NT gallery pushes boundaries with help of cryptocurrency donation

However, as Dr Prash tells it, the friend from medical school he brought along to that party did as well.

"She won," he says. "She married him."

Mr Abazi is an art historian and curator with experience working for luxury art auction houses, while Dr Prash is a self-described "hobbyist" psychiatrist and founder of Cryptocurrency Brokerage firm, Caleb and Brown.

The pair went on to have a close friendship after meeting that night because, despite their stark differences in occupation, they both had a strong interest in art and innovation.

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When Mr Abazi left Melbourne for Darwin a year ago and became the Director of the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) - a gallery full of potential but in "dire need of more funding" - he knew exactly which friend to call for help.

"I know that Prash is very passionate about the arts, and supporting the arts, and this for me was an opportunity to give him an opportunity - an opportunity to be involved," he says.

"It was an opportunity for him to use his hard earned cash to go towards helping artists put on work.

"I knew that he was the head of the world's first brokerage cryptocurrency, which is a little known fact. And I said to him, 'Do you want to do another world first?'"

Dr Prash was immediately on board.

"If you're giving your money to anything, you want to know that that money is going to be well used and well spent and going to be utilized to grow things in line with your own ethics, morals, visions," he says.

"The fact that Petrit's the director, and therefore, I know what will be created with this. It gave me full confidence"

Dr Prash has committed to donate one bitcoin per year, the equivalent of at least $46,000, to the gallery for the next three years - making a little independent gallery in Darwin the first in the world to receive a donation through bitcoin.

And, that first donation went towards the NCCA's latest exhibition Murrnginy: a story of metal from the east, which opened earlier this month.

The exhibition, which is also a world first, showcases a collection of works etched on scrap metal by Yolngu artists from the East Arnhem Land community of Yirrkala.

"This is the first exhibition that shows a concerted effort by a group of artists all working on metal for this show," Mr Abazi says.

"Yeah, there will be more to come. But, this will be remembered as the first one."

As a fan of anything cutting edge, Dr Prash is proud to be a part of the exhibition.

"I've never seen anything like it," he says.

"It's absolutely aesthetically gorgeous. It's so different to...we get used to what Aboriginal art looks like - this has just turned it on its head.

"Anything that's disruptive or innovative, that's distinctively me."

Murrniny: A Story of Metal from the East is showing at the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art in Darwin until September 25. Entry to the gallery is free.

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