In early March 2021 the digital artist Mike Winklemanm, better known as Beeple, sold a collage titled Everydays: The First 5000 Days as an NFT at Christie’s for $69 million (nice). We put up a poll on @finmemeassociates asking if you would (or have) purchased an NFT and also asking for your thoughts/opinions/experience in the space. 543 of you responded with 8% saying yes and 92% saying no.
Through this poll Edouard Bessire reached out and gave me a pretty detailed response to help me better understand the space. He is one of the founders of Cryptograph, a player in the NFT space. He was also kind enough to partake in a Q&A with you, which you can find below. First, let me tell you a little more about Cryptograph to get a better understanding of his background and company.
Cryptographs are one-of-a-kind digital collectibles created by artists that support good causes forever. Thanks to blockchain technology, each Cryptograph is 100% owned by the purchaser and cannot be forged or destroyed. A Cryptograph is a digital legacy. Cryptographs are sold at auction and then traded by collectors on the platform, raising money for their creators and good causes every time they are transacted. Thus, every time a transaction occurs in the future a portion of that goes back to the artist/cause it was created for. For example, the seller will get 90% of the proceeds and 10% will get sent to the artist/cause that it was created by/for. Below is Paris Hilton’s artwork of her cat that was auctioned off on Cryptograph:
A: You don’t need to rely on any third party. NFTs is peer-to-peer electronic digital ownership, the same way Bitcoin is peer-to-peer electronic money. The only person you need to trust is whoever created the NFT you are buying.
A: Or will they merge before bursting together?
A: NFTs are a means of self expression. What you wear, what you drive, what you put on your wall, pictures you post on IG, these are all ways we express ourselves (or brag). Soon, I will go on your online profile and also see what you own. We are increasingly living more in the digital realm (social media already brought the social construct online), NFTs bring ownership and value to the internet.
A:For an art NFT: Emotional value + beauty + social capital + scarcity + demand
For collectible or a ticket NFT: all the above + utility value
Then soon, you’ll be able to add IP rights attached to the NFT, and then (depending on regulations), adding income/royalties attached to the NFT.
A: Not tax advice, but in the UK as long as it can’t be considered a security (if you get income from it for example that would be a security) I believe then it is treated as an intangible asset like other cryptocurrencies. Value to be re-assessed yearly and capital gains may apply when sold.
A: Don’t buy an NFT if you don’t trust the artist or/and there is no legal framework that protects you from the creator printing like Powell in 2020. On @crytographco, every creator must agree to the terms of use and cannot do more NFT with that content (they give a perpetual, exclusive copyright license to the NFT owner)
A: Depends on the platform. On the Cryptograph platform, the creator extends us a license to create and display the NFT, make it available for trading to collectors, and to extend a perpetual and exclusive sublicense that travels with the NFT as it changes owner forever. We are exploring a lot of new models, like attaching commercial rights to the NFT so the owner can commercialize the art. In short, pretty much anything is possible, the question is what sticks.
A: 1. Get a blockchain wallet address
Mint a non-fungible-token, with the key information about your art (title, creator, number of “prints”, hash of the media..)
Attach whatever intellectual property/copyright to it legally (e.g. terms of use)
A: Depends on the terms of use of the NFT. If you create the NFT and sell it saying you won’t license the content, then no. Otherwise, yes.
A: First, every normal person should invest in crypto. Second, NFTs are the beginning of a new internet based on value and ownership, rather than on likes, views and ads. Soon when I will go to your online profile, I won’t see just pictures with captions or 140 characters though pieces. I will see digital content you own. Your own digital collection that cannot be counterfeited and that you can curate, share and trade/make money from. As we increasingly live, meet and interact digitally, culture markets will become the new social media.
A: You’re screwed unless the content is stored somewhere else. That’s why NFTs should have decentralized storage so that any owner can store the content of their NFTs and share it. This can be as simple as a P2P torrent link.
A: Sure, if you wire me enough $$$ I’ll send you one. More seriously, this is one of the main features platforms like ours are working on. The ones that do already are “centralized” (you send them money and they control the token minting, not very “blockchain”). On a decentralized platform like Cryptograph you need to first buy crypto from your dollars, and then buy the NFT with the crypto. But that will change soon, in a way that stays decentralized ;)
A: I think it will be huge. Imagine any in-game asset being an NFT you can trade, and move between games even. It can also be a way to finance the development of your game: Show your vision for the game, release assets on the blockchain that people can buy and trade, use that money to build the game. And we’re just scratching the surface of what can be done here.
The Tech Moguls and Celebrities Riding the NFT Hype and Cashing In (The Observer)
Entertainment Veterans Team Up with Digital Auctioning Platform Cryptograph (Flaunt)
Paris Hilton sells Ethereum-based artwork for $17,000 (Decrypt)
Ashton Kutcher Sets His Art On Fire for Charity (TMZ)
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