The world’s creation & adoption of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency & NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens), has answered a lot of my questions in regards to how the digital artist would ever come to the ability to make a 1 of 1 (1 copy, 1 off, 1/1) digital file with as much, if not more, legitimacy & authenticity, as a 1 off painting. I’ve always been fascinated by how painters are able create such staggering value around their artwork as a result of combining a valuable brand identity and its artwork’s scarcity. When a well known painter makes a painting, the fact that there’s only 1 authentic piece in circulation, can be a major driving force of its value, especially if their brands value continues to increase over time! And for years.. I wondered how we would we come to be able to do that with a digital file. How would we ever, if ever, create the authenticated digital 1 of 1, or even better, 1 of however many we want? The answer.. is NFTs.
NFT’s do what paintings do, they combine authenticity and scarcity.
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Without getting too deep into what NFTs are and how they exist in the realms of blockchain technologies.. I will do my best to provide a simple breakdown of what NFTs are.. in hopes to help you lay a basic foundation of understanding, if you do not already have one, around what NFTs are and how we using them today.
What an NFT (Non Fungible Token) is.. is a cryptographic token that.. as a result of its uniqueness and standalone features, is typically unable to be traded at equivalency to other cryptocurrencies.
NFTs are set up to be held in cryptocurrency wallets and easily able to be transferred to other wallets, if so desired!
When an NFT is being created, the creator first chooses an image to represent.. and be the face of.. the NFT (this image is often times the digital art). Following, the creator continues on to write a description of the NFT, choose what blockchain the NFT will reside on, and distinguishing how many NFTs will be placed into circulation (if more than 1). When the NFT is officially created, it is dropped into the crypto wallet of the person who created it and can then be sent to other crypto wallets on its residing blockchain.
Blockchains, in a way, are a sort of computerized, validating record system, that only allow transactions to take place that follow the rules and meet the criteria set forth by the founders of the particular blockchain being used. Only when all the transaction criteria is met, and all the rules are followed, will a transaction be approved to take place on the blockchain. The checking and balancing of the transaction criteria is done by a set of computers, which helps to keep the blockchain, the system that runs the blockchain, and the people utilizing the blockchain, decentralized & hands free! Utilizing a set of computers to check and balance one another to approve transactions keeps the need for human approval of transactions at bay, thus further encouraging a decentralized environment where people can feel safe about truly owning and having full control over their assets.
As far as we know, the creators of the biggest blockchains in the world are prioritizing the safety of their blockchains.. and I say this confidently because if a blockchain isn’t safe, people won't trust it with their money and assets.
As I mentioned earlier, blockchains can serve as a host for validated record keeping. For example, when someone creates an NFT on the blockchain, the origin of the NFT is recorded and can be seen publicly. Furthermore, when someone sells an NFT and it moves from wallet to wallet, it’s recorded. When someone lists an NFT for sale, it's recorded. This sort of record keeping is an especially important piece of this technology because knowing the history of an asset, coin, or NFT can help people make decisions based on the facts of its history and origin.
No more uncertainty around authenticity, just go check the blockchain!
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If what most matters to the world of valuable art is authenticity and scarcity, then what we have here are the things that matter most to the world of not only valuable art, but now valuable digital art.
At first, when people around me first started talking about NFTs, I used to say, as many do, “It’s just a jpeg!” Truly, I wasn’t wrong for saying this based on the level of knowledge and awareness that I had acquired up into that moment! Prior to that, I had never been brought anything that supported the ability to authenticate and scarcitize a digital file. This is new technology bringing new opportunities, and I wouldn't expect everyone to understand it right off the bat, because I surely didn't!
Through authentication and scarcitization, blockchain technology & NFTs are acting as the revolutionary mechanism for aligning digital artists with their deserved authenticity amidst the very “save image as” & “free _____ mp3 download” world that we live in today! Up until these past few years, the world was blessed with progressive, modern digital art but the technology to officially authenticate it didn’t exist.. now it does. It’s no longer “just a jpeg”.. Its “THE Jpeg.”
“Yeah but is it an authentic jpeg? Do you have the original one or did you ‘Save image as’ it? Because if you saved it and dont have record of it coming from the original source, it's not authentic and we’re talking about two completely different things, one not actually coming from the source and the other being authentic.
What exactly each NFT can do, be worth, grant access too, or unlock completely revolves around what the coin and project embodies. The meaning behind an NFT is more often than not, much more important than the image representing the NFT. Just because someone uploads an illustration of a million dollar bill, doesnt mean it's automatically worth a million dollars. But if the creator is valuable and the NFT only has a small amount of them in circulation, it might just be worth a milly!
If I were to get asked the question, “What’s a blockchain, without visiting investopedia?”, this is how I’d answer it.
Well.. again.. without getting too in the weeds of the basics.. basically there's different types of blockchains, each which follow a different set of rules and tasks to approve transactions and create digital logs & ledgers for such transactions. The Ethereum blockchain, for example, utilizes a set of computers that check and balance each other to make sure that all security measures are met before transactions are approved, which prevents the stealing of cryptocurrency on its blockchain. This blockchain, when utilized, is public knowledge and anyone can see the transactions that are happening on it. When 1 wallet sends another wallet cryptocurrency or an NFT, that transaction is validated and then recorded in the blocks of the blockchain, creating and recording the action as authentic and valid.
What exactly each NFT can do, be worth, grant access too, or unlock completely revolves around what the coin and project embodies. Just because someone uploads an illustration of a million dollar bill, doesnt mean it's automatically worth a million dollars. But if the creator is valuable and the NFT only has a small amount of them in circulation, it might just be worth a milly!
If people don't like and trust the creator, the art won't be worth anything regardless, but if they do, the sky is the limit for the artworks value because it is truly an authentic piece!
This technology is..in my opinion.. revolutionary for aligning digital artists with their deserved authenticity amidst a very “save image as” & “free _____ mp3 download” world that we live in today! The world was blessed with progressive, modern digital art but the technology to officially authenticate it didn’t exist.. now it does.
The ability to Authenticate artwork and create scarcity behind it is a major win for digital artists.
Do we know for a fact that blockchain technology will holdup forever to support these opportunities of right now? No we do not, but we also don’t KNOW everything that’s going to happen from this moment to the next.
Authentication x scarcity + royalties = sex.
The backend of an NFT is virtually limitless..
Authentication is, for the most part, the most important thing in the art world & markets.
NFTs, which are crypto tokens placed on a particular blockchain, are authenticated by the records of who created the piece.
NFTs are authenticated by the chronological records of the blockchain.
When an NFT is created, you can see, based on the records of the blockchain it resides on, the cryptowallet that created it. That wallet might be anonymous (just a long number & letter crypto address), or it might have public name! Either way, the blockchain is serving as the validator to who created the coin!
THE Information that changed my life.. AKA NFTs.
Written by: Rick La’Flame.