12-year-old boy creates digital whale art, makes £290,000 by selling earned non-fungible tokens
Story highlights
After creating digital pictures of whales and selling tokens of their ownership, which are stored on blockchain, a 12-year-old boy earned about £290,000. During the school holidays, the collection of pixelated artworks called Weird Whales of the child, Benyamin Ahmed, had gone viral
After creating digital pictures of whales and selling tokens of their ownership, which are stored on blockchain, a 12-year-old boy earned about £290,000.
During the school holidays, the collection of pixelated artworks called Weird Whales of the child, Benyamin Ahmed, had gone viral.
Watch | London Zoo holds its annual weigh-in
The success of the child may prove to be a harbinger of the digital business models, which can disrupt the banking sector.
Child’s father Imran, who is a software developer, shared that the artwork is like “digital Pokémon cards”. Imran added, they had been a huge success because the collectors realised its historical significance.
“People find the art secondary. Imagine when the printing press came out, if you managed to get hold of a book that was an original, written by a 12-year-old that went viral, you can imagine how that would accrue value over time because of the historical significance,” added the father.
With the help of a pixel art website, the child created a set of 3,350 whales in the style of a common whale meme seen in the video game Minecraft. Benyamin was then able to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs).