NFTs are one-of-a-kind blockchain-based tokens that can be used to reflect virtually everything, even tangible properties. Because of their willingness to "tokenize" anything and offer a means of passing control of digital properties to holders, NFTs have gained a lot of momentum in recent years. A certification of authenticity is what an NFT is. The Ethereum blockchain is the backbone for most NFTs today.
So, what is literature, exactly? Most people equate art with an artistic creation embodied in a visual medium—a sculpture, a painting—whose ownership enables the creator to view the piece for personal amusement or to present to others. Beeple (a.k.a. Mike Winkelmann), a graphic artist from Charleston, South Carolina, uses NFTs to create interactive artwork. Beeple currently has a celebrity fanbase that includes Justin Bieber, Eminem, Katy Perry, deadmau5 and others, as well as a 1.8 million-follower Instagram account and a portfolio of visual art that sells for more than $100,000 each.
Nifty Gateway and MakersPlace, for example, are two new sites that provide online marketplaces where digital products can be offered and sold. (In 2019, the Winklevoss Twins' blockchain exchange Gemini bought Nifty Gateway.) Beeple's digital art is connected to a one-of-a-kind NFT that is housed on the blockchain. Anyone will look up who owns a particular NFT—that is, a specific work of digital art—on the internet. Nifty Gateway NFTs may be deposited in the company's custodian wallet or converted to the owner's personal wallet. “Own the private keys, own the art,” as they say in cryptoland. It does not matter that the digital art cannot be displayed; the Winklevoss Twins agree that collecting digital art should be equivalent to collecting rare baseball cards.
When you purchase an NFT with cryptocurrencies, you are buying a one-of-a-kind token as well as a piece of art connected to that token. The transaction is documented on the blockchain, providing you with a permanent and open record of your purchase as well as evidence of ownership. What are your plans for NFT? You can use your phone, TV, or even a digital frame to view the digital art that comes with it. (Beeple submitted digital frames to collectors in one auction.) It is even possible to resell it. Couldn't others just take a screenshot of the image or replicate it in some other form on the Internet and claim ownership? Yes, but the blockchain will also show you as the original's user. Similarly, to transmitting Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, exchanging control of an NFT necessitates a blockchain operation that can only be allowed by the NFT owner's private key. Reprints of a popular image are a more traditional analogy, except that the creator of the original photograph has immutable evidence of ownership in the blockchain.
Naturally, this poses the issue of how copyright will extend to NFTs. When it comes to popular art, the buyer who buys it normally just has the right to show it. Unless the artist expressly approves, the copyright rests with the artist, and the owner does not have the right to make copies and market such copies—for example, to film the work and produce postcards, or to reprint the piece and sell postcards and prints. The same appears to extend to NFTs—specifically, where an artist like Beeple can produce as many copies of a digital artwork as they want unless contractually restricted, the benefit of the specific purchase would be that no other copy will be allowed to get the same special token. However, following the recent entrance of NFTs into the industry, it is uncertain how intellectual property protection for such digital art can be claimed or applied.
