Analysing Perceptions of South African Digital Artists towards Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Use

Abstract

Digital art has many major pitfalls, ranging from issues around tracking ownership to piracy.Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can solve these issues and bring new benefits, such as access to larger markets.Despite this, South Africa's digital artists have slowly adopted NFTs.This research aims to understand the values-based perceptions of South African digital artists toward NFTs.Fifteen South African digital artists were interviewed using semi-structured interviews guided by the updated Holbrook's Typology of Consumer Value framework.Ten positive perceptions, three negative perceptions, three risks and one benefit were identified, explored and analyzed using the framework.This research can assist digital artists and other stakeholders in the NFT ecosystem to understand the values-based perceptions of South African digital artists.It can be used to help assist decisionmakers, artists, intermediaries and other stakeholders in South Africa and potentially elsewhere.Additionally, the validated and updated Typology of Consumer Value can benefit researchers using this framework in future research.