The eye-popping sale price of $69 million on March 11, for a non-fungible token created by the digital artist Beeple sent shock waves thro...
The eye-popping sale price of $69 million on March 11, for a non-fungible token created by the digital artist Beeple sent shock waves through the art world. More multimillion-dollar sales of these digital assets that exist on a blockchain and are maintained on networked computers soon followed.
At the same time, art museums have faced substantial financial shortfalls accelerated by a decline in visitors and donations induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many have considered taking drastic measures, such as selling treasured artworks, to plug budget gaps.
Can non-fungible tokens generate the revenue many museums sorely need? Some are issuing their own tokens, including the British Museum and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The Miami Institute of Contemporary Art accepted an early token from a donor. There is even a non-fungible token of an entire museum called the Museum of Digital Life.
Yet, more than six months into this disruption of the art world, museums have generally engaged very little with the tokens. As researchers who examine both the finances of nonprofit organisations and the growth in non-fungible tokens, crypto-assets and other associated blockchain applications, we see four primary reasons why museums have failed to turn the non-fungible token craze into a financial windfall.
Hypersoft Hallucinations, 2021.
— mdj.eth (@Mad_Dog_Jones) November 10, 2021
Auction ends tomorrow (Thurs) at 8pmET.
Minted off the official MDJ contract on the Ethereum Blockchain.
Presented by @complexcon & @LGNDART https://t.co/I9ncIPA0RA pic.twitter.com/F7G52Mat9Z
1. NFTs are complicated
The people running museums have expertise encompassing art, education...
