Proof started as a practical experiment.

Traditional art was my niche of interest.

I spent my life thinking and analyzing the Old Masters.

I opened up an art studio where I could teach what I learnt from them.

Unfortunately when the 2021 lock-down came my art studio had to close.

With the extra time on my hands I read the Bitcoin Standard.

The chapter on art struck a chord with me.

I had been a passionate bitcoiner since 2013.

[my mind was blown by the writings on the Nakamoto Institute (Pierre, Tuur), Stefan Molineaux, and Andreas]

Back then I made art commissions in exchange for bitcoin on r/bitcoin4jobs.

This eventually allowed me to open my art studio in the following cycle, by holding for dear life and being patient.

What I had not realized until 2021 was how much Bitcoin could be applied to powering and driving art, like an engine.

Perhaps allowing the old fashioned rhythm of art making again.

The art I hated = powered by FIAT.

The art I longed and taught = powered by GOLD.

Hence the experiment: what happens when mix old fashioned art philosophy (slow, not flashy, looking for the eternal) with digital gold?

Proof of Paint is ongoing answer to that question.

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At the same time the NFT and eth art scene was exploding.

I watched that scene exploding, frustrated with how it represented ‘crypto’ to the world.

I felt did not represent bitcoin under a good light.

It embodied the same old fiat values I saw in the contemporary art world: quick art made for a quick buck with a short term expiration date.

Proof is also a rejection.

It’s a rejection of the broader crypto art mania.

And it’s a stand.

A stand that art about bitcoiners can be noble and principle.

Proof is art for bitcoiners by a bitcoiner.

Proof started as a practical experiment.

I feel in love with bitcoin in late 2012. My mind was blown by the writings on the Nakamoto Institute (Pierre, Tuur) and the talks by Stefan Molyneux, and Andreas.

Traditional art was my personal interest and skill. Back then, I was living in Italy, studying drawing and painting. I focused on the masters of the past and admired their path, painting and drawing from life.

In Spring of 2013 I decided to go from theory to practice. I posted an ad on r/bitcoin4jobs and soon I got my first commission, making illustrations for bitcoin.

By holding on for dear life through the subsequent bear market, and by being patient, I got to the position where I could open my own art studio.

It was a beautiful place where I could share what I had learnt in Italy. A place where people could make traditional art, study from the masters of the past and were free to celebrate Beauty.

Freely.

Away from the frowning looks that the modern art world, and its sycophants, reserves for those who dare to search for plain, simple, Beauty.

A place to rest from the unraveling of modernity.

ART
on a Bitcoin
standard

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When the 2021 lock-down came I made the hard choice of closing the art studio.
As a benefit, I could focus less on teaching and more on making art.

All of a sudden, with the extra time on my hands, I was finally able to make my way through a book which I had been meaning to read, but had kept on putting off: the Bitcoin Standard.

Chapter 7, the one on art, struck a deep chord with me.

In all this time I had never paused to look at art under a bitcoin lens.
What I had not realized until then was that bitcoin could be applied to powering art.
Like an engine.
Allowing to restore the old fashioned rhythm of art-making.

This thesis made empirical sense.
The art I disliked was all powered by fiat.
The art I admired was all powered by gold.

I felt I had found the missing puzzle piece.

Hence I decided to put the theory to test, with action.
What happens when you mix old fashioned art philosophy (universal, slow, not flashy, looking for Beauty eternal) with a sound money standard?

Proof of Paint is the ongoing answer to that question.

What
Proof of Paint
IS NOT

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At the same time the ethereum NFT art scene came about.
I watched with disappointment and frustration, while it soared.
Its shameless grift reaching towering heights. A Babel of scams.

It did not shine a good light on Bitcoin. ‘Cornita’ deserved better.

This emerging crypto-art embodied the same tired values I saw in the contemporary art world: quick art made for a quick buck with a quick expiration date.
Pure unadulterated high time preference.

(Fiat. Fiat. Fiat)

That’s why Proof is both a stand and a rejection.
A rejection of art made under the vessel of high time preference, grift and decadence.

And it’s a stand.

A stand that art by bitcoiners can be noble and principled.
A stand for low time preference applied to Arts, once again.
A stand for quality over quantity, in an endless quest for bringing about the Universal over the specific.

Proof of Paint is classical art for bitcoiners by a bitcoiner.

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