This content has been created by Pierre Bourque on behalf of Team Blockchain, an independent platform providing insight and expertise on Blockchain, Tokenomics and the Crypto market.
A brief history of art creation would start with cave paintings and end with the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of today. NFTs are a nifty trick of tech wizardry that attaches provenance, transparency, and immutability to an individual item and posts it to the blockchain. For our purposes here, a work of digital art. More specifically, digital crypto art, which loosely translates to subject matter related to the crypto eco-system. It could be symbols, people, events, or assorted imagery pertaining to the cultural phenomenon of the crypto community encompassing blockchain, DeFi, tokens & coins etc.
The art of bitcoin
In my case, I’ve been creating art for just about all my life. First with crayons, pencils & pens. Then, with charcoal, oils, & acrylic. More recently, with the tools available to a digital nomad such as my laptop and mobile phone, along with the phone’s camera and the laptop’s apps.
It’s a process that sometimes transfers from the mind’s eye to the screen automagically, and at other times can take multiple tries - to the point that I will more often than not throw out and delete a work and instead work on something totally different. It is a process and journey - both for the individual piece of art and the years of activity, development, and progress from one creative medium to another. At its best, the journey itself should be its own reward, regardless of eventual financial outcome along the way.
My journey, such as it is, led me to crypto art back in 2013/14 when I joined the board of the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, alongside heavyweights like Anthony di Iorio (co-founder of Ethereum), Michael Perklin (a brilliant mind now @ ShapeShift), and Stu Hoegner (now general-counsel & Bitfinex & Tether). I could feel the nascent pulse of a societal earthquake and I wanted to chronicle the people and milestones along the way. The crypto press picked up on my work and I am grateful for coverage in Bitcoin Magazine, Coindesk, Benzinga, and Yahoo Finance, among others. So, here I am, seven years into the crypto art scene and that makes me an ‘OG’ to those now redefining the digital art scene and making NFTs such a vital part of its current vitality. ‘OG’, as in ‘original’ - I like that a lot.
But while I may be a crypto art original, I am admittedly an NFT newbie. And my learning curve has both been educational and rewarding. For starters, I’ve learned there is a burgeoning NFT art community that spans the globe filled with exciting art creators and engaged collectors investing millions of dollars into the space. This was, at the last count, half a billion dollars to date, according to the website ‘Crypto Art’, the bible of this nascent industry. Yet, though heady, these are still early days for the crypto art community. The world has barely taken notice. Yet.
That offers opportunity to the enterprising digital artist to get in and join the groundswell of activity. I’d say it is best to get in early, make the pro-forma mistakes we all make when trying something totally new. And learn from them as soon as possible. The masses are coming, you’ll want to be ready with experience, best practices, and a network of like-minded community participants.
Some things to consider:
- Find out about the various art platforms and find the one best suited to your style, activity, & price points. Sites like Opensea, Rarible, SuperRare, Foundation, NiftyGateway and MakersPlace will all cross your radar at some point.
- Learn about costs such as ‘gas’ fees, which relate to what you will pay to ‘mint’ your artwork and list it on the blockchain. You’ll encounter other fees, including commissions paid to the platform operators, such as the 15% I pay at Foundation.
- How will you market yourself to create collector interest? Because even in these early days, there are now thousands of creators actively creating NFTs. That’s a lot of competition and a lot of noise you will need to deal with. Don’t be shy - use the tools at your disposal to talk up your crypto art NFTs.
- Will you be selling just the digital iteration of your artwork or will you attach a physical version as well? You’ll have both options.
- Will you know who’s buying your artwork? That’s hard to say at this point. It could be someone known in the community. A real name attached to a real person. Or it could simply be someone anonymously hiding behind his/her Ethereum wallet.
WhaleShark - the legend
One of the cool things about creating an NFT for your digital crypto art is that you get to determine a royalty paid back to you each time one of your artworks is sold and resold in the secondary market. In short, not only will you get paid when you initially sell your artwork, but you’ll get that royalty - say, 10% - each, and every time your artwork is resold by each collector who buys that artwork. For example, you sell your artwork today for USD2,000 you get that less the 15% commission to the platform, netting you USD1,700 (less gas fees). Then, at some point in the future, that same artwork resells for USD10,000 and your 10% royalty embedded into the contract posted to the blockchain automatically gives you another USD1,000. Even better, let’s say sometime later that same artwork again re-sells for USD50,000 and, yes, you’ll receive another USD5,000. And so on through the life of the artwork. That is a massive shift in economic benefit to the artist, one that has never before been seen for an original artwork. All thanks to blockchain technology. Or more specifically, all thanks to NFTs and the crypto art community that has breathed new life into the art world.
I’ll close out by saying I think the excitement and exuberance percolating through the NFT community resembles those early can-do days of the Internet itself back in the mid-nineties. Or those early days of crypto back in 2013-14, when I came into this story.
and then 