NFTs are considered the next big step in art. Like streaming came for cinemas, Kindles and A03 came for physical books, and other advancements in tech that have been touted to take over for traditional media, NFTs are coming for art galleries around the world.

But what are NFTs? And can the visual art space fight back in some form? We explore it in our blog below. Keep reading to find out all the details on this new art revolution.

What is an NFT?
That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it considering everyone involved appears to be making a million dollars? The only part anyone seems to understand is that it is the futuristic next step in selling art, but the details are entirely lost on everyone but the cast of The IT Crowd.

Offering no clearer idea, NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. What that ultimately means is that the thing you are paying for is unique, thanks to blockchain technology. You have the uniquely only version of this thing. It’s like a receipt embedded in the data.

To go further, “non-fungible” means that you can’t trade it for something else. Currency is fungible. You can swap Bitcoin for another Bitcoin and not change anything, but non-fungible can be applied to Pokémon cards, for example. You are swapping Pikachu for Squirtle and not gaining the exact same value.

NFTs however, apply to digital media. Anything can be an NFT: music, drawings, poetry, etc. but it has mainly taken off in visual arts.

As it pertains to the art world, it means that someone out there owns the Mona Lisa. Not the “real” Mona Lisa hanging in the Louvre, but the only data equivalent of her, with the blockchain to prove that no one else has her.

Is it popular?
Ridiculously so. Apparently, there are people spending $390K for a 50-second video of Elon Musk’s elaborately named newborn and $6.6 million for a video by Beeple. Nyan Cat has been sold for $600K. These are people who are into the internet in a big way, the kind of people who would find a place at GGPoker not just playing poker, but watching it, perfecting it, all online.

YouTubers are selling NFTs just to retire, or in the case of H3H3, to make a point: that fans will buy anything if there’s hype. You can’t say he’s wrong.

What can the galleries do?
Sit back and relax. That’s the short answer.

Going back to Mona Lisa, she is happily smiling – or not? - from the Louvre in Paris. You will not be able to see her online. What you will see is a digital copy of her. But Da Vinci had nothing to do with it.

NFTs are mostly aimed at collectors with an interest in internet culture. GIFs, memes, images, collectibles, etc. are more their style. There is high art online, and high art sold as NFTs, but artists looking to make their mark aren’t about to keep their work entirely online.

There are lots of reasons an artist who has perfected their craft isn’t going to take NFTs seriously. It could bring in a bit of money, but there is a soullessness to it. When there is so little money in high art unless you make it big, it creates an industry that thrives on passion. NFTs would only be considered a side-hustle in the hustle generation.

Plus, it takes more than simply uploading your work online and saying, “Money, please!” to the internet. It takes an avid fan base filled with individuals with deep pockets.

Besides, galleries themselves need not worry. If every artist trying to get a gallery to showcase their work suddenly decided creating art directly out of data made more money and fulfillment, they would still have a back catalogue of historical artworks to stay open with.

NFTs may not be a passing fad, but they attract the baseball collectors of the world, and will not take away from the crowd that congregates around Mona Lisa to see her smile – or not.