What’s All About?

What is Crypto Art & How do I make money from selling my art as an NFT?

You know that I’m a stock photographer for many years now. You can see my portfolio here. I’m just about to step into a new field now, called Crypto Art. “Silky Way Art” is my professional name which contains my name in English.

So, what is Crypto Art? Crypto Art is a piece of metadata (including, generally- an image or link to an image/file, the creator of that file, datestamps, associated contracts or text, and the purchaser of the piece) which is attached to a “token” (which has monetary value on a marketplace) and stored in a blockchain. An individual piece of Crypto Art is called an NFT.

What is an NFT? Think of each NFT (Non-Fungible Token) as a unique trading card or collectible, each possessing individual value influenced by the general market value of NFTs, the Ethereum network, and cryptocurrency as a whole. Essentially, an NFT is a distinctive token representing a one-of-a-kind ID that cannot be duplicated, serving as a tool for establishing verified digital ownership. NFTs find applications in various domains such as Crypto Art, Crypto Gaming, and Crypto Collectibles, among others. These tokens are tokenized or minted, meaning they are placed on a Blockchain—a permanent ledger accessible on computers worldwide. Crypto Art, in essence, transforms Bitcoin into a tangible form of art, merging art, technology, and money seamlessly. Each piece is a meticulously crafted limited edition giclée print, uniquely capable of storing digital currency. For instance, a Crypto Art piece representing the beauty of Portugal‘s landscapes could be tokenized as an NFT, embodying the essence of the country’s culture and natural splendor.

So a question you may have asked yourself, such as “Why can’t people just download the image?” — the short answer is, they can. They can download the image and have the file saved on their computer forever. However, that same piece they have downloaded is not worth anything compared to the 1/1 NFT you sold to someone for $2,000+ because it is not original nor worth the same value. You cannot sell a copy of a printed/downloaded image at the original price.

You can go online and buy a painting that Pablo Picasso or Vincent Van Gogh made for less than $50, however that is not near the same value of what it is worth (millions) because it’s not the original copy. So when you upload an NFT to a platform, the value is 100x more than when someone can download your image.