Would you buy a piece of art for $69.3 million when it is purely digital? The piece of art that sold at this bid, named “Everydays: The First 5000 Days“, is a collage of images. Its sale put artist Mike Winkelmann (aka Beeple) in the top three most costly living artists. Many people find this incredible because, as stated in one opinion, NFTs “look rather ugly and flat”. Let’s dig a bit deeper and also show you how to make your own NFT.
Photo source: Pixabay.com
Everydays: The First 5000 Days
Christie’s auction house, which is a reputable British auction house, had nothing but praise for this particular artwork. They described how it took 5,000 days to complete (1 May 2007 to 7 January 2021). One image was posted daily, in what was originally called “Everydays”, with the artist never skipping a day. The images are largely chronological and look at themes such as how people feel bitterness towards the rich yet wish to be them, the current political tumult in the USA, and a fear of technology. Various images can be portrayed as conceptual, fanciful, monstrous, and ludicrous. Christie’s noted that the artist’s work showed evolution from Day 1 to Day 5,000 and became an accurate depiction of current events.
It is not only digital art as NFTs that leaves people dazed but the whole concept of non-fungible tokens that is confusing. We’ll attempt to simplify this.
What Are NFTs?
Blockchain technology provides a safe framework for trading cryptocurrencies and NFTs online. It involves a distributed ledger that is transparent and cannot be changed by any of the participants. Thus, a transaction need only be recorded once, and the record remains impervious to change. For a fuller understanding of blockchain technology click here.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can thus have their ownership recorded indisputably on a blockchain. This is great for those producing creative works (called NFTs) such as songs, videos, artwork, and collectible NBA trading cards. These can be sold for Ethereum, a cryptocurrency, realizing earnings for the creator or owner.
Making Your Own NFTs
The three requirements for creating an NFT are the collectible or artwork, cryptocurrency to pay for minting your NFT, and a wallet where you can store your cryptocurrency. Next, you need to select a blockchain where the NFT will be made.
In a process called minting, you buy Ethereum. Next, you create a wallet, such as a DeFi wallet. Once your wallet is set up and connected to your blockchain platform, you can start creating. This is the pre-mint stage.
It is often a good idea to design a whole collection of NFTs. You can play with different colors and patterns. Now you upload your NFT and give it a title. This is minting and you will be required to pay a minting fee with Ethereum. By using a blockchain, you have proof that the item is yours. If you sell it, this history will be updated.
We cannot claim to have made a case for digital art. However, hopefully, the world of NFTs is now a little less strange.
