The article presents a description of a new trend in modern crypto art, which is digital art, which is considered as physical art because of the ability to confirm the ownership of the work. The authenticity of digital art can be verified through the use of an NFT or non-fungible token. The possibilities and limitations of the development of the NFT market are presented.
Blockchain is usually associated with cryptocurrencies. However, more and more researchers believe that the blockchain system is universal - it can be used in almost all areas. Recently, the blockchain allows you to change art, which is very far from the world of constantly changing technologies
The art market has always existed, but only in recent decades two main factors of its demand have become clear. On the one hand, art is seen as an investment. In this case, freedom reigns and practically the only criterion is the quality of work. On the other hand, more and more people want to see works of art created by already well-known artists. The number of art connoisseurs is constantly growing, but the cost of one item still ranges from a few hundred to several tens or even several hundred thousand dollars, while many art objects are private property and cannot be accessed by most viewers. In order to expand the scope of works, overcome the social barrier and provide access to art for everyone - even for the lower and middle classes, two problems had to be solved
- the rarity of individual works
- the impossibility of duplicating them in such a way that each copy has the same value. Today, thanks to digital art, the situation has changed, and there is a chance to make it truly democratic, so that it meets both real economic needs and is affordable. Despite the general social progress, the art itself remains the same. Thanks to new technology, artists have more chances to earn money, and viewers can enjoy a universal work.
It all started at the end of 2017 when the Crypto Kitties project became popular. Sgur1oK1Shev is a game on the Escheated blockchain that allows participants to buy, sell and breed cats or special No. G tokens on the Escheated blockchain. Each token is a unique cat created using a smart contract. The legacy of Crypto Kitties is undeniable
the project raised awareness of the concept of non-fungible tokens. Artists creating crypto art experience a lot of difficulties when it comes to copyright protection on the Internet. Thanks to #G, it's safe to sell your work. Non-fungible tokens and their smart contracts allow the addition of detailed attributes such as the identity of the owner, extensive metadata, or secure file links, all of which greatly help artists to copyright their work.
Technology for the sale of works of art. has no physical presence like a painting or sculpture, and the property represents the token, not the art itself. The token is recorded in a digital ledger and can be resold. The value of a work of art can go up or down, but the owner of the token never owns the original digital file. No. G can best be described as a digital certificate of authenticity that is increasingly in demand as a collectible.
The term "fungible" is often used to describe money. It refers to the ability to exchange an asset for another asset of equal value. #G are the opposite, they give the asset a unique value, usually determined by the forces of supply and demand. They cannot be swapped as similar because no two are the same. This helps turn non-fungible tokens into blockchain applications that go beyond the normal use of digital currency. So, in fact, the possibilities of using this technology are almost limitless. Another very important feature of is that they are indivisible. This means that it is not possible to send a piece of a non-fungible token to anyone. At a very high level, most are part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, just like bitcoin or dogecoin, but its blockchain supports these #Gs, which store additional
information that makes them work differently than, say, the ETH coin. It is worth noting that other blockchains may implement their own versions of NFTs. NFTs can be anything digital (such as art, music, etc.), but in this context it is about using technology to sell digital art.
NFT is a special token which is a unique identifier associated with a piece of crypto art that cannot be reproduced and is used to prove ownership of the piece. You can attach it to anything: JPEG, GIF, MP4, even music. This token, which proves ownership of the "original" file, is stored on the blockchain, which is a permanent ledger that can be accessed from any computer around the world.
NFTs are meant to give something that can't be copied: ownership of the work (although the artist can still retain copyright and reproduction rights, as is the case with physical works of art)
If we talk about collecting physical art: anyone can buy a Monet engraving. But only one person can own the original.
One of the obvious benefits of buying art is that it allows you to financially support artists. In addition, buying an NFT also usually comes with some basic usage rights, such as the ability to post the image online or set it as a profile picture. Blockchain also allows you to verify the proof of ownership of a digital asset by checking it against the registry, which makes it almost impossible to falsify information, because all computers check this data with each other to check what is the original or a fake.
Those involved in digital art have always struggled with copyright and plagiarism of their work. On the one hand, most social media platforms automatically verify the right to use
media files uploaded to them by users. On the other hand, it only takes a few clicks of the mouse to make a copy of the media for personal consumption, without the need to compensate the creator.
The NFT solves this problem by acting as a virtual certificate of authenticity that essentially links the original digital artwork to the token, thereby giving it the same status as the artist's signature on a physical artwork. And since the token exists on the blockchain, it can be instantly verified by anyone on the public network and cannot be tampered with. This allows creators to freely distribute copies of their work on social networks, as the authentic original retains its value due to the NFT assigned to it. However, there are fears that the skyrocketing cost of NFTs is a dangerously fragile speculative bubble that could collapse at any moment, bringing investors down with it. There are also critics of the artificially created digital scarcity on which the value of NFTs is based. In addition, the recent popularity of the technology has resulted in platforms being flooded with hundreds of thousands of works, preventing potential collectors or buyers from seeing many of them.
In order to sell crypto art objects, you must submit an application on a specialized site and obtain consent to use platforms intended only for invitees. Some of them are easy to get into, like Assynt. art (which is a programmable art marketplace) and Risible - some of them are very difficult. A report by NonFungible.com, a company that publishes NFT market analysis, says that in 2020, NFT trading was worth over $250 million, up nearly 300 percent from the previous year. On online platforms such as Risible, Open Sea, and Nifty Gateway, people spend large amounts of cryptocurrencies and legal tender in order to
buy tokens representing ownership of digital objects, which are then often re-auctioned at higher prices. Some of these NFTs are collectible replacements in the Crypto Kitties tradition; others are objects intended for use in video games. But more and more they are associated with works of digital art .Some NFT marketplaces allow people to showcase their purchases, much like an online gallery or museum.
The Crypto Art marketplace is a new way for artists to distribute digital works to collectors: often digital images and video files. Blockchain technology provides secure ownership, traceability, commissions to artists on sales. It is a thriving marketplace with rapidly growing platforms like Nifty Gateway, Super Rare, Makerspace
and brings many benefits that the traditional art marketplace cannot provide. With no travel and predominantly digital distribution, this new model looks like it could become a sustainable practice for artists. Art is one of the biggest and fastest growing NFT applications. The intersection of proof of ownership and rarity makes it the perfect combination. Buying a digital copy and getting the physical equivalent is becoming big business and part of the ecosystem.
It is important to have both centralized and decentralized platforms. Curated platforms are important to collectors because they can be relatively certain of buying original art. However, from an artist's point of view, it is important to have easy access to the markets (without having to apply). Care must be taken not to make the same mistakes as in the traditional art market, where an elitist system allows only a few artists to make a living from their art.