Text: Thomas Masuch
The founder of Tron and notorious crypto billionaire had previously bought the Maurizio Cattelan artwork Comedian at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for more than US$6 million. For the uninitiated, this rather infamous “installation” consists of a banana stuck to a white wall with duct tape.
The 35-year-old Sun justified the act by pointing out the parallels between modern art and crypto: The value isn’t necessarily in the material, but in the concept. As for whether it was this or just a desire for PR that prompted his rather expensive snack, that will remain Sun’s secret. Critics, on the other hand, saw Sun's behavior as an arrogant way of burning money. Strictly speaking, though, no money was actually burned; Sun's millions were still there – just somewhere else.
A similar discussion recently arose around the insolvency of Desktop Metal. After initially emerging as a celebrated star in Additive Manufacturing, the company has burned through a lot of venture capital in its own right. Imagine what that money could have done elsewhere... Support hundreds of start-ups, buy thousands of cheap desktop printers – or maybe even millions of bananas!
Despite all the criticism, however, there’s no question that Desktop Metal has left its mark. At its headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, it was possible to see the high level at which the company developed its AM technologies further. There are also two sides to its much-derided acquisition of numerous start-ups and other companies: Nobody was forced to sell their firm, after all, and thanks to Desktop Metal’s deep pockets, they were compensated handsomely.
In other words, it was just another case where money wasn’t burned, just...redistributed. But does this help the AM industry? I think so, because the real damage only occurs when technologies, innovations, and expertise go unused and simply disappear. That is indeed a waste. Or, to stick with our current theme – it’s bananas!
