What are NFTs and How Are They Taking the Art World by Storm?
Are you confused about what NFT art is? It’s okay, you’re not alone. NFT art is a rising form of digital art tied to cryptocurrency that can be traded online. Think digital art collection. Join us as we walk through what NFTs are and how they are becoming more popular.
What Are NFTs?
NFT means non-fungible token. Still not sure what that means? To understand non-fungible, you first have to understand the blockchain. The blockchain is just a simplistic way of referring to a decentralized network where all transactions and computations are saved in blocks of data which allows network information to become transparent and more secure. When someone refers to non-fungible tokens they are just describing a digital file, such as an artwork, that is stored on a blockchain network such as Ethereum, Tezos, Polygon, Solana, etc. This is exciting because it offers art collectors full transparency into the history & authenticity of their artwork while securing future sale royalties for the artist.
NFTs are often tied to the Ethereum blockchain via marketplaces like Rarible or Opens.io. This process gives the owner more than just rights over digital products, it gives them concrete ownership. These NFTs are then sold as original files of digital artworks that can be traced directly back to the artist. Blockchain also is completely traceable and encrypted in a way that ensures digital security when trading online.
While the artist will likely retain the copyrights, the buyer of the NFT owns the “original.” Think of it like buying the original vs a print of the Mona Lisa. Anyone can view a copy, but the original painting hangs in the Louver. It is the same with NFTs. The artist links a specified number of digital copies of an artwork to the Ethereum blockchain and sells them on a digital platform. The buyer can then display them on digital screens, store them on a digital server, or trade them on NFT platforms.
How Did NFTs Become Popular
NFTs were designed with digital designers in mind. Before NFTs existed, digital artists were limited to designing for clients or through contracts. While this can be a sustainable career for some and even stimulating, some artists create better without direction or limitation. In addition, this meant that artists could only sell the copyrights to their work but there was no way to trace all digital artwork back to the original artist.
NFTs allow designers to take ownership of their creations and retain profits and royalties that were previously unavailable to some sectors of the digital art world. Basically, it allows artists to sell their digital creations the same way as they sell physical ones. This is done by creating digital code that is uniquely linked to blockchain and, therefore, traceable and authenticatable.
This has allowed artists from all genres and all over the world to create businesses within a virtual world. As early as 2012, Colored Coins were the first digital asset to be applied to cryptocurrency blockchain. This generated the idea for game designers to use NFTs to sell in-game items for cryptocurrency that could be exchanged for real-world money. Later, cryptocurrency was applied to memes and other digital content which inspired the rise of NFT authenticators.
In 2017, NFTs became backed by Etherium which made them globally available and standardized trade. This was the beginning of regulating the sale of what is now known as NFT art. Due to the success of these NFT projects, 2018 and 2019 saw exponential growth in the market with over 100 new NFT projects entering the market as open marketplaces for NFT trade.
Original NFT Projects
The first NFT project was a piece called “Quantum" made by Kevin McCoy on May 3rd, 2014. Later that year Counterplay became the first digital asset platform that connected any type of digital asset to Bitcoin. The platform had decentralized exchange that was applied to several NFT projects including trading cards and Memes.
The platform went on to support game designers such as Spell Genesis which applied Bitcoin blockchain to a type of in game currency. Then, in 2016 “rare pepes” emerged which was a type of meme (pictured below) that featured a specific character.
SourceFinally, in 2017 the NFT project Peperium applied digital artworks to the Ethereum blockchain which created a “decentralized meme marketplace and trading card game (TCG) that allowed anyone to create memes that live eternally on IPFS and Ethereum.” This project set the standard for NFTs today. From this framework, the Etherium standard was created called the “Ethereum Request for Comment” or ERC. Different ERCs allow for different types of creation and tracking of NFT projects.
Additional projects include:
Cryptopunks
CryptoKitties
OpenSea
SuperRare
CurioCards
Dada.nyc
The Heart Project
New NFT Projects
With the massive growth in the market over the past 9 years from simple Colored Coins to unlimited digital art assets with real world value and ownership, there is no surprise that there are now new NFT projects entering the market.
New NFT project highlights include:
Rarible was founded in 2020 as a digital art trading platform. It is a great place to find contemporary art designs by both upcoming and established artists such as the work RMSr.2 - THRASHER by Joshua Hossain Hashemzadeh.
Moon Boyz is a character-based project that allows people to purchase NFT characters and access membership into the growing community.
The MekaVerse is a 3D digital art based NFT project that incorporates designs based on Japanese Mecha universes.
Upcoming NFT Projects
As the market grows there are many different upcoming NFT projects leading innovation. These projects include platforms for artists, gamers, gamblers, sports fanatics, and others to monetize their activities.
Upcoming NFT projects to watch include:
The Heart Project is a community-run creative studio that will use 10,000 unique tokens as membership to a collaborative art community.
Sloties NFT is an internet-based Casino network that is working on applying blockchain to the gambling industry.
VeeFriends NFT is an upcoming NFT project that will aim to focus on building meaningful intellectual property.
Axie Infinity is a blockchain-backed digital trading and battling platform modeled after the popular real life game Pokemon which allows players to purchase digital assets and monetize them.
Now that you have a basic understanding of what NFTs are and how they are taking the art world by storm, you have the tools you need to support digital artists and invest in a growing crypto ecosystem!
