Although the blockchain network was originally designed as the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, it has since 2009, been trialed, tested and experimented with in a variety of industries: finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and now art.

According to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), the art industry is keen to test blockchain technology for a variety of purposes. These include providing greater transparency and efficiency to the process of buying and selling art, and creating a new way for digital artists to ensure that the original digital editions of their artwork can be tracked and verified.

Unfortunately, the art buying and selling industry is fragmented and very opaque. While blockchain technology is still in its early preliminary stages, there is hope that blockchain can have an impact on redefining processes and networks in the art market. However, the blockchain also challenges the current art market structure as it questions the role of traditional middlemen like dealers and auction houses.

Last month, Christie’s a 252-year-old auction house expressed positive sentiment to the emerging technology by hosting an event that included technologists, art experts, entrepreneurs, financiers and lawyers at its London showrooms. The goal was to see how blockchain technology could change the existing structure, processes, and relationships in the art market and industry.

Blockchain technology could have a “potentially revolutionary impact on our business,” said Anne Bracegirdle, a specialist from Christie’s photographs department. Bracegirdle noted that an immutable digital ledger reduces any room for human error, increases trust and could even facilitate sales to buyers who would otherwise be hesitant.

“Property titles and full provenance are often missing, and that information can make or break a sale,” said Bracegirdle.

Although digital art is very popular, it has always suffered from ease of replication. Blockchain technology, however, can change this. Digital artists see blockchain technology as a way to create a limited number of original prints and then track and verify those prints over time.

Furthermore, digital artists can even make more money from their artworks through the use of smart contracts. They can now sell part of their artwork on the blockchain. Providing fractional ownership could reduce the barrier to entry for art purchases by reducing the cost of art—opening up the market to everyday people. Concerns about authenticity and the need for a physical location are mitigated with digital art and blockchain technology.

“A simple coding script could ask where this artist has already sold and where this particular piece has sold in the past,” said John Settler, the president of Rare Art Labs. “There would be no concern about the authenticity of the piece and no real need for a physical location where buyers and sellers gather.”

Since blockchain technology can also eliminate the need for a dealer or auction house to authenticate the artwork and judge its value, the emerging technology could really shake up the traditional industry structure for creating, selling, and buying art.

Blockchain digital art has also grown into a community closely associated with the Crypto Punks. According to Hackernoon, a Crypto Punk is a new generation of entrepreneurs who believe in individual liberty. They also see collective creation and co-creation via decentralization as very important features.

Matt Hall is a cryptopunk and the co-creator of “cryptopunks”, a series of 10,000 unique digital artworks on the Ethereum blockchain. Hall and his business partner no longer control the artwork, as it has grown to become something new through involvement of the community. Hall mentioned that there is no longer a concern about the authenticity, which eliminates the need for buyers and sellers to meet in a physical location.

Hall noted that the ‘cryptopunks’ experiment was quite successful. However, he mentioned that it raises a lot of “tricky questions” on whether people were open to purchasing art that resided purely online. Digital art often runs into a lot of questions which run counter to traditional art industry practices.

Furthermore, in Hall’s situation, he needs to assess whether the artwork should be kept on the blockchain since it’s very expensive to do so. The Ethereum blockchain is generally used to store key information like proof of ownership, and the artwork is usually hosted on a separate third-party site. However, many argue that by taking the artwork off the blockchain, it goes against the idea of blockchain technology and leaves the buyer vulnerable to the third party company, since the company could go out of business or even destroy the artwork.

However, a problem that comes with hosting artworks on the blockchain is that dealing with the blockchain network is fairly tedious. Users need to have a digital wallet and understand the general principles of blockchain technology. Art entrepreneurs who also wish to launch their services on the Ethereum blockchain need to pay a price for engaging with the network. The price to participate is known as the “Gas price”, which can be quite volatile.

“There are so many rough edges,” said Hall. “You can’t plan for success by buying a bigger server. You don’t control the servers and you can’t call the helpdesk.”

The post How Blockchain Technology Could Revolutionize the Art Industry appeared first on UNHASHED.

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