Blockchain Company Buys and Burns Banksy Artwork to Turn It Into a Digital Original

A blockchain company bought a $95,000 Banksy artwork, burned it and broadcast it live on Twitter — all part of a process of turning the work into a virtual asset called a non-fungible token, or NFT.

Injective Protocol, the company behind the stunt, bought the screenprint “Morons (White)” from New York’s Taglialatella Gallery, then burned it. The event, which took place in an undisclosed Brooklyn neighborhood, was live-streamed through the Twitter account @BurntBanksy.

Moments later, Injective Protocol employees created a digital representation of the art using blockchain technology on the OpenSea, which recently gained notoriety after Mark Cuban used it to issue his own NFT.

h/t: cbsnews

According to the statement: “Hi everyone. I am excited to share with you today the first ever burning of an authentic Pest control certified Banksy piece. After the burn, we will mint an original NFT with the help of SuperFarm which is an innovative new platform for accessing and selling NFTs.

I represent one of the members of a group of art and NFT enthusiasts. The piece itself is called Morons and it was first created back in 2006. We see this event encapsulating the first ever major transition of a physical art piece into a digital one.

We view this burning event as an expression of art itself. We are generating a new form of artwork via the creation of this unique NFT that is a direct representation of the physical. The reason the burning itself is so important is because as long as the physical piece exists, the value of that piece will remain with the physical. However, if we entirely re-create the physical piece and input specifications such as the art version number into the smart contract code, no one can ever alter the the digital art in any way. In this way the physical piece will forever be memorialized in this NFT.

We hope to inspire new tech and art enthusiasts with our work. We believe NFTs hold tremendous promise and blockchain technology can help to further diversify art expression as we have demonstrated with this Banksy burning.

Finally, I would again like to thank our friends at SuperFarm and Injective Protocol for their support in organizing this event.”