June 10, 2024

Since Kevin McCoy unveiled his “Quantum” token in 2014, considered one of the first ever, the potential of NFTs in digital art continues to be explored. In spring 2021, one artist in particular stunned the industry and accelerated the revolution – Mike Winkelmann, nicknamed Beeple. He sold his digital collage “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” for $69m at the prestigious Christie’s auction house, the world’s largest, in the UK. This was the second such event at the venue: in 2020, the work “Block 21” from Robert Alice’s “Portraits of a Mind” collection found its way there, but achieved a value of “only” $131,000. Reaching a staggering price for Beeple’s work that exists only virtually became a powerful impetus for web users to search for anything on NFT, and auction houses began to open their doors wide to digital art, creating virtual and physical galleries. Beeple himself has become one of the highest-earning artists in contemporary art.

2021 was also a special year for NFT artist Micah Johnson and financial services giant Visa. Visa started cooperation with a former athlete, a baseball star, to promote digital artists, educate the market about what NFT is, how to use it and why it is important for the future from a cultural and business perspective. “It is a thriving ecosystem of artists, musicians, writers, photographers and curators building communities at the intersection of culture and commerce,” noted Visa’s vice-president Cuy Sheffield. Micah is the creator of the NFT character AKU, the boy cosmonaut. In an interview, he said that one day when he heard his little nephew ask his mother if astronauts could be black, he decided to draw him. We could write a lot about the success brought to the artist by the charming AKU and his adventures, but here, with the help of Visa, there was also the promotion of an idea. Art has the power to change the world, unite people and make dreams come true – and Micah Johnson’s work proves it. Thanks to the NFT, it is at your fingertips. Without intermediaries, in complete freedom of transaction, and quickly.

The availability of digital assets is a barrier that is disappearing thanks to the NFT space – blockchain technology allows to buy, sell, store and exchange them in a very simple, fast and modern way. The new owner receives the desired artwork, can store it in a virtual collection, and can sell it whenever they want – and so art as an electronic file travels through a borderless world, without the need to physically package the image, secure it and transmit it. It is also easy to communicate directly with the impressively growing NFT community, collectors, business people and art fans, as well as to see the ownership history and check the authenticity of the chosen asset. This is important – NFT is transparent, and here verification is easy.

Each token is a unique identifier and is linked to a digital portfolio address – and this allows everyone to trust each other. Tracking transactions via blockchain helps to combat counterfeiting, the interested party knows that they receive the original and the artist, in accordance with copyright law, royalties. A visible history of transactions related to the change of ownership of a work is also a great advantage of NFT and blockchain technology, as sometimes the price of a work depends on who that owner was. If it was Elon Musk, for example, it could get really expensive. But also exclusive – both the buyer and the creator, who is in control of their works and profits, are satisfied.

The NFT provides the digital work with uniqueness, even emphasises it. It is special and unique. It cannot be forged or copied. Each piece is a unique token – one of a kind in the world, just like a traditional work of art. Even when an artist creates several objects that are the same, each is a unique record in the blockchain network. And the fewer copies they have, the more expensive and more desirable and exclusive they are. Complete harmony between the needs of the artist and the art consumer.

In the NFT space, it is also possible, thanks to blockchain technology, to sell the rights to real objects – sculptures or paintings and other digital goods such as music, film and games. It is a rapidly growing area that takes art and its benefits to a new level year after year. No one is surprised anymore that the refined NFT space is gaining in popularity; in Poland, the painter and graphic artist Rafał Olbiński, the photographer Czesław Czapliński and the band Behemoth are among those who work in this trend. It is a novel way of creating, collecting and enjoying digital art – celebrities such as Paris Hilton, who opened her own NFT art gallery, or musicians such as the famous band Weekend, whose songs are being auctioned online, know this as well. New technologies are changing the world and the way we live, removing barriers. For artists and art fans, this is great news.