Cold Wallet Art
In 2016, Intel engineer / manager Damon Smedley decided to walk away from his career of 22 years and invested his retirement in Bitcoin. Damon has now partnered with artist and Intel technician, Joachim McMillan, to create a new style of art they have dubbed “Scored Bitcoin”.
Scored Bitcoin fashions Joachim’s Mozayic style painting coupled with the keys to the cold wallet, that are “scored” into the face of the painting. Attached to the back of the art piece is a cold wallet. A cold wallet is a storage mechanism for Bitcoin that allows a safe place for your Bitcoins to reside rather than on the internet or on one of the many different electronic devices that are used to store Bitcoins.
In 2017, Damon wanted to buy one of Joachim’s pieces as a gift to a friend. He paid .374 Bitcoin for the art piece that was valued at $1500.00. Today, that Bitcoin value would be just shy of $10,000.00.
The very first scored Bitcoin art piece was sold at a charity auction in 2019 to benefit Cure JM and the local Ronald McDonald house charities. The piece was circulated on the internet, and donors were asked to add Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash to the wallet. The coins donated now reside on that painting and will remain as part of the value of the art piece. The owner has the ability to open the cold wallet and “sweep” the wallet if desired. This allows the value of the associated Bitcoins to be moved electronically to a wallet such as Bitpay, which has a traditional Visa card associated with it. The owner can then easily spend the value of the Bitcoins.
So, who does Damon and Joachim see as future customers of this new market? In their eyes, these pieces will be sought after by an older generation looking for a beautiful art piece, but it is also a way to put money away for the future. Many people have heard about Bitcoins and its rising value, but very few know how to buy or store it. This unique new art gives those who don’t want to learn the technology but still would like to invest, an easy way to do so.
In times of crisis, it is nice to know you can very easily sweep the wallets’ contents and have immediate liquidity. Some people spend large amounts of money on collector art, but have a very small market to resell if immediate liquidity is needed. The fusion of technology and art in these cold wallet Art pieces allows grandma to rest a little bit easier knowing she has Bitcoin on her wall. When the day comes to move into a rest home, she can sweep the wallet and still have her art piece hanging on the wall.
