Post invites artists to mint NFTs for charity auction to help Operation Santa Claus appeal
- Non-fungible tokens – digital certificates of authenticity – have stirred up the art world. Questions remain, but there is clearly a market for them
- A Post project will see Hong Kong artists mint NFTs to be auctioned later in the year in aid of Operation Santa Claus, its annual charity appeal with RTHK
The South China Morning Post has invited a number of Hong Kong artists to create NFTs for an auction later this year in aid of Operation Santa Claus, the charity jointly run by the newspaper and RTHK since 1988.
The artists are: Evie Chan (aka Mooncasket), Ophelia Jacarini, Kwok Mang-ho (aka Frog King), Rainbow Tse Lok-yau and Natalie Wong (aka Papersneaker).
The use of NFTs - non-fungible tokens - has become an increasingly sophisticated means for artists to sell digital art (or any art) directly to collectors. When American artist Beeple sold a JPEG file for US$69 million, he drove home the point that a piece of digital art can be sold as an original (or in limited editions) simply because it has an NFT.
Before, buying digital art required trust: the artist had to promise not to sell more copies than promised. A physical element was usually added to “authenticate” the work even if it added nothing to the art.
NFTs have changed that because these digital tokens are backed by so-called blockchain technology that makes them reliable records of provenance. Artists using non-traditional media are also looking into enhanced functions such as augmented-reality NFTs.
Major issues remain. These blockchain tokens – digital contracts that are essentially un-fakeable certificates of authentication – are usually bought and sold in Ethereum, a cryptocurrency that eats up electricity.