A rose by any other name costs much more
If you’re not yet convinced by the popularity of crypto kitties that the cryptocurrency craze is getting out of hand, renowned Irish photographer Kevin Abosch has a Valentine’s Day surprise for you. He’s teamed up with GIFTO, a decentralized gift blockchain platform, to sell a unique work of art – the Forever Rose.
The rose’s price is set at $1 million and will sell on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2018. It’ll be embedded into the Ethereum blockchain and is the first of 10 million “limited edition” digital works the artist is selling. In addition, he created 100 physical prints with cryptocurrency addresses printed in his own blood.
Adding to the equation, the only way to purchase the rose is to use either GIFTO’s proprietary Gifto coin (currently valued at $0.26) or Abosch’s proprietary IAMA coin. It’s an interesting take on the idea of cryptocurrency and blockchains, and the publicity stunt may end up pushing the value of both coins way up.
The World’s Most Expensive Potato
Abosch is a visual artist and portrait photographer. While you may not know his name, you’ve seen his work if you’ve ever visited the Dublin Airport. In October 2011, the airport installed a series of 250 portraits by Abosch titled “Faces of Ireland.”
His portraits are revered among the celebrity crowd, and in addition to the 250 notable Irishmen, he’s taken photos of actor Johnny Depp, director Steven Spielberg, actress Vanessa Redgrave, artist Yoko Ono, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. He’s quite well known in Silicon Valley for his iconic style of a portrait with a black background.
In addition, he made headlines in late 2015 for selling a portrait of a potato for $1.08 million. You read that right – the work, a 162×162 cm print called “Potato #345” is the 15th most expensive photo ever sold.
Since then, Abosch became a famous artist. He even gave a speech at TEDx Dublin in 2012 about the art of opportunism. He certainly can spot an opportunity when it knocks, as cryptocurrency is still experiencing a high valuation, despite a somewhat tumultuous first quarter 2018.
Valuation of Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin experienced a record-setting surge in December 2017, reaching a value of nearly $20,000. It since has been speculated that the price was artificially inflated by cryptocurrency Bitfinex and stablecoin tether. Tether’s value is tied to the value of the U.S. dollar, and iFinex, the company behind it, maintains that is has reserves to cover the entire market cap of over $2 billion. U.S. regulators are currently investigating this claim.
The rise in bitcoin has been directly tied by analysts to large purchases of the currency using tether. As more people buy more bitcoins, the price rises, as the market goes.
Abosch and GIFTO have essentially capitalized on this with the Forever Rose. By requiring the purchase of $1 million to be paid via their proprietary cryptocurrencies, they’ll force at least one large purchase of the currency. In addition, the PR hype will most certainly draw other potential buyers to both cryptos.
Whether the two cryptocurrencies increase their market caps from this sale remains to be seen. However, it will give the general public another way to track cryptocurrency values through the Forever Rose website. There, visitors can track the value of the rose as its held, traded, or given away by whomever the buyer ends up being.
If you’re interested in owning a piece of Abosch’s work, you’ll need a lot of money. Otherwise, tune in to his website to track the progress of this interesting crypto event.