Erode is an experiment into the future of NFTs. An NFT is basically a unique digital asset that is collected and traded online. This project explores what it would be like if digital NFTs – just like physical objects – were subject to the laws of nature, and does this by applying a gradual visual erosion to this supposedly unchanging asset every time it changes hands. Random Studio implemented an automated prototype that ensures that an NFT artwork of their hand ‘decays’ a little further with every transaction, thus linking analogue and physical qualities from the ‘real’ world to the otherwise so ‘pristine’ digital environment.

With Erode, Random Studio tackles a new issue: what is the impact and appreciation of digital products and which characteristics of the analogue world can you attribute to them? When you use a physical product, it erodes. Random Studio now applied this principle to digital artworks in a conceptual and technologically interesting way. Erode thus poses relevant questions about the preservation of value, the appreciation of art and that of virtual objects in particular. The physical and digital are coming together more and more. Erode also makes digital-artistic transient objects and thereby creates scarcity. A development with the potential for great impact.