As cryptocurrency like bitcoin and dogecoin continue to gain momentum, artists have found a new method of selling their art online. It’s called NFT artwork, meaning non-fungible token, and you can buy NFT artwork with cryptocurrency. Basically, NFT means that the artwork or ‘token’ is unique and one-of-a-kind. It exists on the blockchain, a ledger for transactions that is secure and anonymous. You might be asking yourself, what’s the big deal? Why are people willing to spend upwards of a million dollars (yes, you read that right, a million dollars) on a digital file? Well, when you buy NFT artwork, you gain sole ownership of the digital object. Music, videos, gifs, and digital art are just some examples of NFT artwork. Remember the Nyan Cat gif? It was sold as an NFT in February for nearly $600,000. This is only one example of a huge success selling NFT artwork. Even though you could theoretically download the Nyan Cat gif as many times as you’d like, you would never actually be the owner of the Nyan Cat gif. It’s similar to owning a print of the Mona Lisa, it will never be the original.
If you’re an artist, you might want to consider selling your artwork digitally for a few reasons. First, selling digitally can save on supplies, shipping costs, and time. Second, you might have already created some digital artwork and you’re not quite sure what to do with it. Sell it! Third, NFTs allow you to earn a percentage every time your artwork is sold or changes hands. If your artwork becomes popular and increases in value, you will continue to see revenue, unlike selling physical art. As an artist, there’s very few cons to selling your artwork as a NFT.
If you’re an art lover, you can support your favorite artists by buying their NFTs. Although the future of NFTs are unknown and unpredictable for now, it might be a good time to consider investing in them. They could be as successful as cryptocurrencies and change how we sell fine art forever. Contrarily, after the pandemic ends, the popularity of NFT artwork could decline, as people try to return to their former lives. It’s no surprise that many businesses turned to the Internet when COVID forced us into lockdown. Selling artwork was no different. But then again, maybe NFT artwork is simply an effect of technological advancements and is here to stay. What do you think?