Despite widespread academic and practitioner interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a form of digital assets, little is known about how consumers perceive NFT value. This exploratory research investigates why people create, trade or collect NFTs, what value they derive from them, and how online communities contribute to value co-creation. Over the course of two rounds, we interview 38 participants, most of whom are digital natives. We find that engaging with NFTs is the new form of day trading, reflecting financialization of everyday life. The value of NFTs is mainly speculative and utilitarian, and NFTs themselves are best thought of as derivatives. Value co-creation in NFT project communities is largely focused on gaining superior information about the project. We contribute to the crypto-marketing and web3 literature by advancing a novel model of NFT consumer value that extends Holbrook's (1999) typology and distinguishes both positive and negative aspects of consumer value that have been overlooked in mainstream literature. We shed light on the role of communities in an unusual setting: a nascent, illiquid, speculative, informationally opaque market for digital assets. Our study helps creators and brand managers to develop effective NFT strategies.
Theoretical background: The dynamic development of generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT has transformed the perception of creative work. In the graphic realm, AI systems like Midjourney, DALL-E, or Adobe Firefly allow the creation of high-quality graphics without the need for artistic skills or hiring a talented designer. Concurrently, the emergence of cryptocurrencies and the associated non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has resulted in radical changes in the creative sector, especially in the art market. Purpose of the article: The aim of this article is to examine the development pace and impact of AI-generated art and NFTs on the global art market, focusing on market trends, dependency on energy prices, segmentation, and how these changes influence artwork pricing and artists’ livelihoods. Research methods: The author has assessed the popularity and development of the NFT market, as well as the main reasons for its collapse in 2022. The author identified possible scenarios for the development of the art market, pointed out the primary potential threats, and highlighted the key determinants of future digital asset valuation. Main findings: Despite initial euphoria, buyers depreciate digital goods, especially those generated by artificial intelligence. They are considered inherently inferior and less valuable. Overproduction of works combined with the availability of AI solutions means that the traditional supply and demand mechanism lowers the price of assets and thereby forces more and more graphic designers, photographers, and painters to abandon their professions. Competition from artificial intelligence is subject to the same supply and demand mechanisms, which reduces the cost of access to quality graphics for entrepreneurs and individuals. Simultaneously, as the market becomes saturated with synthetic goods, there will be a delineation at the segment level, similar to what has happened with artisanal beers, hand-assembled cars, and furniture, or handmade ceramics. An unwritten, "made by humans" certificate will result in a 300–500% higher price for similar goods made by humans compared to works of artificial intelligence. This situation will resemble the division of the clothing or furniture market into mass-produced goods and designer items. Amid all this, the increasingly prominent role of NFTs will be evident, which will also appreciate in value, but due to the ecological taxation resulting from energy consumption that is 100,000 times higher than that of a regular bank payment.
On the occasion of the award of the author's da Vinci Medal in 2022, this article sketches a perspective, material political economy, employed by the author, explaining it by drawing on Marc Bloch's classic account of the dispute in European feudalism between milling grain on watermills or windmills controlled by feudal superiors, who could exact fees, and common people's use of hand mills. It considers the material political economy aspects of two modern technologies. The first is automated high-frequency trading in finance, where there are typically conflicts with incumbents and material efforts to favor "market-making" over "aggressive" algorithms. The second is the automated auctioning of digital display advertising opportunities, showing tension between two forms of these auctions' material organization: centralized auctioning via Google's systems and decentralized "header bidding."
The secure management and sale of digital assets has become a critical problem in an increasingly digitized environment. This project intends to address this issue by creating decentralized applications (dApps) that use blockchain technology to provide secure and efficient digital asset management, with a focus on NFTs. The NFT marketplace includes secure wallet connections, NFT image creation, minting, the marketplace, and profile management. Solidity-based smart contracts are utilized to create the NFT Marketplace back end, and IPFS is used for storage. The NFT Marketplace's front-end development uses React JSX and the web3js framework, allowing developers to connect to the Ethereum network. NFT Marketplace may assist creators in selling their art through a smart contract system, in which the artwork's ownership transfers to the new owner upon submission of a digital certificate.
The traditional wallet we have been using for decades is a carry pouch on a go in which a person carries his/her fiat currency and small personal items like identification documents like a driver's license, visiting cards, debit cards, credit cards, or any laminated cards. However, in the age of crypto currency, you need a wallet to keep your crypto tokens in one place for use on a daily basis and for trading and earning more crypto tokens so this wallet is known as crypto wallet. It enables you to store and handle all of the day's chaos with it. This study will examine CoinSwitch a crypto currency wallet, and all the features and services it provides to its dedicated users. The impact of the CoinSwitch wallet on the Indian crypto currency market will be examined in the research article. The research article will also examine CoinSwitch's SWOT analysis, benefits and drawbacks as a crypto currency wallet.
Young Soon Jeong, Ji Eun Jeong, Chae Hyun Lee, Jong Woo Park
Purpose: Non-Fungible Token (NFT) ART, based on NFT technology, represents a novel form of art that has recently garnered significant attention in the art market. NFT technology enables the assertion of ownership over digital data, introducing the concept of ownership into the digital realm. As digital data gains ownership, NFT ART is anticipated to be positively viewed as an investment and expected to become more active due to the characteristics of this new technology. Therefore, this study aims to verify the influence of NFT ART characteristics on perceived value. This study contributes to extracting the distinctive characteristics of NFT ART compared to other forms of art and to understanding the perceived value of NFT ART among consumers with purchasing experience.Methods: This study applied structural equation modeling to explore the relationships among the variables using SPSS 26.0 and R program version 4.2.3. A total of 320 questionnaires were retrieved, all of which were adopted as valid analytical samples without missing values.Results: The findings indicate that the decentralization, transparency, and scarcity of NFT ART positively influence the perceived usefulness and enjoyment among consumers, while security does not have a significant impact. This suggests that higher levels of decentralization, transparency, and scarcity in NFT ART enhance perceived usefulness and enjoyment for consumers, significantly influencing the perceived value. Furthermore, it was confirmed that these characteristics are considered important values and perceptions from the consumer’s perspective.Conclusion: The research presents positive factors for the activating of purchases among consumers considering buying NFT ART. It emphasizes the necessity of benefits for all participants to activate the art market. Additionally, the perceived value provides crucial insights for inducing active purchasing behavior in the NFT ART market and serves as a foundational study for further research.
The merger of Proof of Stake (PoS) with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) might revolutionize digital ownership and collections. PoS's impact on NFT generation, administration, and security will be examined to create a sustainable, energy-efficient framework. PoS systems' environmental impact compared to Proof of Work (PoW), economic effects on producers and collectors, and digital asset security advantages are examined. The purpose is to explain how PoS may transform the NFT ecosystem and improve digital ownership models. This study highlights the complementarity between blockchain technology and digital assets, suggesting PoS might fuel innovation in the fast-changing digital collectibles industry. The results will inform sustainable and safe blockchain application discussions. Results from Digital Asset Ownership indicate 5 owners' digital ownership distribution. A % random sample was collected for 3 Assets. Values vary from 10-30 for Asset 1, 10-40 for Asset 2, and 10-30 for Asset 3. Fluctuation of Ownership from January to May 2024: Asset 1 20-30, Asset 2 35-42, Asset 3 15-25. In the correlation between ownership concentration and asset value for Top 1–5, Asset 1 ranges from 50–100, Asset 2 from 40–90, and Asset 3 from 60–95.
The potential of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is highly anticipated, particularly in the realm of visual arts. However, current applications within fine arts often involve trivial processes, such as creating digital versions of artworks or replicas of masterpieces as NFT images, and selling only these NFTs. To unlock the full potential of NFTs, more innovative models are needed. This paper introduces a novel model that establishes a permanent link between an NFT and a physical craft object. This linkage is utilized to orchestrate the trade workflow, ensuring a sustained connection between real and digital artifacts. A distinguishing feature is that they can be sold together or seperately and later reunited with a buyer. The NFT serves as a multifunctional certificate, tracing, and communication token. Through a comprehensive analysis, this paper explores diverse scenarios that may arise in the relationship between the physical object and its digital twin. It presents a systematic and formal description of the proposed model and its various cases, marking a pioneering effort in the field. Noteworthy advantages include the ability to detect plagiarism and fraud. By strategically incorporating stakeholder roles, the model preserves the anonymity of art collectors while extracting valuable information about the ownership of physical artworks. The primary objective is to enhance security in the art trade and foster new business opportunities for stakeholders. As a proof-of-concept, the model was implemented in a real-world scenario on a leading NFT marketplace platform.
Abstract This paper explores the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their impact on the art world. By examining the esthetics and political economy of crypto art and its relationship to online pop culture, it questions the value of NFTs and whether they truly represent a source of income for artists or simply contribute to the speculative nature of crypto investments. This paper concludes by asserting that the world of crypto art is dominated by right-wing libertarians and black box algorithms, and that a radical redistribution of wealth is necessary to address the issues of power, race, and gender within the industry.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a type of digital asset based on blockchain that contain unique codes verifying the authenticity and ownership of different assets such as art pieces, music, gaming items, collections, and so on. This phenomenon and its markets have grown significantly since the beginning of 2021. This study, using daily data between November 2017 and November 2022, predicts the volume of NFT sales by utilising Random Forest (RF), GBM, XGBoost, and LightGBM methods from the community machine learning methods. In the predictions, several financial variables, including Gold, Bitcoin/USD, Ethereum/USD, S&P 500 index, Nasdaq 100, Oil/USD, Euro/USD, and CDS data, are treated as independent variables. According to the results, XGBoost is found to be the best prediction method for NFT market volume estimation concerning several statistical criteria, e.g., MAE, MAPE, and RMSE, and the most significant influential feature in determining prices is the Ethereum/USD exchange rate.
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are distinct digital assets that provide digital content ownership and legitimacy. An NFTs Market is a blockchain-based platform that makes it easier to create, trade, and collect NFTs. This article delves into the NFT Marketplace and its blockchain technology, highlighting its tokenization capabilities for any type of property, its ability to create smart contracts with flexibility, and its promotion of NFTs with quick and inexpensive exchanges. The pros and cons of the platform are also covered, including issues with scalability, user-friendliness, and fraud susceptibility. The appearance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for artists and content providers has ushered in a new era of unexpected opportunities for financial freedom and reimbursement in the digital art business!! This article describes the developmental importance of the NFT markets, which allow artists to sell their products directly to customers, bypassing traditional intermediaries like galleries and auction houses. The first abstract describes the NFT market's exponential growth and demonstrates how it may become a valuable source of income for talented individuals. It is written from two distinct points of view. Meanwhile, the second abstract highlights NFTs in particular and introduces OpenNFT, A decentralized web app that offers safe and effective digital asset management by fusing deep learning models with blockchain technology!! This web application integrates features including minting, markets, safe wallet connections, NFTs image creation, and profile management to show how deep learning and blockchain technology can transform digital asset administration.
Tesserart is a pioneering portal offering a tool-based web3 infrastructure designed to evolve with rapid technological advancements in the digital art space. Its goal is to simplify the processes of creation, curation, and collection of digital art and events, providing community-driven tools and innovations. Committed to enhancing accessibility and versatility, we aim to be the Swiss Army knife of the digital art ecosystem. Tesserart facilitates the digitalization and accessibility of digital artworks through blockchain technology, extending global reach and opening new revenue streams. It provides comprehensive tools for digital and physical event experiences, including live artwork minting and selling, ticketing, curation, and the use of community tokens for engagement and rewards. Our business model capitalizes on transaction fees and royalties from art sales, along with partnerships with digital art marketplaces and cultural organizations. Tesserart aims to redefine digital art engagement and collectability, making it more accessible, innovative, and experience-based
Alexander Brechlin, Jochen Schäfer, Frederik Armknecht
In their study of the cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift, Yousaf et al. (USENIX Security, 2019) have demonstrated that information provided by the APIs of exchange platforms can facilitate cross-chain traceability and thus severely hurt user privacy. Unfortunately, little empirical research on exchanges is available otherwise. In this paper, we replicate and extend the approach of Yousaf et al. by developing new methods to extract transactions using the public blockchain and the interface of the cryptocurrency exchange Evonax. We are able to identify 30,402 transactions between the launch of Evonax in February 2018 and December 31, 2022, which should be close to a complete set of all transactions. This allows us to generate deep insights into the operations of the platform as well as the behavior of its users.
This study investigates the impact of fintech, particularly blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), on the art market. As fintech has been widely accepted, the art market has undergone transformations, including increased transaction transparency, enhanced liquidity, improved risk management capabilities, reduced entry barriers to the market, and more developed copyright protection. Using a Vector Autoregression (VAR) model, this paper clarifies the significant effects of fintech, especially the NFTs, on the size and profitability of the art market. The findings not only emphasize the importance of NFTs in developing the art market and increasing investment returns but also provide insights and constructive suggestions for the future growth and sustainable development of the art market. By fostering transparency, efficiency, and accessibility, fintech contributes to a more resilient and sustainable art market, ensuring its long-term prosperity and cultural enrichment.
In the realm of the art of ownership, non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) have emerged as a revolutionary technological advancement, challenging conventional ideas of value and authenticity. This comprehensive review critically explores the intersection of NFTs and the art world, delving into their historical evolution, impact on the art market, and implications for artistic expression. By meticulously analyzing existing literature and case studies, this paper illuminates the transformative potential of NFTs, addressing the opportunities and challenges faced by artists, collectors, and stakeholders. The review focuses on key aspects such as legal and copyright considerations, technological constraints, and broader societal and environmental impacts associated with NFTs adoption in the art industry. Through a critical examination of the challenges and limitations of integrating NFTs into the art world, this review identifies areas for innovative solutions and future improvements. It emphasizes the importance of sustainable practice to reduce the environmental impact of NFT transactions and advocates for regularity frameworks to protect artist rights and foster inclusivity. Additionally, the paper underscores the advancements and innovations enabled by NFT adoption, highlighting their role in empowering artists and transforming the dynamics of art ownership and distribution. By suggesting future research directions and opportunities for collaboration, this study contributes to a nuanced understanding of the evolving landscape of art ownership in the digital age.
By drawing on 18-month ethnographic fieldwork conducted among people who participate in state-regulated games of chance in Istanbul, during the recent Turkish economic crisis in 2021–2022, and engaging with scholarly work on the anthropology of Turkey, economic anthropology and local media and grey resources, this article illustrates the rise of cryptocurrency trading in Turkey. This article shows how my participants situated the cryptocurrency trading within their own techniques to ameliorate financial volatility and to compensate their mistrust in governmental financial institutions during times of economic turbulence. Cryptocurrency trading was viewed as an investment technique that assists in accumulating savings for ensuring the future amid fluctuating national currency and polarized political realities. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency trading was also identified as a game of chance that swings between hinging on luck or skill, and the research participants debated if cryptocurrency trading is permissible in Islam (Halal) or forbidden. Therefore, this article suggests that cryptocurrency trading, although on the rise, is still a contested topic in which the boundaries between perceptions and practices of investing and gambling are blurred within the Turkish context. The controversy of the cryptocurrency trading emerges from the polarized public attitudes and the dissonance between traditional ideals, that condemn easy money and emphasize the value of hard work, in contrast to the neoliberal realities of capitalistic modes of accumulation that encourages speculation over production.
This paper aims to explore the complex interrelationships between the prices of cryptocurrency, specifically Ethereum (ETH), and five top Non-Fungible Token (NFT) collections: Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, Moonbirds, and Otherdeed. Motivated by the intertwining dynamics of these digital assets and the unexplored nature of their interdependencies, this study employs a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model and utilizes Granger Causality to dissect the multifaceted interactions. The analysis period ranges from April 2021 to January 2023, a critical window of exponential growth and fluctuation in the digital asset market. The results demonstrate a statistically significant impact of ETH prices on NFT collection prices, but not vice versa, revealing the strong dependence of the NFT market on cryptocurrency volatility. Specifically, the research finds that changes in ETH’s value are predictive of shifts in NFT prices, whereas NFT price fluctuations lack predictive power for ETH prices. In conclusion, this research represents an advancement in understanding price dynamics in the rapidly evolving digital economy. By innovatively analyzing the co-movement of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, it not only enriches existing knowledge but also paves the way for further exploration, offering practical insights for diverse stakeholders navigating this exciting, ever-changing field.
Jintao Huang, Pengcheng Xia, J. C. Li, Kai Ma · 10 authors
Unlike fungible tokens (e.g., cryptocurrency), a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is unique and indivisible. As such, they can be used to authenticate ownership of digital assets (e.g., a photo) in a decentralized fashion. Given that NFTs have generated significant media attention since 2021, we perform a large-scale measurement study of the NFT ecosystem. We collect over 242M transfer logs and over 97M marketplace transactions until Aug 1st, 2023, by far the largest NFT dataset, to the best of our knowledge. We characterize the on-chain behavior of NFTs and their trading across five major marketplaces. We find that, although the NFT ecosystem is growing rapidly, it is driven by a relatively small set of dominant centralized players, with suspicious trade activities, e.g., over 23% of the monetary volume is generated by malicious wash trading and the ecosystem has experienced over 157K cases of NFT arbitrage, with a total sum of over \25M profit. Our observations motivate the need for more research efforts in the NFT security analysis.
The absence of clear protocols in the conservation of new media art has led to a situation of extreme precariousness of digital artworks. The irruption of blockchain culture and NFTs seems to offer an opportunity to overcome this situation. This paper aims to clarify whether or not the structure of data and metadata associated with transactions in the blockchain solves the challenging obsolescent and unstable condition of new media art. The disturbing reality is that the so-called ‘cryptoart’ is not always stored and encapsulated on the blockchain itself. In a high number of cases, assets just point to artworks living outside, stored on off-chain servers or platforms. This paper analyzes the possibilities for the preservation of art hosted on the chain. Despite some limitations, this method is understood as the more coherent and robust for long-term life and availability of digital art associated with Web3 technology.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have introduced novel mechanisms to authenticate and trade digital art, fostering a vibrantand dynamic marketplace by leveraging blockchaintechnology. However, the rise of NFTs has also prompted a host of legaland ethical considerations that necessitate careful scrutiny. This research paper provides an in-depth exploration of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as an emerging form of intellectual property that is transforming the digital art landscape.The paperbegins by elucidating the principles behind NFTs and their significance to digital art, elucidating how these tokens redefinetraditional notions of ownership. It scrutinizes the role of blockchain technology in protecting digital art and the distinctiveadvantages it provides, such as transparency and immutability.The paper then delves into the critical legal implications,particularly focusing on copyright issues and the evolving regulatory environment, highlighting the dichotomy between theownership of NFTs and the copyright of the underlying digital artwork. It conducts a comparative legislative analysis ofIndia, the USA, and the UK, indicating the urgent need for regulatory frameworks that can navigate the global anddecentralized nature of NFT transactions.The paper engages with ethical concerns, including environmental impact, economic inequality, and artist attribution,underscoring the necessity for balancing innovation with responsibility.Finally, it provides recommendations for regulatoryapproaches and discusses future implications, emphasizing the need for clarity, balance, and international cooperation inlegislation, alongside the importance of continuous dialogue and research. This paper lays the groundwork for furtherinvestigations into the fast-evolving world of NFTs and their wider societal impacts.
This thesis questions the recurring absence of technological art collections that use the most diverse technologies in their production, in the historical scenario of contemporary society, from the perspective of memory institutions. It also provides evidence of the intrinsic characteristics of this type of collection, based on its information regime, production, and management model, which amplify a scenario of loss or constant modes of data, information, and knowledge transfer in the context of a post-digital society. A central actor paradigm is constructed. Various types of agents from one or more ecosystems centralize demands, and actions and place themselves in a precarious position in their public or private attributions, in the face of a complex scenario of material and immaterial production in an immanent digital culture and under an accelerationist digital economy and policy. The thesis is presented in a multidisciplinary way, given the context of related fields of knowledge, digital ontology, political economy of information, digital art and culture, digital humanities, economic accelerationist theory, as well as thematic subfields such as digitization, decentralization, blockchain, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, peer-to-peer networks, among others. The research is exploratory and empirical observation, which applied the qualitative method, assigned in two main stages through the review of scientific literature, use of methods of content analysis of available databases, and discourse analysis through structured interviews with agents in different scenarios. Local knowledge (national scenario) that relates to the international context of some (theoretical-practical) examples, also justified by the absence or restriction of similar models for analysis in Brazil. The aim was to understand the ways, processes, regimes and uses of information in the implementation, organization and retrieval of art and digital heritage archives through autonomous agents, machine learning and the use of new technologies such as blockchain in decentralized networks (P2P) based on technical-theoretical, scientific and transdisciplinary models in the field of information science interfacing with the digital humanities. As a result, the thesis proposes the implementation of a decentralized theoretical-technical accelerationist model, made up of five stages of action and under guiding principles such as the digital information regime in the post-digital society, the use of new technologies and autonomous systems, the decentralization of collections, the constitution of a sharing economy in a P2P society model, and the introduction and incorporation into ongoing socio-technical accelerationist models, which allows the application of a physical, digital, semantic, pragmatic informational method.
This chapter offers a comprehensive exploration of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within the art world, dissecting their implications on authenticity, value, and counterfeit. Drawing upon Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, the chapter juxtaposes the realm of NFTs with Benjamin’s observations on how mechanical reproduction influences the aura and politicization of art. The analysis is further enriched by a case study – Yuga Labs v. Ryder Ripps – examining the role of NFTs in political discourse and legal contexts. The chapter is organized into five key sections: 1) Revisiting the concept of ‘aura’ in the age of digital technology; 2) tokenization and its impact on perceptions of authenticity; 3) exploring the balance between value and reproducibility in NFTs; 4) investigating how status and deception evolve in this new art ecosystem; and 5) a critical case study elucidating the intersection of NFTs and politics, thereby offering a nuanced understanding of art’s politicization in the digital age. Conclusively, the chapter identifies NFTs as both a continuation and subversion of Benjamin’s theories on mechanical reproduction, engaging in a complex interplay of democratization and exclusivity. The social transformation driven by NFTs not only disrupts traditional art paradigms but also introduces new layers of complexity to the intersections of community, commodity, and reality in the digital age. The rise of NFTs underscores a seismic shift in socio-political dynamics, potentially signaling a burgeoning culture war online that both democratizes and complicates the art world.
This thesis examines how blockchain technology can affect the music business, as well as its potential applications and benefits over current practices for investors, users, and artists. It explores the music industry's current ecosystem and motivations for changes, and discusses the benefits and difficulties of using blockchain technology in a decentralized music platform (Web3). The thesis also demonstrates the mechanisms that enable these platforms to be built and run. Overall, the thesis emphasizes how blockchain technology has the ability to allow musicians more freedom, transparency, and flexibility when it comes to monetizing their music with less involvement of a third party.