Open Letter to the Community by Justin Sun: Successfully won the bid for Beeple’s NFT artwork “OCEAN FRONT” with $6 million
Dear Tronics,
I am proud to announce that I have successfully won the bid for Beeple’s NFT artwork “OCEAN FRONT” at $6 MIL. All the auction proceeds will go to the Open Earth Foundation to combat the existential risk of climate change.
“OCEAN FRONT” expresses Beeple’s concerns on global climate change and it has a profound message of the need for environmental protection. There is no doubt that this will be one of the most iconic NFT in the entire industry. The interest and bidding for this artwork is not only the development in art trends but also a strategic manifestation of TRON’s comprehensive entry into the NFT industry.
Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, is the most valuable pioneer artist in the sphere of NFT artworks. According to the recent data, Beeple is at the top of the current NFT market sales list. The total value of his NFTs is close to $100 million.
Beeple can be said to be the Da Vinci in the field of digital art, who now ranks as one of the most valuable living artists alive after becoming the most commercially successful NFT artist. He addresses climate issues by framing the environment as fighting against mankind in its work, “OCEAN FRONT” is an artwork he specially created to raise the issue of global climate change — the current core issue of mankind. It combines both artistic value and humanistic value. Beeple tweeted after the end of the auction: “Massive congrats to Justin Sun! Six Million dollars for climate change. THIS is what we need to enact real meaningful change … to work TOGETHER instead of fighting one another. We CAN do this, we WILL do this.”
Beeple also said: “The piece auctioned off represents what will eventually happen if we were to do nothing. Water levels will continue to rise until eventually Ohio will be ocean front property. I am even more confident though that will not happen after yesterday. This is a community that cares about its carbon footprint and is taking active steps to make things better. This $6M bid will fund years of research so it’s truly an honor to be a part of this project with Justin.” Beeple supports Open Earth Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit harnessing emerging digital technology — including blockchains and its NFTs — and radical collaborations to deploy and scale concrete systemic solutions at a planetary level. It is a great honor for me to come together in this way to celebrate Beeple’s art and to raise funds for the fight against climate change.
Interestingly, this auction concluded at a price much higher than that of the Warren Buffet luncheon, putting a higher price tag on the time of NFT pioneering artists than that of the world’s richest. Yet again, it tells from another perspective the overarching trend of history. Similar to how Warren Buffet’s luncheon marked the fusion of blockchain-based new finance and traditional Wall Street finance, this auction is a symphony orchestrated by blockchain-based NFT art and traditional art. Only a year after the luncheon between Warren Buffet and I, Bitcoin and Mr. Buffet are veering off at opposite trajectories, crypto-enthusiast Elon musk claimed the title of the world’s richest person, and ARK’s big bet on bitcoin has sent the fund to record highs that dwarfs the rest of Wall Street, making its CEO Cathie Wood the new Warren Buffet of our time. All of these are credited to not the power of any individual, but the crushing tide that crypto has built into. We firmly believe that new finance and blockchain are the unstoppable trends that echo the development of human society regardless of any bullish or bearish sentiments.
This auction is completely non-profit-making. The ownership of the NFT artwork will be mapped to TRON blockchain following the TRC721 standard, and the art piece will be permanently stored on TRON blockchain and the decentralized storage system BTFS.
There is a consensus today that blockchain is not only sweeping the traditional finance industry but also setting the tone for the future world of art. This is a field where blockchain takes the name of NFT or non-fungible token. Artists who embrace the concept of NFT will set the trend and rise to fame, and NFT artwork collectors will redefine artistic appreciation, becoming the modern-day Duke of Florence or the Medici family that fueled the Renaissance era.
This auction marks TRON’s foray into the NFT space. Soon we are going to establish an NFT foundation, for which we’ll hire top-class NFT artists as advisors and work with top-notch arts organizations to register world-level artworks and artists as NFTs on-chain. I’m sure it won’t be long before we can share more updates with the community.
I believe that this $6 million has opened a new chapter in the technology-enabled history of NFT artwork. This is only the beginning of a magnificent future history. “OCEAN FRONT” will very likely become the biggest NFT star in the TRON Ecosystem. We have all reasons to believe that countless fantastic NFT works will emerge on TRON, we will witness the birth of a new era of Van Gogh, and the birth of a new era of “Sunflowers”.
Today we are part of history!
Justin Sun
