The meme economy is real and it’s here to stay.
Blockchain opens up a world of opportunities for new ways to transact, sign, and store information. While the majority of the population has heard about CryptoKitties, there is much more to the story than simply a game to breed cute kitties. Blockchain technology is bringing the meme economy to reality.
Generally speaking, creative products like memes, art, and music struggle with publishing content on the internet without worry of piracy. Once content is copied and distributed for free, the value drops and the prospect of a market for that product disappears. For these digital products to build and retain value, they need to be defined by scarcity.
Blockchains like Counterparty and Ethereum help solve this problem for digital art by providing a way to determine and agree upon scarcity. These tools create a platform to issue limited supplies of artwork by putting ownership on the blockchain, which creates globally agreed upon scarcity of these assets.
Check out PepeDapp — Rare Pepe Cards on the Ethereum blockchain
PepeDapp - Rare Pepes on ETH_Rare pepes on the Ethereum blockchain_www.pepedapp.com
Benefits of art on the blockchain:
- **Authentication:**The artist/creator can “sign” transactions as they are added to the blockchain, allowing for digital artwork to carry the artist’s signature, effectively serving as authenticity verification.
- **Digital Automation:**The process of creating and selling art on the blockchain creates new paradigms for automating commision. On the blockchain, artists can prove they created a meme and be paid for its use, allowing for ongoing commissions through smart contract automation.
- Supply: Artists can issue limited supplies of artwork. The number associated with a piece can be tracked on a decentralized ledger (blockchain). Once a supply of an artwork has been issued to the blockchain, the supply cannot be changed.
- **Ownership:**What you own is held by you and only you. As long as you have the private key to the asset, you are the owner.
- **Global:**Empowered by the internet, artists can participate and sell their work on a global marketplace.
- **Decentralized:**Tools and guidelines are designed to reduce the power of gatekeepers and middlemen and increase the autonomy of artists.
- **Privacy:**Use of pseudonyms allows artists to create and sell art while staying anonymous, allowing them to create without judgement.
- Dank AF: Digital art is often valued for its relevance and ability to spread quickly. Now with the capacity to create, edition, and sell art in a digitally native manner, memes and art can capture current events and be shared in real time.
- **Censorship Resistant:**Once artwork is published, it cannot be deleted.
This digital art revolution is already taking place. A Rare Pepe Card, digital trading cards issued on the Counterparty protocol, Homer Pepe sold for $35,000. As of May 2018, 367,286 CryptoKitties have been sold at an average price of $65.
Check out PepeDapp — Rare Pepe Cards on the Ethereum blockchain
PepeDapp - Rare Pepes on ETH_Rare pepes on the Ethereum blockchain_www.pepedapp.com
Follow me on twitter Josh Petty