Pantera Capital Partner Interprets Arkive: Decentralized Physical Museum

Original Title: 《Decentralized Museum》

Written by: Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital

Compiled by: Amber, Foresight News

Arkive is a decentralized physical museum, a DAO that enables people to access art and collectibles in the traditional art collection field that are completely out of reach for the average person while ensuring democracy. The DAO recently completed a $9.7 million seed round financing, led by TCG Crypto and Offline, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, NFX, Freestyle Capital, and others.

Culture is constantly evolving, but museums are collecting dust. Since the concept of "collection" was born, fine art has become a vehicle for profitable investment and power. As a result, most artworks have disappeared under the general bias of gallery curators or have been permanently locked away in collectors' vaults. Arkive is building the world's first decentralized museum to reconstruct the way we own and display culture. As a DAO, the new museum allows its members to participate in selecting which collectibles should be included in Arkive's collection.

Rapidly Growing Art Collection Market

In the traditional collection field, works by top creators cater to the demands of super-rich individuals, with prices for Basquiat and Da Vinci works reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. However, beyond the collection itself, the investment attributes of artworks have become apparent in recent decades. Over the past 25 years, the investment returns of contemporary artworks have even outperformed the S&P 500 index, with an average annual appreciation rate of 13.8%.

However, this rapidly growing market is not friendly to retail investors, as it has been difficult for ordinary investors to participate in such asset investments until the emergence of New York-based startup Masterworks in 2017, which provided retail investors with the opportunity to engage in high-end art collection. However, compared to the refined modern art revolution initiated by Masterworks, Arkive takes it a step further, empowering creators and investors with stronger value acquisition capabilities. In addition to the appreciation of the works, they can also earn additional passive income by lending artworks for display.

A Brand New Cultural "Platform"

In July of this year, Arkive began operating as a DAO, accepting a limited number of members each week. Members can earn corresponding token incentives by contributing to the organization, with the projects included being related to themes voted on by members. While purchasing physical artworks, Arkive also generates operational funds for the decentralized museum by renting the works to various other exhibition organizations. This means that in the future, members can not only invest in the value of artworks but also earn passive income through many different elements of an art-as-a-service model.

This brand new museum will not charge any fees for including artworks, and in the future, Arkive will further refine its model, allowing members to purchase NFT-based memberships and tokens representing partial ownership of the Arkive collection. Arkive members are typically unique collectors and art connoisseurs, and the ultimate goal of this project is to democratize the field of art collection. Therefore, the team is currently focused on building a closely-knit and diverse community through its customized community portal, "The Atrium."

Arkive Team

Unlike Masterworks, Arkive's goal is not only to make the appreciation of artworks accessible to ordinary investors but also to democratize art by redefining culture. Arkive plans to lend these artifacts to various exhibition institutions, allowing their artworks to move around instead of being fixed at a single hosting site.

Purchasing the Patent for the World's First Computer

The curatorial theme currently defined by the Arkive community is "When Technology Changes the Game," and the museum's first touring exhibition is a traveling exhibition. The initial exhibits include the original patent application for the ENIAC computer, which is the world's first programmable general-purpose digital computer. Additionally, they have collected works such as Lynn Hershman Leeson's "Seduction," the prototype of the MTV Music Award Moonman, artist Aria Dean's "Black Mass Eulogy," and props used by Madonna during her 1990 MTV VMA performance.

Lynn Hershman Leeson's Artwork

Arkive's co-founder Tom McLeod previously founded Omni, a decentralized storage rental company that was acquired by Coinbase in 2019. The other two co-founders, Aleksander Rendtslev and Jordan Topoleski, are also serial entrepreneurs who have assembled a visionary team.

Arkive poses a timeless question: "What if the Smithsonian American Art Museum (one of Washington's iconic buildings) were owned and managed by the internet?" The team is working tirelessly to build the most democratic cultural and historical repository in human history, with plans to make over 20 new acquisitions by the end of 2023 and expand its membership to thousands.