Mixing bitcoin and art creates a business

Bitcoin can be a work of art - literally.

Troy Fearnow, a resident of The Woodlands, is selling images designed to "store" bitcoin and other digital currencies, which are like digital cash. His goals are threefold: keeping currencies away from hackers, creating collectibles that can be saved, traded and fetch more money - and nourishing a broader conversation on digital money.

"This creates awareness. This creates discussion," Fearnow said. "In addition, it's rare that art has functional utility."

He launched Cryptoart.com in late March, and it became his full-time gig about two months ago. He recently displayed artwork at the George R. Brown Convention Center during the unveiling of Houston's first bitcoin ATM.

Cryptoart.com was born from Fearnow's passion for bitcoin, a love of technology and his experience selling art online.

"I thought it'd be exciting to incorporate money, technology and art into a physical product," he said.

Think of the artwork as a savings account, minus the interest. It's a place to keep digital currency not needed on a day-to-day basis.

Here's how it works. Each piece of art has a Quick Response - or QR - code in the bottom left corner. This QR code, using bitcoin as an example, is scanned with a smartphone to send bitcoins to a bitcoin address, which acts like an account to hold the currency. Most users have multiple bitcoin addresses.

Fearnow said the address associated with the QR code on the artwork is viewable online - and people can send bitcoins to that address - but the private key, or password, to spend bitcoins from that address is stored offline. It's hidden under a sticker on the back of the artwork. The owner can't take bitcoins from that particular address until the key is used online to redeem the currency.

The point of keeping the key offline, and away from a computer or mobile device, is protecting bitcoins from being hacked. And while a plain piece of paper could technically be used for the same functions, Fearnow chose art to help bring awareness to digital currencies. The images, more so moving forward, will have themes associated with the currencies.

The art should be viewed more as a collector's item than a fail-proof way to store digital currencies, Fearnow said. If the artwork is stolen, the owner could lose the currency stored at the bitcoin address connected to the QR code, unless the private key is saved offline elsewhere, like on a jump drive, and the owner can transfer the currency before a thief gets to it.

"This is more of a collectible item," he said. "So if you're planning to store tens of thousands of dollars, I would not keep your only private key inside an art piece. I would back it up somewhere."

The smaller-sized artwork comes with suggested storage amounts that Fearnow hopes will boost their tradability. And the different images, which come in three sizes, are designed to store different digital currencies, including bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Peercoin.

Sheldon Weisfeld, the CEO of CoinVault ATM based in Houston, said the artwork found on Cryptoart.com can be a tool for educating people about bitcoin and other digital currencies.

"I think that what he's doing is very unique in the whole evolution in the digital currency space," Weisfeld said.

CoinVault ATM has seven bitcoin ATMs installed around the country, including the one recently unveiled at the convention center in Houston, and it's working to add a few more. The majority of its ATMs allow users to convert cash to bitcoin and vice versa.

In general, Weisfeld said, people struggle to grasp the concept of digital currency because it's intangible. Relating it to art gives consumers something tangible to associate with the currencies.

It's also a way of getting the currency into offline storage and away from hackers or viruses. Weisfeld suggested other secure ways for storing a private key are on a jump drive or a printed piece of paper stored in a safe.

The cost of a Cryptoart ranges from $35 to $600 (and yes, Fearnow takes digital currencies for purchase as well) and by year's end he expects that he will have sold 500 pieces of artwork. Some were purchased through Cryptoart.com, while others were sold through a soon-to-be-announced partnership with a bitcoin company.

Edward Clements, 41, of San Antonio, purchased four images from Cryptoart.com. He's been a bitcoin enthusiast since early 2011, and he runs BitBrew.net, which sells Fair Trade coffee for bitcoins.

Clements said he'd be interested in the art even if it weren't associated with bitcoin. But the link to the digital currencies, he said, increases its value - even though he doesn't yet store his bitcoins with the bitcoin addresses associated with the QR codes on the images.

And for Fearnow, he said his ultimate goal is to leverage images as a tool for discussion.

Art has long contributed to social and political commentary, he noted, and his hope is that it will help advance the adoption of digital currencies.

"I think it can bring just a lot of discussion into the fold," he said. "I think it can bring people that wouldn't normally think about digital currencies."