NFT technology, says Harrison, offers a way to attach a price tag to digital art, using the original high-quality storage instinct – the search for Veblen goods that grant status is coveted only insofar as it is expensive – which sits behind many collectors. ‘urge. Mix it up with a frothy community eager to trade and market any new shiny continuous building to blockchain at substantial prices, and the trick is done.
“In this digital world, we have accelerators: suddenly you can 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 of how a sign originated and changed hands over time in a safe, unchanging way. “Origin, of course, is an important part of the value of art,” Harrison says.
The crowd that buys NFT-linked art is diverse. Some of the members are crypto-currency magnates who are looking for the latest thing to throw in their savings. ‘People who were in the crypto early on and had a lot of ether [Ethereum’s cryptocurrency], they are looking for ways to use it, ”says James Beck, director of communications and content at ConsenSys, a blockchain company that built an app to store and manage NFTs. Beck wants to say that they want to show that they are ‘protectors on the internet’.
It helps that some NFT markets allow people to display their purchases like in an online gallery or museum. Jamie Burke, founder and CEO of blockchain investment firm Outlier Ventures and an NFT enthusiast, is one of those who would like to see their newfound role as supporters of digital arts. Burke says he was initially turned off by the early, “self-referential” artwork focused on cryptocurrency, dotted with Bitcoin characters and memes in pixel form. But when he became more interested in space, in the summer of 2020, he was ‘blown away’ by the new artists.
“It was art in itself that I would buy, and I like 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 entering the space. I’m building a little collection. ‘It does not mean that he rejects a good price if it presents itself to him. On February 13, he sold an NFT for which he paid $ 500, for $ 20,000 ether. Announcement the sale in a tweet, Burke said he would use the proceeds to buy more art.
Harrison says while the market is currently crawling to speculators who would buy and block any blockchain-based assets in the hopes that it will increase in value, bona fide collectors are becoming increasingly involved. “It’s a combination of people who are just speculative and people who want to collect something and want something cool,” he says. ‘My role is to balance an element of speculation with enough people wanting to buy something because they like it, and they want a warm collecting habit. If everyone buys to speculate, it does not work, then it just becomes another tradable sign. ”
Some digital artists welcome the trend. Most platforms are simple to use, so they can upload their works, automatically ‘defeat’ NFTs and wait until the offers rain – and this is often higher than the amounts they would receive if they submitted their digital artworks online would try to sell or as prints. Brendan Dawes, a British graphic designer and artist who creates digital images using machine learning and algorithms, says that a print of one of his pieces would normally sell for $ 2,000, while his latest NFT would sell for $ 37,000.
The profits do not stop there. NFTs can be designed to pay their creators a crypto currency fee every time they change owners. If a buyer of one of Dawes’ pieces resells it, Dawes automatically receives 10 percent of the price paid. ‘This is again one of the differences compared to the traditional world. You get these constant royals. ”