We’re OnlyFans but for Art
“Ethereum is rising and there is nothing you can do about it.” Cindy blurted out in disdain as she flung her hair backwards, akin to an Anime scene. We rapidly cut our camera to the 6th and then the 9th positions, which allowed us confirm for certain, that it was a $3,445 wig — exactly the current price of 1 Ether — that she had just flung about in the wind, in a cute display of freelancer pride. What a time to be alive! Beautiful.
She had put Rabiu in his place, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. We had our shot for the day and we quickly packed up our equipment for our next gig. That was perfect a scene enough for us.
This is a peculiar story, because of the interesting times we now live in. You may have expected this article to focus on the budding industry of OnlyFans, but no, not today. This is an insight into the new air that a handful of creators are now allowed to breathe — no restrictions. NFTs are what this air is called, and it has allowed many artists and designers earn in ways they may never have imagined.
Yes, Non-Fungible Tokens
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is not a fancy name by any standards, but at least it is named better than the Grace Digital Ecoxgear Ecoxbt, which is an ergonomic low budget waterproof speaker. Non-Fungible Tokens are quite descriptive by their name, and simply put, they are Tokens that are Non-Fungible. SO, what are Tokens? You may ask.
What are Tokens?
A Token in this sense is a denomination of a Cryptocurrency. So, more than one token can be called, Tokens.
Adjust your stool for a bit, and let us view this from a currency point-of-view which most of us are used to, a token becomes the denomination of a digital currency (or cryptocurrency), like Ethereum or Bitcoin, much like 1, 2, 5, … 100 are denominations of the US Dollar ($). Each denomination of the US Dollar can be broken down into smaller bits like we do to get Cents that add up to denominations of a Dollar. Is all that a bit confusing? See below:
The US Dollar gives $1, $2, $3, … and so on, while a cryptocurrency gives 1 token, 2 tokens, 3 tokens, … and so on.
In the case of tokens however, we have an Open sea of them. There are so many digital currencies in the world today and many of them are being traded on cryptocurrency exchanges living on the internet. For example, Bitcoin — which is a cryptocurrency star-boy — shown here on Coinbase, has a market capital of $1 trillion. A trillion Dollars is quite large by any financial standard.
Focusing on Bitcoin (BTC) as a foundation, we see that it has about 18.7 million tokens currently in circulation, and each of these, can be broken down into smaller units called Sats — short for the mystery Satoshi.
1 Bitcoin token = 100 million Satoshis
That means that, 1 Satoshi which may seem very worthless in comparison to a Bitcoin token (1 Satoshi = 0.000000001 BTC) isn’t too bad, if we look into it carefully.
Let us stack 10,000 Sats on the table. Oh look! we now have roughly $5.6 on our hands. What can we buy with that? Definitely not a $3,000+ wig, yet. Let’s check back a few more years with this calculator to see how much more (or less) these Sats are worth.
So, what makes a Token Non-Fungible?
Great question! So, Non-Fungible Tokens are unique in their own way, such that unlike cryptocurrencies which are tradable (or fungible) in exchanges, NFTs are not. They cannot be traded in exchanges, as of current knowledge, making them “non-fungible.”
The main reason for the absence of this feature is because they are non identical assets, so they cannot be traded with something equivalent to them, unless we decide to barter Yams for Oranges, which is totally ancient and fine in every way.
So person A (let’s call him Jack) creates a Non-Fungible Token and places the NFT in a secure market place — complete with ownership details, etc. Person B, who we popularly know as Ofiare rushes to that market place and puts in a tangible bid for that NFT. Ofiare waits for a few days for someone to outbid him, and no one comes close. Ofiare is automatically rewarded with that NFT, as he forfeits the tokens for which that Non-Fungible item was traded. It is a simple formula.
Token for NFT. Very simple!
This fantastic community trade can happen in a minute or less. Ofiare just has to stock up on some tokens, the same way a buyer would withdraw some cash from the bank in ‘real life’ and head to a store. This is real life.
How do artists benefit from NFTs?
Artists have everything to gain, because a free-for-all market place has just been created on the internet. There are collectors of art in the world, and there are creators of the same. Markets bring creators and collectors together.
The creator only needs to:
1. Create art.
2. Get a gallery (or marketplace) willing to showcase their creation.
3. Set a price for their art.
4. Watch the bids come in.
There are a few intricacies and in-between actions that make each item on this 4-stepped list possible and more effective, but they all can be learned by the ask.
The collector only needs to:
- Get a digital wallet (Metamask, etc) and fill it with coins.
- Go shopping.
Conclusively, Great things happen when demand meets supply.
How much can be made from NFT sales?
A mesmerizing digital art just sold for 69 million on Christie’s, how about that?
On February 25th, bidding opened at Christie’s for a collage of past works from the popular 3D artist, Mike Winklemann, also known as Beeple. By the end of the cycle on March 11, 2021, bids had reached 69.3 million dollars. That is an example of the the scale of possibility this medium carries.
Other artists on different market places currently sell works within various averages, while Beeple is the reigning unicorn. Thankfully, there is no limit to the cost of what can be bought, sold or owned.
The life-changing aspect
Artists who in the past earned less than $50 for their time consuming works, now sell the same items to collectors like Vignesh Sundaresan, also known as MetaKovan (who put in 42,329.453 ETH tokens for the Beeple NFT). The obvious upside is that the sale price is considerably higher, and by a wider margin.
A quick glance through the front page of a popular marketplace, Foundation, shows art currently bid at 33 ETH with 5 hours still left at the auction.
Before now, the same art being sold would have perhaps been, ‘valueless’ digital art in the artist’s portfolio. You can check the current value of 1 ETH (or Ethereum token) to the US Dollar to understand the scale of things.
So what is Ethereum?
Draped in Ether
Raw data from the Ethereum website is available here, and data from the Ethereum whitepaper is available here for research for people interested in going deeper. In a nutshell, Ethereum is the most common token used to price and purchase NFTs. It is an Altcoin with such a feature built into it — but it is neither the only Altcoin nor the only token that can be used to bid and collect NFTs. This is written in hopes that you will not ask what an Altcoin is, as we try to stay on track.
Interestingly, the rise of NFT trade has brought many benefits to artists and designers, one of which is a new clothing.
Before now, many creative artists and designers have not been able to earn up to what they MAY have the opportunity to now earn, through the sale of their art. Most of them were very easy prey for clients and enthusiasts looking for free or cheap work. The new drapery they now have is the shelter from the cold environment of continued exploitation. Read more on how the sale of NFTs is helping Nigerian artists earn more, in this article published on NASDAQ.
Any creator can make and sell from their bedroom, on their own terms and with their set prices.
NFTs have done for the art world, what OnlyFans did for many content creators; what paid streaming did for Artistes; and what E-commerce is doing for product sales. Artists can now get a wig or Prada jacket on their own accord, we can now say it is the creator’s economy again. Or can we?
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Be sure to drop a few comments below
