American writer Elbert Hubbard said that art is not a thing, it is a way. Bitcoin (BTC) artists have spoken about minting nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and OpenSea.
It has been reported that the way is inspired by Bitcoin, its code, its philosophy, and its imagery. In some cases, it’s even inspired by memes. Bitcoin has become a “lifestyle,” for some Bitcoin artists, that inspires their way of doing business, accepting payments, and interacting with customers.
However, Bitcoin artists got inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto’s 13-year-old invention and whether minting an NFT would complement their “way” of doing art. After all, an NFT is a unique, digital receipt to prove ownership of a purchase that lives on a blockchain.
The report said that Lena, a Bitcoin artist who recently moved from Germany to crypto-friendly Dubai, began creating, painting, and printing Bitcoin artworks after diving down the Bitcoin rabbit hole in 2018. She says that while she started her crypto career as a crypto-agnostic, Bitcoin changed her approach and eventually took over.
She added:
“My mindset shifted and I began to work on myself, asking myself what to do with my lifetime because of Bitcoin. Bitcoin became like a lifestyle, so I should put all my savings in Bitcoin.”
She further said:
“OpenSea is full of art that is like not art — I mean, art is always up to the person, but it was too much for me.”
Likewise, countless artists make a living generating AI artwork and selling or minting them as NFTs on platforms such as OpenSea. The biggest stories of 2021 involved collective cartoon chimps — the Bored Ape Yacht Club — and the CryptoPunks, further digitally rendered images or art.
In the 2022 bear market, the hype around NFTs has reportedly evaporated. Yet, big name brands such as Starbucks continue to hop on the bandwagon, while luxury jeweler Tiffany caused a 1,700% increase in trading volume following an NFT move in August.
On the other hand, FractalEncrypt (an anonymous Bitcoin artist) sculpts large, imposing, and time-consuming Bitcoin full node structures, which he has hidden in locations around the world.
FractalEncrypt said:
“I created NFTs in 2017/18 and the deeper I investigated them, the more disillusioned I became. They felt inherently scammy, and me continuing down that path would make me a scammer in my eyes.”
Moreover, FractalEncrypt explained that the link between the art and the token was “ephemeral at best and an outright misrepresentation/fraud at worst.” They compare the issuance of NFTs as akin to centralized companies' issuing tokens, which could be problematic and even litigious.
In fact, Wikipedia explains an NFT is a “financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain.” The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is focused on certain crypto projects during the bear market. At the same time, the case between the SEC and Ripple (XRP) regarding the latter's XRP token rages on. BitcoinArt, who chose to remain anonymous, is among the few Bitcoin artists spoke to who had also dipped their toes into the world of NFTs.
He said:
“I made some awesome Bitcoin pictures and wasn't sure how to mint them and someone told me to mint on OpenSea, unfortunately they use ETH... But good news is I sold my nfts through Twitter for SATs instead and I cut the middle man out. I hate ETH.”
Thus, a recurring theme by this point, BitcoinArt prefers having one-on-one interactions with prospective customers; he enjoys the back and forth that comes through discussing art pieces. Lena also prefers the personal approach; she builds a connection with her clients and spends hours sketching, painting, and painstakingly perfecting customers’ visions.
Source: Cointelegraph