Blockchain could allow fractional ownership, reduce the need for third-party intermediaries, protect intellectual property rights and help fight counterfeiting.
"The Art of Blockchains" was the name of a conference held in Miami Beach at the start of this month.
It brought together art collectors, gallery owners and developers, discussing how blockchain technology can be used to buy art in a cooperative way.
The collector and entrepreneur of art Adam Lindemann, the organizer of the event, said: "I like change, I am a contrarian, so if blockchain could change the world of art, I want be part of it ".
Fractional property
For Lindemann, art is first and foremost an investment class.
The tokenisation and fractional ownership of works of art could make investments in art more accessible and more widely available to investors.
It could provide ways to increase liquidity in the market and reduce transaction costs.
So far, digital art has mostly been exchanged via blockchain platforms, for example crypto-collectible such as CryptoPunks or CryptoKitties.
But physical art has also been sold on blockchain platforms. A famous example was the sale of Andy Warhol's painting "14 small electric chairs" at the beginning of this year.
31.5% of the work was sold in cryptocurrency via the Mecenate blockchain platform. The total value of the cryptocurrency quota of the painting was $ 5.6 million. Meacenas told the Times that this was "the first art work of many others to come".
Imagine being able to boast at a dinner which Warhol stake you own. Would not it be nice?
But not everyone at the conference is happy with the idea of splitting up the ownership of art.
"Is it really good for a work of art when suddenly there are 2,000 people involved? I'm inclined towards no," says Nanne Dekking, CEO and founder of Artory.
Protect intellectual property rights
Artory is a register based on blockchain that traces origination for art and collectibles. In this way, it provides another important case of the use of blockchain technology in the art sector: to guarantee the authenticity of works of art.
Explains Nanne Dekking: "The provenance and authenticity are the main determinants of the value of each work of art.Today, it was impossible to have complete trust on these aspects for many works of art."
Artory uses blockchain technology to control, store and protect transaction data. Tracing the history and provenance of works of art, the Artory register increases buyer and seller confidence.
Use a artistic register based on blockchain it can guarantee complete security of information and make registers more reliable. This register could include all kinds of artistic work – paintings, sculptures, music, graphic design, writings – and can be used to protect the intellectual property rights of artists.
As the internet has made it easy to download any work of art, piracy has become a big problem for art creators.
However, working with third-party intermediaries who can protect the intellectual property rights of artists and act as an authorized seller of work can be painful. These brokers often take the lion's share of profits. As a result, artists are often left between rock and a difficult place.
Now, if this process could be managed via smart contracts based on blockchainartists could personally take care of their sales and dictate terms for their work directly with their customers.
Fight against forgery
A distributed ledger can record the details of the place and time of creation, the production processes and the origin of the raw material. This information can help fight counterfeiting.
VeChain Thor and Waltoinchain have launched platforms that tag products with an RFID tag. They can check if the products are genuine or not. Since all information is stored on a blockchain, it is impossible to change the data or the product label.
On the one hand, blockchain can benefit the artistic industry in many ways, and especially the artists themselves. On the other hand, traditional auction houses that provide clearing services and secondary exchanges of third parties may lose the greater use of blockchain.
But with the changes made by time, industries and companies face the challenge of adapting their business models to keep up with innovation.
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