Or, I think back with great enthusiasm to last year, when we interviewed a young, amazingly talented digital artist from Malaysia. So imagine that she had been super excited about NFTs. Finally, she discovered a means of escaping the art world gatekeepers and reaching right past them, directly to collectors. She went on at length about how there is genuine opportunity, dream of true ownership, and creative freedom. Now, I’m curious as to what her take is regarding the recent CloneX Cloudflare debacle.

Web3's Broken Promise Decentralization?

The recent hiccup with RTFKT's CloneX NFTs, where the art vanished and was replaced with an error message because of a Cloudflare terms of service violation, is a stark reminder: Web3 isn't always as decentralized as we'd like to believe. The initial speculation that RTFKT failed to pay their Cloudflare bill, quickly dismissed by RTFKT Head of Tech Samuel Cardillo, highlighted a more worrying issue: reliance on centralized infrastructure. Our philosophy The art is the heart and soul of these NFTs. The downside, though, is that it’s dependent entirely on one company’s policies and corporate billing practice. Think about that.

In practice, most NFT projects still use centralized services such as Cloudflare and AWS. This complexity doesn’t exclude the millions of hopeful creatives on- and offline from Southeast Asia and other emerging markets. This reliance introduces a major point of failure, subject to censorship, outages, and even just plain old admin errors. Is this the tech-driven art Utopia we were sold?

Artists' Control: Illusion or Reality?

Imagine pouring your heart and soul into a digital masterpiece, minting it as an NFT, and then watching it disappear because of a technical glitch or a company's policy change. The CloneX incident, thankfully apparently resolved, nevertheless serves to highlight the fragility and absurdity of this so-called “decentralized” ecosystem. It raises critical questions:

  • How much control do artists really have over their creations in Web3?
  • If a centralized entity can pull the plug on your art, is it truly yours?
  • Is Web3 empowering artists, or just shifting the power dynamics?

Artists from underdeveloped areas such as Southeast Asia have a very hard time. At the same time, they tend to face constraints on their ability to access resources and technical expertise. They're often drawn to Web3 by the promise of empowerment, only to find themselves entangled in a system that's still heavily reliant on centralized gatekeepers. CloneX NFTs, which were originally sold for over $60,000 apiece. Just in September of last year, they were going for upwards of $230 — an example of the market’s unpredictability.

RTFKT has recently begun migrating CloneX and Animus NFTs over to Arweave, a decentralized storage network. It does feel like closing the barn door after the horses have already bolted. That move should’ve been the default – not a crisis reaction. This is not an indictment of RTFKT. This points to a more troubling trend in the industry, one where hype is valued over good, decentralized infrastructure.

Decentralize or be Centralized, Artists!

Here's some actionable advice:

  • Embrace Decentralized Storage: Explore solutions like Arweave and IPFS to store your art assets. These platforms distribute your data across multiple nodes, making it much more resistant to censorship and outages.
  • Educate Yourselves: Don't just blindly trust the "decentralized" label. Understand the technical architecture of the platforms you're using. Learn about smart contracts, storage solutions, and the trade-offs involved.
  • Demand Decentralization: Ask NFT platforms tough questions about their infrastructure. Support projects that prioritize decentralization and transparency. Vote with your feet (and your crypto) by supporting truly decentralized initiatives.
  • Diversify your platforms. Don't rely on only one place for your digital art.

The CloneX situation is a wake-up call. It’s time we get past the corporate marketing buzzword bullshit and create a more legit Web3 ecosystem that empowers artists in a meaningful way. This requires more than just government regulation — it requires accepting more decentralized solutions, greater education, and accountability from the platforms that serve us.

RTFKT's Cloudflare contract ends at the end of April. It will be interesting to see if they make the move to Arweave.

Web3 can radically empower artists of all kinds, including musicians. The future we want requires us to actively champion its promise of decentralization to unleash that power. Let's build a future where artists, especially those from marginalized communities, have true control over their work and their destinies. It’s long overdue to net them the power they need, and that begins with demanding real decentralization.