Anjali Jayaraman

Grade 8
APL Global School - Thoraipakkam

Potential implications of the rise of crypto art on the traditional art market, including issues
related to valuation, provenance and intellectual property rights (1500-2000 words)

The rise of crypto art is a fascinating topic. As it’s such a new product there are many things
we don’t know about it yet. I’m here to cover most of how crypto art works and whether it
will surpass the popularity of traditional art. This essay will go into what crypto art is, the
differences between traditional and crypto art, the drawbacks of both and more.[67]

What crypto art actually is may be more difficult to answer than you may think. Crypto art,
otherwise known as NFT art (non-fungible token art) is digital art bought and sold using
cryptocurrency. One of the most prevalent moments of crypto art was when Beeple (real
name Mike Winkelmann) sold an NFT for $69 million to Christie’s.
The origins of crypto art started in 2016 with Joe Looney’s Rare Pepe Wallet. It claimed to be
the “first blockchain community where anyone can submit artwork to be bought, sold, traded,
or destroyed on the blockchain.”. With that success, more platforms came up such as Crypto
Punks, Dada.NYC, and Curio Cards.
Then came the CryptoKitties. This was an opportunity to start making money in the platform.
It allows players to purchase, collect, breed, and sell virtual cats. CryptoKitties players used
Ethereum (a blockchain) to buy and sell unique digital kittens.

To find out more, Martin Lukas Ostachowski published a book on History of Crypto Art.[72]

The main and obvious difference is that traditional art is a hard copy and a physical item,
while crypto art is completely digital and that traditional art is created using traditional
materials such as paint, canvas, pencils, and other physical mediums. However, there is
another small difference. Crypto art is created using computer programs and stored on a
blockchain. Crypto art can also be owned but “ownership” of crypto art doesn’t get you
actual rights, other than being able to say that you own the work. You don’t have copyright
privileges, you don’t get a hard print, and anyone can look at the image on the web. There is
merely a record in a public database saying that you own the work.[91]

Traditional art has been marketed through various methods such as art fairs, auctions, art
publications, and online platforms. However, one of the drawbacks is the high cost of the art.
Art galleries charge artist expensive fees to showcase their work, along with transportation
fees, insurance fees, installation fees and more, which can cost tens of thousands of rupees!

Also, mistakes are hard to remove in traditional art. Mistakes are difficult to undo once up for
everyone to see. It may become embraced eventually but by that time, interest in that artwork
would have decreased.

It’s very much slower than crypto art as well, taking months or even years for one art piece to
be complete. This can take away time from creating new art and may not be a sustainable
way to go in the long term.

Not just anyone can do traditional art. Mostly experts who have studied the values and
techniques of art can truly “do it properly”. It requires time and effort, somethings which
some people who just enjoy art don’t have. It is not very accessible to the general public.

Also, getting the proper materials, such as brushes, different mediums of color, canvases,
pencils, erasers, paper, palette and more! Not to mention if you are doing art unrelated to
painting such as sculpting or ceramics! Even more materials. [222]

Traditional art might not be able to effectively reach the younger generations who are much
more accustomed to a digital experience. It also may not have a very strong impact on them
either compared to previous generations.

That being said, traditional art provides unique pieces and provides a shared experience for
all looking at it. There is a magical feeling while working on a painting or a drawing done by
hand, which is something that crypto art can’t do. When creating art in the traditional way,
you're creating something that is concrete and real with flaws. These flaws actually
accentuate the picture as flaws are what makes us human and is the one common trait
everyone has. Crypto art just takes this authentic feeling away.

However, crypto art is accessible to anyone. You don’t need to have ten years’ worth of
experience to do well in crypto art. Anyone has a fair shot at it. Also, crypto art can let artists
be creative and without stereotype boundaries to hold them back. They can be free to do as
they please with their own art in their own style.[188]
Crypto art has been marketed in many ways, such as online marketplaces, social media,
auctions, and NFT marketplaces. Some drawbacks though such as valuation. Determining an
accurate value of crypto art is quite difficult, due to both buyers and sellers lacking any
control over the prices.

Also, provenance is quite an issue, due to the difficulty of finding the true origins of the
artwork. How are you meant to credit the creator if you don’t know who they are? And how
can you provide evidence that it is the real artwork if you can’t find out of made it in the first
place?

Not to mention intellectual property rights (IPR). IPR means there are the legal rights given
to the creator to protect their creation. It is very tough to enforce IPR in crypto art as there is
a possibility of unauthorized copying, which is known as copyright infringement. However, a
counter is that crypto art is unique and can be traced back through blockchain (a large
database) so any “original” artworks can be checked to see if it is the real art.[183]

In conclusion, there are many variations and sides to the argument of potential implications
of the rise of crypto art on the traditional art market. Crypto art is still very much a new idea
and system of art and it will take a while and a lot of data collecting before we can come to a
solid answer. For now, crypto art seems very popular and I have a feeling its popularity will
continue to grow but it will never truly surpass traditional art. [84]

Citations:
https://theconversation.com/
History of Crypto art – Book by Martin Lukas Ostachowski
https://amt-lab.org/blog/2021/7/crypto-art-origins-and-future#:~:text=Crypto%20art
%202.0%20started%20with,and%20sell%20unique%20digital%20kittens.

Total: 1065 words