The Pros and Cons of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) in the Art World

NFTs, ‘Non-Fungible Tokens’ are digital assets. These assets are stored in the blockchain and can be owned similar to cryptocurrencies. The term ‘non-fungible’ refers to everything that is irreplaceable or unique. The term ‘token’ refers to the authority of ownership or proof. 

There are several sorts of NFTs other than digital art and these include avatars, collectibles, photographs, games, event tickets, music, tweets, and much more. 

So, When did NFT come into the picture?

Though NFT was first minted on 3rd May 2014 and named ‘Quantum’ by Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash (who is a digital artist). It got its popularity by the end of the year 2017 when the cryptokitties launched using Ethereum. The difficulties of trading, programming, creating tokens, and storage are made easier with Ethereum and its smart contracts – which broadened the access and onboard processes. 

If you’re curious about How NFTs work, let’s dive in for a brief note. 

Again, NFTs are recorded with pseudonymity, all of them are stored and transferred with no replications since smart contracts are involved. Every NFT owns a unique identifier with metadata storage. The process of publishing NFTs in the blockchain refers to NFT minting. It is a high-level process technique that includes creating a block, information validation, and then recording them in the blockchain. Thereby, it becomes transparent and protected from stealing. For more information, refer to recent Solana’s minting that happened in February. 

How can one buy or sell any NFT?

The place where all NFTs traded refers to the ‘NFT Marketplace’. There are several marketplaces available and some of the major ones include Binance and Opensea.  

Is NFT highly impacting the art world?

With the limitless resources in the world, the technologies bounce at the hype to engage the digital environment. On the line, NFT has launched with a greater impact in the art world than others. It made things easier to buy or sell any sort of digital art in terms of Non-Fungible Tokens for artists to have an audience in abundance. Also, there will be no intermediaries between the buyers and the artists. This has given rise to the demand in the field of artwork. The craze of this art world is explicit with the news in the year 2022 stating ‘FC Barcelona Club’s NFT Art Sells For $693,000 at Sotheby’s’. 

Here’re the Pros of NFTs in the Art World!

• Improved Market Efficiency
  • This begins with the digital asset that processes through security, effective supply chains, and no intermediaries. NFTs have decreased the time consumption on transactions and agents by increasing the direct connection. This has laid the way for enhanced procedures including verification, and effective transactions with limited expenses. Other than the art, NFTs play a major role by adding market value by managing sensitive information of people and businesses. 

• Secured Blockchain Technology
  • The data stored in a blockchain is difficult to manipulate like editing, deleting, and even hacking.  The transactions are recorded and distributed to the associated users in that particular blockchain. All the NFTs are authenticated with certain unique records, entrusted other than any of the marketplaces. 

• Ensuring Digitized Ownership
  • Physical assets like real estate property, fine jewelry, and others are hard to tackle accountability. NFTs made it possible through digitized versions by expanding the diversity thereby enhancing financial accounts. Also, this ownership has certain risks since these are completely different from stocks. Despite this, it provides efficiency which establishes a way for a better ratio of risk-to-reward.

Here’re the Cons of NFTs in the Art World!

• Inconsistent and Illiquid
  • NFTs are highly volatile. They don’t offer high liquidity to trade as there are very few potential traders in higher numbers. 

• Utilizes Higher Energy Intensity
  • Ethereum blockchain supports most of the NFTs. This uses highly intensified energy operating protocol and proof of work. Every NFT transaction requires electricity, for a single transaction, it consumes around an average of electricity spent in a day and a half considering home utilities. 
  • For mining cryptocurrencies, there is a higher demand for computational energy which is harmful to the environment. This will further have a greater impact due to carbon emissions.

• No Money Production
  • As said before, NFTs are neither related to any stocks nor money-bearing bonds. Digital artworks are expensive in such cases one can buy or sell art and earn. Meanwhile, the artists can own their royalty on all future sales whenever the hand change happens. 

• Possibilities of Counterfeit
  • There exist the chances of fraudulent activities in NFTs which include fake identification of someone else’s work and trading it on a legitimate marketplace. Even if it gets stolen, it doesn’t hold any value at that time. So, the buyer might end up at loss. 

Will NFTs be useful in future businesses?  

This concept is introduced years ago but NFTs turned popular currently. These are accustomed to both authentication and ownership as well. Concerning U.S. rules, there are no specific regulations. But, NFT crypto-asset types are witnessed under certain federal laws.