The crypto art or rare art revolution has been gaining popularity over the last few years and has recently exploded into public consciousness, despite all the recent press and chatter it is still relatively niche and the concept is new to a lot of people.
We are flooded daily with some recurring questions, such as:
What is crypto art?
Why buy digital art when you can just download it?
Why are the images on NFT Showroom downloadable?
What does it mean to tokenize art?
ETC.
These are all great questions so let's explore them a bit...
What is crypto art?
Let's start with a simple definition, from Wikipedia
Crypto art, also known as "Rare Art" is art that is related to blockchain technology.
CryptoArt are rare digital artworks, sometimes described as digital trading cards or "rares", associated with unique and provably rare tokens that exist on the blockchain. The concept is based on the idea of digital scarcity, which allows you to buy, sell, and trade digital goods as if they were physical goods. This system works due to the fact that, like Bitcoins and other cryptocurrency, CryptoArt exist in limited quantity. Popular early examples include CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks, Rare Pepe, CurioCards, and Dada.nyc. – Jason Bailey at Artnome.com
OK, so now we have a definition, the artist can create rare digital tokens and sell those to collectors to be traded on a market! Issuance of these tokens is locked at the time of creation so the tokens can not be inflated, i.e. if you issue a token for your artwork titled Glitched Pepe of Peace with only 1 edition, that is the only edition that will ever exist!
This leads us to the next big question:
Why buy digital art when you can just download it?
This is the BIG ONE and I understand why. When I first heard of this concept back in 2018 it took me a while to wrap my head around it. Most people are aware of the physical art market, where original art is bought and sold, physical objects have tangibility and can change hands so it is very easy to understand the value of those objects that can be touched.
Digital art on a screen has a different quality, can easily be downloaded, copied, saved and shared. So why buy the NFT (non-fungibe token)?
The simple answer is that you are not only buying the art, you are buying the ownership of the art.
Anyone can see the art, but only only those who hold the token actually have proof of ownership, and the ability to trade that token on the market. This is where the value lies.
It was best explained by Hackatao in this post If anyone can download the art file, why would I buy the NFT?. It is a quick read and I would highly suggest all new crypto artists and collectors read it!
Yes, anyone can download and view the image for free, but they don’t own it and they can’t gain any value from it without owning the NFT as well. As a collector you want as many people as possible to be downloading and enjoying the artworks that only you provably own because this is how the artwork gains value. Imagine if one million people around the world were featuring an artwork that only you owned on digital frames in their houses. THAT is a piece of art that has real value.
Why are the images on NFT Showroom downloadable?
If you have been paying attention so far you have probably already figured this out!
Many people visit the website and ask why they can right click and save the full res image, have we made a huge oversight? It's only a few lines of code to block that!!!!
This is not a mistake and is made this way by design.
We have however added UNLOCKABLES so we can give the artists more options.
Currently there are 2 options, after tokenizing the artist can either upload a file of their choice or add a link (self-hosted content) that only the buyer can access. This can be used to give higher res images, or additional goodies as a bonus to your buyer! To read how unlockables work in more detail please see our post Updates // Unlockables and Referral System
What does it mean to tokenize art?
Tokenizing art is akin to a registration of the art on a blockchain. It allows the data about the art to be tracked from the moment of issuance and details like creator/buyer/seller/price etc. are recorded on a public ledger.
Artists will also receive royalties on future sales which is something that has not been possible before now!
Hopefully this answers some of the basic questions and gives you some food for thought, as always please visit us in the discord if you want to continue this discussion.
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