The NFT wave: Where is it headed and can you make money off it?
By Nyla Saldanha
As an artist myself, I have been hearing the word NFT pop up time and again. Are NFTs something I should know about? Are they a fad, or here to stay? Should I even bother?
In a nutshell, Non Fungible Tokens or (NFTs) are the digital versions of the WWE cards you collected in school. They were all made of the same paper, and yet some had more value than others. NFTs are unique digital collectibles that have value.
But, what makes them unique? How does owning an NFT of an animated cat make it different from having a screenshot of it? Think now of the Mona Lisa that hangs in the Louvre. Images of the Mona Lisa are available to freely download and print; posters are even available at the Louvre gift shop. Yet, there exists only one original Mona Lisa.
In the black mirror episode we live in today, we see digital spaces full of people flaunting, no, flexing their lifestyles and possessions. Many of these possessions are in the form of collectibles, limited editions and one-of-a-kind objects.
This is not a new concept. Famous works of art have sold for outrageous sums of money for centuries in the physical world. This begs the question:
Do you have to be a famous artist to make millions with an NFT?
Right now, we are at the tip of the iceberg, the dark ages of the digital era. NFTs are a giants game. The legendary 'Charlie Bit My Finger' video on YouTube which holds a record with more than 885 million views, sold for $760,999. Artists like Grimes sold nearly $6m (60 Lakhs) in NFTs in just 20 minutes; Kings of Leon sold a batch for roughly $2m (20 Lakhs).
Can smaller musicians and artists make millions off NFT's? No. Not right away.
But buying NFTs from an artist that has not yet blown up in the public space allows you to buy them cheap, have their value skyrocket if the artist makes it big, and most importantly, gives you evidence to show you "knew their music before they got so mainstream".
Like all other technology, NFTs implement more efficient ways of conducting business. They work with a crypto technology called blockchain—a distributed digital records ledger that doesn’t necessarily need a middle-man to run. Transactions can potentially happen more quickly and easily.
The blockchain also keeps an account of all the transactions connected to the NFT and the digital property it represents. In art sales, that could represent the origin of something going back to the creator.
While NFTs have been around for a while, they are only now beginning to burst the finance/tech bubble and move into a less jargonized realm. For beginners at the NFT game, selling various forms of art on websites like opensea.io is a great way to get started. Eventually, NFTs, not just collectibles, but as digital assets, will unlock a whole new wave of the internet.
Alternatively, even creating content around NFTs, explaining them, breaking down terms, broadcasting updates via YouTube channels, podcasts, blogs, and other monetizable platforms, are ways to make money off the NFT hype, without being a part of it directly.
NFTs are about monetizing distinct works. The NFT market might be at the spike of its popularity now and is likely to cool down. But directionally, is creating a new flow of how art is created and distributed. The human existence would be meaningless without art. Art provides avenues for self-expression and perspective. With new technology, the dawn of a fresh tale of talent and ownership in the digital age is upon us.
