A group of industry leaders have launched an energy-efficient alternative platform for NFTs. The co-founders include Joe Hage, the owner of Heni Publishing, and David Heyman, the founder of Heyday Films, and Ethereum and ConsenSys co-founder Joe Lubin.
Famous British artist Damien Hirst is the first to launch “The Currency Project”, on the Palm platform, and will sell a series of 10,000 oil paintings on canvas each with a corresponding NFT. Hirst’s NFTs are currently unlisted, however as a world renowned artist, with art pieces such as “The Golden Calf” reaching a whopping £10.3 million, the art works are likely to generate a hefty sum.
The artist first surfaced in the art world as an artist who shocked and delighted with his conceptual pieces. Hirst commented on the launch of the NFT platform in The Art Newspaper:
“This project is firstly about art and people but it explores belief and value generally, and in particular value in art. It also touches on the idea of art as a currency and a store of wealth. Art doesn’t have to just exist in the physical world, it can also exist in the digital world too and now because of the blockchain so can the ownership of that art.”
The Palm platform aims to drastically reduce the energy consumption that the blockchain relies upon by utilising a more centralised Proof of Authority algorithm. This alternative is 99% more energy efficient than Ethereum, and while the long-awaited Ethereum 2.0 switch is still in the works, Co-founder Dan Hayman hopes that an upgrade to a Proof of Stake Consensus mechanism will roll out in the next year.
“We are trying to enable the best set of trade-offs for creators and curators in the NFT space in the short term, while Eth2 rolls out, but in the long-term we really want to be a home for creators as a complement to Ethereum.”
Hirst is no stranger to conceptual projects that explore crossovers. His art is deliberately provocative, and aims to question the assumptions of the viewer. Subjects explored in his work include death and rebirth, mortality, vanity, and of course, technology. Conceptual art focuses on the thought processes of an idea rather than the finished product, and under this vision, art can be boundaryless and doesn’t necessarily exist in the traditional art world. A sentiment embodied by NFTs.
“Conceptual artists in the 1960s and 1970s said art doesn’t exist in the art object, it exists in the mind of the viewer, and this project isn’t any different. This project explores the boundaries of art and currency—when art changes and becomes a currency, and when currency becomes art. It’s not a coincidence that governments use art on coins and notes. They do this to help us believe in money. Without art, it’s hard for us to believe in anything.”
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