The incredible world of Web3 is being built around us as the global economy recovers in the wake of COVID-19, and one of the more accessible, creative, and enticing (not to mention lucrative) elements of our digital, interconnected and decentralized future is the Non-fungible token - the NFT.

But what is an NFT? More importantly, how does our wonderful creative network of artists, modelers, and designers on Creators 3D benefit from the game-changing conceptual understanding of the ownership, trade, and wealth generation inherent in NFTs?

What is a non-fungible token?

An NFT is “a blockchain-based token… used to authenticate digital ownership of whatever asset is attached to the token”.

Despite the obvious similarities to cryptocurrency in form and platform usage - they are built on the blockchain - they differentiate from cryptocurrency in that they are singular tokens of authenticity that are unrepeatable or uncopyable, as opposed to a fungible token (such as bitcoin) which is worth the same as subsequent or prior bitcoins.

In short what it means is this: each NFT is unique and carved into the blockchain. This means any media attached to the NFT - art, music, patents, writing, even contracts of ownership or copyright - is “underwritten” by the uniqueness of the token, is visible by anyone, and therefore ownership of the attached media is guaranteed.

NFTs are created on blockchains, much like cryptocurrency. They are primarily Ethereum blockchain-based tokens but are present on other chains like Solarna, Polygon, Terra, and many more.

Non-fungible tokens are sold on crypto marketplaces (and bought exclusively with cryptocurrency), the most established and famous of which is OpenSea, but others such as Nifty Gateway, NBA Top Shot, and Decentraland host NFT trading.  

Artists and the NFT

The NFT is of particular interest to the creative arts, as it’s unique model of blockchain ownership and identification make it both a secure and trusted means of asset crediting and payment. 

• The most famous example is, of course, Beeple, who sold his digital artwork as an NFT for $69million in April 2021 at Christies, and kicked off the global splurge on NFTs. 
  

• But other artists across multiple mediums are using, and have been using, the blockchain to sell work for years, such as Pak (art), Mad Dog Jones (art), Videodrome (art, now retired), to established super-bands like Kings of Leon and DJ’s such as Steve Aoki, and even little known artists such as tamil musician Kaber Vasuki who sold a demo for 50 ETH. 
  

• Perennial super-musician and businessman Snoop Dogg has been interacting with the NFT space for about a year now, becoming a major character on “crypto twitter” under a different name. He recently revealed his true identity and bought digital land on “The Sandbox”, a platform to be used as a future meeting place, open for all players of the platform.
  

• Adidas have also stepped into land ownership on The Sandbox, and alongside other mega-brands like Nike have started moving into the NFT space through partnerships, acquisitions and avatar collections. 
  

• The computer games giant Ubisoft has started to roll out in-game tokens on the Tezos blockchain, creating unique game assets for use on their titles. 

‍How much are NFTs worth?

A common question, but one that we want to flip on its head - how much are NFTs worth to artists?

This unique form of asset ownership is (seemingly) creating more robust returns to creatives beyond a single sale. Consider the following from cointelegraph:

In 2020, there were only 13,400 artists that generated more than $50,000 (the median wage for United States workers) of yearly revenue on Spotify. 

NFTs start to look like a real opportunity — sell a song or a collectible and you can make more with one sale than you could your entire career from a streaming platform. NFTs can also provide a recurring revenue: They can be coded so that the original creator receives anywhere from 2.5% to 10% of a sale every time the token is resold.

So both ownership and the cryptography that underwrites it, plus the inclusion of recurrent resale income, has created a form of creative asset trading that gives more back to the artist than ever before. At least, in theory.  

To the consumer of course, the “worth” of art, music or creative assets is hugely subjective and still subject to market forces such as popularity, quality, and rarity, and the concept of primary (purchasing directly from the creator, referred to as “minting” the NFT) and secondary markets (buying and selling art “secondhand” on marketplaces like OpenSea) creates tiers of wealth and ownership demand that are subject to immense, sudden peaks and troughs in value. 

However, 2021 was very much the year of the NFT, and when the world's 3rd richest living artist has made their fortune from it, you can be sure of it’s lasting permanence as a form of asset value and sale. 

Creators3D Artists and their NFT adventures

Some of our artists also participate in the NFT game and here is what they had to tell about it.

NFT art is different from usual art, it has to have a particular style not necessarily hard to make, but scalable, and somehow pleasant to watch(unusual). - Mikhail

Mikhail is creating NFT art for a few of his clients. He is using Blender to create Robot like creatures with different accessories. He finds fun but also may be challenging, it depends on particular art.

I use Blender3D and Cinema4D (for render) to prepare a whole collection and I'm thinking of bonuses for byers on OpenSea. - Andrei

Andrei is creating NFT art for himself on OpenSea. He is working on a whole collection with different bonuses that might be secret coins or some sort of tickets for real life venues. He find it easy to work on OpenSea but it's very subjective and personal.

Join Mikhail and Andrei and many other professional 3D artists at Creators3D to gain knowledge and experience while getting paid!