A long-standing problem with digital art is that it can be easily copied, even stolen, leaving artists with little control over their work.
But now, with help from the blockchain technology underlying the Bitcoin digital currency, graphic artists and illustrators are finding a new marketplace that protects their pieces’ originality and authenticity.
"It’s a very interesting time to be not only a digital artist, but also a young collector," said QuHarrison Terry, co-founder and chief executive officer of Victory is Very Illuminating Inc. , also known as 23VIVI, a Madison start-up that is among the pioneers in creating a marketplace for the art.
The company has a website that is only eight weeks old. But Terry and co-founder Ryan Cowdrey have experience and influence in the digital art world.
Last summer, the self-proclaimed art enthusiasts started an Instagram account called Artsypromoter that attracted more than 16,000 followers and became a top digital art promotional site. The pair, both now 20, earned a total of $15,083 from artists who paid them between $5 and $15 each time the pair gave a shout-out to their art.
By January, Terry and Cowdrey had started 23VIVI and earned one of five coveted spots in the gener8tor start-up training program, a three-month-long deep dive into building a high-potential company. So they took what they viewed as the next logical step: They dropped out of college.
Both University of Wisconsin-Madison students, Terry was a junior majoring in computer science; Cowdrey, a sophomore in business and marketing. Cowdrey’s father, for one, was taken aback, but came to understand why his son did it.
"What he’s going to learn over the next year can’t be duplicated in the classroom," said Troy Cowdrey, a resident of Inverness, Ill., and a former commodities trader who now renovates and manages apartment buildings.Digital art — which is produced […]
