Aphex Twin has done a surprise auction for a non-fungible token (NFT) that’s a collaboration with visual artist Weirdcore.

The music and sound effects have been supplied by Ahex Twin, and on Sunday morning (14th March 2021) the current winning bid was 52.77 Ethereum (ETH).

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, and 52.77 is roughly the equivalent value of $100,000. NFT’s are effectively a digital piece of art that’s ownership can be linked and tracked, so it cannot be stolen or have a forgery sold as the original.

The NFT could be file types such as an mp3, gif, video clip, pdf or any other digital file that could be used to save something that people consider to be desirable. Pictures, special artist messages, exclusive music and videos are just some of the things that could be used as an NFT.

It’s becoming an innovative way for artists and people with celebrity status to generate additional revenue by cashing in on what a superfan might consider paying for something exclusive.

Some others from the electronic music world to explore this concept include Disclosure, Carl Cox, Steve Aoki, Jacques Greene and Richie Hawtin.

NFTs exist on a blockchain, in a similar process to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which utilise an ultra-secure peer to peer system. It requires a lot of computer processing power to verify the authenticity of each NFT transaction, and a skilled computer programmer to write the exclusive code.

There is an argument that NFTs could be bad for the environment, due to the amount of power needed to run the computer systems they exist on, but Aphex Twin addressed this by stating: “We will spend a portion of the money on planting trees and either donating to permaculture projects or setting them up ourselves, depending on how much we get.”

H/T: DJ Mag

You can track the auction here.