When it comes to art, the meme used to be “true art is to conceal art”, implying that a good artist makes their work look effortless and easy, yet is composed of great skill and technique. Now in the blockchain era, I believe the new meme is “true art is to tokenize art”. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the revolutionary tech breakthrough of our era, much like the camera was the revolutionary tech breakthrough for the artists of the 1880s.
Blockchain technology has empowered artists and meme creators today to be able to monetize their creations more fairly. By minting their works, whether it be writing, music or visual art, anyone can establish “provenance” or ownership with that timestamped cryptographic hash. This is what is being sold as a NFT – the actual ownership of the work.
People can and do still copy it and use or display the copy if they want, but the ownership of the original is undeniable, since it is written on the blockchain, like a digital signature. In this way the NFT is a token, like a bitcoin, and is provably scarce and uniquely identifiable. Just like this written article you are reading. Anyone can plagiarize it and post it somewhere else, but I can always refer you to my original piece, published here on the blockchain and timestamped to show it was the original. A NFT is the same concept, except for art or other assets.
And these NFTs have gone viral lately. A Dogecoin-inspired NFT by artist Chris Torres sold for 45 ETH ($69k at purchase date) recently. Before that a work called Nyan Cat sold for 300 ETH ($600k at purchase date) last month. NFTs are selling for millions of dollars right now. Basically something is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. That’s the absurdity or sentiment-driven irrationality of art.
Then there’s the Crypto Punk art range, some of which are selling for over $1 million, despite having little traditional artistic merit on initial inspection. Overall the NFT art market is now worth anything between $100 - $200 million, during this current bull market cycle. It may seem inexplicable to many that we are codifying info that would normally be on the web and available to everyone. For example anyone can still copy or take a screenshot of a NFT artwork. However, it’s the ownership that remains digitally in the hands (or wallet) of the original person who minted it. That is what is being sold when you buy a NFT original.
Thanks to blockchain technology any idea can be monetized and the creator’s identity can be reliably tied to the work. This is a new way to empower and reward the original creator at last, even if others copy and enjoy the same work millions of times. Original works can also later be sold and resold, with royalties going to the original artist, if the NFT smart contract is minted with those parameters.
Possibly the most valuable NFT artwork recently sold for a record-breaking $6.6 million, by the artist Beeple on the site NiftyGateway, which is owned by the Winklevos twins who also own Gemini exchange. It is an animation depicting what looks like a huge Donald Trump lying face down in the grass and covered with graffiti. For now it seems like NFTs are the future since there is no ceiling on what an artwork can be worth, if we judge by these examples mentioned. And that’s what I love about art – it has more potential than any land, house, gold bar or whatever, to accrue unimagined vale...for no apparent reason.
Of course we need to be aware that this is a lot of hype, based on sentiment, like all art, and that it could implode like many crypto projects do sometimes. Look at one of the first ever NFTs – CryptoKitties, which now only attracts less than 200 weekly users, according to DappRadar, whereas during its initial 2017 peak it saw almost 1500 daily active users
(image of Van Gogh artwork from pixabay)