I’ve recently had the opportunity of being invited into the world of Cryptocurrency NFT art.
To many of you, you may have heard of the words in that previous sentence, but putting them together made a sentence that may have well been a foreign language. So before I delve into what exactly I’m excited about – a quick summation of what NFT art actually is.
What is NFT Art?
With the advent of cryptocurrencies – such as the now famous Bitcoin, people have been inspired and amazed at the new world of technological innovation in wealth transfer blockchain technology represents. Blockchain applications such as cryptocurrencies (ie Bitcoin) are not solely confined to monetary transactions – ie I will buy that pizza for 20 bitcoin.
The technology also allows for immutable transaction recording – which means that if I so desired I can use a blockchain-based database to record something and it may never be deleted from the database, also for the most part the database is freely accessible to anyone. This is also how NFT Art gets it’s name – NFT stands for ‘Non-fungible token’. A non-fungible token is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable.
The current way NFT Art works is that it uses this immutable feature of blockchain technology to produce pieces of art that cannot be replicated – thereby making the art produced as an NFT truly unique and desirable in the way that physical art is unique and desirable for collectors.
My first Ether based NFT Art
The largest and most well-known NFT art marketplace currently online is the Foundation marketplace – to which art creators such as myself require a special invitation in order to join and create (or ‘mint’) new NFT art pieces. The Foundation marketplace makes the use of the second largest crypto currency Etherium’s blockchain on order to securely record NFT creations.
The way the marketplace works is that collectors of NFTs place a bid using the Etherium crypto currency in an auction-like fashion in order to secure the highest bid – and therefore ownership of the unique NFT art.
My first piece of NFT art that I have created is an animation of a digitally-augmented photograph I produced as part of a past SALA exhibition in Adelaide. I created it as a thematic study of fog and minimalism – and yet detail. The idea being that you will find new bits of detail each time you view the piece.
The minted NFT is available on the Foundation marketplace here and in order to further entice potential bidders, I have decided to also offer the original fine art print that was put up on exhibition during the SALA festival to whom ever places the highest bid. The print was originally put on sale for $700.
With the combination of owning a unique NFT art piece, my first NFT and a one of a kind produced and signed fine-art piece, with provenance tracked using the system set up on this very website – I feel as though this is a great opportunity for NFT collectors, or people looking at joining this new revolution in digital art to own something special.
With the advent of true globalisation and the blurring of borders across the world, the idea of cryptocurrencies being a truly global currency and dispelling the idea of having to use old banking models in order to make use of the global economy is quite an exciting subject to delve into.
The applications of the technology is truly mind bending, and can touch every aspect of our lives – including the distribution of art like photography. I look forward to making use of this new medium for sale of my art!
