How Blockchain Tech is Inspiring the Art World

via Coin Desk
by Yessi Bello Perez (@yessi_kbello) | Published on May 14, 2015 at 20:25 BST

Since its creation in 2009, bitcoin’s blockchain has proved that value can be moved across a network that cuts out the traditional ‘middle men’.

While the broad strokes of distributed ledger technologies like bitcoin are a hot topic, it’s not just Wall Street or multi-national corporations that are paying attention.

Artists are also exploring how the experimental technology can provide new ways to track and verify ownership through tools like smart contracts – authenticated by cryptographic data.

Blockchain authentication

Stephan Vogler, an artist and entrepreneur based in Germany, thinks the blockchain may be the answer to the art world’s perennial problem, authenticity.

Forgery is rife in the art world. While traditional forms of licensing would create a tradable commodity, he said, buyers could not be certain the license was authentic – nor would they be able to assert whether the author had created multiple copies of the piece.

“Bitcoin offers a solution to this problem. Just like bitcoin can replace banknotes, it can replace the piece of paper with the license text on it. I see great potential in bitcoin and its technology.”

He continued: “The blockchain is the first decentralised trustable database, which can track the ownership of virtual properties in a reliable way.”

By placing a hash value  – a set of cryptographic functions that enable people to identify data – of his digital artwork on the bitcoin blockchain, the artist enables potential buyers to verify that the artwork has been licensed.

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