It is artists who can show us the true possibilities of blockchain: CryptoArt Ukraine founder speaks on the role of art in crypto

Nikita FREEBOID Khudiakov has been in crypto since 2018. Nikita lives and works in Ukraine as a media artist, cultural manager, entrepreneur, teacher, and more and more. According to Nikita, he is interested in everything at the intersection of art, technology, and the future. And there is a lot of that in blockchain 🙂

In his interview with BuidlB, Nikita tells us:

• what crypto art is;
• how artists can show us the hidden possibilities of technology;
• and why a temporary market crash won’t affect its long-term prospects.

These are very dynamic times; everything is changing

I’ll start my story with the community I am a part of — CryptoArt Ukraine. It is a significant part of me.

CryptoArt Ukraine is a community of creative people interested in the crypto ecosystem. Right now, it is, among other things, helping Ukrainian artists affected by the war. We give grants and financial support, teach English, and do other things. I am right now busy on an educational project.

Also, in Uzhgorod, where I am based now, I and musicians from all over Ukraine are creating an electronic audiovisual performance for children and teenagers. We want to tell the dramatic stories of traveling through Ukraine during the war and show how many creative opportunities there are for self-realization.

In addition, I advise businesses, artists, and investors on NFTs and teach virtual reality, 3D graphics, electronic music, and crypto art. It seems like it is too much, but it is really all connected.

These are very dynamic times — especially in the crypto world — the concepts are changing, and with them, I am changing my positioning as a professional. I have extensive expertise, and depending on a project, I become more of an artist, curator, or teacher.

I am interested in everything at the intersection of technology, contemporary culture, and the future. And hence the interest in crypto art and blockchain.

Artists are the first to explore innovation

My parents are programmers, and I also grew up surrounded by Pink Floyd and King Crimson records. When I discovered the random function in Pascal, my life changed. Then I found out what the demoscene was and was very inspired by the fact that an entire audiovisual show could fit into 64 KB.

To this day, it is the demoscene that often produces new phenomena at the intersection of technology and art.

In 2012 I became interested in virtual reality, and in 2015 I held Ukraine’s first hackathon dedicated to VR art. I tried to get involved in “pure” technology: I worked for three years as a Project Manager in an IT company, but art wouldn’t let me go.

In 2017 I started organizing IT conferences and lectures. Some of them were devoted to the blockchain. I began to delve into it more and more and eventually returned to my cultural sphere, combining blockchain and art.

But why art and not blockchain per se?

Besides the fact that the art market is becoming increasingly promising from the investment point of view (and NFTs are proof of that), artists are the people who are the first to explore innovation. Artists experiment and thereby show the world new possibilities. In the crypto world, this is especially visible through artists like Pak.

Pak is the most successful crypto artist, according to cryptoart.io. He showed “tricks” with tokens: after selling his NFT, he returned it to his wallet without the new owner’s knowledge. It was possible because of the custom smart contract Pak used to create his token. Thankfully, he used it as an artistic trick and not as a fraud 🙂

You can do crypto even if you don’t have a deep knowledge of blockchain yet

I first learned about NFTs in 2018, and in 2020, during the pandemic, I organized lectures at Zoom about selling digital art for cryptocurrency. So when the hype happened in 2021, I was already digging deeper into it. And now I’m still digging into crypto art more and more.

The term “crypto-art” is most often used to refer to a market segment in which NFT objects are art objects. According to various sources, this ranges from 8% to 16% of the total NFT market. But blockchain can also be used to create art not sold as NFTs, which would also be crypto art.

In 2012, one of the works of art recorded on blockchain was a portrait of a developer who passed away. His image was created with ASCII code and recorded in one of the blockchain transactions.

Nevertheless, such projects are often not called crypto art or blockchain art but blockchain as a medium. In addition, nowadays, crypto art projects are 99% of the time related to NFTs. But this is all very relative. If a person positions himself as an artist and uses a crypto ecosystem in his work, it is crypto art.

Because of this, you can do crypto art, even if you do not yet have a deep knowledge of blockchain. The choice of medium is an individual thing. Some people are more interested in expressing their inner world on a canvas, and others in code. Both can find their place in crypto.

Crypto art projects are a kind of startups

If, for some reason, an artist is still tasked with using blockchain, of course, an understanding of blockchain would not hurt. At the same time, it is possible to create collaborative projects.

For example, I am not a programmer and do not know how to write my own smart contracts. But on the project I am working on right now, we have a team with roles ranging from marketer to technology director. We create NFT Collectibles, and it is not really an art project, but it is based on the artistic taste of our artist.

This approach to work is different from traditional art. The artist has more opportunities to communicate with people with completely different expertise and create something new at the intersection of that. It sounds a bit like a startup — and there are just as many prospects here.

Over time, NFT projects will become even more popular as a way of making money in art. Even now, if a filmmaker wants to make a movie, one way to find the money for it is to sell the first footage as an NFT. That way, when the film comes out, that footage can be resold at a higher price.

I do not see any reason why NFTs would leave the market

Blockchain is the kind of technology that can disrupt our view of reality and revolutionize many areas of activity, from data storage and economics to education and new social networks.

What is happening to the crypto world right now is a temporary situation. Like everything else, its development is moving in a sine wave. And in the long run, the same NFT remains an interesting and effective solution for many tasks, including creative ones. So I don’t see any reason for NFTs to leave the market.

Speaking of trends, various social mechanics, and anything that has to do with engaging the community and their interaction with each other and the project is something that will definitely evolve. Projects win where there is a deep immersion of holders. That’s why the metaverse is so popular. But art is also such a segment because when you buy art, you interact deeper with an NFT — on a spiritual and emotional level.

You have to understand that what people have in common is not just a desire to make money and speculate on crypto assets but a true love of art. It was the case before NFTs and will remain so even if the crypto market collapses. But I personally highly doubt that will happen 🙂