The blockchain, which is widely considered the key to authenticating artworks in the digital era, is more problematic than NFT investors would hope, according to art and tech incubator The Screens Guru, which has come up with a new solution
It may be the case that NFTs are being taken seriously in increasingly traditional corners of the art world—whether to join the hype or because the blockchain provides a solution to proving an artwork’s authenticity—but as their credibility increases, so too do their legal and technical problems.
On April 1 this year—possibly in honour of April Fool’s Day—Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou’s US$550,000 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT was stolen from his OpenSea account in a phishing scam. In January, Hermès sued Los Angeles-based artist Mason Rothschild for his MetaBirkin NFTs, which the French fashion house claimed were an infringement of its trademark. Last June, Roc-A-Fella Records initiated legal action against its co-founder Damon Dash for attempting to mint copies of the Jay-Z album Reasonable Doubt.
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While cases like these been a wake-up call for NFT investors, they come as no surprise to Peter Yu, the CEO and co-founder of The Screens Guru, one of the earliest art and technology incubators for emerging artists in Asia. “Contrary to popular belief, blockchain is not a completely foolproof solution to the proof of authenticity, as it is dependent on the quality of the data that is input into its ledger,” he says.
His company, which he co-founded with Hong Kong digital artist Wai Lung Ip in March 2021, was set up as an NFT marketplace that works with artists, curators, collectors and gallerists to push the boundaries of art through technology and popularise digital art. The original idea was to work with shopping malls to put spiritual themed digital art on their outdoor displays. But when Covid hit, and as the NFT market began to pick up pace, the two turned to NFTs as a means to celebrate the blooming of digital art instead. Two years in, the team is now on a new, additional mission to identify and address the blockchain’s overlooked legal and technical issues through a smart provenance project.
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