DOGGY #3362

For the first edition of Trolly’s (The Famous NFT Art Critic) newsletter, I’ll be dissecting a classic. For sale at a mere $11,185, this piece is a solid example of the current trends in the NFT art world.

The artist is showcasing his skills in flashy colours, destined to immediately attract the eye of the NFT art collector among a vast gallery of seemingly similar pieces. At first glance, the piece is just a cute aggregation of crypto memes: 1. a not-so-subtle reference to DogeCoin on the dog’s hat, 2. an Ethereum logo on the collar, 3. a blunt - a symbol of the “haha price go up“ attitude.

But looking beyond the obvious symbolism, the piece reveals deeper truths about the crypto paradigm. The artistic maturity of the piece, worthy of a first year art school dropout, is an obvious reference to the “revolution by and for the masses” promise of crypto, where one doesn’t have to have any particular skills, or to even try hard, to make it big.

The choice of the dog symbolism for this whole series is very pregnant. Beyond the ephemeral successes (price-wise) of DogeCoin and the Shiba Inu token, the status of the dog in society is very much like that of crypto. They both might have been useful a long, long time ago when we didn’t have a better alternative to their stated use: protection for dogs, data storage and transmission for crypto. But today, as technology has evolved and using them for their primary purpose would be incredibly stupid and inefficient, they have both become a source of comfort, and give their owners a sense of purpose by procurement.

Last but not least, the piece is transpiring with functionalism. The purpose of NFT art is to be bought at ever higher prices, transcending one’s fear of getting financially obliterated in the event where you fail to find the greater bagholder. But look at this piece. How could such a laid-back Doggy lead to financial ruin? It exults confidence and cuteness. Truly, it could never lead you to lose your home or your kids’ college fund.

Trolly’s advice for the novice NFT collector: sit on your hand for 10 minutes before dumping eleven grand into this piece. Then, it will feel like someone else is doing something incredibly stupid.