20 minutes and
Piasa go down in crypto history. The free newspaper decided to sell its own NFT in a charity auction * organized in October by the Piasa auction house. A first of its kind in France. Since March, the NFTs, non-fungible token [ou jetons non fongibles, en français], are blowing a wind of revolution on the contemporary art market.
Let’s start from the beginning. NFTs are virtual works with indisputable and inviolable identity, authenticity and traceability. Basically, any digital object (tweet, photo, animation, video, source code, etc.) can now be acquired thanks to a token, which materializes this object and proves its authenticity. The digital certificate of authenticity emanating from the ethereum blockchain irrevocably proves that it is indeed the original work and not a replica.
The “Journal of an NFT” from September
To refresh your memory: on March 11, a virtual work by the American artist Beeple, entitled Everydays: The First 5000 Days, was sold for $ 69.3 million in the form of NFT. A few weeks later, the columnist for New York Times Kevin Roose sold one of his items digitally for $ 560,000. In early July, the World Wide Web source code of Tim Berners-Lee – known as the inventor of the Web – sold for more than $ 5 million in the form of NFT. And the list is still long. Admit, it’s hard to watch such a tidal wave without being a little curious.
On the lookout for emerging phenomena, 20 minutes wanted to document this technological revolution by trying to sell its own NFT. Through this sale, the newspaper wishes to question the value of quality information. 20 minutes is a free newspaper for its readers, but information comes at a cost. The sale of an NFT appears to be an excellent way to reflect on this question while making crypto-arts intelligible to as many people as possible.
From September, the site of 20 minutes will publish, at the rate of one article per week, the series “Journal d’un NFT” which retraces, in a subjective tone, all the stages of the creation of its NFT: from the choice of the digital object to the creation of the token , including making contact with Piasa and the thorny question of smart contract…
A collector’s NFT
After a vote by Internet users, 20 minutes has chosen to transform into NFT the supplement “The Crazy Years 2020” which, with hindsight, seems almost prophetic. Published on January 13, 2020, two months before the arrival of the Covid-19 on French soil, it explores the disenchantment of a society tested by the fantasies of the end of the world. Pure virtual object, this thematic supplement has never been printed. A perfect “collector” NFT. But several questions (which will be developed in each of the episodes) have blocked the road of this digital epic.
In France, the digital representation of a work (such as an NFT), because it has no physical consistency, remains intangible movable property, and, as such, cannot be part, on its own, of ‘a voluntary sale at public auction in France. To overcome this legislative obstacle, 20 minutes and Piasa will offer a physical object to accompany this sale. No spoiler! You will discover the behind the scenes of this historic sale from September.
* The money collected will be donated to the Security Fund of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)