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JPG File Sells for $69 Million, as ‘NFT Mania’ Gathers Pace (Beeple)
New York Times ^ | 03/11/2021 | Scott Reyburn

Posted on 03/11/2021 11:35:09 AM PST by Responsibility2nd

“Everydays — The First 5000 Days,” by the artist known as Beeple, set a record for a digital artwork in a sale at Christie’s.

After a flurry of more than 180 bids in the final hour, a JPG file made by Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, was sold on Thursday by Christie’s in an online auction for $69.3 million with fees. The price was a new high for an artwork that exists only digitally, beating auction records for physical paintings by museum-valorized greats like J.M.W. Turner, Georges Seurat and Francisco Goya. Bidding at the two-week Beeple sale, consisting of just one lot, began at $100.

With seconds remaining, the work was set to sell for less than $30 million, but a last-moment cascade of bids prompted a two-minute extension of the auction and pushed the final price over $60 million. Rebecca Riegelhaupt, a Christie’s spokeswoman, said 33 active bidders had contested the work, adding that the result was the third-highest auction price achieved for a living artist, after Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

Billed by the auction house as “a unique work in the history of digital art,” “Everydays — The First 5000 Days” is a collage of all the images that Beeple has been posting online each day since 2007.

~snip~

Beeple’s collaged JPG was made, or “minted,” in February as a “nonfungible token,” or NFT. A secure network of computer systems that records the sale on a digital ledger, known as a blockchain, gives buyers proof of authenticity and ownership. Most pay with the Ethereum cryptocurrency. “Everydays” was the first purely digital NFT sold by Christie’s, and it offered to accept payment in Ethereum, another first for the 255-year-old auction house.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography
KEYWORDS: beeple; christies; digitalart; mikewinkelmann; nft
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Non Fungible Token.

I've learned something today. An NFT is like a bitcoin. And someone paid $69 Million for an encrypted token.

Read the rest of the article about CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot and see how NFT is the new dotcom craze.

Billionaires are being made as we speak.

1 posted on 03/11/2021 11:35:09 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: Responsibility2nd
Informative video
2 posted on 03/11/2021 11:39:59 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: Responsibility2nd
"Billionaires are being made as we speak."

And idiots are cheaper the more they multiply. Someone could have built a bunch of schools or fed a small country for a long time.

3 posted on 03/11/2021 11:42:43 AM PST by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Another sign of a declining civilization.


4 posted on 03/11/2021 11:44:10 AM PST by rfp1234 (Caveat Emperor: Comitii asinorum atque rhinocerorum delendi sunt.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

An NFT is NOT anything like a bitcoin.

And buying a JPEG is pretty dumb. A JPEG, by definition is an image that has been compressed—and thus has let than perfect quality.

There are other images that can be created digitally that have less loss—but they are BIG.

None of them are worth $65m.


5 posted on 03/11/2021 11:48:10 AM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: Responsibility2nd

6 posted on 03/11/2021 11:50:28 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: rfp1234

insane isn’t it?


7 posted on 03/11/2021 11:51:03 AM PST by LibertyWoman
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To: rfp1234

Barnum was right!


8 posted on 03/11/2021 11:51:39 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DannyTN

Money laundering


9 posted on 03/11/2021 11:51:58 AM PST by notted
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To: notted

Good point!


10 posted on 03/11/2021 11:54:35 AM PST by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix/1984.)
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To: DannyTN

TTIWWP

Now you’ve added the picture.

This thread is now worth $69M. Or perhaps it is still worthless.


11 posted on 03/11/2021 11:57:17 AM PST by ClearCase_guy ("I see you did something -- why you so racist?")
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To: Responsibility2nd

It’s art without urine. So it’s got that going for it.


12 posted on 03/11/2021 12:01:30 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: Vermont Lt

An NFT is NOT anything like a bitcoin.

___________________________________________

You need to read up more.

https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq


13 posted on 03/11/2021 12:02:31 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: notted
Money laundering

That might actually be the case. What other explanation makes sense?

14 posted on 03/11/2021 12:05:12 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: Responsibility2nd

Strikes me as a great way to launder money.


15 posted on 03/11/2021 12:05:22 PM PST by ctdonath2 (Interesting how those so interested in workERS are so disinterested in workING.)
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To: outofsalt
And idiots are cheaper the more they multiply. Someone could have built a bunch of schools or fed a small country for a long time.

And someone could have been forced to build a bunch of schools or feed a small country.

But I prefer capitalism over socialism.

And not many idiots have $69 Million.

16 posted on 03/11/2021 12:05:43 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: DannyTN; notted

Money laundering may indeed be the reason for this crypto art.

It certainly is a valid reason why so many buy into crypto currencies.


17 posted on 03/11/2021 12:08:03 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: DannyTN

Looks like a sound investment to me. /sarcasm


18 posted on 03/11/2021 12:08:48 PM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: notted
Money laundering

Could be. Which explains why Hunter Biden has taken up painting. I'm sure CCP members will be paying top dollar for his "art".

19 posted on 03/11/2021 12:17:15 PM PST by ETCM
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To: Responsibility2nd

Hope the buyer isn’t using ETH to pay. Imagine the gas fees.


20 posted on 03/11/2021 12:17:46 PM PST by Pollard (Bunch of curmudgeons)
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