NFT

The Future of Art?

- Shintu Dhang

The art world has always been dynamic, constantly evolving with new mediums and movements. Today, a new wave is crashing onto the shores of creativity: Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs. Often praised as a revolutionary development, NFTs are reshaping the art landscape by uniquely blending technology and creativity. However, questions remain about whether they are truly the future of art?

WHAT ARE NFTS?

An NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is a type of digital asset representing ownership or proof of authenticity of a unique item or piece of content stored on a blockchain. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, which are fungible and can be exchanged one-to-one, NFTs are unique.

Each NFT has a distinct value and cannot be exchanged like-for-like.

The uniqueness of NFTs lies in their ability to tokenize digital assets, ranging from digital art, music, and videos to virtual real estate and even tweets. This tokenization process involves creating a digital certificate of ownership that is secured and stored on a blockchain, a decentralized digital ledger.

HOW NFTS ARE CHANGING THE ART WORLD

New Revenue Streams for Artists Historically, artists have faced obstacles in profiting from their work, often depending on galleries and middlemen who take significant commissions. NFTs allow artiststo sell directly to buyers, keeping a greater portion of the earnings. Additionally, NFTS can incorporate smart contracts to include royalties, guaranteeing artists a percentage of sales each time the artwork is resold in the secondary market.

DEMOCRATIZATION OF ART