A new digital marketplace called Palm has debuted with the aim of being more ecologically efficient. Palm has grabbed a major talent, Damien Hirst to start its platform.
Titled The Currency Project, Damien Hirst’s first project with Palm has been in progress for 5 years. The Currency Project includes 10,000 oil paintings on paper, each of which is accompanied by its NFT, or a non-fungible token, a digital file that is authenticated by the blockchain.
The series merges art and wealth-an appropriate theme for an artist known for diamond-encrusted skulls, which have broken records at auction. The pricing model for The Currency Project has not yet been disclosed.
Palm is created by the joint work of Joe Hage, the owner of Heni Publishing, and David Heyman, the founder of Heyday Films. Palm joins other relatively new online marketplaces such as Nifty Gateway , SuperRare, and Foundation, which provide artists a unique signature that represents their artwork.
The full ecological cost of NFTs is still being determined, though current data suggests that sales of these works can have a negative impact on the environment. According to research by artist and computer scientist Memo Akten, the drop of one NFT on a platform like SuperRare, created about 211 kg of CO₂.