When Mike Winklemann, a.k.a Beeple, auctioned his famous Everydays — The First 5000 Days drawings for a whopping $69M at Christie, the universe was shocked to the bone. This not only opened people’s eyes to the emerging industry and the outrageous amount of money Beeple got, but it casted doubts over the long game. Will NFTs survive the bubble or is it another fad like the 17th century Dutch tulips or Beanie Babies?
Although NFTs have been around since 2014, the sector exploded between 2017 and 2021. In those four years, an unbelievable amount of money has been spent on purchases, and the craze isn’t just limited to a demographic. Entertainers, athletes, politicians, businessmen, are all involved in the NFT notoriety. Are NFTs changing the way we perceive art?
NFTs explained
Before we dive further into our analysis, let’s take you back to what NFTs are. Non-fungible tokens are virtual artworks represent real life items, such as paintings, video clips, images, songs, etc. They allow individuals to own a digital piece of art, with the buyer owning the rights to the item. This is very similar to the physical piece of art that you purchase from the gallery or from an artist. The main difference here is NFTs are digital — both and sold online using cryptocurrency.
NFTs are one of a kind, scarce pieces of items. This is why they are expensive because scarcity creates demand and demand drives prices up. While NFTs have no duplicate, some of them are digital creations of real life events. For instance, a real life musical concert or a clip of an NBA game can be turned into an NFT, but permission must be granted before such actions are taken. Else, you will be served.
But why spend millions of dollars when you can view that clip or concert online for free? You could also ask “why spend so much money to purchase the ‘Last Supper’ artwork or ‘The Monalisa’ when you can browse the picture and screenshot or download it.” NFTs symbolizes power of ownership. They enable the buyer to own the original item. NFTs contain an in-built authentication that acts as proof of ownership. Buyers even value this ownership right more than the item itself.
How NFTs work
NFTs run on blockchain, such as Solana and Ethereum. During the acquisition of an NFT, the whole transaction process is stored on the blockchain to indicate ownership. The buyer gets exclusive right to the item after purchasing it, so there can’t be two owners at the same time.
When these digital artworks representing a real-life item are uploaded on the blockchain, an NFT is minted from them. A letter, memo, or a document can also be minted to NFTs. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, once sold his first tweet as an NFT for nearly three million dollars.
However, the minting of NFTs is typically unsafe for the environment due to its massive power consumption. A number of green energy initiatives are already in place to mitigate the effect of minting NFTs.
NFTs and cryptocurrency: are they the same?
This question never dies down due to the multitude of people that are enticed by these emerging tokens. NFTs and cryptos use the same kind of blockchain programming. Aside from that, they are different.
NFTs are not fungible and that’s why they are unique. This means you can’t duplicate or exchange it for another item of the same kind. Their values also differ because of the digital signature embedded in them. EVERYDAYS artwork is not equal to CryptoPunks even though they are NFTs. On the other hand, cryptocurrencies have several units of their kind that you can exchange for one another, and they have the same value. One Bitcoin is universally one Bitcoin and One ETH is the same all over the planet.
Are NFTs revolutionizing art?
The elementary goal of NFTs is to give digital artists the chance to monetize their works straightforwardly. Artists who lack the opportunity to go to galleries or auction houses in distant locations to sell their craft can sell them directly to the consumers in the form of NFTs. This is the power of NFTs and this power has been transferred to digital content creators.
Imagine going through all the stress to showcase your work in galleries now and then, only to end up not receiving a penny for it. Worse, receiving less than the true value. This was one of the major issues artists before the last decade faced.
Art is beautiful; the expression of our inner thoughts, feelings, imaginations, and nature. Art is symbolic, but there’s a general disinterest in its true meaning and value these days, especially amongst the new generation. NFTs are not here to abolish traditional arts, but to support it and rekindle that long-lost feeling we once had whenever we espied something beautiful.
With NFTs, artists can earn so much more from their artwork. The beauty of this is that artists can determine their royalties so that they earn a certain commission whenever their content is resold to a new owner. Typically, this isn’t found in the physical art, as artists do not receive any proceeds after their art is resold. So, that’s a big plus.
Several celebrities, from the entertainment industry to sports to tech and to business have joined the NFT club. Jay Z bought a Bored Ape-like NFTs for $300,000 and used it as his Twitter avatar. Mike Tyson also bought one, while socialite Paris Hilton, sold hers, drawing of her cat for millions of dollars.
Shawn Mendez sold special wearables for almost $600,000. Kings of Leon sold their latest digital album for two million dollars, while NBA Top Shot sold for over $500M. There’s no stopping to NFT sales, judging by the record amounts of sales witnessed over the past year.
Art isn’t about profits or making money with NFTs alone. These days, entities are leveraging them to raise funds for charities. For example, Taco Bell sold its NFT artwork in minutes, with bids coming in from $3M and above. This shows the revolution NFTs are bringing to the world.
Where to buy NFTs
Non-fungible tokens are traded on NFT marketplaces. There are several of them available, but they have limitations and don’t facilitate the minting of NFTs. This happens because they lack inter-chain operability, which makes it difficult for users to transfer tokens and execute tasks seamlessly. However, Unicus NFT marketplace solves all those issues.
Unicus NFT marketplace is a one-stop shop for all NFT items. Here, you can shop different categories of NFT items seamlessly. With items categorized, this eliminates the daunting task of exploring all the items individually in a bid to find the specific item.
Unicus is more than a NFT marketplace. It’s an ecosystem that gives NFT traders the liberty of exploration and enables creators to maximize their potential through the various tools available for top-notch content. Digital artists can mint, sell, and even buy conveniently. Unicus is fully audited for security breach and other technical issues. So, you can shop and mint safely.
Eager to start your NFT collection on Unicus? You need to know some key things and that starts with owning a digital wallet.
A digital wallet allows you to store NFTs and digital assets, such as bitcoin. Popular wallets include Coinbase, MetaMask, WalletConnect, etc. Once you have set up your digital wallet, the next step is to connect it to Unicus and then purchase the crypto approved for the purchase of NFTs. In Unicus, you need to buy Unicus tokens from the platform to purchase an NFT.
For digital artists, it’s easy to create and sell your NFT on Unicus. Follow the steps below;
- Connect the already setup wallet to Unicus.
- Add your digital work by giving it a title and description.
- List them for sale by auctioning or using fixed-price listings.
Conclusion
It’s too soon to conclude whether NFTs are a mere bubble or not. However, one thing is certain — they have pure intentions. The emergence of NFTs has not only changed the way we perceive art, but also provided a stream of income for the less opportune artists. The world is going digital, so it’s only natural that art moves along the line. It may be complicated to predict the future, but NFTs could be a technology paramount to everyday living.
