Blockchain & NFTs- A New Platform for Art?

• Blockchain is revolutionizing the Art inside out by creating a buzz for it through its unique method and mechanism of trading.
• The ecosystem of Blockchain is much more than Investment and trading of capital, as Digital Art has attracted massive attention as an asset.

Blockchain, linked up with Physical Art, has started a new wave in the Marketplace as Art has been made more accessible and widespread through it. The underlying technology of Blockchain, which gave birth to Bitcoin and Ethereum in the past, has now paved a new revolution in the Art Industry.

Art Entering the NFT Space

Technological advancement since the launch of Bitcoin in 2008 has been flourishing rapidly in the landscape of Cryptocurrency. Whether it was anticipated or not, it was inevitable that these new developments would impact and Influence the art space shortly after its inception. NFT(Non-Fungible Tokens), often based on the Ethereum blockchain in ERC-721 tokens, proved to be the Game changer.

NFTs allow credible ownership of digital art with transparency and clarification through Smart contracts. The advent of digital art and NFTs has made Art transform itself into a tradeable asset. The perks of linking physical or digital art to NFTs is that both Sellers and Buyers of the Artwork they are or want to be associated with can get the transparency of Art being genuine without any sham.

Blockchain technology and the consensus mechanism store the information that cannot be altered, authenticating the trade correctly. Regarding the copyright and legalities of NFTs, copyrights include an NFT license, which gives you the right to use Artwork for commercial purposes, however, to a limit.

Digital Art is a natural Progression.

The fact that physical artworks can be minted and sold online as NFTs has opened a new world of opportunity and resulted in the vast exploration of Art in the digital space. Art, already a trillion-dollar market before Digital Art Existed, is now supposed to attain new heights with the abundance of revenue from the peculiar yet delightful marriage of Blockchain and Art.

One of the significant movements in the Digital Art and Crypto world in 2017 was the launch of the project known as ‘CryptoPunks.’ This NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain was launched by Larva Lab Studio, now owned by Yuga Labs, the parent company and the creators of the famous ‘Bored Apt Yacht Club’ NFTs. Out of the 10,000 tokens or unique CryptoPunks, there have been numerous sales of NFTs like ‘Cryptokitties’ and ‘Beeple’s every day: The first 5000 days’.

NFT marketplaces have registered humongous sales of NFTs, and various Artworks from different domains are put up in bulk. While Initially Digital Art and Collectibles were the major NFTs in the Inventory, as of now, each marketplace is flooded with Artworks of discrete domains like Photography, Music, Trading Card, etc. Some notable Marketplaces running successfully are OpenSea, NFTproX, Binance NFT, SuperRare, and Nifty Gateway.

It is to be noted that Blockchain and NFTs have the power to alter the Art Market and have been proven worthy of offering Artists a platform for their work. Interoperability of Blockchain is an Art in itself.