An NFT (non-fungible token) is a cryptographic asset that exists on a blockchain.

Unlike cryptocurrencies, which are uniform and exchangeable (fungible), NFTs are unique and can’t be substituted for one another (non-fungible).

They have become popular and gained mainstream appeal recently as a means to designate ownership of collectible digital assets, for example generative artworks, profile pictures, trading cards.

Crucially, an NFT is usually only a reference to, or form of registration for, an artwork. The artwork itself often remains easily reproduced, and the token itself only includes some metadata that links to a permanent, online copy of the work. However, it provides a means to record and exchange ownership of digital assets, without relying on any central marketplace.

Traditionally it has been difficult to claim and authenticate ownership of easily reproducible digital assets. NFTs offer a potential solution to this by associating unique cryptocurrency wallet address with a permanent, decentralised link to the media. This has allowed new markets for digital artworks to flourish.

NFTs are rapidly developing, controversial and divisive. There are many examples of NFT projects that are fraudulent, or solely aimed to benefit the creator, at the expense of their audiences who purchase tokens. They can also be used to exploit people that are inexperienced at navigating the volatility of cryptocurrency markets and assets.

Despite this, the underlying technology of NFTs remains interesting and the breadth of its utility not fully explored. Through inviting the public to participate in A Token Gesture we hope provide a safe environment to experience and open the discussion about what this technology can (and cannot) facilitate.

To learn more, we particularly recommend this talk by Bernadine Brocker Wieder on the history and emergence of NFTs - The Decentralised Creative Economy; what are NFTs and did they come out of nowhere – B. B. Wieder

This project is part of a wider research project called DeCaDE, about a decentralised digital economy - where the value of platforms and services are potentially more widely distributed and governed by their end users and communities.

NFTs are one example of this, and are an increasingly popular, but divisive and poorly understood technology. There are many problematic examples of NFT projects, but also considerable interest in how such technologies could be used to produce new forms of economy, governance and ownership of creative work. With this in mind, our aims are to:

• Offer hands-on opportunities for the public to learn about, experience and reflect critically on generative art and NFTs.
• To study user' experiences, practices and understanding of creating and managing NFTs
• To explore how NFTs can (or cannot) offer audiences new ways to connect with and 'own' digital art and content.

There are several ways to view the generative artwork produced.

During the exhibition (from March 7th to April 3rd) all artworks included in the exhibition will be shown at random. During the exhibition we plan to implement an option for ‘token holders’ of an artwork to return to the exhibition, and display their artwork on demand. Stay tuned for more details!

You can connect to the gallery page, to view all artworks that have been minted (coming soon) where they will remain visible after the exhibition has concluded.

You can see a thumbnail of your artwork via some wallet providers such as Kukai.

When an NFT is minted, the corresponding artwork will be stored on IPFS which is a public, decentralised file storage system. Files stored here, should remain accessible indefinitely, via the link to your artwork on IPFS. We recommend you bookmark this link.

Unlike many other NFTs you cannot transfer the tokens from this exhibition from one wallet to another. This means that the token cannot be sold through third-party market places. It will remain indefinitely in the wallet that mints it. You should not mint this NFT if you do not want it to remain permanently in this wallet.

We have done this for three main reasons:

1. By limiting the ability to transfer between wallets, ensures that it is only possible to claim this NFT through a real-world, in-person interaction with the exhibition.
2. As an academic research project, we have explicitly sought to avoid potential for any participants (or researchers) to benefit financially from this project.
3. We view this non-transferable feature as a potentially novel, and non-commercial application of NFTs, worth experimenting with.

This is a key question for our research. What can or would people like to do with NFTs, and why is this valuable to them? At first, you can:

• Keep it in your wallet as a memento
• Use it to prove your generation of an artwork
• Use it to prove you are a 'contributor' to the exhibition, and potentially participate in future events and activities related to this project

During the exhibition, we will then implement features to:

• Use it to display your artwork on-demand via the InSpace City Screen

You cannot transfer or sell this NFT.

A key aim of our research is to study and understand the extent to which NFTs do (or do not) convey ownership of digital assets or property.

Whoever holds the NFT, owns the token. But it is often legally unclear what rights an NFT conveys in practice.

In this case, artists were paid by commission to produce the artwork in the exhibition. The artwork (the computer code used to generate each piece) is licenced through a Creative Commons licence CC-BY-SA-4.0 - this information is recorded as part of the metadata of each token. In practice, this licence means that you can:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose

However, you must:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that s suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

We encourage people to play and experiment with A Token Gesture. You may make more than one NFT, and collect artworks from different artists. (Each day, we will mint a different artist). Artworks will only be able to mint from March 7th to April 3rd from 4pm to 4am each day. There is not a predetermined cap on the number of NFTs that will be created.

However, new artworks can only be generated in-person in Edinburgh, and take a short time to mint.

If there is exceptional demand at the minting station, we may introduce an approach to ensure as many people as possible in Edinburgh can participate in the project.

Like any online account you make, you should keep your user credentials private and safe. Unlike the centralised platforms you might be used to interacting with, wallet providers (such as Kukai) do not store your seed phrase and are unable to help you recover it if you lose it. This represents a key concept in decentralised technologies - the idea of self-sovereignity.

It's a good idea to carefully make several paper copies of your seed phrase and store these safely around your home. Inside your favourite book might be a good place for one!

It is technically possible to use this wallet for other cryptocurrency transactions, however we do are not encouraging participants to do this as part of this research project. You should consider very carefully how to manage and look after cryptocurrency wallets, and to keep them safe and secure. You should also be wary, and conduct due diligence before investing in any crypto project, or NFT. Sadly, there are many rogue actors and scam artists, who seek to take advantage of inexperienced audiences. There is also very limited regulation or recourse to limit damages incurred through crypto projects.

This guide offers a starting point to wallet management and some key considerations.

A seed phrase is a series of words generated by your cryptocurrency wallet that give you access to the crypto associated with that wallet. A seed phrase is akin to a master password. As long as you have your seed phrase, you’ll have access to all of the assets associated with the wallet— even if you delete or lose the wallet.

It is important to store your seed phrase securely, including making a hard copy, and it should not be shared with anyone.

If you have forgotten your password, you can use your seed phrase to recover your wallet.

There is no way to recover a seed phrase once it has been misplaced. On a centralised platform, such as Facebook or an internet banking application, your activity is normally recorded alongside and associated with a unique identifier that is managed by the platform. Your username and password are associated with who that user is. This means that the username and password can be changed independently of this id. When you interact with a blockchain your activity is signed using your private key, which is manged exclusively by you. This is the only identifier that associates you with activity on the blockchain and, because blockchains are append only ledgers, this identifier can't be modified in historic activity.

If you lose access to your wallet, your NFT will still exist, and is recorded on the ledger. However, you will have no way to control or demonstrate ownership of it.

A blockchain is a shared accounting system for recording transactions without the need for a centralised intermediary like a bank.

It provides the technological infrastructure that underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. With Ethereum came the advent of 'smart contracts' - a way of deploying computer code on a blockchain that runs automatically, allowing for more functionality.

A smart contract can be used to create blockchain assets such as NFTs and govern specifically how they are used and exchanged.

Distributed (or decentralised) networks, like blockchains can be particularly energy intensive due to some of the methods of establishing consensus across distributed computers. This, among other reasons, has made blockchains particularly controversial technologies. This project uses the energy efficient Tezos blockchain, which has the total annual carbon footprint of around 17 global citizens

We have chosen to run A Token Gesture on Tezos a blockchain that uses a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism which is a vastly more energy efficient method than Bitcoin/Ethereum's Proof of Work, with a total annual carbon footprint equivalent to around 17 global citizens

It is also cheaper to run and mint new NFTs. As such, Tezos has been a preferred platform for many artists, including those we have worked with for this exhibition.

No. This is a research project and wholly non-commercial.

We have paid the artists directly for their work. They retain copyright for their artwork, via a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.

The Token Gesture NFTs are non-transferable – meaning the tokens cannot be listed for sale via any online marketplaces.

There is no set limit to number of artworks / tokens that can be produced, however it will not be possible to mint any further NFTs after April 3rd.

No participants need to spend any money to claim an NFT – all fees are paid for by the research project.

We do not anticipate any financial benefits for holding this NFT since it cannot be transferred to other wallets and hence sold via online marketplaces. We are also not placing any arbitrary limits on how many of these NFTs can be produced.

Participants who take part in follow up research will be compensated directly for their time via a shopping voucher.

There are no financial costs for you to take part in this research.

The creation and function of NFTs is governed by something called a ‘token contract’. This contract is deployed on the Tezos blockchain, and so is publicly visible and its code cannot be altered once deployed.

The token contract for this project uses the Tezos FA2 token standard.

We used a Python-based tool called SmartPy to create the contract. You can look at the contract code here and even deploy your own!.

The exhibition will end at 4am on April 4th. At this point, no further artworks will be minted, or shown at the InSpace gallery.

The project website will be maintained by the research team, and continue to show the artworks produced during the exhibition.

Token holders will continue to be able to connect their wallets to the site to view their work.

We will transfer administration of the token contract to an inaccessible wallet address (equivalent to throwing away the keys), so that that it will become frozen in history!

Despite their perceived ephemerality, all networked computer infrastructures are energy intensive. Distributed (or decentralised) networks, like the blockchains that crypto currencies run on can be particularly energy intensive due to some of the methods of establishing consensus across distributed computers.

Because of this we have chosen to run A Token Gesture on Tezos, a blockchain that uses a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism which is a vastly more energy efficient method in comparison to the ‘Proof of Work’ mechanisms used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. Tezos reportedly has the total annual carbon footprint of around 17 global citizens.

Thanks! Please read more about how to take part in the research on the Taking Part page.

We recommend spending time educating yourself before interacting with other NFT or crypto projects. There are unfortunately many rogue actors, who seek to take advantage of inexperienced audiences. There is very limited regulation or recourse to limit damages incurred through crypto projects.

We will be running several events to foster informed debate, critique and discussion of NFTs and crypto more broadly. You can see our upcoming events here.

We also point you to our resources page, which includes many other examples and critical discussions of these technologies.

In addition, as an educational and research-focused project, the research team, and the University of Edinburgh are not endorsing any particular NFT projects, blockchains, or wallet services through this project.

Taking part in this research project is entirely voluntary on your part. You can stop taking part at any time.

In addition, you should know:

• Your NFT is a permanent record, so cannot be deleted, but has no personal data attached.
• You cannot delete your wallet but if the seed phrase is destroyed, it will be effectively deactivated.

Email us and you can withdraw from any further research, and we will delete our records of your participation and any personal data we hold.

This research project has received ethical approval from Edinburgh College of Art. You can download our ethics form here.

We recognise NFTs as highly complex and contested technologies. However, for these reasons we believe it is crucial to conduct critically engaged and participatory research that exposes how NFTs actually work, what they do (and do not) offer, and provide a general audience the opportunity to experience and reflect upon these emerging technologies. At the Institute for Design Informatics we have a long history of working with non-experts and the general public to offer critical experiences of blockchain technologies.

The research team, and the University of Edinburgh are not endorsing any particular NFT projects, blockchains, or wallet services through this project.

We have taken great care to ensure that the principles of research ethics – primarily informed consent, data protection, and the ability to withdraw from the project – are respected through this project.