Sculpture
190 × 152 × 270cm
2021

Yap721, inspired by the Yap Island stone coin (FEI), is the original form of human bookkeeping. From the early days of Single-entry Bookkeeping to Double-entry Bookkeeping to Distributed Accounting in the age of cryptocurrencies, the perception of wealth has iterated.

From Bitcoin’s UTXO to Ethereum’s ERC20 / ERC721 token standards, all are essentially ledgers, recording the rights and interests of their owners. And crypto artifacts in the form of ERC721 are like individual YAP Island stone coins. With each transaction flow, the stone coins are inscribed with the imprint of their former owners.

The artist inscribes the hex code of the first bitcoin transfer on one side of the sculpture, and on the other side the address of the work’s bid on the TopBidder auction platform is inscribed around the sculpture in chronological order. In this physical work, each collector leaves his or her mark be part of the work; at the same time, in the blockchain world, each collector is also permanently recorded on the chain.