Artist Auctioning NFT Trolling Satoshi Statue for Charity

A Hungarian artist is auctioning a non-fungible token (NFT) he created featuring the Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Budapest, Hungary.

Commenting on the high electrical cost of Bitcoin, artist Peter Weiler placed an oversized bill for $18,894,650,000 around the neck of the statue. Despite his enthusiasm for crypto, Weiler said he felt the need to raise awareness about the amount of energy consumed by mining Bitcoin.

“So much wealth has been created by crypto and we need to see at what cost,” Weiler said in his post on Facebook. He added that change is necessary and would come soon “with energy friendly and cost-efficient crypto solutions.” It is for these environmental concerns that he advocated the use of Tezos to mint NFTs.

Reflecting on rising energy prices that come along with winter, Weiler said he would donate the proceeds of the NFT to a homeless shelter in Budapest. “I thought that my guerilla action at the Satoshi sculpture in Budapest could also do some good,” Weiler said.

Satoshi statue 

In September, the world’s first statue of Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto was unveiled in Graphisoft Park, in Budapest, Hungary. Symbolically, the statue’s face features a reflective surface, so onlookers can see themselves as Nakamoto.

BeInCrypto spoke with the person responsible for the state, András Györfi, after the statue was initially announced over the summer. Györfi said he created the statue after being inspired by the significance of blockchain technology and the artistic qualities of NFTs. He added that his ambition was for the statue to become the one known predominantly throughout the world.

It is this perspective that gave Györfi a nuanced perspective regarding the social commentary featuring his work. “I’m happy to see that the statue has its own life, [that] people think of it when they think about Satoshi, however trolling someone’s work is never nice,” he said. “But Bitcoin truly has an energy consumption issue, [and] the mining community has to figure this out.”