We are entering a time of unprecedented opportunity for independent artists now thanks to the internet and the advance of technology. A home studio can now mean a decent microphone, a laptop, and open-source recording software. Patreon, Kickstarter, GoFundMe, IndieGoGo, etc. make it possible to crowdsource innovative independent artists. And crypto remains almost entirely untested. NFTs could have real power for artists outside the status quo despite all the nonsense and hype recently.

The art community is a mess, but I question your premise that there is some nefarious "profit-worship" involved. That said, why do you think artists are owed a living? Like any other good or service, supply and demand play a role. What is so sacred about self-expression that it warrants cultural support by default?

What is profit? People act to achieve desired ends. These ends are perceived as beneficial, or they would not be pursued. In the market, profit is only possible by mutual consent for mutual benefit. It is a win-win scenario. One party profits monetarily, the other by satisfaction of wants through the goods and services bought with money. Art, food, housing, clothing, and everything else must all be understood within this framework. People act because they desire a benefit, and the market allows a complex network of cooperative voluntary exchanges with price signals to guide producers and consumers.

You say, "I do like the idea of a government-run Universal Basic Income, not just for the arts but society as a whole. Imagine how much more charity, public works, and society-benefitting projects would happen if people could participate and still put food on the table?"

Where does government get the money it redistributes? Money itself is not wealth. Wealth is the goods and services produced to serve the needs and wants of consumers. Money is a useful medium of exchange, account, and store of value. Government cannot get money unless it first takes it from those who earned it through voluntary exchanges (theft) or prints new units of currency created out of nothing, thereby inflating the money supply and diluting the buying power of money already in circulation while also granting extraordinary wealth to those who first receive the new funds before prices adjust (theft and deception). Government can only be destructive because it is a monopoly of violence operating by coercive means. Government is not a producer of goods and services demanded by the economy, or a center of charitable activity, it is an extortionist racket.

The beauty of cryptocurrency in its current form is its voluntary nature as an alternative outside of government control despite the frantic regulatory overreaches by the political class. This does mean it could be possible to design a UBI blockchain, but how do you get people to choose it? Therein lies your problem. Can you make it work voluntarily? And again, I question your premise that art needs to be enshrined in society when we have more power than ever before to undermine the elitist art community and support art we actually appreciate now. Remember, both art and the economy as we know them is a consequence of many factors, not some evil capitalist bogeyman.