BitPainting Offers Artists and Collectors a Way to Exchange Art Digitally

If there’s one market that’s ripe for technology to shake up, it’s the world of art collecting. Traditionally, fine art has been reserved solely for the wealthy and well connected. Artists have also struggled to monetize their work on a scalable level. But that’s all set to change as blockchain technology steps into the fray, allowing artists and collectors to exchange art digitally like never before.

One of the key drivers of this transformation is the meteoric rise of Decentralized Apps on the blockchain. Decentralized apps operate through an open system of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) connected computers, rather than one centralized server. Without getting too technical, decentralized apps don’t require a middleman (like Google or Apple) to manage the functioning and user data of the app.

Decentralized apps have already exploded in the realm of collectibles and digital assets, with the Ethereum-based Crypto Kitties app being one of the most popular decentralized apps created to date. This latest manifestation in the form of crypto collectibles is a clear indicator that in order to truly democratize art collecting, there’s primarily the need for making digital creative assets such as paintings more secure.

As leaders in the mobile gaming industry, Tapinator wanted to take its knowledge and expertise in mobile apps into this exciting, new space of decentralized apps. That’s why we developed BitPainting — to help the world of digital art collection and exchange grow from a fledgling concept into a mass movement.

1. Facilitating Digital Exchange

One of the biggest factors that has held digital art collecting back is the lack of a strong platform for exchanging assets online. Whether it’s authenticity concerns or lack of a cost effective way to become involved in art collecting, facilitating exchange in digital settings simply hasn’t been easy for both artists and collectors. We realized this was a huge opportunity to leverage blockchain to bring both buyers and sellers together on a large scale, and the result is the upcoming release of our decentralized BitPainting app. Finally, art collecting will be democratized and accessible, allowing for more exchanges and transactions than ever before.

2. Maintaining Integrity

Frauds, forgeries, and unauthorized copies are all problems that artists and collectors face on a consistent basis in the real world (nevermind the digital). Validating, securing, and maintaining the integrity of any individual piece of art is a piece of the puzzle that hasn’t been solved until now. BitPainting aids artists in maintaining the integrity and exclusivity of their work, as they now have control over how many copies of each painting to issue. Never before have artists been able to control the scarcity of their work, and do so in a way that’s immune to fraud and forgery. By tying each piece to its own unique block, buyers can be assured that the work they purchase isn’t a fraud. And artists can sell pieces as exclusively as they choose, while protecting the integrity of their personal brand.

3. Tracking Chain of Ownership

Oftentimes when a collector buys a piece of art, there’s the question as to the “chain of custody.” How many previous owners did it have? When did they buy or sell it? How long has it been in existence and what prices did people pay for it? Traditionally, collectors have had to take the word of artists or galleries, with the risk of overpaying and overall lack of transparency, regarding the history of what they’re buying. With BitPainting and blockchain technology, we’re solving that problem altogether. As a public ledger operating on a distributed network, buyers can follow a complete chain of ownership and value, helping them make the most informed purchasing decisions possible.

4. Combating Fraud & Fakes

As we alluded to earlier, any effective digital art exchange platform has to address the issue of guarding against fakes and frauds. This has long been one of the main criticisms of taking

art collecting into the digital realm. Many critics argue that just because an asset is digital in nature, that it’s more prone to illegal fraud than physical pieces. But with blockchain, that just isn’t the case. Buyers can trace each piece back to the original sale from artist to the collector market, and verify its authenticity via the blockchain.

One needs to look no further than the shocking documentary Sour Grapes to see how easily physical creations, collectibles, and assets can be forged. Sour Grapes tells the real-life story of how one seemingly legitimate high-end wine collector was able to take his own homemade wine, forge bottles of high-end vintages, and sell them off to collectors at a huge profit. The truth is, physical collectibles are actually more susceptible to fraud and forgery than those on the blockchain. Transparency of ownership history and individual block authentication provide that, and are not safeguards available to physical collectible exchanges.

We created BitPainting because we recognized just how ready the $45 billion art market is for a digital revolution. By applying blockchain technology, we’re going to offer artists and collectors a way to exchange art digitally in a more secure, transparent, and seamless way than ever before. BitPainting will allow millions of more people to become collectors of exclusive art with integrity, and will allow artists to gain control of their brand and portfolio.

Time to get your digital showroom ready, because the BitPainting release is right around the corner. You can sign up now at www.bitpainting.com to receive the Beta version in April 2018.