Cryptonizing NFTs - Interview With A Creator

Hi everyone!

✔️ This is my first post in this community.
I have decided to write it here because the person whom I have interviewed recommended that I do so.

What is this post about: the real condition of a Hive NFT creator that likes to stay anonymous and to talk about his NFT experience, while I am addressing the questions. For reference, the artist doesn't speak English and the whole interview was translated by me.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

What convinced you to turn your work into NFTs and explore the digital art market?

I saw this technology as an opportunity to monetize my work for over 10 years as a visual artist. I have always tried to be as independent as possible in terms of the art trade I produce, because I prefer to sell directly to collectors, without other commissions. I have my own company that trades in painting and the prints they produce, and NFT technology fits very well with this direction. I like to have control over my work.

When did you first find out about NFT and when did you sell your first NFT? Do you know who bought it?

I found out very recently, for a maximum of 2 months. This notion was constantly circulated by various artists that I followed on Instagram. Recently I also received messages with proposals to try this world. Initially, I didn't take it too seriously, especially since it's an ideal system for digital art creators, and I'm focused on traditional art. What convinced me was an Instagram Story from a well-known artist, James Jean. He had sold a work of his on the Foundation.app platform. I immediately entered the platform, and there were step-by-step instructions on what to do. Because this platform works on the basis of invitations from other artists, it took about 5 days of "spamming" on their Discord channel to finally receive an invitation. I gave the first work after 2 days and I sold two more in the next two days. A collector bought two of them. I followed him and found him on Twitter. He's a guy who buys a lot. I exchanged a few words with him, including the idea that the NFT he bought has a real correspondent, that is, the original oil painting. He told me he didn't mind that, on the contrary. The second work, I have minted and sold it on NFTShowroom.

The world is still very curious to know more about NFTs. The system offers certain advantages for artists and, at the moment, a lot of money is being invested in the new market. How do you think the phenomenon will evolve? Will it survive long or will the world soon get bored?

At first glance, it seems something new and unbelievable for some artists. Ironic. Not? That was my feeling from the beginning. I said try. A few years ago, a friend was telling me about bitcoin and I didn't take it seriously. Back then, bitcoin had a value of $600, now it exceeds $60,000 and it seems that the phenomenon will not stop soon. So with this new opportunity, I told myself not to be skeptical and I immediately threw myself into the game. As for how things will evolve, I don't know exactly. On the one hand, I have the feeling that everything will go awry after the "hype" passes, on the other hand, I hope that the system will be maintained and improved, especially when we talk about the energy consumed for NFT transactions. It is a very controversial topic at the moment, the fact that cryptocurrency transactions consume a lot of energy and destroy the environment through the large CO2 footprint it leaves. If everything continues like this, it is a big problem. The hope is that it will move from the current Proof of Work mechanism, which is used to confirm transactions and is very secure in terms of security, to Proof of Stake, similar to VISA cards, which consumes 99% more little energy, but which is a little more insecure.

There is another problem, the one related to the original works. Ideally, there should be no real correspondent for NFT work. Initially, the first two works I sold were actually photographs of oil paintings made a few years ago. From my experience so far, the collector who bought the original oil painting did not mind that I created an NFT after it. As I said earlier, even the one who bought the NFT does not mind that there is an identical painting in reality. However, I believe that they must be separated. Now I'm trying to create, starting from the original painting, either an animation in Adobe After Effects, or to modify it a bit in Adobe Photoshop. I wish there was a clearer difference between them.

You have already sold some works through the Foundation platform. What is the sales process through this system?

An account must be created on the platform and an Ether "wallet", the currency most often used to create NFTs. Ether currency is used because it has an integrated "smart contract" mechanism, which allows the attachment of a file (any kind of digital file up to 50MB), an NFT code (Non-Fungible Token, ie an indivisible currency). Integrated into this "smart contract" there may be a percentage of copyright, ie for any resale, a percentage, usually 10%, automatically returns to the "wallet" of the original seller (artist).

To upload and sell an NFT, you must first mint it, just like on NFTShowroom - basically register the code in the blockchain. Why? The blockchain is the system through which information is stored in fragments, on several computers around the world, so that anyone can see the transaction, and this is very secure because it is not centralized. Then the "listing" is done, ie from the blockchain, the NFT reaches the platform where the sale is made. After the sale, another transaction is required to transfer the Ether back to the seller's wallet. So you have to be careful, because in total there are 3 transactions that cost somewhere from 0.03 to 0.09 Ether each, depending on the hour, so somewhere between 100-300 euros it will cost the artist a sale of NFT. I noticed that the best hours are around 12 am and 12 pm. These prices are for March 2021. The value of Ether can vary greatly over the course of a year, which is why Crypto transactions are so risky.

It should be noted that there are other currencies that can be used to make or mint NFTs, but Ether is the most popular. I make no recommendations here.

I think that NFT can also be a very useful tool for galleries or any kind of sale of physical art objects. The NFT can take the place of a contract or certificate of authenticity and can be sold with the physical work, so there will be digital, permanent, and transparent proof of the origin of the work, and the artist will be guaranteed the copyright due at each resale.

The works that were sold brought you some Ethereum. What are your plans with them? Maybe you'll invest them in NFTs, too?

I set my eyes on a few works that I could also collect. The idea of ​​artists buying from other artists is being promoted a lot now. I agree if the artist hits and makes a lot of money, but I don't think we should do that at the moment so that we can contribute to the pyramid system. For the time being, we should let them buy those who already have a lot of ETH, that is, collectors, not creators. Ether a year ago had a value more than 10 times lower and many people invested then. They should now buy from artists and thus support them and invest in them. If this whole system will last, only then will I think that artists should invest in other artists who are at the beginning of the road. I think at least a year should pass, let's see how things evolve after this strong wave.

I currently keep my cryptocurrencies, I don't withdraw them in real money. I will keep them so I can reinvest in publishing other NFTs in my personal portfolio. As I said earlier, you need to spend about 0.03 - 0.27 Ether to publish an NFT.

You have studied Conservation and Restoration and you are very close to the environment in which you work, oil. Could you create digital art in the future without first working on ideas?

Not. I will not give up oil. I am too attached to this process and the real connection I have with my work. Traditional painting brings me much more satisfaction than digital. Usually, I design my ideas in a very simple pencil sketch. Then I develop it digitally using photography, Photoshop, or using a 3D software such as Blender. After I have this very clear sketch I pass this image in oil, visually unifying everything.

I thought of a system to combine them in case things go well. I will create the NFTs always starting from the original oil paintings and then I will increase them by animation in After Effects or Photoshop. So I could say that I oscillate from analog to digital very often. Especially now in the case of NFTs.
Hic Et Nunc?

Not yet, but ASAP!
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It has been an honor to interview this guy and the chance really existed because we live close to each other, so the interview was taken face to face.

I respect his request to stay "invisible" and not give us his name, but I admire even more that he has opened up to talk about his experience ad the fact that he made it BIG in his first 2 months of minting and selling his NFTs.
Besides the info he has given us in this interview, I know that he had a huge campaign, including Discord, giveaways at some point, waxing around day and night :) and tweeting about it. I hope that in the future he will come to trust the defluencers more and the decentralized social media and other dapps for promoting his creations and shouting out his messages!

Thank you for reading!
Zpek/Mike

PS: Does Hivelist have a feature for selling NFTs? I am not sure. I will take a look later today.