TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Amid NFT boom, artists worry about climate costs
When the South African artist vonMash started thinking about selling his work as crypto-art on a blockchain, he hesitated.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Visual artist vonMash poses for a portrait in his studio in Springs, South Africa, on February 7, 2022 as he covers his face with a painters' palette. (AFP/Luca Sola)
D
igital art is nothing new to vonMash, who describes his blend of painting, video and sound as "afro-delic" -- a psychedelic twist on Afrofuturism.
But when the South African started thinking about selling his work as crypto-art on a blockchain, he hesitated.
"I'm not fully for it because of the energy consumption that it takes," he explained.
Selling art as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, uses the same technology as crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. The buyer receives a verified digital token, which proves the artwork is an original.
The boon for artists is that if their work goes up in value and is resold, they receive a portion of every future sale.
"If another person buys my NFT, I automatically get a share of that," vonMash said. With traditional art, if a buyer pays 100 dollars, and then "sells it for 100,000, I would not get a cent of that."
Warehouse of computers
