Some cat videos are big money
Did you know a digital file can be sold? And a fun, silly video deemed art? I didn’t. I know there’s monetary benefits for Instagram, Facebook and YouTube stars who have a wide enough audience that advertisers pay for exposure to their followers. But this is something different and involves cyber money. It isn’t bitcoin, which I understand, kinda. This is ETH, short for Ethereum, which are uniquely “minted” values.
Stephen Ibsen’s video is a recent example of a ETH sale. Kitty Cat Dance gained recognition as art, and finally earned him money for creating it. This was accomplished by NFTs— NFTs tap into the same interests and habits of traditional collectors, but with a contemporary monetary system. It’s based on the idea of validating digital assets that can then be bought, sold or traded.
What is a NFT (Non-Fungible Token)?
“Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different. You gave up a Squirtle, and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, which StadiumTalk calls “the Mona Lisa of baseball cards.” (I’ll take their word for it.)
from theverge.com
In 2004, 17 year old Steve Ibsen was about to leave his house when he noticed his cat, Kayla. “I had just bought a camera for a photography class in high school,” Ibsen said. He grabbed the state-of-the-art 3.2MP Sony Cyber-digital camera, and shot her poses as she lounged. “When I was flipping through the pictures on the camera, just back and forth, it literally looked like she was dancing and it just kind of snapped together,” Ibsen said. Later he edited the cute images into the sequence that did make Kayla look like she was dancing. Ibsen added Kitty Cat Dance, a song he wrote and recorded on his four-track.
The video was uploaded to his high school blog, G-shack.com, which no longer exists.
Since then, Ibsen put “Kitty Cat Dance” on his own YouTube channel, which has garnered 18 million views. But that’s nothing compared to it’s popularity as a meme; it’s been stolen, copied, and uploaded by companies that profited off of Ibsen’s creation.
That all changed Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 11:50am. Ibsen auctioned the original digital file: Artwork listed by @steveibsen 1.00 ETH 1.00 ($1,810.04).
Ibsen’s, and other auctions, happen on the platform Foundation. The meme “Bad Luck Brian” sold on Tuesday for 20 ETH, or Ether, the cryptocurrency for the Ethereum ( U.S. dollar equivalent is $38,850.20).
Perhaps some of you remember Nyan Cat, created by Chris Torres. I don’t, but here it is: simple, cute. But is it art? Is it worth anything?
Chris Torres, who started #memeconomy, told Know Your Meme News that the NFT space is a perfect place to bring back the power of memes to the artists who have struggled to get recognition for their contributions to internet culture.
He added, “I’ve seen so many good artists lose out because their memes just get so big that they get stolen by large corporations,” Torres told Know Your Meme. “These artists never see a dime for their work, and it’s always just resonated with me.”
Nyan Cat NFT Sells
Torres created Nyan Cat in 2011. On February 21, 2021, The 24 hour auction took place on the crypto art platform Foundation, with bids starting at 3 ETH. The .gif file (the still of Nyan Cat as seen above) wasn’t purchased, and remains reproducible…
“…but a cryptographic hash of the psychedelic image on the Ethereum blockchain [was sold].”
from Daniel Kuhn, coindesk.com
Note: Honestly, I have no idea what Mr. Kuhn is talking about. It’s too technical and involved for me, but it is interesting to learn how collectors and artists and all those cat videos are currently dealing with ownership, payment and defining contemporary art.
Anyway, this was Torres’s first experiment with NFTs, but not his last. He said, “I am still relatively new to crypto in general, but I see its full potential.”
On February 22, 2021, Nyan Cat sold for 300.00 ETH (about $590,000).
Stephen Ibsen sees a future for NFTs and cat videos
“Putting it in an NFT format is just a great way to kind of put a flag down for myself,” Ibsen said. “I don’t know if other artists feel the same way. It’s a huge honor. It feels like it’s being put in a digital museum, almost.”
Ibsen won’t be able to share the glory with Kayla, the star of “Kitty Cat Dance.” She died at around 14 years old in 2011. But he can with his two 18-year-old cats, adopted when Ibsen moved into a rented apartment in Seattle — the previous tenant abandoned them. Will they become cat memes? Stars of new video art?
Kitty Cat Dance winning bid placed by 0x30b4…D22F — the buyer is only identified as an anonymous line of code, on March 12, 2021 at 2:06am, was 2.00 ETH ($3,620.08)
my kitty care does not endorse any product discussed on The Scratching Post, nor does my kitty care receive payments, or any form of compensation from any company or product on my kitty care.
