http://robmyers.org/2014/05/09/artworld-ethereum-identity-ownership-and-authenticity/
"Ethereum is a distributed computing system for writing and executing
smart contracts. Inspired by Bitcoin, it’s currently in development with
a planned late 2014 release date. The term “smart contracts” was coined
around 1993 by computer scientist Nick Szabo to describe
computer-readable code that replaces lawyer-readable code to describe
agreements and obligations between people.
It’s a very literal take on Lawrence Lessig’s argument that “code is
law”, a libertarian attempt to reduce the costs and uncertainty of
having to trust human beings and interpret ambiguous human language, or
possibly a dystopian replacement of rights and safeguards with binary logic.
Smart contracts can be used to implement smart property, physical goods
governed by computer code, and Distributed Autonomous Organizations,
which replace written constitutions with code running on Ethereum’s
Blockchain.
This series of articles will look at applications of Ethereum to the
production, exhibition, critique and institutions of art. Starting with
digital art as smart property.
The sample code is written in Serpent, the high level Ethereum
programming language, and is current as of Ethereum POC 5. It will be
revised and tested for the release version of Ethereum.
You can learn more about Ethereum here and here. You can learn more
about Serpent here and here.
##Storing and Identifying Digital Art In Ethereum
There are three cases of digital art as smart property. The first is the
conceptual or code art case, where the code of the contract itself is or
contains the artwork. The second is the Ethereum storage case, where a
small digital artwork is stored in the Ethereum datastore. The third is
the stored identifier case, where only an identifier or proxy for the
artwork is stored with the contract.
###Conceptual and Code Art
Contracts that are themselves art are a simple case. They should store
their owner’s Ethereum address and ensure that transactions initiating
actions that only the owner should be able to perform come from that
address.
####Conceptual Art
// A useless contract must be art...
stop
####After Art & Language
init:
contract.storage[1000] = "hot"
contract.storage[1001] = "cold"
code:
// Make sure we have enough gas to run the contact
if tx.value < tx.basefee * 100:
// If not, stop
stop
// Swap
temp = contract.storage[1000]
contract.storage[1000] = contract.storage[1001]
contract.storage[1001] = temp
..."
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