Non Fungible Tokens And Artists

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) tables varieties of saleable art forms as collectables, with an unprecedented resale value. The unique marketplace platforms extend easy access for minting (process to get NFT on the blockchain), selling and buying NFTs. 

The NFTs have evolved the business dynamics of ‘art world’. The NFTs are leveraging upon technology, thereby, creating new and additional sources of income, and becoming assets for the new world by keeping the lineage for aspirational consumption. NFT is a unique digital asset (a "token") that is stored on a blockchain (a distributed/recorded digital ledger). Being unique, NFTs are limited, ensuring better control by creating scarcity and authentication. This is a new order of business, likely to dominate soon.

In a day several decentralised formats create thousands of entrepreneurs in the art world, gaining an attitudinal shift by making a sale. The corporate governance and monitoring mechanisms are left to the platforms during the life-cycle for the artists, based on the collection.  The nomenclatures used before covid such as ‘gig economy’, ‘shared economy’ is marching towards a tangible form, hence, ensuring independence to individuals and entrenchment abilities for the aggregators. The influence of artist value and promotion tactics of the marketplace platforms does require check-and-balance, else the haves and the have nots will be related. This could be a good challenge.

The digitally inspired life, networked capabilities and virtual fantasies led by machine learning does not value performance on-ground. The hardships of the artist and career manoeuvring substantially reduce the probability of wealth creation. The life colours on real canvas and on digital screen compromise the hard work, ideation, and infringement of time. 

The contradictory impact is to determine the future direction for growth, which is selling at a low price and be visible or be in wait mode to self-sustain. The art history has many examples, which have struggled in establishing its value. The influencer approach emphasised is on value maximization by multiplying synergies whereas, individual was being impacted by the governance mechanisms.

‘Travelling Artisans’ are benefitting from the NFT model as the artform is engineered by them to satiate moods, giving digital vibes on new trends. The matured and early-stage artists work in a networked orientation, defying collaboration because of revenue splits. Sustainability for them has no role to play as it’s all about monetising that art piece, which has a dependency on digital marketing, amplifying its focus and making artists known.

There are several legally unenforceable remedies refraining artists to protect their works; plus, NFTs are a highly inefficient and ecologically damaging way of establishing ownership with tech involvement followed by low carbon offsetting and reducing public faith. The best is yet to emerge based on the artist’s value and profitability measures. The NFT marketplace encourages collaboration through social media because different artists with diverse perspectives and skills produce unique pieces which lead to premium on their limited editions. This could be a new business order, likely to accelerate soon.

The majority of NFT listings are based on invite-only offerings to bring scarcity whereas, artist’s ample material much of time is usually left unsold. The auction house unlike platforms mange to bring visitors champagne and cheese, creating a clear demarcation for sensory experience.  The platforms must unlearn and re-engineer their ML/AI codes to upkeep emotional connection with the NFTs to seize competitive advantage while managing artist stories and the circumstances in which art was produced or created. Every art form is unique and that each art has a story to connect, allowing artists in capturing the best opportunities in turbulent and unpredictable markets.  Many artists when they get connected with social and cultural environments, they are likely to make a sale. 

The artists are driven by trend usually get the greatest opportunities, with a price range that is achievable only with the platform support that charges them a lower premium. Digital media has connected the world and millennials prefer to use platforms than exercise outreach to their target audience because, on platforms, algorithms modes assist in winning against established competitors. The virtual living scenarios are engineered suiting eyes in fast-moving markets, as everything is driven by information economics. Recently, NFTs are becoming popular from an artist standpoint and for platforms, there is a different strategy of collaboration and implementation. Adding, generation gaps within the audience; sectors such as EdTech, tourism can benefit more in this virtual chaos with a few easy-to-follow training programs on the blockchain, particularly the step-by-step approach to create, secure, and manage cryptocurrency wallets.

The strategic logic to earn money from unsold art brings hope to spin-off on promising technologies mentioned on networking sites. The opportunities and constraints often look mitigated by platforms but the known process of sleepminting allow a scamster to mint an NFT in an artist's wallet and transfer it back to their own account without the artist becoming aware is creating ripple effects. This may sound counterintuitive, but the intricate technological developments bring transitory chances for other than artists.  Most artists want to quickly grasp the monetisation need by focusing on platforms with the hope to get fame and money.  

Stealing ideas is like a daily profit-and-loss statement for a select few. The artists must stimulate creativity and be aware of promotional boundaries, which should not undermine their own creation via fabrication tools. NFTs are emerging opportunities in today’s world and can pull out artists from yesterday’s disappointments. The budding artist who gets on to NFTs billion-dollar marketplace must show superior art forms maintaining rhythms toward new customers by leveraging unique resources. 

NFT’s competitive advantage for artists is to capitalise on unpredictability without thinking about sustainability. The artist focus is always on the creation and NFT is a medium to bypass intermediaries through marketplace platforms and secure experiential understanding of customers and their collections. Art is everywhere and creating digital art means transforming the artist mindset into learning experiences for collectors and legacy keepers. 

The changing world requires a breed of NFTWALLAH who could comprehend art based NFTs and set the context for the consumer and further bargain as transaction advisors for the artists producing a genuinely authentic business model. Future artists must adapt to digital diversity before stepping into the NFT space and getting familiarised with digital interactions.  The NFTs are changing modes of artwork showcase, distribution, and ownership globally.

Art experiences in changing world could have unintended consequences ultimately affecting the artists who explore new revenue streams to fund their flow of creative juices. In present unprecedented times, any art produced could bring meaningful change with educational objectives and experiential learning for both buyer and seller.

Dr Sachin Bansal

Guest Author The author is the Founder and Chief Explorer® of ‘City Explorers Private Limited, India’ and with two decades of experience, he has multiple flagships functional in the arena of community impact and destination product creation within tourism industry. As a destination branding specialist, he has coined the conceptual acronyms and led the co-creation through ‘Experiential Delivery in Tourism (EDiT)™’ and ‘Resonating Experiential Delivery Outcome (REDO)™’. For IP related enquiry or for more information can reach Dr. Sachin Bansal on help@cityexplorers.