If Bitcoin was to be a part of the new economy, how would that affect us? That's what and Aditya Julka and Alexander Gilkes, co-founders of the online auction site Paddle8 were wondering when they someone connected them to Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, the identical twins and venture capitalists who you may know as the rowing brothers who sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In addition they also helped raise seed funding for Bitcoin payment processor BitInstant. “The idea was to pick their brains,” says Julka. “A lot of commonalities started emerging in the way they thought of their investing, the way they thought of company building and what we were sort of working on.”
The Winklevoss brothers were so impressed with Paddle8, that they decided to invest in the New York-based start-up that just opened offices in London. “We felt there was a huge white space between the low-end auctions on
Paddle8 is presenting an online auction to coincide with the recent backing titled “Currency” that explores the role of money in art, both as a subject and as a medium. Some highlights of the auction, which runs through July 24th, includes Andy Warhol’s 1971 piece “Art Cash,” a set of six lithographs printed on U.S. bank note paper — “It’s part of what he did that is the feeling of dollar bills and his fascination of money and the representation of money in art,” says Julka; an untitled 2014 abstract work by Bitcoin artist Brad Troemel; and Banksy’s “Di-Faced Tenner,” a lithograph of a £10 bank note with Princess Diana’s face on it. “Her tragic death was one of those moments in history where everyone remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news,” say the brothers. Also featured in the auction are works by John Baldessari, Jeff Koons, Charles Lutz and Damien Hirst.
“Everyone is talking about how much money is going into the art world right now, so it seemed like a perfect time to explore currency in art directly,” said Julka. “What happened in parallel is that the Winklevoss Capital guys got involved so it seemed like we could expand the conversation a little bit more beyond art and money, to say what is the future of money itself?”
The auction isn’t meant to be taken seriously. “As discussions mount about art as investment — and as artists’ records soar to new heights — this auction takes an irreverent look at the literal intersection between art and money,” says Vivian Brodie, lead specialist for the Currency auction.
While the future of Bitcoin is uncertain, Paddle8 certainly is exploring how it could be an asset to their company. “As we go through country by country and figure out how payments will work and how currency transfers will work, how taxes work, how all this stuff will work,” said Julka, “it is extremely attractive to have the notion of this universal currency that can be accepted across every country. We don’t already accept it, we’re evaluating it. We’re doing that analysis as we speak and they’ve been extremely helpful.”
The Winklevoss twins, who say they aren’t art collectors at the moment, are sure that the use of Bitcoin we become more prevalent. “We believe that Bitcoin protocol will have widespread usage by facilitating the free and instant transfer of money,” they say.
To view and bid on the works in “Currency,” visit paddle8.com/auctions/currency.
