How NFT’s are revolutionizing worldwide
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are booming in popularity and revenue growth as technology continues to evolve at an accelerating rate and grows incredibly entwined with our daily lives. Global NFT sales hit $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021, a rise of eightfold over the previous quarter. Want to know more about NFTs? This is what we are here for!
What do you mean NFTs?
For the readers who are new to the term and for the ones who want to gain more and more knowledge about the concept, congratulations! You’ve landed at the right spot!
What are NFTs anyway? An NFT is a digital asset that is characterized by visual art, like a photograph or video. While a standard photo or video has little to no intrinsic value since it can be copied and pasted or saved by anybody, owning an NFT can be incredibly valuable due to its exclusivity.
What do a 2007 YouTube video, some crypto-art, and a picture of a rose have in common?
While at first glance the answer appears to be “not much,” they are actually part of a phenomenon that is changing finance and investment, particularly around the way folks invest in art, music, and sports.
Welcome to the era of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are being named by many as the new rim of revenue generation, especially with regard to art. The term non-fungible suggests there isn’t any equivalent for which the product can be exchanged. When we talk about NFTs, blockchain technology is used to create the uniqueness and ownership of a piece of digital art, which is later sold via a platform.
Further, each sale of this art is captured on the blockchain, creating digital inception that is not alterable by anyone. Actually, NFTs are not new — they’ve been around here since 2014 — but just didn’t “hit it big,” they have rocketed in fame during the past several months. There were more than $2.5 billion in NFT sales in the first half of 2021, $1.2 billion in the month of July alone. Over the course of the pandemic, this kind of rapid expansion has been seen across the blockchain sector.
How are NFTs helping people?
NFTs are making art ownership more accessible to the general public, which was previously only available to the wealthy. They are also extremely appealing to millennials and other youngsters, who might have a bigger appreciation for digital platforms. The value of art, regardless of its form, has always been one subjective topic; now, instead of that value being determined by a relatively nuclear group of experts, it is now measured by the public. This allows artists to generate money from works such as memes that are shared for free over social media and on the web.
As told previously, almost anything can be turned into an NFT — from crypto-art, as in the case of Nyan Cat, which sold for $580,000, to Kevin Abosch’s picture “Forever Rose,” which sold for a million dollars in 2018. In fact, newspaper articles can be NFTs — for instance, “Buy This Column on the Blockchain!,” which was owned by the New York Times and retailed for some $550,000. And how can we forget the ultimate game-changer: the artist Beeple’s collection “Everyday: The First 5000 Days,” which sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million. However, it is important to note, most NFTs actually sell for less than $200.
CRITICISMS
Along with the excitement is a fair, and probably justifiable, apprehension about NFTs. Firstly, many people cannot seem to get their minds right. Around the fact that these pieces selling for stellar amounts can be seen by anyone on the web. While this may seem weird, it denotes a shift in perspective about what art is and how we access it. During the pandemic, we understood that we cannot always go to see an artwork. But we still could see them online.
Another concern with NFTs — like with other new-age technologies and platforms — is that they are largely uncontrolled at the moment. In fact, there have been petitions to the SEC to justify rules around NFT platforms. Some say that NFTs are securities and hence fall under the Securities Act of 1933.
Others argue they are merely works of art that can be purchased and sold. Still, others believe NFTs’ status will be determined on a case-by-case basis — which seems to be what’s happening currently. For instance, a lawsuit has been filed against Dapper Labs. Accusing the NFT platform of “preventing investors from cashing out” their gains. Axie Infinity, a game in which gamers earn money to play, dethroned Top Shot as the highest-selling NFT last year.
CONCLUSION:
As much as a beneficial deal NFTs sound, they have their own skepticisms. Hence one must invest as per one’s own discretion and thorough research and analysis.