Giovanni Colavizza, Crypto art: Digital art on the blockchain

Crypto art is digital art tokenised and exchanged via blockchains. Crypto art is part of the broader rise of Non-Fungible Tokens as a means to transact unique digital assets using distributed blockchains. As it rapidly goes mainstream, crypto art rests on radically different premises than the traditional art market, while also maintaining certain similarities. Examples of differences include the transparency of market transactions data and the distributed organisation of the market, while similarities include the stardom system and the visible emergence of gatekeepers. This talk situates crypto art historically and explains the underpinning technology. Furthermore, it discusses early research on this emerging phenomenon, including results from the first survey of the crypto art community. Lastly, it offers some speculation on the future, in particular with respect to how crypto art might contribute to altering the traditional art market.