Difference between revisions of "NFT Art"
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=== Artist control === | === Artist control === | ||
| − | Under an NFT an artist is rewarded greater for their art as they can set royalties secondary sales of their original work. In the past, once ownership transferred the artists no longer have rights. Even after the artist dies, their family can receive commissions on their work. Vincent Van Gogh sold his first painting for 400 francs, and it was not till after he died that his paintings were worth millions.<ref> | + | Under an NFT an artist is rewarded greater for their art as they can set royalties secondary sales of their original work. In the past, once ownership transferred the artists no longer have rights. Even after the artist dies, their family can receive commissions on their work. Vincent Van Gogh sold his first painting for 400 francs, and it was not till after he died that his paintings were worth millions.<ref>Erik, Velde. [https://www.vangoghstudio.com/was-the-red-vineyard-really-the-only-painting-van-gogh-ever-sold/#:~:text=Many%20people%20believe%20that%20'The,Anna%20Boch%20for%20400%20francs. "NFTs, explained"] (2021, March 11). . ''The Globe and Mail''. Retrieved April 28, 2019.</ref> |
Artists do not have to go through auction houses anymore to sell their artwork. As they could potentially be rejected, as auction houses like Christie’s do not have to accept your art. Also, artists can have the power to set the price of their art, not have it set by auction houses. Crists’ notes on their website that “Christie’s specialist will contact you to discuss estimates.” The specialist determines the value of your work, not you. | Artists do not have to go through auction houses anymore to sell their artwork. As they could potentially be rejected, as auction houses like Christie’s do not have to accept your art. Also, artists can have the power to set the price of their art, not have it set by auction houses. Crists’ notes on their website that “Christie’s specialist will contact you to discuss estimates.” The specialist determines the value of your work, not you. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 18:33, 11 March 2021
NFT stands for Non-fungible Token, which essentially means that you have a unique token the is indistinguishable from all other tokens.[1] For instance, the US dollar is fungible, meaning that all 20 dollar bills are the same, they are worth the same, you can trade one for another equally. NFT tokens can be issued for digital artwork. At a high-level you can crate some digital art then issue an NFT for it, now someone can buy your art, and it is non-fungible, it is purely unique there is only one of its kind. In short, NFT’s have transformed the way artists are creating art and how collectors are buying art.
Contents
History
Global art sales generate anywhere from 60 to 70 billion dollars per year.[2] From this pool, 20% of the sales come from auctions. Art gets into the market when a collector or institution decides that they want to put their piece up. Then auction houses can work with the seller to host events to auction their piece. The most coveted auction house is Christie’s https://www.ac-cooper.com/top-5-auction-houses-around-world/. A company like this then has a team of specialists who speculates the authenticity and price of the piece to be sold.
Market Place
Buying
There are many different websites one can use to buy NFT art. Some of the most popular are Rarible, Opensea, and nbatopshot. To buy art on these website’s you need to obtain some Etherum first. NFTs are created on the etherum blockchain, so once you buy the art with etherum your ownership of that piece is now public information and verifiable.
Selling
On the same websites that you can buy NFT art, you can create and sell art there as well. The creation of the art is entirely up to the artist. Artists can sell any type of art the only restriction is that it’s digital, whether that be a PNG, GIF, WEBP, MP4 or MP3. Some websites function like traditional auction houses where there is a barrier to entry. On Nifty.com you can apply to be an artist, and if accepted they will take 5% + 30 cents of every secondary sale. https://niftygateway.com/become-creator . Whereas on rarible.com, anyone can insanity sell their artwork, more of an open market. The last few things the artist has to decide is how many issues of their art they want to mint. The more the artist mint’s the less valuable the piece becomes but the more people can have ownership in that piece. Lastly, artists can set what percentage royalists they want on secondary sales of that piece.
Ethical Implications
Energy use
As NFT’s live on the etherum blockchain, and minting NFTs on the network requires servers to do this which consumes energy. French Artist, Joanie Lemercier previously sold some of his work on Nifty Gateway and later found out that the sale of his work used 8.7 megawatt-hours of energy, equivalent to two years of energy use in his apartment. From smart-energy.com “Renewables powers almost 40% of proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining”. This is less than the majority. A large portion of crypto mining still relies on non-renewable energy. Yet, even if crypto was all renewable, cities like Missoula Montana are stopping crypto mining as it is creating more competition for renewable and thus pushing away other big energy users to rely on the non-renewable source.
Security
As NFTs are digital art anyone can copy art and sell it as their own. Recently artist RJ Palmer had his artwork copied and sold as an NFT, as someone just downloaded pictures of his artwork and sold them as their own. So if the artist puts out art on the internet for free than anyone can claim it as their own if the artist doenst the first issue out an NFT for it. Putting more overhead on the artist. Once the token has been issued it is seen to be safer than the traditional way of selling art. Gregory Barber from a blockchain specialist from the University of Columbia and Wired notes how “with an NFT, the owner buys a verified token providing digital evidence that the art is theirs—a bit like an artist’s signature”. So now you can verify all the past owners of a piece of art on the blockchain’s public domain. Though the blockchain is not entirely secure yet. A recent report from the MIT Technology Review claims that nearly $2billin dollars worth of cryptocurrencies has been hacked.
Artist control
Under an NFT an artist is rewarded greater for their art as they can set royalties secondary sales of their original work. In the past, once ownership transferred the artists no longer have rights. Even after the artist dies, their family can receive commissions on their work. Vincent Van Gogh sold his first painting for 400 francs, and it was not till after he died that his paintings were worth millions.[3] Artists do not have to go through auction houses anymore to sell their artwork. As they could potentially be rejected, as auction houses like Christie’s do not have to accept your art. Also, artists can have the power to set the price of their art, not have it set by auction houses. Crists’ notes on their website that “Christie’s specialist will contact you to discuss estimates.” The specialist determines the value of your work, not you.
References
- ↑ Mitchell, Clark. "NFTs, explained" (2021, March 11). . The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
- ↑ Mitchell, Clark. "NFTs, explained" (2021, March 11). . The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
- ↑ Erik, Velde. "NFTs, explained" (2021, March 11). . The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
