NFTs, What they are and how they are Changing the World of Digital Art.
So by now you’ve probably noticed the term NFTs floating around and you are probably wondering to yourself, What are NFTs and why should I care? Well, with Artists like 3LAU and Grimes and Kings of Leon making Millions selling their music as NFTs, Logan Paul making over $5,000,000 selling his own custom Logan Paul branded trading card NFTs, and many more artists and creators raking in Millions of dollars this is definitely a trend you want to pay attention to.
What Are NFTs?
Non-Fungible Tokens(NFTs) are Smart Contracts held on a cryptocurrency blockchain, typically Ethereum, and act as a digital signature that validates the artwork it’s attached to as authentic and the only one of its kind. NFTs serve as a way to verify the authenticity of a digital artwork and therefore increase its rarity.
What Does Non-Fungible Mean?
Fungibility is the quality of a good being replaceable, exchangeable, or being able to be copied. Fungible goods are not desirable to most collectors because they are not rare or valuable. A Non-Fungible Token provides proof of ownership which makes a piece of art more valuable and is mutually beneficial to the artist and the collectors.
Why Do NFTs Matter?
Imagine you have just created a digital piece of art and put it up for sale online. Even though you put a lot of time and effort into this piece of art, you can only charge $20 for it because you know that anyone could easily just download or screenshot your work and get the satisfaction of owning it without having paid for it. This is why NFTs are so important to the future of Digital Art. NFTs make it possible to create scarcity in the marketplace which drives the value of Digital Artworks up and makes collectors more interested in them because they have more perceived value and may increase in value as demand increases.
Where Can You Buy and Sell NFTs?
There are a lot of NFT Marketplaces that allow you to buy, sell, and even trade NFTs. A few popular ones include:
Rarible
Established in 2020, Rarible is the world’s first community-owned NFT marketplace. There are hundreds of thousands of NFTs available on Rarible. Rarible’s largest category for NFTs is art, but they also carry domain names, collectibles, and gaming items. Rarible is one of the fastest growing marketplaces around. Purchases are made with Ethereum.
OpenSea
Established in 2017, OpenSea is currently the largest and oldest NFT marketplace around. They market themselves as the Ebay of the NFT world, with hundreds of thousands of NFTs of all different kinds. They offer art, collectibles, domain names, gaming items and digital representations of physical goods just to name a few. OpenSea runs off the Ethereum block chain.
SuperRare
Founded in 2017, SuperRare is an NFT Marketplace that specializes in extremely rare art. SuperRare also acts as a social network that allows artists and collectors to easily interact with one another allowing them to more easily connect with one another.
Decentraland
Decentraland is a virtual reality world that allows its players to buy plots of land as well as other in-game items through its NFT Marketplace. Decentraland is owned by the players and it runs off its own native Mana cryptocurrency.
Enjin
Enjin is a marketplace that specializes in gaming items. There are currently over 18000 items available for purchase for games such as Lost Relics, Age of Rust, Forest Knight and many more. Purchases are made in the native ENJ cryptocurrency. Transactions are processed with Ethereum.
What are Some of the Most valuable NFTs?
1.The First 5,000 Days
A collage of 5,000 artworks one created everyday by the artist Beeple. It is currently still at auction with the current bid at a staggering $13,250,000. This will be the most valuable NFT sale to date. Some are speculating the price may reach $20 million.
2.Ultraviolet
To celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the release of his album, Ultraviolet, 3LAU sold 33 NFTs of the Ultraviolet Album along with a few other rewards for the top bidders. The 33 NFTs sold for a combined $11.7 million. The Top bidder paid $3.6 million for his NFT.
3.CryptoPunk #7804
CryptoPunks are a collection of 10,000 procedurally generated unique collectible characters created by Larva Labs. CryptoPunk #7804 is 1 of 9 alien type CryptoPunks and it contains a forward cap, a pipe, and a pair of small shades. It sold on March 10, 2021 for approximately $8 million. Previously, the most this NFT had gone for was around $15,000.
4.CryptoPunk #6965
Cryptopunk #6965 is 1 of 24 ape type CryptoPunks and it is wearing a fedora. It sold on January 19, 2021 for around $1.5 million. Before this sale, the most it had gone for was $16,000.
5.CryptoPunk #2140
Cryptopunk #2140 is 1 of 24 ape type CryptoPunks and it is wearing a knitted cap and a pair of small shades. It sold on March 2, 2021 for approximately $1 million. This was the first recorded sale of this NFT.
How Will NFTs Change the Future of Digital Art?
NFTs are still very young but they have already made waves in the world of digital art. You can now create one-of-a-kind digital artworks and sell them for far more than you ever could before. They have also created an opportunity for collectors to invest in artworks and resell them for much more as the demand for the artwork grows. As for the future of NFTs, who knows where they will go from here. Whether we are currently in a price bubble or the price of NFTs continues to rise, the standards that NFTs are built upon will continue to be improved and more and more artists and creators will find creative ways to integrate NFTs into their artworks.
