Blockchain technology has essentially redefined how artists and creators can essentially monetize their content online through the utilization of smart contracts and the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
However, blockchain, for many, is unknown territory, and, thus, people are far more likely to be intimidated by it at the point in time.
To help artists enter the NFT ecosystem and assuage their overall concerns for creating, or minting NFTs, today, we are going to go over everything they need to know about NFTs. Let’s dive in.
Non-Fungible Tokens and Their Functionality
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that can represent music, art, games, and other types of data. When a digital asset is tokenized on a specific blockchain, which is a process called minting, it becomes immutable.
An NFT is minted through a smart contract which holds ownership details and other metadata unique to that particular contract and NFT.
However, within the creator community, NFTs serve a much broader role. Aside from being digitally transferable from one wallet to another, they can be listed on secondary NFT marketplaces, where artists can directly monetize their work.
Each NFT can also feature metadata that features royalties. What this means is that with each subsequent sale of the NFT, the original artist can receive a specific percentage of the cryptocurrencies paid to buy it back to their original wallet. This means that the artwork can be sold numerous times whilst also providing value back to the original artist.
A blockchain is a distributed database. It features blocks that are arranged sequentially and are ever-expanding. Every block has a cryptographic hash associated with it, which describes the contents of the previous block, such as the time stamp and even the transactional data.
As NFTs are created on top of the aforementioned public ledger, their data is permanent, meaning that the original artist can always be traced and known via the smart contracts created to mint the NFT.
At the point in time when an NFT artist has selected a digital asset, they are able to market it on any NFT marketplace that supports the token standard on which it was minted. By doing so, they create a new avenue when it comes to generating artwork revenue. Additionally, investors now have a new option to diversify their portfolio in the form of buying art.
Additionally, NFTs and artworks can be fractionalized, which means that specific investors can buy a portion of an artwork. Thus, if a work is too expensive for one person to purchase, a group of investors can acquire a percentage of it and still reap the potential returns when they would not be able to otherwise.
SmartMint and Its NFT Functionality
SmartMint is a no-code platform that aims to enable a gateway for artists within the NFT creation space without the need for them to know any programming or have any previous blockchain-related knowledge.
This removes much of the anxiety and fear surrounding the NFT creation process. Instead of learning about the different blockchain networks, token standards, and NFT coding languages, creators can just focus on their art and let SmartMint do all of the other work for them.
Any creator can simply use the platform as a means of creating, managing, and selling their NFTs whilst also retaining full ownership of their smart contracts, similarly as they would if they manually made them.
How Artists Can Have Peace of Mind About Their Work
Another reason artists or creators are intimidated by the blockchain space is theft.
As a means of countering the risks associated with this, SmartMint leverages Pastel Network’s mission-critical infrastructure solutions – Sense and Cascade.
Sense is a near-duplicate NFT detection tool. This essentially means that it uses deep learning technology to assess the rareness between NFTs and can detect counterfeits, scam NFTs, or anyone who has conducted copyright infringement.
Cascade, on the other hand, is an NFT data and metadata storage solution aimed to be fully distributed, permanent, and redundant. Additionally, it stores the metadata associated with NFTs without the need for any subscriptions or agreements. Users only need to make an initial payment once (in the form of a network fee) and have their data stored permanently.
Thus, SmartMint can also provide the necessary security and peace of mind that creators seek in the NFT ecosystem.
Moving Forward With NFTs As An Anxious Artist
We went over what NFTs are, how they work, and what they can provide in terms of value for creators.
For anyone that was intimidated before, hopefully now, they have a better understanding of how to enter the NFT ecosystem.
Any artist, or creator, can utilize SmartMint to begin their NFT journey and begin selling their first NFTs whilst also gaining royalties.
