NFT’s, The future of the Art World, Or a trap?
In the last couples of weeks one thing has been resting at the tip of the world's tongue, NFT’s.
Many hail them as the future of collectables, a beacon of hope burning brightly in favour of a decentralised and democratised art system; others as the worst thing that could happen, a pyramid scheme ready to devour the eager, tech-savvy young artist. But what are NFT’s? Why did one just sell for $69.3 million, and can I make one?
NFT stands for non-fungible token, a digital token that exists on the Ethereum blockchain. Each NFT has a unique identification and attached meta data, a secret code if you will - that distinguishes them from each other. I won’t dive into the mechanisms of how they work as perhaps you, like myself, start to sweat at the very sound of the ‘ERC-721 standard evolving into the ERC-20 smart contr……’ Blah, blah (if you’d like to read in depth tech analysis you can here.) Basically they are a way of tokenising anything from art to real estate, even twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is currently selling an NFT of the first ever tweet that has already had an offer of $2.5 Million.
The artworld adoption of NFT’s has been surprisingly swift, perhaps it’s the way the tokens have an ability to alter the discourse in ownership, inbuilt with a ledger of authenticity - making exchanges of property concrete and non susceptible to artworld ‘shadyness.’
Or perhaps they are interested in them because one just sold for $69.3 Million. Artist Mike Winklemann more commonly known as ‘Beeple’ has joined the pages of history with his piece ‘Everydays: the first 5000’ which has become the most expensive digital image ever and the third most expensive artwork sold by a living artist. The hammer went down during a Christies online auction sending shockwaves through the devotees and the non believers, I don’t even think the artist expected such a result as he subsequently tweeted “Holy Fuck” as the auction closed.
Everydays: the first 5000, Mike Winklemann (Beeple)
Is it all roses from here on out? There is clearly still a demand for physicality and the more traditional notions of art-collecting and art-making. People still enjoy owning things they can touch, or do they? Can you imagine a South Kensington dinner party in which the host proclaims ‘who wants to see my art collection’ before proceeding to take out a laptop, passing it round the table as guests click through a selection of JPEGs.
There is also the problem of growing eco-consciousness as NFT’s currently exist on the Ethereum network, an energy costly blockchain that requires large amounts of C02 to be produced for the continuation of processing power. This is something that the Crypto is aware of and in the process of changing. (changing to a POS proof of stake model, which is less energy intensive.)
But what does all this mean for non-established artists trying to survive and have a career whilst being dealt a tough hand, lockdown after lockdown. Could NFT’s be a solution for them to continue their practise and capitalise on the growing momentum of digital art. Of course for digital artists who already exist in this space this technology is nothing new, but what about the rest of us?
So i’ve decided to create my own NFT to understand the process and see for myself whether it truly is the future of the art world.
The first step was to create a digital image, I wanted to create something that only exists digitally in line with the main focus of NFT’s. I wouldn’t consider myself bad at photoshop but in the process of creating my work I found a renewed sense of respect for digital artists - creating this was more time consuming and difficult than I had expected. Wizards of tech art will shudder to hear that this took me three days, as I foolishly believed that a simple transfer of my physical drawing abilities to photoshop would suffice in creating an image akin to one I'm comfortable with on canvas.
To NFT or not to NFT, that is the question.
Elliot Stew
The next step I found even more bewildering and signed up for ‘Rarible’ a software that allows digital artists to create and sell crypto tokens that represent the ownership of their works, think of it as an NFT marketplace. You have to connect a wallet and load it up with the cryptocurrency Ethereum. (needed because making an NFT requires money) Oh yes! A more expensive and clunky experience than I would have expected for the future of the Art world.
At first you choose between creating a ‘single’ or multiple’ the later being a number of versions that you can sell, this seems to be the most popular option, similar to a limited edition print. I chose to create an edition of Ten costing 0.028 ETH each, which at the time of writing was $50.00, not exactly $69.3 Million, but Beeple surely had to start somewhere.
A feature included which I really do feel is revolutionary is the option to set a royalty premeditating that the original creator receives a commission upon resale of the work. I opted for 10% and believe that if implemented in reality could eliminate the exploitation of emerging artists and decrease the risk of their earlier works being flipped (resold early at the profit of the buyer.)
After this the work needs to be ‘minted’ the process of creating the token and making it sellable. The most apparent flaw of Rarible is how complicated this process is for beginners. I would advise researching thoroughly before creating your own. The first transaction fee to start the minting process was $17, I was then notified that I was unable to proceed due to ‘technical difficulties’ I still don’t know what went wrong… So I had to start again, creating a new wallet and transfer fund which incurred another fee of $15. During my second attempt I spent a total $75 before I had my brand new NFT’s - Through the stress of spending money I don’t have, I must admit that upon completion I was excited, somehow I was now part of the tech elite, I had Elon Musk on speed dial and I had just entered a brave new world.
But In reality I spent $107 (I’m not including transaction fee’s incurred whilst buying ETH) on creating something not ‘real.’ The allocation of growing value assigned to NFT’s still perplexes me. The idea itself is a fantastic one, will it be the future of the art world? Probably not, I imagine it running parallel at its own pace. A new space to be used and adopted by digitally inclined artists, this space should / does belong to them.
Feel free to jump on the bandwagon during the journey, it is fun, and it does feel exciting but buyer beware.... You can bet someones making a lot of money! But it’s probably not you.
Written by Elliot Stew
