Ethereum and Art? Only In New York 🗽

25 May 2017

Denizens of Manhattan's art scene gathered at the ACA gallery to view Ethereum-based art authentication devices from tec style. Forgery is rampant in the art world, and tracking intellectual property rights for conceptual pieces (a pile of golden thread on the floor, for example) poses many challenges.

Collectors want to know the art they're buying is real. Artists want to reap the rewards of their talent. So tec style came up with an idea.

The embedded systems inside Near-Field Communications chips allow NFC enabled devices to communicate with software, like digital wallets. Tec style connects NFC tags to the Ethereum blockchain, registering intellectual property rights on the immutable ledger. Once a chip is registered, the artist can attach it to his painting, limited edition t-shirt, or tampons he dyed purple to symbolize royalty, adding an additional level of protection against unlisenced duplication.

The show was important, a collection of the first pieces of fine art ever to be registered on Ethereum. The implications were far-reaching. Blockchains are already being used to discern truth from lies 👁

I streamed the first few minutes of tec style's presentation on my periscope channel. Check it out: https://goo.gl/6nbh0r