Mike Winkelmann, known popularly as Beeple, sold a non-fungible token (NFT) of his work for 69 million dollars in an auction at Christie’s. NFT is a unit of digital data. It is unique and cannot be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin could be traded for another bitcoin but you get the same thing – 10 bitcoins 10 bitcoins or something worth 10 bitcoins. However, if you trade a NFT, you get something that is completely different-a NFT art piece = whatever rate is paid for it.
Beeple’s collaged JPG was made, or “minted,” in February as a “nonfungible token,” or NFT. A secure network of computer systems that records the sale on a digital ledger, known as a blockchain, gives buyers proof of authenticity and ownership. Most pay with the Ethereum cryptocurrency. “Everydays” was the first purely digital NFT sold by Christie’s, and it offered to accept payment in Ethereum, another first for the 255-year-old auction house.
Todd Levin, a New York art adviser who saw Leonardo’s “Salvator Mundi” sell at Christie’s for $450.3 million in 2017, said he had “mixed emotions” about the Beeple sale.
“On the one hand, it’s super exciting to witness a historical inflection point,” Levin said. “On the other hand, the amount of money involved could skew and damage a nascent emerging market.”
Credit : The New York Times
Picture Credit : Google
