Blockchain: Good or Bad for Art and Artists?

Baozou Comment : There are many different opinions on the impact of blockchain on the art field. Some people believe that blockchain technology will have a negative impact on the art field, mainly questioning that the introduction of blockchain technology originally used in the financial field into the art field will have a very bad impact. However, some blockchain media entrepreneurs have completely opposite views. They believe that blockchain can not only allow artists to share their works and make profits from them, but also generate a public record of the author and time of the creation of the work, remove middlemen, return the ownership of the work to the hands of the artist, liberate the artist's nature, and promote the development of the art field.

Translation: Nicole

One art project has launched a fundraising effort to highlight the negative impacts blockchain technology can have on art.

The project, which takes place in the UK, aims to produce an illustrated book titled Artists Reconsider Blockchain, which explores the impact of blockchain on the art world. The funding will be used to host a public discussion event in London, and the project highlights the concerns some artists have once new technologies are introduced into the art world.

“In addition, we doubt whether art products can be introduced within the financial system.”

Questions about the “financialization” of art

In this financing project, the main point of contention about blockchain technology is that the introduction of blockchain technology, which was originally used in the financial field, into the art field will have a very bad impact.

“But even as we write this, the ‘new dawn’ of trading is shaping up to be the next sleep cycle that could take us further toward the libertarian dream of complete financialization, in which finance and technology accelerate the process of mining valuable tokens while the grammar of culture, family, nature, politics, and space-time evaporates into a series of question marks and exclamation points.”

Blockchain media entrepreneur: Blockchain can have a positive impact on art

Mike Vine

On the other hand, some artists, developers and entrepreneurs have joined the field of seamlessly connecting art and technology through blockchain. Mike Vine, technology evangelist at LBRY (a platform that stores ownership and allows artists to control the financial ownership of their works), believes that blockchain technology can have a positive impact on the art field.

“Blockchain technology can bring many benefits to artists, allowing them to share and profit from their work while generating a public record of who created the work and when — all without the need for large intermediaries like corporations or governments. Art thrives when there is enough freedom, and blockchain puts ownership of the work back in the hands of the artist. I hope to see new ideas flourish in blockchain networks, just as we saw with the early days of the internet.”

Troy Fearnow of Cryptoart is a project that creates Bitcoin and digital currency-related artworks and combines them with digital wallets. The project also believes that blockchain technology can liberate the nature of artists.

“Blockchain is a great technology for artists, and it can be a boon to collectors. Fraud and abuse are rife in certain sectors of the art market, especially online. Imagine how much more convenient it would be if a collector could self-verify the authenticity of a work of art by referencing a blockchain. Similarly, licensing agreements (especially at scale) would be much simpler if usage parameters were available to the original rights owner on an immutable ledger.”