Is it a house? Is it art? Is it merely a string of code? Whatever you want to call “Mars House,” it just sold for more than half a million dollars.
Toronto-based artist Krista Kim was asking 30 Ethereum tokens for a non-fungible token of a slick virtual home set on Mars. She eventually accepted an offer of 288 Ethereum tokens, the equivalent of $515,459.
The buyer, under the name @artontheinternet, purchased the NFT on the SuperRare platform. The same buyer purchased $44,000 worth of NFTs from Kim earlier in the week week.
Kim said on Twitter that the “majority of proceeds” would go toward an organization to “support a world tour of healing sound and light installations for mental health and healing.”
Architectural Digest called it “the world’s first digital NFT home.”
A NFT is sort of a stamp of authenticity for digital media, like an image, video or song. They are most commonly used to trade ownership of an “original” version of something, although they can be used to represent anything, even a copy of some media.
Ownership is tracked on a blockchain, similar to the tech used for digital tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum itself.
A NFT collage by artist Beeple recently sold for $69 million at a Christie’s auction, setting a record.
Kim designed Mars House using Unreal Engine, which is used mostly to design video games. The house can be accessed in 3D through any computer that can render it, but is reportedly best experienced through a virtual reality headset. It also comes with a soundtrack by former Smashing Pumpkins member Jeff Schroeder.
The buyer of Mars House can also have all of its iridescent and gradient furniture made in real life by a Italy-based glass furniture maker.