Over the past few years, blockchain and cryptocurrencies have gradually changed the world and impacted many different industries, but few industries have been more affected than the art, music, and digital industries. At the center of this change is Ethereum, a decentralized blockchain that has since gained prominence and formed the basis of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These NFTs will revolutionize consumption, creating digital content experiences and creating new value propositions for products for both producers and consumers. Therefore, NFTs not only reshape people's concept of ownership, but also disrupt traditional monetization models for artists.
Smart contracts in Ethereum, one of the most popular BPs, enable the activation and sale of NFTs. Even if you don't know much about Ethereum, you can check its current value with the real-time Ethereum price index. It is worth mentioning that the Ethereum blockchain is highly programmable and scalable. This means that developers can create various types of decentralized applications (dApps) that are not limited to remittances.
What are NFTs?
Before we dig into how Ethereum is disrupting art, music, and ownership, let's start by understanding what NFTs are. Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that is generated and managed through the use of blockchain technology, and the most popular types currently include non-fungible currency, which is a unique identifier that establishes ownership of an original item or content. Contains NFTs, which are tokens. Therefore, in contrast to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum itself, which refer to a large number of identical tokens or products that can be exchanged, NFTs are unique and undeniably singular.
Artwork, music, videos, virtual real estate, and even in-game assets are all examples of products that can be tokenized using NFTs. Every NFT has location details within a distributed ledger and contains content that can demonstrate its legitimacy and ownership. This allows creators to sell their works directly to users, and in this way creators can guarantee that the original copy of their work will not be doubled, but they will not be able to duplicate copies, You can view it online.
Ethereum’s journey to becoming the NFT marketplace of choice
Technically, NFTs can be minted and traded on other blockchains, but Ethereum has become the most popular blockchain for NFT sales. This can be attributed to Ethereum's smart contracts, which allow transactions in digital assets to be initiated, executed, and completed without the use of a third party. Automated asset transfer is the norm in smart contracts, where code within the contract contains terms and conditions and transfers ownership when certain requirements, such as payment, are met.
Ethereum's ERC-721 token standard was created for NFTs and provides application programmers with the ability to implement innovative tokens on top of Ethereum. This has given rise to many decentralized NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, Rare Abilities, and Foundation where artists, musicians, and creators can upload their work for sale. The marketplaces mentioned above use Ethereum's blockchain technology to verify the ownership of assets, verify the authenticity of items, and execute transactions.
The world of art and NFTs
The emergence of NFTs can be considered one of the biggest changes in the art community in recent years. In the past, artists used the services of galleries and auction houses to sell their work, but most artists had less income because most of the money went to intermediaries. Artists can sell their art directly to consumers through NFTs through a decentralized platform, allowing them to get a larger share of the total sales and have more control over the price and where their work is sold.
Artists also have the opportunity to generate royalties with the help of NFTs. A smart contract means that the artist can predefine certain terms and conditions, so that on future resales the NFT will automatically pay the artist a certain percentage. This means that even if the NFT is resold, the original artist has the opportunity to earn more income from viewing the work, something rarely experienced in the art market.
NFTs and music
There's always been an issue with artist compensation in the music industry, and it's even more so with the introduction of music streaming, where artists earn a few cents just for listening. Additionally, musicians receive a new model of using NFTs to earn money with their work and maintain ownership of their materials.
With the help of NFTs, artists can offer individual items such as songs, albums, concerts, festival tickets, and meetings with performers. For example, singers can drop singles or albums as NFTs, giving fans the opportunity to own limited versions of musical items. Some artists sell the rights to their sounds and music tracks in the form of NFTs, giving the NFT owner the right to receive revenue when the music is played or used for commercial purposes.
Kings of Leon were one of the first major bands to incorporate NFTs into their music collection. The band released the album as an NFT in March 2021. Collectors who invested in the NFT version of the album received an early preview of the album, an autographed vinyl copy of the album, and tickets to a nearby concert.
Musicians can write songs and upload them directly to the Ethereum blockchain, breaking out intermediaries such as record companies, music streaming sites, and event promoters, and in the process empowering musicians to capture even more of the value they create. Become.
NFTs and digital ownership
However, thanks to NFTs, the traditional way of owning assets is changing dramatically. In a pre-NFT world, owning a digital file often meant having access to an original copy of something, with the full knowledge that many copies might be made. I was there. Still, thanks to NFTs, you can truly own a piece of something digital, making it unique and valuable in ways that were previously only possible with real-world objects.
And all this change isn't just limited to art and music. For example, at Decentraland and The Sandbox, users buy, sell, and develop virtual land parcels in the form of NFTs. Such virtual real estate is also owned outright by the purchaser and can be built, sold, or leased as the case may be, just like physical land.
This approach has also been adopted in the gaming industry by using NFTs to give players actual ownership of in-game goods. Traditional games allow users to purchase some items and skins, and these items and skins are usually built into the game. Specifically, NFT players can buy and sell assets that have tangible value in the game world, and even trade with other players in various games.
Conclusion: different opportunities
Uniquely created on the Ethereum platform, NFTs are revolutionizing the way people view art, music, and ownership in the digital world. Using blockchain, NFTs allow artists, musicians, and creators to establish new sources of income, expand their markets, and maintain copyright on their work. Opportunities for further development and transformation of the NFT market, as well as improvements to the Ethereum platform, will ultimately contribute to constant innovation in the approach to creating, selling and owning digital assets in the future.
Disclaimer: No part of the story was written by The Signal editorial staff.
