Blockchain entrepreneurs and enthusiasts gathered at the Ethereal Summit in New York this weekend to talk through burgeoning blockchain technology based upon the Ethereum.
On Saturday night, Codex Protocol held a charity art auction to benefit its foundation for art & blockchain. The event was accessible through Live Auctioneers. The nine works offered were all unique digital works of art whose authenticity as the original or edition, as opposed to a digital copy, is protected by the blockchain.
There were several works sold for sums in the high four figures but the news of the evening was a record price paid—$140,000—for a cryptokitty.
Don’t know what that is? Well, it is a form of digital collectible similar to a beanie baby originally created to demonstrate the blockchain that has since burgeoned into its own craze.
Here’s an excerpt from Bloomberg’s take on the cryptokitty:
Entrepreneurs are already using blockchain to verify the authenticity of artworks. And according to Bryce Bladon, communications manager at Axiom Zen, crypto could help resurrect the digital art market, which collapsed when the internet made it possible to endlessly reproduce and distribute files. Digital art could regain value if ownership is recorded on distributed ledgers, he said.
“There are serious problems with art that the blockchain could solve,” said Bladon, whose company makes the popular blockchain game CryptoKitties. In CryptoKitties, players breed and trade virtual cats.
There are about 700,000 different digital kitties, some of which have sold for more than $100,000. Guilherme Twardowski, art director at CryptoKitties, calls the game “procedural art.”
Crypto Artists Unlock Value With Lambos, Kitties and Blood (Bloomberg)
