Crypto art, also known as "Rare Art" is art that is related to blockchain technology.

CryptoArt are rare digital artworks, sometimes described as digital trading cards or "rares", associated with unique and provably rare tokens that exist on the blockchain. The concept is based on the idea of digital scarcity, which allows you to buy, sell, and trade digital goods as if they were physical goods. This system works due to the fact that, like Bitcoins and other cryptocurrency, CryptoArt exist in limited quantity. Popular early examples include CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks, Rare Pepe, CurioCards, and Dada.nyc. – Jason Bailey at Artnome.com[1]

History

2014 Monegraph launches the first marketplace to register art on the Bitcoin blockchain.[2]

2015 Artist Sara Meyohas launches Bitchcoin in February, "a cryptocurrency for Buying Art and Investing in the Artist."[3]

Ascribe launches in June, using Bitcoin’s blockchain to help artists claim ownership of their work[4]

Verisart launches in July to "Use The Blockchain To Verify The Authenticity Of Artworks"[5] launch to use the bitcoin blockchain to verify the authenticity of artworks.

2016 Rare Pepe's trading cards launch in October. "Rare Pepe Gets Blockchained, Made Into Tradable Counterparty Tokens."[6]

Plantoid is born in December. Artist and legal scholar Primavera de Fillipi creates "Plantoids:The First Blockchain-Based Artificial Life Forms."[7]

2017 CryptoPunks launched in June, paving the way for rare digital art."This ethereum-based project could change how we think about digital art"[8] There are ten thousand unique computer generated CryptoPunks tied to a token on Ethereum. These non-fungible token are the base for the standard ERC721.

In October, DADA.nyc launches the first marketplace for rare digital art in the Ethereum Blockchain [9]

Cryptokitties game to collect, breed and sell virtual cats launches in November. Within a week People had "spent over $1M buying virtual cats on the Ethereum blockchain." [10] It used CryptoPunks non-fungible token as a base and went on to proposed the ERC-721 token standard that is used for crypto art.

Artnome publishes an influential article titled "The Blockchain Art Market Is Here" in December, which helped make sense of the experimentation and innovation happening with art and blockchain in 2017.[11]

2018 Rare Art Fest, the first festival dedicated to crypto art / rare digital art is held in NYC in January. Born from a tweet by Joe Looney, the creator of the Rare Pepe wallet, it was a community organized event led by Tommy Nicholas from Rare Art Labs with the help of DADA. It brought together the art and blockchain community for the first time, a standing room only of over 400 people. Speakers included Dan Viau prom Kitty Hats, Shaban Shaame from Spell of Genesis, Vladimir Vukicevic from Meural, Kieran Farr from Decentraland, Jess Houlgrave and Jessical Angel. Keynote presentations included Joe Looney from Rare Pepe's, Matt Hall from Cryptopunks and Beatriz Helena Ramos from DADA. Jason Rosenstein and Louis Parker held a Rare Pepe auction in which Homer Pepe sold for $39,200, prompting headlines from The New York Times[12] and The Paris Review.[13]

After these events Anne Bracegirdle organized Christies's first Art+Tech Summit in London dedicated to Blockchain. [14] Many projects were launched in 2018, including Codex Protocol, SuperRare, KnowOrigin, BAE(blockchain art exchange, OpenSea, Portion, Artory , RareArt Labs and Museum of Crypto Art (MoCA) in Cryptovoxels in December 2018.

References

^ Jason, Bailey. "What Is Cryptoart". Artnome. ^ Constine, Josh. "Monegraph Uses Bitcoin Tech So Internet Artists Can Establish "Original" Copies Of Their Work". TechCrunch. ^ Stinson, Liz. "BitchCoin: A New Cryptocurrency for Buying Art and Investing in the Artist". Wired. ^ Abhimanyu, Ghoshal. "Ascribe is using Bitcoin's blockchain to help artists claim ownership of their work". Wired. ^ Butcher, Mike. "Verisart Plans To Use The Blockchain To Verify The Authenticity Of Artworks". Wired. ^ Redman, Jamie. "Rare Pepe Gets Blockchained, Made Into Tradable Counterparty Tokens". Wired. ^ Prisco, Giulio. "Plantoids:The First Blockchain-Based Artificial Life Forms". Wired. ^ Abbruzzese, Jason. "This ethereum-based project could change how we think about digital art". Mashable. ^ Sedgwick, Kai. "Blockchain-Based Digital Art – Passing Fad or the Next Big Thing?". Bitcoin.com. ^ Tepper, Fitz. "People have spent over $1M buying virtual cats on the Ethereum blockchain". TechCrunch. ^ Bailey, Jason. "The Blockchain Art Market Is Here". Arnome. ^ Reyburn, Scott. "Will Cryptocurrencies Be the Art Market's Next Big Thing". The New York Times. ^ Penney, Daniel. "How Much for That Pepe? Scenes from the First Rare Digital Art Auction". The Paris Review. ^ Penney, Daniel. "The Blockchain Art Market Is Here". Christies.