Brandon’s Drawings
Everyone is excited about minting and selling NFT crypto art on platforms like Rarible, OpenSea and Mintable. But there are big concerns including the impact on the environment, ethereum gas fees and copyright theft. I’ll cover six (maybe seven) problems I see right now for artists tempted to create, list and sell their own non-fungible tokens. ARTISTS SHOULD NOT TOUCH NFT’S UNTIL THEY WATCH THIS VIDEO!!! ***Here is a link to one of the best books to learn the basics of cryptocurrencies and blockchains (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases). h ***Non-Fungible Tee Shirt: Z Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:35 Environmental Concerns 3:17 Unrealistic Expectations 5:13 Gas Fees 5:52 Little Support on Platforms 6:42 Copyright Theft 8:13 Crowded and Unorganized Platforms 8:38 Bonus Problem Watch Next: How to sell NFT Crypto Art on Rarible.com: I How to Apply to Sell NFT’s on SuperRare: Y Get more Blender and 3D content on my website (you can subscribe to my e-mail list to) at: htpps://brandonsdrawings.com Instagram: / Facebook: t Twitter: t ArtStation: s Coming Soon: My next video will be a Blender artist showcase of up-and-coming Blender artists. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it. #nft #cryptoart #nonfungibletoken #brandonsdrawings #digitalart #digitalartist #opensea #rarible #superrare
Please watch or at least listen to this video until the end BEFORE you jump into selling Non-Fungible Token crypto art. I recently made two instructional videos on how to create and list NFT crypto art.
I made these videos because, like many, I was excited about the possibilities that non-fungible tokens present for digital artists. But since I made those videos, I’ve had the opportunity to hear a lot of feedback from artists and I’ve looked deeper at some of the biggest problems relating to NFT’s and there are some big ones.
I’ll cover the six biggest issues I currently see with NFT cryptoart… in an effort to offer a more balanced understanding of them. You may have heard that NFT’s are bad for the environment. When I first heard that, I didn’t comprehend how me pressing some buttons on a keyboard could significantly affect the environment.
But I did some more research and will try to explain the complex problem as best I can as I understand it. NFT’s are created, bought and sold primarily on the Ethereum blockchain network Blockchain technology uses a huge network of decentralized computers to authenticate and authorize NFT transactions.
The entire network was designed to be “decentralized” meaning no single entity, business or government controls the network. Instead, when a transaction needs to be processed, miners operating computers on the network compete to solve super complicated equations.
I don’t pretend to understand exactly how this works but when a miner’s computer solves the equation, it authenticates the transaction independent of a centralized authority. The miner is rewarded for participation with Ethereum which is charged to the transaction creator through what is called a gas fee.
This is intentionally and by design extremely inefficient. There are thousands or more computers around the world working as fast as they can in competition to solve an equation… but only one computer actually will.
The other computers – often massive farms of computers strung together – burned through electricity for nothing. Then the computers all look to solve the next equation. They run constantly. Meanwhile, tons of electricity is being wasted all over the world and the huge increase in NFT activity has compounded the waste a LOT! And many of these NFT’s that are being created will never be bought by anyone….
I’ll get to that problem next. Just a reminder, most electricity is still created by burning fossil fuels….aka carbon emissions. There is a glimmer of hope. The current Ethereum network as of March 2021 uses what’s known as a “proof of work” verification.
That’s the process I just described where computers are constantly racing against each other It is planned for Ethereum to transition to a “proof of stake” method which instead requires users to lock up some of their Ethereum temporarily to complete the transaction.
This is how the NBA Top Shot network functions now. I’m in no way claiming to fully understand the technical details of this but the point is that someday, hopefully soon, the Ethereum network will be more efficient… which means it won’t be responsible for as much wasted electricity.
It also means it will be less expensive to use. There seems to be a debate as to how much electricity is being wasted because of NFT’s. Although it’s certainly a lot, it’s likely those super computers would be burning up electricity if they weren’t racing to mine Ethereum.
Cryptocurrencies in general have this same wasteful effect. Every time someone transfers Bitcoin, computers are humming away to verify transactions in this ridiculously wasteful system. But, I am trying to call it like it is.
There is a legitimate impact this technology currently has on the environment and NFT’s are a growing portion of that impact. The second problem that’s become glaring to me is that a lot of artists, and even non-artists.
.. are expecting to mint their token, pay their gas and have rich buyers lining up to bid on their work. Most who’ve tried their hand at selling NFT’s will attest this is absolutely not the case. NFT’s might open opportunities for digital art to be bought and sold.
.. but that doesn’t mean it’s going to instantly cause someone to buy your art when they wouldn’t have considered it before. The artists who are making money selling NFT’s are, for the most part, artists who have already had a huge fan base.
And this makes sense. Before NFT’s, rich collectors paid outrageous prices for certain famous artists’ paintings. But they wouldn’t have paid that if you or I painted something, right? The same goes for NFT’s.
The other group of artists that are seeing successful sales are those who’ve gotten exclusive listing deals… with big marketplaces like Nifty Gateway, SuperRare and others. I would say this is very similar to a musician who signs a record deal.
A company (Yes, a company….so much for decentralization)… is willing to push an artist’s work at an auction in exchange for a big cut. Artists who get these deals are again, either already well followed.
.. or have really lucked out because someone at one of these marketplaces decided to give them a chance. In the music industry there are plenty of very talented musicians who can’t get record deals while an arguably less talented artist is signed by a big company.
This NFT market system seems very similar to that from my perspective. The artist who’s not listed on an exclusive market, like the musician without a record deal… is going to have to work extremely hard to market their own work and convince someone of its value.
Your NFT will be among thousands, probably millions of other NFT’s. The likelihood of someone with a bunch of money even finding it is incredibly low… let alone handing over their Ethereum for your piece over everyone else’s.
If you are considering trying to sell NFT’s, I’m not here to convince you otherwise. In fact, I have videos showing you how to do it. But please have realistic expectations. Time and time again, people get excited about a quick way to get rich quick and it almost never works out.
With how the Ethereum network is set up, gas fees, the fees paid to miners to authenticate transactions… swing wildly with demand on the network and of course the current cost of Ethereum. Sometimes, this can make it impossible for an artist to pay to mint a collection.
It can also deter buyers from buying works. But there’s good news here. Some sites like OpenSea and Mintable have options to list the NFT before it’s written to the network. So gas fees are only incurred when the piece is actually purchased.
Secondly, when Ethereum transitions to version two and takes on “proof of stake” authentication, gas prices will reduce drastically. But for now, we have to deal with them and it’s a big problem.
Decentralization sounds good to a lot of people. No central bank or institution running everything. Until you have a problem and need to talk to someone in the customer service department. For the most part, it looks like customer service is pretty much zero on big, open platforms.
There are forums filled with users complaining about how their transaction froze or the Ethereum never showed up in their wallet. Most of these people seem to be using wallets other than MetaMask which is recommended by almost every platform.
And a lot of these do eventually get resolved but after several days. We are so used to having a customer service rep, a court system or some institution watching out for consumers. The entire concept of decentralization kind of goes away from that.
So, beware that if you need help navigating a market or troubleshooting something, there’s not a lot of help being offered to us little guys. I don’t honestly know how big of a problem this is but a lot of people are worried about it and it is surely happening at some level.
In theory, the concept of NFT’s actually protects the uniqueness of an artist’s work But what if someone steals an image of your work, tokenizes it and is selling it? That would be a problem for me if it was my work.
There are a couple bits of good news though. While this could happen, the blockchain tracks ownership of an NFT all the way back to its creation. So if the buyer is doing homework, and thought they were buying your work, they might be able to recognize it wasn’t created by you.
Also, I would hope this is obvious, but if you see a Beeple piece going for super cheap, common sense should tell you to stay away. Because it costs gas to mint these items, we can hope that counterfeiting won’t be profitable for long.
There are also ways to report copyright claims on the marketplaces but I honestly have no idea how those reported claims work out. This is a problem and may always be one. The worst part is this could be a problem for an artist who doesn’t have anything to do with the NFT market.
Someone could simply be trying to profit off your work by stealing it from your Instagram page. But, is this any worse of a problem because of NFT’s? Criminals have been pirating music and printing unauthorized prints well before NFT’s come along.
Perhaps because there is more financial incentive at the moment, it’s a bigger problem. I don’t have all the answers but it’s something everyone should be aware of. When you’re selling NFT’s you should already have a social media following or a website.
Make sure you have links so buyers can go to your platforms from your website and feel assured they are not buying fake versions of your art. Open platforms…the uncurated ones…are a mess right now.
So many people are uploading garbage it’s drowning out what most would consider quality art. And these sites don’t have a great way of organizing pieces and making it easy for buyers to find a specific type of art.
So again, it falls on the artist to promote their work and provide links to potential buyers. I’m sure this will improve in the future. I promised you six problems but I’m going to give you a bonus problem and that is being guilty by association.
Some people in the art community – both artists and fans – don’t like the NFT concept. Whether it’s the environmental impact or a perception of the rich getting richer while regular artists continue to struggle… there are plenty of reasons to distrust or even dislike the entire thing.
What you as an artist could experience is some of your existing followers turning on you. I’ve had no shortage of people contacting me lately and letting me know they don’t support my endorsing of the NFT craziness.
Each person will have to weigh this out and you probably know your supporters better than anyone else. I would just hate to see an established artist try their hand in NFT’s only to lose their existing supporters.
.. and be left with a bunch of non-fungible tokens that nobody wants to buy. Ok, so there you go. My goal is not to encourage or discourage anyone from trying to share their work and make a buck off NFT’s.
I’m only trying to provide information on this stuff because there doesn’t seem like a ton of good information out there. Whatever you do, have fun and stay creative oh and give the video a like if you don’t mind.
Thank you!