The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s blockchain-based game ‘Art Links’ has attracted over 50,000 users within three days, offering NFT rewards tied to its collection while sparking debates on sustainable Web3 strategies.
The Met’s ‘Art Links’ game, hosted on Coinbase’s Base blockchain, has driven a 25% surge in network activity since its 11 July launch, as 50,000 users solve art puzzles for NFTs redeemable for real-world perks, despite criticism over its energy-intensive proof-of-work design.
Museum Gamifies Art History with Blockchain Incentives
The Metropolitan Museum of Art partnered with Coinbase’s Layer-2 blockchain Base to launch ‘Art Links’ on 11 July 2024, a Web3 game rewarding players with NFTs for solving educational puzzles tied to over 100 artworks. According to Base’s analytics dashboard, the game saw 217,000 transactions in its first 72 hours, with users spending an average of 19 minutes per session exploring collection highlights like Vermeer’s ‘Young Woman with a Water Pitcher’ and ancient Assyrian reliefs.
Ethical Debates Over Cultural NFTs Intensify
While the Met promotes the project as an accessibility tool, critics cite contradictions with its sustainability pledges. Each NFT mint consumes approximately 82 kWh of energy—equivalent to charging 1,000 smartphones—based on Ethereum’s pre-Merge averages, per a 12 July report by CryptoCarbon Ratings Institute. This clashes with the museum’s 2030 net-zero roadmap. Meanwhile, the British Museum faces parallel scrutiny after selling Parthenon Marble NFTs via LaCollection on 09 July 2024 amid Greece’s renewed repatriation demands.
Institutions Bet on Web3 Amid Shifting Visitor Demographics
The Met’s initiative targets younger audiences: 68% of ‘Art Links’ users are under 35, compared to 42% of physical visitors, per internal data. OpenSea’s integration with Base on 12 July enabled secondary NFT trading, with a digital replica of Picasso’s ‘Guitar Player’ selling for 0.27 ETH ($810) on 14 July. However, only 9% of participants have redeemed real-world perks like curator tours, raising questions about long-term engagement.
Analytical Context: The Met’s move follows the British Museum’s controversial 2023 NFT partnership with LaCollection, which generated $1.4 million in sales despite protests from art historians. Earlier experiments like the Uffizi Gallery’s 2021 Michelangelo NFT auction—which funded restoration work—paved the way for museums to monetize digital assets. However, current projects face heightened scrutiny over energy use and cultural sensitivity as Web3 matures.
Historical Precedent: Today’s NFT debates mirror the 2010s controversy around museum-sponsored 3D scanning of artifacts. Institutions like the Smithsonian faced backlash for commercializing digital replicas before establishing revenue-sharing frameworks with source communities in 2018. Similarly, blockchain initiatives may require updated ethical guidelines balancing innovation with institutional responsibilities.
