Wikipedia editors vote not to classify NFTs as art, sparking outrage in the crypto community

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Following public debate, a group of Wikipedia editors voted not to categorize NFTs as art, at least for now.

The row began last month, according to crypto news outlet Cointelegraph, when editors of a page dedicated to the most expensive art sales by living artists questioned whether examples such as the $69 million sale dollars from Christie’s Beeple’s Everydays or Pak’s $91.8 million NFT “merge,” should make the list. (Jasper Johns and Damien Hirst currently top the charts.) Their conversation quickly turned to semantics, debaters wondering if NFTs constituted tokens or if they themselves represented works of art.

As is common for classification disputes on the free online encyclopedia, the question was put to a vote. Five out of six publishers voted not to include NFTs on the list. (At press time, the page on Wikipedia had not yet been updated.)

“Wikipedia really can’t decide what counts as art or not, which is why putting NFTs, art or not, in their own list makes things much simpler,” one editor wrote on the talk page, echoing the dominant sentiment of voters no.

The lone supporter, meanwhile, pointed to reports from credible outlets like The New York Times, which called Beeple the “third best-selling living artist” after the sale of his Christie’s.

Art Urgence !! 🚨

There is an ongoing debate on @Wikipedia that has the potential to *officially categorize NFTs as “not art” on all of Wikipedia. *

Wikipedia is a worldwide source of truth. Classifying NFTs as “not art” would be a disaster!

:

— Duncan Cock Foster (@DCCockFoster) January 12, 2022

Although the voting took place between only half a dozen people, all volunteers, on a secondary page, the conversation embodied a larger cultural debate around new forms of digital art and their relationship to traditional modes of artistic production – and for this reason people paid attention.

The finding angered some in the crypto community, in particular. “Wikipedia operates on precedent. If NFTs are classified as ‘not art’ on this page, they will be classified as ‘not art’ on the rest of Wikipedia,” wrote Duncan Cock Foster, co-founder of popular NFT platform Nifty. Gateway, amid a long series of Twitter posts. “Wikipedia is the global source of truth for many people around the world. The stakes couldn’t be higher!

Cock Foster issued a call to action, asking the NFT community to “come together and let Wikipedia editors know that NFTs are, in fact, art!”

“Digital artists have fought for legitimacy their entire lives. We can’t let Wikipedia editors delay them! he wrote.

However, the problem is not over for good. After the vote, Wikipedia editors agreed to resume the conversation at a later date.

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