1/ THREAD

I’ve had a good amount of art friends ask me what’s up with all this #NFT stuff. It sounds cool but they have no idea what it means or what I’m talking about. This topic is massive so here’s a small thread with a few highlights. #Conceptart #Cryptoart

2/ NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token and it’s a token used to represent some "thing." They are not interchangeable like currency so every token represents something unique. In this case, a piece of art. They’re minted and written to a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain.

3/ In the traditional art scene, an artist can create a piece of art and sell the original as well as prints of that original at a significantly lower price. But as a digital artist, how do you define what your original is, and can it be verified?

4/ That hurdle has been very difficult for us to overcome. How do you go about selling an “original” to a collector or in the art market when it can be so easily replicated? Prints or a combination of print + mixed media have been one of our best options up to this point.

5/ NFTs provide a way to authenticate an original digital piece of art. It’s verifiable, written to the blockchain, tied to the token, and cannot be changed or altered in any way. It can only be destroyed by the owner through a process known as burning the token.

6/ When a piece of art is minted, that artwork is written to a transaction on the blockchain that can always be verified by anyone and show ownership. This process creates an original digital asset, a token, that can be sold, traded, collected, or burned.

7/ Art can be minted as a single edition or a limited series and there are many platforms that can do it. A few of them are @SuperRare, @KnownOrigin_io, @AsyncArt, and @makersplaceco. They each offer something a little different in their approach.

8/ @AsyncArt, for example, allows you to mint an art piece with programmable layers. People can acquire the layers and change how the main art looks based on the presets that you create. Multiple people can own the layers making the piece more interactive. https://twitter.com/CryptoBeverage/status/1336120810075869195

9/ There are some cool metaverse / virtual world projects that are built on the blockchain where these NFTs can be brought in and placed, showcased, or whatever the collector wants to do with them. https://twitter.com/KristyGlas/status/1334521358898880515

10/ Some even have a VR option that you can easily jump into and explore. Here are a few to checkout @SomniumSpace, @cryptovoxels, @decentraland https://twitter.com/decentraland/status/1341885624559804417

11/ Some people create lovely physical setups where they can showcase and swap the art on display like this beauty from @jpegdigital https://twitter.com/jpegdigital/status/1340380601187266561

12/ Here are a few shots I took at the @MuseumofCrypto and @GalleryofCrypto located in SomniumSpace. Loved checking out the exhibits in VR showcasing
@beeple
@hackatao
@muratpak
@trevorjonesart
@twistedvacancy
@frenetikvoid
@arc4g
and many other amazing crypto artists.

13/ I've been in the crypto space a long time now and it wasn't until this year that the stream between crypto and art really started to converge and gain momentum.

14/ This space gets excited about connecting the dots in ways that previously went unseen and building a community of support, excitement, and genuine curiosity around it. Imagine the new artists that will blossom from here and what type of work they will create.

15/ Overall this feels like an uncharted frontier and I find that exciting and refreshing. There are a ton of other markets that NFTs are disrupting and I’m sure there are threads on those topics. I'm only sharing a small slice for all my digital art friends that were curious.

16/ A simple way to look at NFTs is “seen by many, owned by one.”

If you're looking for a good space adventure with vibrant colors and a sense of wonder, I have two scifi illustrations up that are open for bids on @SuperRare.

Check them out at You can find me at https://superrare.co/jarlanperez 

#Conceptart #NFT #Cryptoart