Ascribe Conceptualizes Proto-NFTs

Ascribe conceptualized the concept of owning digital art on a blockchain “like you own bitcoin” throughout 2013, finally launching publicly at the end of 2014. The concept for ascribe emerged from a conversation about art and blockchain between co-founders, sparked by the question, “What if you could own digital art the way you can own Bitcoin?” This idea combined art, technology and finance, leading to a collaboration with digital artist Jonathan Monaghan and the enlistment of Bruce Pon, who had a background in building banks. The team, initially calling the project “Keidom,” developed a prototype by late summer 2013, with Yanislav Malahov contracted for its creation. This early work led to one of the first recorded proto-NFT transactions for a piece of digital art by Monaghan on November 18, 2013. With help from artist Harm van den Dorpel and others, ascribe would rename itself and launch publicly roughly a year after this transcation.