The team behind the Meme Token has launched a new artistic social experiment called The Rug Bomb Dozen, in which a bitcoin is hidden in one of twelve artworks. Only the owners of these artworks can unlock their NFTs and look inside, after that the data is public. What’s the value of a digital asset that potentially holds one bitcoin? And how will that value change when more NFTs have been opened?
I referred to the project as Schrödinger’s Bitcoin, because what happens to the price if there’s a chance that there’s a bitcoin or no bitcoin at all? In general the pricing of the most valuable Meme Ltd artwork should be one bitcoin plus the art value. So in this case one artwork is worth either something like 250 dollars or 19.000 dollars. However, as long as you don’t know where the bitcoin is, what would be the average price of one potential bitcoin? $2000? $5000?
These artworks by Simon Wan will change every time an NFT has been opened. The highest sale so far for these pieces from a social experiment has been over $6000. However, those who used the Meme platform to acquire these pieces, are now offering them for sale for a whole lot more. Some are listed for 15 thousand dollars, while others want 100 thousand or even 21 million dollars. Obviously those sellers are simply trying their chances.
What is crypto art?
Crypto art or digital art has been around for many years. However, without the existence of blockchain technology it was impossible to verify authenticity and rarity. Now digital art connects directly with an unique token on the Ethereum blockchain. That way buyers can see how many copies of a certain artwork there are, and whether the product is original.
The concept of seeing a digital image as art, is one thing. However, for many people it will be a challenge to consider digital images as valuable. Consider this: The Mona Lisa is worth many millions of dollars. If I would paint the Mona Lisa in an exact copy, it would be worth only 50 dollars. Because we all know where the original version is. Being able to verify the authenticity and rarity of a piece of art is crucial.
Some people don’t care about the Mona Lisa. It’s just a painting. They are happy to download an image for Google Images, print it on canvas and hang it in their living room. Others want the real deal. The same rules go up for digital crypto art. Some people want to original one, others are happy with a copy on their phone.
The hype surrounding crypto art also goes beyond the in-crowd. Several artists from ‘outside’ the blockchain space have been showing interest. MakersPlace has already partnered with comic book artist José Delbo, while NiftyGateway sold some original Vandal Gummy artworks. Even Paris Hilton sold a drawing!
