications. These will use blockchain tech “under the hood” in the way we think of internet-based apps today like Twitter or Instagram, just with different means and ways of handling the storage and transacting of data.
3. The third area will encompass companies that are building heavy-duty infrastructures, like the protocols, networks, and different kinds of software and hardware that are necessary for blockchain implementation. Much of this infrastructure will focus on the technology surrounding authentication and interoperability, as that’s where some of the most intractable problems in the art world exist.

All three of these segments will open up a wealth of opportunities for those interested in art and blockchain, so now is the time to learn more about how the technology — and the companies using it — are adding real value.

Here’s what to expect from the space over the next year:

There will be more user-friendly distributed ledger technology-based products and solutions.

For blockchain to be worthwhile, it has to get to a tipping point of technological development.

In the past, people have been wary of using decentralized technology at the consumer level due to its nascency and association with the volatility of cryptocurrency markets. Now that we are a few years into its development and socialization, and the fact that just about every large company that touches tech or supply chain has a blockchain-focused arm, the larger public is getting more comfortable with the idea of mainstream adoption.

But we’re still waiting for blockchain to become better integrated with other technologies, which will allow companies and their products to survive and thrive.

While we may not see many new use cases this year as we did in 2018, the exciting part is that we’ll actually see more and more usable solutions from companies like Snark.Art, Swarm, DADA, and our own team at Blockchain Art Collective.

A lot of products out there now, and what will eventually get built, will end up dying.

This will leave space for the important, long-term projects to grow.

And consumer-facing applications and related infrastructure will continue being developed, deployed, and adopted by people who want to support the redistribution of power as it relates to Internet-based products and services, data ownership, and peer-to-peer transacting.

Private implementations of art-based technology will persist.

Due to the potential for major changes in the art world, large players like Christie’s have gotten involved in the blockchain with companies like Artory — and that trend will continue to play out.

People are realizing that new methods of ownership are going to change the art market, and traditional players need to be on their toes to respond successfully. Larger enterprise and more traditional companies will focus on private and hybrid solutions employing blockchain to create business value through interoperability, automation, and data security.

The art world also will start to explore the formation of larger industry consortiums from an academic perspective while building out their own solutions. Just as we’ve seen with urban planning, the art industry has the opportunity to start coordinating at the infrastructure level now instead of having to retrofit and connect disjointed components after everything has been built with different goals in mind.

The art market will grow due to lower barriers for investing and liquidating, and increased trust between buyers and sellers of art.

Fractional ownership through tokenization is opening up investment opportunities for individuals with a variety of net worths, but it’s also changing the investment landscape for those who already have the means to speculate on artworks.

That may also increase the already commodified state of art, which has its positives and negatives.

Yet, more artists will be able to fund the creation of new artworks with more liquidation events, and more museums and galleries will be able to fund new acquisitions or capital projects for those same reasons. And buyers and sellers of art will have increased access to authenticity and provenance records as ownership data becomes directly connected with artworks over time.

All these changes simply mean more people will be drawn to the art community, investigating its potential and trying to find how they can become involved or continue to evolve with the space.

Digital, crypto, and AI-generated art will become accepted as the next genre of art to proceed the post-internet and contemporary art waves.

As an industry, we’ll see more integration of new technologies into the actual creation of artworks from tokenization, gamification, and a new class of computer artists that are producing auction-worthy artworks via machine learning algorithms.

On the creation side of the art world, the use of digital platforms will continue to grow, and that will have an effect on how artwork is purchased and viewed. Art investors and collectors will require new ways to display their art — which is going to create a demand for improved digital displays in lieu of the more traditional painting or print.

The demand for these new art mediums have even gotten to a point that there will be the first Crypto and Digital Art Fair (CADAF) held this spring in New York City by New Art Academy. Platforms like Artnome exist to serve as a critical and objective voice in examining the successes and areas for growth of technological integration with art.

Companies old and new will use more traditional ways of funding and resourcing.

While the ICO hype was booming in 2018, you couldn’t turn around without bumping into a company launching one of these.

I’m using the term “company” loosely here.

A lot of blockchain projects were made of smoke, mirrors, and an exciting white paper — nothing more. But now that the hype has cooled off and the SEC has stepped in, we’re going to see companies that are in it for the long-term looking for more traditional funding. Funding through initial public offerings, secondary public offerings, venture capital, and security token offerings will be seen as viable options.

With that return to more traditional funding, blockchain companies are going to continue adding real business value.

We’ll see the rise of independent or autonomous working groups —and previously mentioned industry consortiums that will find tools to work together. The incentive for individual parties to join these working groups will likely be linked to real solutions in supply chain inventory, financial tracking, and insurance for art.

As these groups evolve, they will slowly learn new practices and carve the path forward for the industry as a whole.

There will be increased technology and business integration.

Mediums and art forms are always evolving, and the addition of blockchain, machine vision, AI, VR, and AR will contribute to that change.

For a long time, we’ve been able to point our phones at QR codes and get more information about them. But what if we could instead use them to scan an image or an artwork and immediately get all the information about that particular piece?

Artist, time period, history, valuation range — it could all pop up on your phone right then and there.

Companies like Smartify are already working on that use case, and there are many others creating exciting solutions for the art world. Cre8.xyz is another platform that allows you to build an integrated reputation across different creative spheres, such as freelance design and community building work.

All in all, if you’re a fan of art with a predilection for tech, it will be worth paying attention to what’s happening in the coming year.

Thanks for reading!

Our team at the Blockchain Art Collective wants to make sure art world changemakers and innovators — whether individuals or institutions — are having an impact on this growing ecosystem.

Sound like you? Fill out the form to apply to the Blockchain Art Collective Working Group.

Blockchain For Art: What Everyone Is Preparing For In 2019 was originally published in DataDrivenInvestor on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

People often want to assign a hierarchy to art.

This need to classify is clearly evident in new and transitional styles like crypto and blockchain art. With so much innovative and unusual work out there, people are ready to nail down some sort of ranking.

The thing is, not all art is intended for the same purpose.

That makes it hard to compare work side-by-side and then hold up a “winner.” If two artists are trying to evoke different emotions or serve particular purposes, then it’s impossible to compare the pieces to each other. Instead, we should be asking if a piece fulfills the intentions of the artist.

If that is done successfully, then the artist has accomplished something.

While digital and crypto art may seem different from what the art world is used to, it’s actually following in a long tradition of new and initially disconcerting art.

As someone with a background in both the traditional and crypto art spaces, here’s how I think about it:

1. Crypto art falls into three main categories.

The first type of art in the crypto space is technology-based.

A good example here is Kevin Abosch, who has tokenized his blood in the project IAMA COIN, incorporating actual blockchain technology into his art. People can literally now buy shares of “him” that are part of his physical being. Another is CoinArtist, who is using blockchain technology to create puzzles and games that have to be decrypted.

Even though these two artists’ styles are radically different from each other, both CoinArtist and Abosch fall under the umbrella of art that is actually crypto-based and relies on the technology itself to work.

The second category of crypto art utilizes blockchain solutions that exist separately from the nature of the artwork itself.

For example, an artist in this group may register a physical painting of a vase of flowers on the Blockchain Art Collective — and then tokenize it via a counterparty bitcoin token.

The third type of crypto art is where artists use traditional forms, but make the subject matter referential to crypto and blockchain.

There is some debate about this category and whether it truly falls under the umbrella of crypto art.

I like to think of Warhol, whose work was very focused around fame, pop culture, and money, and who literally painted dollar signs at one point. Of course, it was about money — that’s what it brings to mind for the viewers. And when you see bitcoin in art, it makes you think of cryptocurrency, decentralization, blockchain, and other concepts surrounding the space.

In my mind, the content of an artwork, and what it’s speaking to, is also a critical part of what it is when experienced as art.

2. Artists are shaping the space and experimenting.

A wide variety of artists out there are doing unique and groundbreaking work. It doesn’t take much to learn about them, either. Here are a few artists to look to in the crypto space:

• Eve Sussman recently made a film about the famous Diego Velásquez painting Las Meninas and is now tokenizing pixelated stills from the film with Snark.Art.
• Nanu Berks artwork speaks to the imagery of association with blockchain and crypto.
• Sites like DADA allow people to co-create digital artwork together and come up with wild, intricate drawings you can collect.
• Plantoids, the brainchild of Primavera de Filippi, are physical sculptures that “grow” when people donate bitcoin to pay for the supplies and labor of building them.

3. Digital and crypto art is constantly being represented in new ways.

So much of the innovation happening is collectively tied up in education.

Looking back through different time periods, artists have always thought of new ways to visually represent things and concepts. Picasso, van Gogh, Hilma af Klint — they all pushed boundaries at their times and affected the art environment as we know it today.

Sometimes the medium changes. Sometimes the concept is transformed. In other cases, artists adapt the subject matter to their work. The only constant is change, and no matter what comes out of that, the art world is benefitting from something new.

New ideas, new styles, new formats — they’re all part of each successive wave when you look back through the history books.

The crypto space is experiencing this today.

There are so many different phrases people use to speak about an era when new concepts and ideologies were introduced. We’re moving along a line of contemporary art, post-internet art, and now crypto art.

This is a new wave of art and artists. It’s exciting we have the resources and ability to get informed and educated about it now, while it’s happening, and to shape what it looks like when we read about crypto art in the timeline of art history in the years to come.

Thanks for reading!

Our team at the Blockchain Art Collective wants to make sure art world changemakers and innovators — whether individuals or institutions — are having an impact on this growing ecosystem.

Sound like you? Fill out the form to apply to the Blockchain Art Collective Working Group.

3 Things To Keep In Mind When Navigating The Crypto Art Landscape was originally published in HackerNoon.com on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.