NFT – NO STANDING

Here at No Standing, we’re constantly looking for new and innovative ways to stay ahead of the trends. In this case, it’s looking at NFTs and how we can change the game and reduce our environmental footprint while creating unique digital art. NFT’s are the latest craze that are taking the digital world by storm. NFT’s (aka Non-Fungible Tokens) are a unique crypto asset that can take the shape of anything in the digital world and are usually sold as art. Online drawings, music, a GIF, or even a screenshot of a laptop background can be created as an NFT and sold as a completely unique piece of digital artwork. 

Ownership and authentication of the NFT is kept on track by using blockchain protocols, a decentralised digital ledger of transactions. The benefit of utilising blockchain is that ownership of the original NFTs is protected/authenticated, transactions are completely transparent,there are faster transactions and reduced hacking threats due to the decentralised nature of the network. The most well-known blockchain is Bitcoin, but most NFT’s run through on Ethereum. As with all things that become the latest craze, NFTs have torpedoed into the modern art landscape and everyone wants to participate  in  creating, purchasing and selling the unique forms of digital art. 

It’s interesting to see just how extravagantly the pricing of NFTs has become, considering they are a relatively new artform. Given the price tags of some of the most expensive NFTs that have recently been sold, it appears that where Bitcoin has become the Godsend of digital currencies, NFTs are now being hailed as an artwork collectors digital dream. One of the reasons they’re being seen as such a desirable work of art is due to their ‘non-fungible’ identity, meaning the properties that make up a certain piece of the digital artwork are completely unique, and can’t be interchanged with anything else. While copies can be made when first created, the same as when a print is made of an original hardcopy artwork, the original is completely one of a kind. 

Another reason NFTs are becoming increasingly desirable to the wider population is due to the incredible price tags that recent sales have been seeing in some of the digital art. There have been sales of  NFTs that have reached staggering heights. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his first ever Tweet as an NFT for a huge US$2.5 million, donating the proceeds to charity. The most expensive sale of an NFT so far, however, there has been a massive $69.3m sale of digital artist Beeple. There are people who believe that NFTs are being seen as ‘official collectables’, similar to trading cards, who want to be able to collect all of the most sought after pieces of digital artwork, and will pay these remarkable prices for them.

There are many views surrounding NFTs and if they’re going to be around to stay, but there’s no denying they’ve certainly created a ripple effect for a new age of digital art. It can’t be said if the current inflated price tags of NFTs will be a permanent fixture either, or if this is just a rise with the trend, however for the time being, they’re currently creating huge waves in the art world, and creating a new era of artists and creative thinking.