NFT technology, says Harrison, offers a way to attach a price tag to digital art, using that primary instinct for high-quality storage – the search for status-seeking Veblen goods, coveted only insofar as they are expensive – that are in behind many collectors’ urge. Mix this up with a foamy community eager to market and meme any shiny construction adjacent to the blockchain at considerable prices and the trick is ready.
“In this digital world, we have accelerators: all of a sudden you could get three or four times what you paid for something – tomorrow there’s someone ready to buy it,” says Harrison. Even better, blockchains are also able to keep track in a safe, unchanging way of how a token started and changed hands over time. “Provenance is obviously an important part of the value of art,” says Harrison.
The crowd that buys NFT-related art is varied. Some of its members are cryptocurrency magnets looking for the latest thing to sink their savings into. “People who started in crypto and have a lot of ether [Ethereum’s cryptocurrency], looking for ways to use it, ”says James Beck, communications and content director at ConsenSys, a blockchain company that has built an application for storing and managing NFTs. They want to show, says Beck, that they are “patrons of internet art.”
It helps that some NFT markets allow people to present their purchases, such as in an online gallery or museum. Jamie Burke, founder and CEO of blockchain investment company Outlier Ventures and an NFT enthusiast, is one of those eager for their new role as supporters of the digital arts. Burke says he was initially stopped by early, “self-referential” cryptocurrency-focused artwork – sprinkled with Bitcoin signs and pixelated memes. But when he became more interested in space, in the summer of 2020, he was “amazed” by the new artists.
“This was an art in and of itself that I would buy and I liked the idea that I could have a unique digital edition of it,” he says. “I just started collecting, personally, and trying to get new artists and professionals who come into space. I’m building a small collection. “That doesn’t mean he refuses a good deal when he shows up. On February 13, he sold an NFT for which he had paid $ 500 for $ 20,000 in ether. Announcing selling in a tweet, Burke said he will use the return to buy more art.
Harrison says that while the market is now crawling with speculators who would buy and return any blockchain-based asset in the hope that it will increase in value, bona fide collectors are getting more and more involved. “It’s a combination of people who are just speculative and people who want to collect and have something cool,” he says. “My role is to balance an element of speculation with enough people who want to buy something because they like it and want a warm collection habit. If everyone buys to speculate, it doesn’t work, then it just becomes another negotiable symbol. ”
Some digital artists are taking the trend. Most platforms are easy to use, allowing them to upload their work, automatically “create” NFTs, and wait for bids to rain – and these are often higher than the amounts they would receive if they tried to -sells digital artwork online or as prints. Brendan Dawes, a British graphic designer and artist who creates digital images using machine learning and algorithms, says a printout of one of his pieces would typically sell for $ 2,000, while his latest NFT sold for $ 37,000.
Profits don’t stop there. NFTs can be designed to pay their creators a cryptocurrency fee every time they change hands. If a buyer of one of Dawes’ pieces resells it, Dawes automatically receives 10% of the price paid. “This is again one of the differences compared to the traditional world. You receive this continuous royalty. ”