If you’re one to keep tabs on trends in the technology sector, you must have heard of NFTs, a new way for digital artists to market their art. NFTs are disrupting the old art market with over a 1.6million daily unique visitors and over $2.5 billion in sales volume and increasing still. NFTs stands for Non Fungible Tokens represents a data string that acts as proof of ownership for an item like art or financial asset. Here are some other things about NFTs.
NFTs live on the blockchain, a decentralized ledger that tracks transactions, but each NFT is unique, unlike cryptocurrencies. Most blockchain networks play a role in creating NFTs, but the most popular network used is Ethereum. Ethereum secures ownership of NFTs on the blockchain, and due to the chain of ownership established by the blockchains ledger, forgery of artists’ art does not exist in NFTs. The adoption of Ethereum as the leading blockchain ledger increased Ethereum’s value by over $300 in 2020 to over $4,800 in late 2021. Currently, although Ethereum trades at $2,200, over 50% drop in value from November last year, there are speculations on its increase soon.
The wide adoption of NFTs enables artists to connect with their customers through marketplaces like OpenSea, Nifty, Gateway, etc. So how does a digital artist get started with NFTs? Well, this entails minting. Minting is when artwork, music, or an item gets added to the blockchain. Minting helps publish your work on the marketplace, which others can buy or exchange. OpenSea is a well-known marketplace where you can mint your NFTs.OpenSea is very popular because minting an NFT on their platform comes with no fee. Artists only pay a 2.5% fee on the final sales price of the listed NFT. Although art is the most popular digital asset minted today, they are not the only things that exist as NFTs. With smart contracts, other digital items like assets, tweets, music, etc., can become NFTs too.