The proliferation of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) in the art market gives artists the opportunity to establish a value for digital items that were previously almost worthless by identifying which version the artist wants to decide is the ‘original work’. All other copies (unless an edition is determined by the artist at the time), despite being identical, do not have the ‘certificate of authenticity’ that the NFT can provide.

This ‘certificate’, and the ‘smart contract’ related to it, allows for total transparency over ownership and trading history. These smart contracts also allow the originator to set certain ‘rules’ around the use of the file and creates an opportunity for the creator and other beneficiaries to continue to receive a percentage of the sale price every time it is sold. Almost all artists are not rich but they are passionate. Anything to help them to stay passionate is a good thing.

From an artistic point of view, this as an opportunity to really open up the conventional visual art world to collaboration with other artists from different fields. Most visual artists have to tell their story in a single frame. Everything happens at once, a one-shot deal and the best an artist can hope to do is to draw the viewer in in terms of layers of concept and meaning. Nothing wrong with that but if we are now allowed the dimension of time too, then we enter a more linear realm shared with musicians and writers and performers. 

These opportunities have always existed but all that creativity and work rarely resulted in something that someone could own and, therefore something that the artists could be recompensed for.

From the outset we wanted to make sure that a minimum of 10% from our proceeds of all sales goes to good causes, chosen by both the collaborating artist and h00manly. That percentage rises to 80% if the creator selects our “Funds to Charity”-plan. The charity will continue to benefit from all sales, simply because we’ve made a list of the charities we support here.