What do you know about NFTs? In Africa, many digital artists like photographers are selling their pictures for huge sums of monies online.
What Are NFTs?
NFTs are a short form for the term Non Fungible Tokens. Thousands of computers worldwide using block technology can verify the ownership of digital assets. These verified assets are known as NFTs. A regular digital asset is no different from a non–NFT media. It is first transformed into an NFT by a process known as minting before it can be monetized on Blockchain and put up for sale using cryptocurrency.
Its verification on the Blockchain gives legitimacy to the owners of the NFT. However, buying and selling of NFTs require that both parties involved own a cryptocurrency wallet.
NFTs may be purchased for various reasons. While some may buy NFTs solely for their content, others treat NFTs as speculative assets which may eventually rise in value and can then be resold for profit. Also, since many NFTs are sold in limited quantities or as one-offs, the scarcity of these verified digital assets will definitely increase their value with time.
NFTs and Stock Photography
Although NFTs and stock photography share some similarities, such as paying original creators for their works with every transaction that occurs, there are differences. For instance, on the site Shutterstock, there is no payment made when an image is being uploaded, but each time a person purchases a license of the image, the photographer receives a commission.
With NFTs, on the other hand, the original creators are paid when they sell these digital assets for the first time, and with further sales of the NFTs, they also receive a certain percentage of profit.
Selling NFTs can serve as a means of generating extra revenue for creators or photographers who make stock content, and with the increasing rise in the popularity of NFTs, the impact of photography as a viable NFT may be achieved. On different sites like Cargo, OpenSea, and Raible, illustrations and animations appear to be the most popular forms of NFTs. Both stock photography and NFTs are useful to photographers.
Who Owns an NFT?
The original creator of an NFT remains the same, and he or she receives a royalty payment which is a certain amount of profit each time the NFT is being resold by a buyer.
A successful purchase of an NFT is usually verified on the Blockchain. This gives buyers digital proof of the transaction, thus, validating their ownership of the NFT. However, this does not mean the buyers now own the original assets or copyright for the assets. They just own the access to the NFT version of what has been bought, and unless the NFT is sold again, it cannot be changed.
Usually, artists make money only when their artworks are sold. With NFTs, these artists earn money even when their artworks are being resold by buyers. Hence, each time there is an exchange of ownership, the artists or original creators of the artwork receive a certain cut of the profit.
Hopefully, as NFTs increase in value over time, original creators may be able to earn royalty payments surpassing the initial price their NFTs were sold for.
Simple Guides on How You Can Sell Your Photograph.
We’ve put together simple guides we believe can help you sell your photographs as NFTs. However,for a more detailed guide on how to achieve this, we advise that you read the series of articles recently posted with Lindsey Adler by Adorama.
1) You must have a photograph to sell. This means you’ll need to create your photograph or search for images or pictures you feel will be worth selling.
2) Choose a platform or site to sell your photograph or image on. A list of options includes SuperRare, OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, and Foundation.
3) Decide on the number of editions you wish to sell.“The more, the merrier.”Selling more than one edition will no doubt increase the amount of revenue you earn from every successful purchase. In theory, different NFTs of the same artwork can be sold and will still be regarded as unique because they have different digital fingerprints, but doing this will most likely reduce the price you’ve set for each NFT.
NFTs are a unique opportunity for creatives in Africa to harness the power of blockchain technology and we would advise photographers and creatives on the continent to take advantage of this.
