Here are the many ways that buyers, sellers, and enterprising artists are embracing this new medium.




See also: What is Blockchain application

THE ARTIST

Visual artists are increasingly creating digital artwork, which might not ever have a physical presence. Digital files, however, can be replicated and distributed without the artists’ consent. By registering their work on the blockchain, artists can establish proof of ownership, and therefore a secondary market. Some are even using blockchain technology itself as a canvas. This past February, artist Kevin Abosch sold Forever Rose to a collective of investors for cryptocurrency valued at $1 million. Each buyer received one-tenth of a virtual rose–effectively a string of code–as a token on the blockchain, which they can keep, sell, or give away.

See also: What is Blockchain 1.0

THE COLLECTOR

Forgeries are still rampant in the art world. Collectors worried about the authenticity of a purchase can use the blockchain to track its ownership history. Several startups, including Codex and Verisart, offer artists, collectors, and galleries registration and certification services. When a piece is registered, details of its physical characteristics and history are stored in a time-stamped entry on the blockchain that can be verified. “I think of [the blockchain] like LinkedIn,” says Verisart CEO Robert Norton. “A single unverified claim might look suspicious, but one that other issuers can endorse can hold more value and credence.”


See also: What is Blockchain 3.0

THE ART INVESTOR


Singapore-headquartered firm Maecenas is using blockchain-based cryptocurrency to sell shares of artwork. In July, the company partnered with the gallery Dadiani Syndicate for its first sale, offering a 31.5% stake in Andy Warhol’s 14 Small Electric Chairs, valued at $5.6 million. “We’re not selling art, we’re selling a financial product,” says Kim Randall-Stevens, Maecenas’s director of acquisitions and sales. “Eventually, anyone who wants to liquidate a fraction of their artwork will be able to do it.” In the coming months, the company will roll out a blockchain-based platform for trading such shares.

THE AUCTION HOUSE


Christie’s piloted a blockchain-based encryption and registration service at the November auction of the Barney A. Ebs­worth Collection in New York. The auction house worked with art registry service Artory to create a digital certificate for pieces in the estimated $300 million sale (which included work by Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keeffe). The certificate records a description of the work and price, and tracks its provenance as it gets bought or sold. Richard Entrup, chief information officer at Christie’s, says that the benefits of the blockchain include “increased transparency and long-term data security for relevant information about the artworks.”

Here are some of the key moments from 2018 involving digital currency’s impact on the art world, and some predictions on how this technology might help shape the marketplace in the future.

Summits Were Dedicated To Blockchain

The art industry’s growing interest in blockchain was made evident by its presence in the media. There was a noticeable increase in art and blockchain-related news, and a number of conferences were dedicated to the subject. 2018’s Ethereal Summit, a global conference about blockchain technology, placed emphasis on the art world, even concluding the event with a live auction. 2018 was also the year in which Christie's, one of the world’s leading auction houses, held its first-ever Art+Tech Summit, dedicated to ‘Exploring Blockchain’. Speakers discussed technology’s positive and negative attributes, questioning if the art world was ready for blockchain, and if so, if it could have a meaningful impact.

Art Was Tokenized For The First Time

In July, blockchain platform Maecenas partnered with London gallery Dadiani Fine Art to offer fractional stakes in Andy Warhol’s 14 Small Electric Chairs (1980). 31.5% of the Warhol work went up for sale in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. The total dollar value of the cryptocurrency share of the work was $5.6 million. It was a landmark for art and technology. Maecenas’ chief executive told The Times it was “the first artwork of many more to come.”