NFTs for Art and Collectables: Primer and Outlook

Abstract

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)} are digital objects that reside on blockchains and are typically associated with unique digital media, such as images or music. A recent frenzy of popular interest has given rise seemingly overnight to a multi-billion NFT market. Individual NFTs can sell for millions or tens of millions of dollars, while creators ranging from traditional artists such as Damien Hirst and Grimes to mainstream consumer-goods companies such as Coca-Cola and Nike are producing their own NFT collections.This primer’s focus is on NFTs for art and collectables. Our aim is to give non-technical readers a basic familiarity with the technology behind NFTs, the history of their development, the current state of the NFT community and marketplace, and a notion of how NFTs might evolve in the future. We also offer a brief overview of the dynamics of traditional art markets and discuss the similarities, differences, and points of intersection in NFT markets. We hope that readers will come away from this primer with a basic understanding of how blockchains, smart contracts, and cryptographic keys work, an appreciation of some of the novel ways in which NFTs are empowering artists, a picture of the variety of dynamism of NFTs projects and communities, and possibly a hankering to own at least a fractional Bored Ape.

Non-Fungible Token Fraud: Studying security issues and improvements for NFTmarketplaces using hashing techniques

“…To enable transfers between sellers and buyers, unnamed account identifiers are set up in the blockchain. These account identifiers are represented by public addresses that are pseudonymous and consist of a random set of a fixed length of numbers and characters, which provide some level of anonymity [24].…”

When the NFT Hype Settles, What Is Left beyond Profile Pictures? A Critical Review on the Impact of Blockchain Technologies in the Art Market

“…The NFT mania has been quoted by many observers, media, and scholars alike (Allen et al 2022;Dalton 2023;Murray 2022aMurray , 2022bReyburn 2021;Tabuchi 2021). In May 2023, DappRadar (2023) cited that the NFT market has achieved a lot less volume in trading when compared to May 2021.…”

“…Dalton (2023), however, defined NFT as a special block within a blockchain network that is unique, and data stored or minted inside this block hold a one-of-a-kind digital item known as a token. Allen et al (2022) defined the ownership of an NFT as nothing more than the ability to control a string of characters on a blockchain and the authors further posit that it is mystifying for most people to understand how it is possible to attach so much monetary value to blockchain linked art. Besides Beeple's multi-million sales of a graphic file (Reyburn 2021), there were also many famed artists that joined this NFT mania.…”

Non-fungible tokens in healthcare: a scoping review

“…There are numerous examples of NFTs applications in the commercial and economic sphere (34) including in the art domain (35) and the gaming industry (36). Based on other investigations, NFTs have a wide range of applications across various industries, such as art (37), music (38), sports (39), gaming (40), and real estate (41). In the art world, NFTs have enabled artists to sell their digital art as unique, one-of-a-kind pieces, rather than selling multiple copies.…”

“…In the art world, NFTs have enabled artists to sell their digital art as unique, one-of-a-kind pieces, rather than selling multiple copies. It should be noted artists also can sell multiple copies of the same piece of art, as multiple NFTs, though (35,37). In the music industry, NFTs can be used to authenticate and sell limited edition or exclusive music content (38).…”