NFT Style Illustration - Year-end - Do you have any good-looking 2023 desktop calendars to recommend ah!

An article to understand: What is NFT? Why do digital collages sell for tens of millions of dollars?

Author: Prof. Michael Mak

A few days ago, a piece of news broke the coin circle, financial circle, literary circle and collection circle - a digital collage was auctioned at a sky-high price of 69.3 million US dollars (about 450 million yuan), and NFT has entered the public's field of vision and aroused a lot of people's interest. This article organizes and summarizes some of the more important events and knowledge points related to NFT, and I believe it can answer a lot of your questions about NFT, so if you want to know more about it, please read on.

NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is a digital cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which we are all familiar with. However, NFT is different from BTC, ETH and other cryptocurrencies. There are two major types of cryptocurrencies on the blockchain, namely, native coins and tokens, the former (e.g., BTC) has its own main chain, and is a native "coin" based on the public chain, while the latter (e.g., NFT) depends on the existing blockchain and uses smart contracts to record the ledger. The latter (e.g. NFT) is attached to an existing blockchain and uses smart contracts to keep a ledger, essentially a proof of entitlement. Tokens can be further divided into Fungible Tokens and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

Homogenized tokens are tokens that can be substituted for each other and can be split nearly indefinitely. If a bitcoin and another bitcoin, or the same version of the two equal face value of the Chinese yuan, there is no difference in essence, a bitcoin can be subdivided to 8 decimal places, 0.00000001 bitcoins, that is, 1 satoshi. The non-homogenized tokens have the following characteristics:

Non-interchangeable:

A NFT is not equal to another NFT, their value is not the same, there will not be two identical NFT, each NFT is unique.

Inseparable:

NFTs cannot be divided into smaller denominations like Bitcoin. They can only exist as a whole item.

Verifiable:

The benefit of storing historical ownership data on the blockchain is that items such as digital artwork can be traced back to the original creator, which allows the work to be authenticated without the need for third-party verification.

The top application scenarios for NFT currently include gaming, digital assets, identity, decentralized finance (DeFi) and collectible memorabilia.

Gaming:

NFT is popular in the gaming industry because it solves some inherent problems. For example, some games prohibit the sale of rare features and accessories, such as weapons and skins. However, with NFT, these features can be easily transferred and used in different games. As a result, NFT can help boost the game economy.

Digital Assets:

For example, Decentraland, a decentralized virtual reality platform based on the ethereum blockchain, enables users to create, experience, and monetize content and applications on it.

Authentication:

Due to the uniqueness of NFT, it can be used as a credential to verify identity, including identity credentials, medical reports, etc. Digital creators can also turn their products into NFT for copyright marking to avoid theft and counterfeiting.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi):

NFTs have great potential for application in the rapidly growing world of DecentralizedFinance (DeFi). For example, they can be used to pledge fine art, real estate, or other valuable assets as collateral for loans, or as financial contracts for insurance, stock options, or bonds that can be traded as products on secondary markets. While NFTs have been around for a few years now, it's likely that the growth of DeFi has made them more attractive as digital assets with a range of applications.

Collectible Memorabilia:

NFT has brought a new way to play in the collectible world, and traditional professionals are now looking at digital assets as well.NFT, like other cryptocurrencies, has records of who owns what stored on the blockchain's ****enjoyment ledger. These records cannot be falsified because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. So in addition to scarcity, NFT adds a layer of security to the assets in the collection.NFT can also contain smart contracts that can give artists a cut of future sales.

Value of NFT:

As with all assets, supply and demand are key market factors that drive prices. Because of the scarcity of NFTs and the high demand for them from gamers, collectors, and investors, there will always be people in the market willing to spend a lot of money for them. If an item is very popular, its value goes up. And the fewer quantities of that item there are, the more exclusive it becomes, which is also likely to drive up its value.

Traditional works of art, such as paintings, are valuable because they are unique. You can take a picture of a particular painting or buy a reproduction, but there will always be only one original painting.

But digital files can be copied easily and endlessly. One of the more awkward things about virtual digital artwork is that because it can be a picture or a video, it can be downloaded, copied and shared an infinite number of times for countless people to see. And for a digital artwork, the replica doesn't look any different from the original, so how does that ensure its value and scarcity? And what is the point of people buying it?

Then came NFT, which is a "unique" asset in the digital world. With NFT, artworks can be "tagged" to create a digital ownership certificate that can be bought and sold. Therefore, NFT can be considered as a certificate of ownership for virtual assets.

The NFT is designed to provide something that cannot be copied: ownership of the work (although the artist can still retain copyright and reproduction rights, as with physical artwork). In terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original.

So the significance of buying NFT art depends on its target audience, of which there are three main kinds: the artist (artist), the mere buyer (buyer), and the collector (collector).

As an artist, it is likely that the artist is interested in NFT work, and NFT is also known for giving the artist a way to sell their work, and the NFT creator a chance to earn royalties when the NFT work sells or changes hands. And if the work is popular, the value inflates and the creator, buyer and collector all reap the benefits.

For the simple buyer or collector, NFT can be a financial investment, a sentimental purchase, a collector's item, or a way for the buyer to feel more connected to the creator of the NFT, such as an artist or brand, representing a unique and scarce status symbol.

Additionally, some artists give buyers access to private channels on chat platforms that are only accessible to purchasers of that artist's NFTs, creating a private and exclusive club.

Would anyone really spend millions of dollars on NFT art?

Yes, and for more than a few million dollars. While it's not uncommon for art to fetch sky-high prices, the fact that an emoji GIF, image, video, or even a tweet that anyone can easily view, download, screenshot, share, and retweet online can fetch tens, hundreds, or even tens of millions of dollars really refreshes a lot of people's perceptions.

On Feb. 19, NyanCat's animated Gif of a flying rainbow kitten emoji sold for more than half a million dollars.

Then musician Grimes sold some of her digital art for more than $6 million.

Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, also auctioned off an inaugural NFT tweet, with a bid of $2.5 million.

But even after the auction, the post will remain public on Twitter. The buyer will receive a certificate digitally signed and verified by Dorsey, along with metadata about the original tweet. That data will include information such as when the tweet was posted and what the text said.

And nothing was more shocking than the digital collage that went up for auction at Christie's on March 11, which ended up selling for $69.3 million, the most expensive NFT artwork ever sold, and $15.3 million more than Monet's painting "Nymphéas" sold for in 2014.

NFT artwork that sold for sky-high prices

On March 11, a mystery buyer purchased a digital collage for $69.3 million, in an auction that has been described as a historic moment in the art world and the third-highest price ever paid for a work by a living artist. The artwork that was auctioned off was a digital collage created by artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, that contained 5,000 digital illustrations from his Everydays series - Beeple has created a painting every day for the past 13 years.

Notably, Beeple's work rarely sold for more than $100 before last October, but today's work has been able to sell for an astronomical price that has immediately set the art-collecting and fintech worlds on fire. Collector Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile bought Beeple's work for $66,666.60 last November and resold it for $6.6 million at the end of February, a 100-fold increase in value in just a few months.

Beeple, a digital artist and graphic designer, was looking for a better way to sell his work because digital art can be copied indefinitely, rendering it worthless. When a friend told him that there was a way to change that by labeling his illustrations as unique, singular works of art, Beeple listened and began researching NFT.Because of this, more and more artists are flocking to the NFT market as they seek greater success outside of the traditional art world.

There is much debate about whether Beeple's expensive work has an artistic value that matches its price, leaving aside the value of NFT itself, whose artistic value is a matter of opinion, just as in The Story of Art

"There's no such thing as art in the world, there's only the artist! "

.

Beep's work, by the way, has a gritty, straightforward appeal, full of "spectacles" and metaphors of absurd realities. Many famous politicians are the protagonists of his works (usually nude, and mutated robot bodies), Buzz Lightyear, Mickey Mouse and Pikachu and other classic cartoon characters in his works is also very "shocking", for some people can be said to be "ruined childhood "

These are the most important things you can do for your child.

The explosion of NFT artwork out of the circle has attracted more and more people to discuss or participate in it. Data from CryptoArt, an analytics platform that focuses on cryptocurrency artistry, shows that in the last month of 2020, the total volume of NFT-based artwork reached $8.2 million. Compared to the previous month's volume of only $2.6 million, this is a significant increase, with the overall market size for collectibles now valued at more than $130 billion. The growing market value and increased understanding of the NFT has transformed what people view as a simple hobby into a large financial investment.

Many well-known artists have begun to pay attention to NFT and use it in their work, suggesting that NFT is entering the mainstream. Of course, there are those who see it as hype and gimmickry, and it's spawned some puzzling "artistic expression" - in early March, an original work by famed British street-graffiti artist Banksy was burned on live TV by a group of self-professed crypto-fans after it was sold as an NFT.

'Burning paintings is also 'burning money'

The artwork, titled Morons, is a 2006 satire of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, which set a sales record in 1987; it reads:

"I can't believe you idiots are buying this stuff. this kind of stuff. (Ican'tbelieveyoumoronsactuallybuythisshit.)"

The Idiot, valued at $95,000, was originally purchased from New York's Taglialatella Gallery, but that value is now up in the air.

"Banksy's Morons"

Before burning the artwork, crypto fans digitized it on SuperFarm using blockchain technology to preserve it digitally. One of them said they specifically chose Banksy's work because he had previously shredded one of his artworks at an auction. They see this burning event as an expression of art itself and are generating a new form of artwork by creating this unique NFT.

Osian Ward, author of "The Way to See: How to Experience Contemporary Art," thinks it's a total gimmick, saying, "You can say anything is a work of art, but if you burn a Banksy piece and then have to pay money to buy it, to me, that's a cheap act of art.

Everything is NFT, so is NFT a bubble?

There's definitely an element of hype in the current spate of events regarding NFT, but the hype shows signs of fading quickly, as most of it is artificially priced. In addition, there are concerns about washtrading, where, for example, a virtual cat from CryptoKitties can be sold for 600 ETH, but there is no reason to justify it being worth that much.

"Virtual cat for sale on CryptoKitties"

Nevertheless, even if you're not interested in NFT right now, don't completely ignore it because the ecosystem is changing, and just like DeFi, NFT could be the next big thing in crypto.

What does the future hold for NFT?

While NFT is, or will soon be, bringing disruptive change to a wide range of industries, it's not without its drawbacks, and its problems stem from the very blockchain it relies on. The decentralized network is not 100% user-friendly; for example, verifying authenticity, selling, buying and storing NFT requires at least a basic understanding of blockchain technology. The problem arises when the majority of the target audience is only interested in the product and not the underlying technology, and consumption of that product must rely on knowledge of the underlying technology.

In other words, the hope for the future is that blockchain can become as mainstream as smartphones or the Internet. While most people don't know how either technically works, billions of people use them every day. And if NFT can do the same, it might create more and more value.

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It's the end of the year! Do you have any recommendations for a good 2023 calendar? That would be the B.Duck 2023 NFT-style illustrated calendar! It is too good-looking ~ calendar inside the 365 NFT style B. Duck 3D doll illustration, but also with the holiday cleverly combined together, show a different trend! Spreadsheet style binding design, one page a day, full of ceremony! NFT development history: the history of the birth of pixel avatars? Tell you something you may not believe, on June 10, 2021, #7523 crypto-punk image was auctioned for $11.75 million, you may think it's outrageous, it's not just an electronic picture, how is it possible? But heck it just really happened. Speaking of which, we have to talk about NFT. Last March, Beeple's Bored Ape series sold event let NFT art sales as well as collection of fire, now the Bored Ape series has become the general public simply can not afford to buy and can not buy the existence of, unless you are rich, but you can only through the second-hand market purchase. Many people think that this is the first project of NFT, after all, in opensea, the biggest platform of NFT transaction, boring ape is the first project. But in fact, this is not the earliest NFT, the earliest NFT appeared in 2014, is made by kevinmccoy, named Quantum, of course, this is not quite the same as the NFT project we are familiar with, and now we want to introduce you to the first NFT we are familiar with the type of NFT, NFT's first project- Cyptopunks, also known as "crypto-punks", is a project generated on the ethereum blockchain in 2017 by JOhnWATKINSON and MATThall, with 1000 unique pixel-style characters. characters. Each character is an artistic image of 24x24 pixels in size and is generated algorithmically. The images are mostly of punk-inspired boys and girls, but there are also some rarer images such as apes, zombies, and aliens. Each image has a corresponding profile, and will show their attributes, whether they can be purchased, belonging to the situation, and resale situation.NFT avatar for all NFT players, NFT image is not just a simple image, is a symbol of individuality, is a symbol of his or her eminence, is a collector's item, but also a business opportunity (here we should remind all those who see the business opportunity: the NTF purchase risk, touzi need to be cautious). Risk, touzi need to be careful) Crypto Punk, as the first NFT project, naturally has a cross-generational significance, from the initial part of the avatar is free to distribute.On June 9, 2017, as soon as the larval studio tweet was sent out, a few hundred images were claimed within five days, and on the 19th of the same month, an article titled "This ethereum-based project may change our perception of digital art" made the crypto Punks snapped up within 24 hours. The same year out there Cyptokitties (crypto-cats) but he fire is far less than crypto-punk. 2021, after four years, crypto-punk comeback, become a sought-after in opensea, to the present day has been a statue hard to find.