Slogging Insights: Let's Talk About NFTs

What are NFTs, and how do they work? NFTs have blown up in the past year. The problem is that, instead of people sharing art, we have a lot of pixelated images that immediately go down in value within a few days. Are people using NFTs the wrong way? Also, should NFTs have a use case?

This Slogging thread by Khamisi Hamisi, Sara Pinto, Daniel Guzman and Mónica Freitas occurred in slogging's official #blockchain channel, and has been edited for readability.

I'm actually not sure that I got the concept of NFTs quite right, how does it really work?

I agree with Sara Pinto! I'm not quite sure about how it works and stuff

NFTs work the same way as physical art. The only difference is that you get a digital copy of the piece of art you just bought.

For example, when you buy the Monalisa, you get a physical painting of Monalisa delivered to you. It will be original and authentic. Other people can have replicas, but you will have the original copy.

On the other hand, when you buy an NFT, you get a digital copy of the art sent to you. People can cut paste the image but cannot copy the original file stored in the blockchain. You control the distribution and some of the rights.

The Monalisa has a story behind it on how it came about. The story behind it makes it valuable. Shouldn't we have such types of NFTs? NFTs that tell a story and not just images of cats and cows that are pixelated.

NFTs seem to be the future. It challenged a bit what we consider art nowadays and how to evaluate it. Maybe certain images go down in price because, as a society, we don't value digital art as much as the "classic" format. Though it takes skill and an artistic view and expression, the fact that it's digital can take a bit of its wow factor. Also, if people can access that image without paying, they mostly will, which will decrease the NFT's value.

What is the one thing that needs to be done to protect NFT artists from people trying to copy their art?

Thank you for explaining! It looks like a new possibility to own art. But I'm not sure how we can maintain its value and exclusivity. I've searched a bit and discovered that some people use NFTs as profile pictures. In that way, I think it is misused. I get that you might want to share the art, but I have to ask: what's stopping me from taking a print of an NFT and sharing it? How do I do expose the art without anyone "stealing" it? How do I protect it? I think that part of the concept is still a little blurred

Sharing is not the problem. One can share the image, but if you want to own the original art with value, you will have to buy it from an NFT marketplace. You can't resale or pass the value of the NFT. Just like how an artist can paint the Monalisa once again but cannot sell it at the same price as the original.

Hey Khamisi Hamisi, how an artist can be a top NFT artist? Can any other artist become digital artists (Like working with NFTs)?

To be a top NFT artist, one needs to have unique art. For example, we have the Bored Ape NFTs. They have created a community around their NFTs and are one of the top-selling NFTs on OpenSea. Bored Ape airdropped a serum that mutates the apes giving you a new unique mutated one with extra value. It encouraged people to buy more apes. There are only 10,000 apes. 

Here are a few takeaways:

Any artist can start working with NFTs. You can sell exclusive rights to your music via NFTs. Also, you can take good images of your paintings and sell them as NFTs. You can decide to accompany the digital art with the original physical painting or sell the NFT. The possibilities are endless.