What's behind the (millionaire) NFT phenomenon and how the cultural market is revolutionizing
By Javi Sánchez
On March 11, 2021 a pseudonym not well known outside the digital art circuits, Beeple, became the third most quoted living artist in the world, after David Hockney and Jeffrey Koons.And he did thanks to a collage, The First 5000 Days (the first 5.000 days), that nobody can play, but everyone can see, copy or play online.You could keep a copy of the work, indistinguishable from the original, on your computer or your mobile.And yet, in an auction in Christie’s, the collage was awarded by 69.346.$ 250 (about 57 million euros).A statement from Christie’s presumed to have become the first great house in the art world to auction "the first purely digital and NFT -based work".Digital art and its sale decades.
Descifrando las siglasNFT are the initials of one of the most boring imaginable names, non-fungible tokens (something like "non-fungible chips", a denomination with which we stay the same as before) for a revolution that, today, is extendingFor the world of cryptocurrency investors, art collectors, the occasional internet guru, brands of all kinds, athletes ... The NBA has used them to sell unique digital chromes worth more than 200 million euros.Before Beeple's auction, singer Grimes - Elon Musk's partner - had sold his creations for almost five million euros.After Beeple, Twitter creator Jack Dorsy, sold his first tweet as NFT for 2.5 million euros.Leo Messi has just launched some digital works of art with the best moments of his career to sell as NFT with which he hopes to raise millions of euros.The market of these goods has gone from a few tens of millions of euros in 2020 to 2.300 million euros in the first half of 2021.And keep up.
The name is related to another of those apparently incomprehensible things on the Internet: the blockchains, of which the general public had evidence during the first goldee of the cryptodyese gold, with the Bitcoin to the head.That, simplifying a lot, they are gigantic online records that nobody (in theory) can hack or alter where changes of hand, sales and rights of their goods are pointed out: tokens, which is what is called in the slang from a bitcoin pieceUntil a digital contract.In the case of the NFT, the “non -fungible” thing comes from an old legal definition, which in our Civil Code was first written in 1889: the non -fungible goods are those unique and unique, which cannot be replaced by others.For example, Picasso's Guernica.If something happens tomorrow, it could not be replaced.There is nothing the same.The combination of both ideas (works of art/ unique objects and an online giant record of contracts, certificates and properties) is the basis of NFT.It is not necessary to understand the concept to be able to invest in them.Nor do they need to be "works of art": Jack Dorsy's tweet is the perfect example.DORSEY continues to have its Twitter account, and the buyer (Sina Estevi, a millionaire in the world of cryptodivisas based in Asia, like almost all current investors) has no more access to the tweet than to look for it on the Internet and see it.What he has, after buying the NFT, is an immutable, encrypted and unique certificate that says that Jack DORSE has sold that person to that person the property of that tweet.It would be like buying the property of Guernica to the Spanish State, but without being able to manage the picture, or take it out of the museum and, if you want to see it, you have to pay entrance and queue with the rest of the visitors.It is not something that throws back the current investors."At the moment they are almost all Asians and related to the world of cryptodivisas," says Luis Gasset, General Manager of our most veteran auction house, Ansorena."They bet, as happened with Bitcoin, that there will be a revaluation of the NFT, a market that they feed themselves".Buyers of Beeple's work, Indian billionaires based in Singapore Vignesh sundare and Anand Venkateswaran, also respond to this profile: they own one of the great platforms of the crypt world related to NFT.And what they have bought is the certificate of ownership of the work, not the work itself (which in this case also includes 5.000 smallest works of art: those Beeple was publishing daily on their social networks).
But brands also want to play a role in this world.Gucci sees "just a matter of time" entering the world (it is already experiencing with virtual shoes, digital goods of its most famous accessories and other approaches to the NFT) and Louis Vuitton recently launched a mobile video game where some of the rewards were the first30 NFT of the house.The case of the NBA indicates where the shots could go: convert the tokens into something unique, that makes a simple digital chrome (a compilation of the unrepeatable moments of the week) has the added value of exclusivity.The equivalent of going to the park to change chromos and that each chrome was unique, because in the envelope where it was bought comes a role that says that it is yours and anyone else.Until the change is registered and registered.
Because, depending on how the "contract" of the NFT is configured, the NBA or Beeple or Jack DORSEY may take an automatic percentage every time the chrome or the work of art or the tweet are reluctant;One of the greatest attractions for creators and content owners, who for once the speculation and the second -hand market can directly benefit.That is another key to the NFT revolution: everyone wants to be part of the process because everyone can see the economic benefit.NFT defenders anticipate that for artists it can be the greatest revolution from the payment of copyright.And in the current fever it is possible: Internet memes sold for four million euros one day (the case of the doge, a joke with dog dogs) and that shortly after more than 200 million euros with a cooperative with a cooperative with a cooperativeof enthusiasts distributing property.Which explains that artists consecrated as Damien Hirst have launched into adventure without hesitation without hesitation.In the case of Hirst, auctioning 10.000 colored points, each with his NFT certificate indicating who owned his work.A launch that showed that there is a pull for a while: more than 64 were presented at the auction.000 possible buyers when they were only on sale 10.000 dots.At the moment, as happened with Bitcoin a few years ago, the NFT is a feverish phenomenon: everyone wants to sign up, the advantages are evident to all parties, and the beast is fed by the investors themselves.Gasset stressed that, in the case of buyers of Beeple's work, free advertising for them (remember, owners of a NFT sale platform) already worth a good part of what they had paid for the work.
Aprender a convivirFor Christie’s, that auction was also a good blow of effect.One of the promises associated with NFT is its disruptive character: a world in which gallery owners.Reality, as we have seen in these months, may have a bit of both parties.We had the best example at this year's strange Oscar ceremony, where the organization planned to pay tribute to the late actor Chadwick Boseman.Among the ideas that were adopted for the night of the ceremony was a bag with gifts for the attendees that included the option to participate in the auction of a three -dimensional bust of the actor with a golden digital layer.If the idea was already a doubtful taste, the result would not disregard a John Waters movie.That brilliant virtual head of the late Boseman was auctioned for a million euros, of which 100.000 would go to the pocket of the creator of the figure, the artist Andre O'Shea ... Until it was discovered that the author's figure was not even the work of the artist, but that he had bought it in a digital figures store, for about 40euros, then add the gold.The auction was immediately suspended.A notice to navigators that demonstrates that in the NFT everything that shines is not gold.It has passed more occasions: complaints that Banksy has sold virtual works by NFT, which have had to be denied by the elusive artist;or the occasional case in which the NFT certified that someone had sold something that was not originally owned by the seller.For Gasset, the NFT arrived to stay: "We cannot know at what speed they will develop, but in the next five or ten years we will continue talking about them in the art world".In the case of brands, the added difficulty is another.At the moment, some such as Coca-Cola have held NFT auctions in collaboration with artists, but the works already demonstrated one of the inherent problems of putting art and product in the same bag: they are small clips, something with which you cannot interactor use.
What explains why luxury firms are taking it easy.Currently, launching the nifties (the pronunciation they have given the acronym on the Internet) consists in little more than selling a digital image or video without greater use in the physical world.Meanwhile, fashion marks have been looking for years to provide added value to the digital phenomenon.Gucci recently sold virtual sneakers of augmented reality through the Wanna application (specialist with which other well -known firms have already worked).For less than nine euros it was possible to acquire a unique design, without correspondence in the real world, and see how we would remain through the mobile camera.But it was another phenomenon that indicated the brand (and the rest) what could be a good way to proceed.Roblox is a virtual world valued at about 40.000 million euros, inhabited by about 200 million users, which has its own currency and economy, and where the purchase of “cosmetics” is common: accessories that distinguish one player from another.There Gucci launched his own spring market with some of his most famous bags a few months ago, which were sold for about 10 euros.But the surprise came after.Part of the users initiated an escalation of guess that led some of these bags will exceed the real referents: a Dionysus with Abejita, which today can be bought in the physical world for 2.590 euros, resorted to more than 4.300 euros.The bags were not registered as NFT, but they can be an indicative of where the world of luxury can enter the phenomenon.Louis Vuitton has already opted for video games, either with his own title or designing skins for worldwide titles such as League of Legends.The other option is to combine both worlds, associate NFT to the real product.Something that is already being done with pictures (where the physical object is accompanied by the digital certificate) because, remember: here the important thing is the certificate.
