NFTs: The Future of the Art World?
NFTs, or “Non-Fungible Tokens”, are the newest form of crypto-art taking the digital world by storm. The term “non-fungible”, in essence, refers to something original and unique that cannot be traded for an identical copy. This can be anything from drawings, to music, to video clips—as long as it is exclusively digital.
So, are NFTs the future of the art world? Investors, collectors, entrepreneurs, and many artists clearly think they are. But where does their value go when a few clicks are all it takes to download and save the same file that someone paid millions for? The answer lies in the digital structure of the art. Undoubtedly, digital files can be copied an infinite number of times and can be distributed across all platforms with little to no effort, just as a print of a Van Gogh painting can easily be found for less than day’s work. Yet, through its programming code, an NFT is intended to guarantee originality and exclusive and verifiable ownership, comparable to owning the original “Starry Night”. That type of exclusivity has tremendous value in both the fine art and digital art world.
Beeple’s collage, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold for $69 million. (Source: Beeple)
Artists around the world are now creating incredible online works of art that are selling for thousands, even millions of dollars primarily through a blockchain—a digital ledger of transaction data attached to an existing cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Etherium. Because NFTs hold value and ownership can be concretely defined, some argue that NFTs are pioneering the future of art collecting, proven definitively by its brief but lucrative history.
Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey recently sold his first tweet (“just setting up my twttr”) as an NFT for over $2.9 million on the platform “Valuables”. Elon Musk quickly followed suit, selling a tweet containing a song about NFTs as an NFT for over $1.1 million. Even Jay-Z has jumped on the bandwagon and commissioned artist Derrick Adams to create an NFT inspired by his 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt. Drawing from the album’s original cover art, the NFT will be sold in an online auction ending on July 3 through Sotheby’s.
“Art” and art appreciation has always been intrinsically subjective, so it stands to reason that in the digital age, the concept of art would evolve to encompass this digital, data-driven approach embodied by NFTs.