Scott Lawin


<p>Artificial intelligence is making everyone a would-be poet and artist. But for the real creatives out there, it’s blockchain that will provide value through scarcity and authenticity.</p>



<p>The recent rise of AI tools like Midjourney and DALL-E has led to an explosion of creative output, giving every budding artist an easy way to turn loose visions into concrete realities.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But many professional creatives have a more tortured relationship with this technological breakthrough, especially when it comes to growing the value of their creations and being compensated for their contributions to these AI tools’ vast datasets.&nbsp;</p>



<p>It is clear that blockchain is even more essential for artists and creators now that advanced AI technologies have been released into the wild.</p>



<h2>AI is only as creative as its data set</h2>



<p>There is no doubt that many of the things AI is being used to create are impressive, aesthetically pleasing, and seemingly “creative.”</p>



<p>But these <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/artificial-intelligence">AI</a> tools were trained on vast data sets which contain countless works from human artists and creators — nearly all of whom are not being compensated for their contributions. It’s no surprise, then, that there is a growing belief that some forms of AI are essentially a technologically advanced form of plagiarism.</p>



<p>You may get a kick out of prompting Midjourney to create a portrait of Pikachu in the painting style of Gustav Klimt, but having the ability to spin up derivative works based on others’ intellectual property and creative style is illegal at worst and morally dubious at best.</p>



<p>This is not to say that AI is bad for artists, or that generative content has no value.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Used correctly, these tools open many exciting, pro-social possibilities for ordinary individuals and professional creatives alike. But to avoid a dystopian reality where humanity is sucked out of the creative process, AI developers should first secure permission to use artists’ works when training their software, provide compensation to these creators, and give them the option to remove their works from the data set if they so desire.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blockchain">Blockchain</a> technology is perfectly suited to provide these artist protections. By recording ownership on a blockchain ledger, artists can protect their intellectual property rights, receive automated royalties whenever their work is used in a training set, and prevent others from plagiarizing or copying their work.</p>



<h2>Authenticity will always matter</h2>



<p>Within the world of art, it is essential to balance both abundance and scarcity — an artist’s eventual goal is to create ever more valuable art that feels both exclusive and accessible to an audience.</p>



<p>Using today’s AI tools, it’s increasingly effortless to generate high quality creative works in seconds — which is leading to more creative abundance. But for the real creatives out there, these tools lack the scarcity aspect that makes art actually valuable: This is where blockchain steps in.</p>



<p>It is already shockingly simple for anyone to use AI to generate new artworks that resemble those of existing artists or create convincing “photographs” and “footage” of public figures. By recording ownership and transactions on a decentralized and immutable ledger, blockchain can provide authenticity and scarcity for any form of digitized art or cultural asset that will then distinguish it from any inauthentic AI version.</p>



<p>For instance, by digitizing something like a rare historic photograph and then releasing it as a limited edition collection, museums could simultaneously verify that the photograph is real (as opposed to AI-generated), while also creating new forms of cultural engagement and value.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There will always be a demand for traditional artwork and creative pieces born from manual processes. What many collectors value is the human imagination and effort behind a work: There is no replacement for authenticity.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Not much is keeping people from printing their own baseball cards or buying imitation art — but there’s a reason a 1952 Mickey Mantle card sold for $12.6 million last year and the Mona Lisa is considered priceless, while you don’t see DALL-E images reaching anywhere near those sort of price points (or any price points, for that matter).</p>



<p>Blockchain will increasingly draw attention to the value of scarcity by ensuring that original works like the Mona Lisas of the world are valued and protected.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In other words, there’s a fair chance that most valuable NFTs in the future will consist of collections that are designed to preserve specific historical or cultural artifacts, as opposed to the pricey generative art collections we see today.</p>



<h2>AI as an interface, blockchain as the infrastructure</h2>



<p>The internet has always been both a gift and a curse for creators.&nbsp;</p>



<p>On one hand, the internet provides near-limitless opportunities for artists to showcase their work to a global audience and connect with potential buyers. However, the internet also poses significant challenges for artists in terms of copyright infringement and compensation.&nbsp;</p>



<p>With this new popularity in AI, these opportunities and challenges have grown exponentially overnight. We’ve reached a strange inflection point where it has never been easier to produce creative works, even as the creative process is at risk of being commoditized and automated.</p>



<p>The most sustainable path forward is to continue creating more sophisticated, openly available AI interfaces while leveraging blockchain technology as a base layer of data integrity, availability, and trust.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Both artificial intelligence and blockchain are at the “Web2.5” stage of their evolutionary trajectory: an open, transitory state from “emerging tech applications” to “de facto solutions” for many sectors of the current internet.&nbsp;</p>



<p>As long as these technologies are used to make exciting new things AND protect existing value, everyone stands to benefit.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Scott M. Lawin is Co-Founder &amp; CEO of Candy Digital, Inc., a next-generation sports and culture digital asset platform, providing authentic objects and experiences that deepen fan engagement and connect people to their passions.

Before launching Candy, Mr. Lawin founded Parametric, LP, a private investment and advisory firm focused on early-stage opportunities in blockchain, fintech, art, and real estate. From 2010-2017, Mr. Lawin was the Chief Operating Officer of Moore Capital Management, a $15bn global alternative investment management company. Prior to joining Moore, Mr. Lawin served as Chief Operating Officer of the Liquid Markets business at Fortress Investment Group following a 12-year career at Goldman, Sachs &amp; Co.
</div>


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Here’s How to Not Feel Guilty About Using AI to Make Yourself Into a Handsome Pirate

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_629f43a62afd0" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>The agency’s main concern lies in the securitization of NFTs</li>
                <li>Only licensed institutions can operate collective investment schemes</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p>A Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission statement <a href="https://apps.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/news-and-announcements/news/doc?refNo=22PR34&amp;module=inline&amp;pgtype=article" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a> on Monday defines which NFTs fall under its mandate, while advising investors to be mindful of regulated securities.</p>



<p>The statement warned of risks such as “illiquid secondary markets, volatility, opaque pricing, hacking and fraud,” and cautioned that if investors “cannot fully understand them and bear the potential losses, they should not invest in NFTs.”</p>



<p>The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is particularly concerned about assets that “push the boundary between a collectible and a financial asset” — those that are structured like a security or a collective investment scheme (CIS). </p>



<p>A CIS is a type of investment arrangement to pool money around a certain asset or property. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) specifies that a CIS is managed in escrow, and its participants do not have day-to-day control over its management but are subject to receive profits, income or other returns. </p>



<p>A recent <a href="https://tokeny.com/the-kmska-museum-tokenizes-a-million-euro-masterpiece-with-erc-3643-standard/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">example</a> includes the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp&#8217;s fractionalization and security token offering on the Polygon blockchain of James Ensor’s 1924 painting &#8220;Carnaval de Binche.&#8221;</p>



<p>While such fractionalized NFTs (non-fungible tokens) fall under the SFC&#8217;s mandate, NFTs of a digital image, artwork, music or video that represent a unique copy of an underlying asset do not.</p>



<p>The financial regulator stated that any Hong Kong residents who wish to issue NFTs or to target local investors must obtain a license from the SFC, or be subject to certain authorization requirements under the SFO.</p>



<p>Recently, Hong Kong also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/hong-kong-restricts-trading-of-crypto-etfs-to-professional-investors-only/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">limited the sale</a> of crypto spot ETFs to only professional investors, which it defined as those whose portfolio exceeds 8 million Hong Kong dollars (about $1.2 million). And the Hong Kong Monetary Authority deemed “payments-related stablecoins” as a risk to financial stability.</p>



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Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission Calls for Regulation of NFTs

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_61aa9f794e446" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>The NFT collection will be minted on Ethereum and hosted on Web3 platform The Internet Computer</li>
                <li>“I kind of imagined myself as an ape if I were jaded with life, had all the money and time in the world, but also hung out at a punk bar,” the artist said of the inspiration behind Bored Ape’s design</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p><a href="https://allseeingseneca.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">All Seeing Seneca</a>, the lead artist behind non-fungible token collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, may not be a household name but her impact on the NFT world is undeniable.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Seneca’s first step into the metaverse was with a character design project for <a href="https://www.yugalabs.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yuga Labs</a>, drawing a bunch of disinterested-looking cartoon primates, a <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/boredapeyachtclub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFT collection</a> that has amassed over $1 billion in trading sales since late April. Now, the New York-based artist is releasing another line of digital collectibles.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“It went from nothing to nearly a billion-dollar empire. It&#8217;s still a bit surreal. It was just me drawing on my tablet,” she told Blockworks in an interview. “That experience alone led me to the exposure of Web3 and I’ve been learning every day since [then].”</p>



<p>Launched by four pseudonymous developers, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection is a series of 10,000 NFTs, which holders commonly use as their profile pictures online. A single ape sold for $3.4 million at <a href="https://decrypt.co/84474/bored-ape-yacht-club-ethereum-nft-breaks-sales-record" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sotheby’s auction house</a> in October. Big names like Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry and Post Malone have all purchased an ape.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“I was getting into this new space and then suddenly saw everybody with my drawing in their profile pictures,” she said. “It took me a moment to process everything. The fun of the project for me was designing the ape. I&#8217;m glad so many people connected with that character, and saw themselves in the ape.”</p>



<p>Seneca, who was raised in Shanghai and born in New York, described herself as a “cross-culture kid” who “has been making art for as long as [she] can remember.”  She later attended Rhode Island School of Design. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">soooo BAYC achieved 24.4 mil at the <a href="https://twitter.com/Sothebys?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Sothebys</a> auction. Bonkers. Go Apes.<br>To celebrate, I would like to share another sneaky image of concept art behind the project (:<br>Thank you to Yuga, Sothebys, and all the apes 🙈 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoredApeYachtClub?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoredApeYachtClub</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BAYC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BAYC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFTartist?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NFTartist</a> <a href="https://t.co/YtdCsgFxSR">pic.twitter.com/YtdCsgFxSR</a></p>&mdash; 👁 👁 👁 seneca (@allseeingseneca) <a href="https://twitter.com/allseeingseneca/status/1438933182951346177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h3><strong>Beyond the apes</strong></h3>



<p>Seneca will unveil her new five-piece NFT collection at the <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iconoclast-an-nft-art-exhibit-tickets-215811767807" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ICONOCLAST</a> art exhibition in Miami on Saturday, Dec. 4. </p>



<p>The tokens will be minted on ethereum and hosted on the Web3 platform, <a href="https://dfinity.org/showcase/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Internet Computer</a>. Four of them will most likely be auctioned at <a href="https://artbasel.com/miami-beach" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Art Basel</a> in Miami on Dec. 4 and the fifth is being held to potentially go to auction at Sotheby’s next year.</p>



<p>Despite the popularity around her first NFT collection, Seneca said she feels nervous about the reveal on Saturday. </p>



<p>“Art is so personal. It&#8217;s like revealing a baby. I&#8217;m putting all my [feelings] into this project all my hard work,” she said. “That nervousness and determination behind the piece never goes away regardless of its commercial success.”</p>



<p>Seneca teased that she may release another NFT collection next year, adding that the &#8220;debut at Art Basel is just the beginning of [her] work.”</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



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<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>


Bored Ape Yacht Club Lead Artist Set to Release Her New NFT Collection

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_619788dbf534b" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>The auction was the first time ETH pricing was used in a live auction at Sotheby’s</li>
                <li>Banksy&#8217;s painting, ‘Love is in the Air’, sold for 1,696 ETH, ​​&#8217;Trolley Hunters&#8217; was won for 1,397 ETH</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p>“OK, ladies and gentlemen, we are moving now, of course, to the Banksys. We arrive at the two consecutive lots by Banksy where, as you know, I will be fielding bids in US dollars and ETH for the very first time in a live auction at Sotheby’s,” announced Oliver Barker, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe.</p>



<p>That was the prelude to two historic sales yesterday evening in New York, in an event “showcasing cutting edge works by the masters of today alongside the masters of tomorrow.” At <a href="https://youtu.be/1TBa-9Lx3vc?t=4076" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the top of the live webcast</a>, Barker explained that Sotheby’s currency converter board would display prices for all auctioned works in ether. But the two Banksy pieces would take the innovation one step further, as Barker would call out the live bidding in ETH as well.</p>



<p>“And how appropriate it should be for works by Banksy, the art world’s ultimate disruptor,” Barker explained.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<p align="center"><iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1TBa-9Lx3vc?start=5956" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br>
<i>Watch the auction replay</i></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<p>Bidding began on the first lot at 1,122 ETH or $4.5 million. It was estimated by Sotheby’s to sell for between $5 and $7 million. While the dual call evidently confused some participants and amused many of the staff handling the phone bidding in the live auction hall, the bidding ultimately escalated to 1,397 ETH or $5.6 million.</p>



<p>The currency conversion displayed online was not exactly matching the live call, but it was within a few ETH, reflecting the volatile nature of ether itself, which has dropped about -2.5% in the past 24 hours, along with a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/btc-sells-off-as-metaverse-tokens-show-strength-markets-wrap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">broader market sell off</a>.</p>



<p>Banksy’s ‘Love is in the Air’ fared a bit better, as multiple bidders from as far as Hong Kong and London ran up the price to 1,696 ETH, gaveled in as $6.8 million.</p>



<p>Many crypto-enthusiasts, who were tuning in primarily to witness The ConstitutionDAO&#8217;s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-constitutiondao-raises-49m-to-buy-a-copy-of-the-us-constitution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attempt to win</a> a rare original copy of the US Constitution, were enamored by the spectacle of ETH being used as money in a live event setting.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Very cool to see the Banksy auction at <a href="https://twitter.com/Sothebys?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Sothebys</a> being done purely in ETH&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/tXLqwyKKez">pic.twitter.com/tXLqwyKKez</a></p>&mdash; Raoul Pal (@RaoulGMI) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaoulGMI/status/1461032053265387524?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>A version of the painting was previously sold by Sotheby’s in May, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sothebys-you-can-buy-banksy-with-bitcoin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks reported</a>, when cryptocurrency was also accepted for payment, but the auction was conducted in US dollars, and the work <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/contemporary-art-evening-auction/love-is-in-the-air-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ultimately sold</a> for $12.9 million.</p>



<p>The auction house also has a virtual property in <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=decentraland" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Decentraland</a>.</p>



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overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CPvHRS_HRtx/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Hans Lomulder (@hanslomulder)</a></p></div></blockquote> <script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>



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Two Works by Banksy Auctioned for Ether at Sotheby’s

<div id="highlights-block_618bf89939821" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>Ryan Zurrer, a former venture partner at Polychain Capital, claimed the artwork </li>
                <li>The NFT runs on Ethereum blockchain, allowing Beeple to continuously update and change the artwork for the rest of his life, according to the artist</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p>The second most expensive non-fungible token (NFT) just sold for <a href="https://twitter.com/beeple/status/1457902055679483905?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$28.9 million</a> via Christie’s auction house on Tuesday.</p>



<p>Artist Beeple’s “Human One” depicts an astronaut-like figure walking in an almost seven-foot-high translucent box, <a href="https://www.christies.com/features/Beeple-gets-real-with-human-one-11940-7.aspx?cid=EM_SEM%7CACCT:ChristiesPWC%7CCMP:2021CNY1121LIVENov21BrandUS%7CAG:ArtistsGeneralPhrase%7CENGINE:GOOGLE%7CNT:SEARCH%7CRG:US%7CBANNER:%7CIMG:%7CKW:christies%20beeple%7CMT:p%7CSID:2021CNY1121?rnd=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA-K2MBhC-ARIsAMtLKRtcXnxExxj-1PS10bfJT30orWHSJHOnBmqkFTpUOE1UKba-cqRTYjcaAgDEEALw_wcB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">describing</a> it as “the first portrait of a human born in the metaverse.” </p>



<p>Elsewhere, Beeple compared “Human One” to a “subscription service,” adding that the owner is also “buying continual access to me updating this piece.” (The artwork runs on Ethereum blockchain, allowing Beeple to update and change the work.)</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">on display at <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristiesInc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChristiesInc</a> NYC now✨ <a href="https://t.co/Jt0DIv1Cwl">pic.twitter.com/Jt0DIv1Cwl</a></p>&mdash; beeple (@beeple) <a href="https://twitter.com/beeple/status/1455440514459779074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>“While the piece was sold last night, [it] is not complete,” he said in a <a href="https://re.wired.com/c/re-wired-how-technology-is-challenging-our-notions-of-what-art-is" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">webinar</a> on Wednesday. “I&#8217;m going to keep changing the piece and keep updating the artwork over the course of the rest of my life. That is something that is very exciting to me, and I think is much more analogous to how people will appreciate art in the future.”</p>



<p>Ryan Zurrer, a former venture partner at Polychain Capital, <a href="https://twitter.com/kukulabanze/status/1458236032818819075?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claimed</a> the artwork.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><strong>“This is how people will view art in the future as a dynamic thing. You come down in the morning, and the piece looks one way. You come home from work, and the piece looks a different way,” Beeple said. “It just continues to evolve, surprise and just adds to its beauty.” </strong></p></blockquote>



<p>Mike Winkelmann, who goes by Beeple, made <a href="https://www.christies.com/features/Monumental-collage-by-Beeple-is-first-purely-digital-artwork-NFT-to-come-to-auction-11510-7.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">headlines</a> in March of last year for selling his NFT, “The First 5000 Days” for over $69 million at the same auction house. It remains the highest-selling piece of crypto art for Christie’s. </p>


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