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Here is one more reason for the government to regulate, rather than ban, cryptocurrencies. The underlying technology, the blockchain, has many versatile uses, one of which sold for $69.3 million in an auction by Christie’s. The development is significant on two counts. One, a new form of authenticating uniqueness in works of artistic creation has found full maturity and reached the stage of transaction; and, two, Christie’s, a traditional auction house for objects of high value, has adapted itself to claim its pre-eminence in the new digital world.
An American digital artist, Mike Winkelman, has put together a collage of the 5,000 works of digital art he has been posting every day since May 2007 and assigned it a non-fungible token (NFT). The artwork itself is a Jpeg file, 21,069 × 21,069 pixels, and can be copied. A Rembrandt or a Souza can also be copied, but the original remains the original and retains its value. The token that comes with the Jpeg file is what denotes its originality and uniqueness. The token is created using the blockchain — a bitcoin is also a token created using the same technology. Christie’s has auctioned digital art in the past as well, but the uniqueness was attested to by paperwork. In the present case, everything is digital. In the recent past, a music group, the Kings of Leon, also issued a new album along with a few tokens authenticating limited edition launch copy uniqueness. These could go on to become collector’s items and add value in time. We can expect many more things to come with NFTs assigned to them.
Cryptocurrencies are not identical with bitcoins and the blockchain is not reducible to cryptocurrencies. Regulate products, do not ban them, for bans could stunt underlying technologies.
Courtesy - The Economic Times.
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