Today, it is possible to duplicate almost any media online with a few clicks. In fact, the notion of digital rarity seems to be a heresy in the eyes of some. But doesn’t this ease of copying mechanically invalidate the very notion of value of digital works? And if so, what are the promises of NFTs to improve this?
Digital scarcity in the age of visual pollution
Today, with the multiplication of digital creation applications and tools, “making art” is within everyone’s reach. Of course, not everyone has the same sensitivity or the same ease to create something that pleases. Nevertheless, drawing, retouching or animating has become more and more accessible to most people.
For starters, anyone can learn the basics of these tools on streaming platforms or specialized training sites. It is also possible to follow more advanced videos to learn more advanced techniques.
But just because accessibility has improved doesn’t mean creating has become easier. With a few exceptions around the world, it is still necessary to master the rules of art and their history in order to understand them. The next step is to make them your own in order to have your own “style”.
This authenticity, which allows one to stand out from the others, is highly sought after online: it allows one to capture attention, a resource that has become scarce and disputed by many brands. The public valorization of years of learning and work is therefore the responsibility of another entity than the artist.
The virtual compromise between freedom and security
In this war for attention, everyone is redoubling their efforts to produce ever more content. As a consequence, with the influx of digital art, the feeling that it is easy to create is reinforced and therefore has little value.
This makes it difficult for a digital artist to get the recognition he deserves. The most obvious lucrative option is to be recruited by a company to produce content that conforms to their identity.
But these criteria must correspond to an identity that is not necessarily that of the artist. So a necessary compromise often emerges: to lose a little authenticity and creative freedom for the sake of economic security and small victories in the great war for attention.
Of course, it is possible to refuse this system. But news travels fast and it will become very hard to make a living from these creations later on. This forced compromise is therefore more like a capitulation to blackmail than anything else.
In terms of alternatives, social networks offer a monetization of the content. With general conditions of use that have become less and less advantageous for creators. And above all, a power of censorship sometimes excessive.
To summarize the state of health of the digital creation market today: a massive production of content controlled by central entities that devalue what they don’t like.
What do NFTs change in this situation?
That’s the question on everyone’s lips today. So what do NFTs really change in this landscape?
The first thing is the possibility, for the owner of the private keys of a crypto wallet, to demonstrate without any possible dispute, that he has indeed created an NFT at a given moment. This benefit can be summarized by the famous expression “Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar”.
From now on, each artist can also value the creation stage of a project in which he participated. This information can be verified publicly and cannot be censored. Provided that a sufficiently decentralized blockchain is used, of course.
The second is to set in stone the number of editions initially planned for sale. This allows an author to decide the level of digital rarity of an original work.
The third is royalties. Realistically, the royalty system provided by NFTs is not perfect. But the promise of a fairer redistribution of royalties on the secondary market is significant.
Technologically, NFTs represent a real evolution in the way of thinking about change in the digital world. But they remain a tool, and their usefulness will be determined by their use. The use of NFTs will be determined by their use, which deserves to be supported by the first people concerned by the need to revalue their work: the artists of the digital universe.
