NFTalk

We live in the beautiful, historic town of Charleston, South Carolina, located in the southeastern United States. The downtown area is ample with art galleries, all within walking distance from another. It’s a great little area to visit — they even host a monthly Friday night art walk, exhibiting local artist and in general, bringing the local art community together.

While visiting our favorite of these galleries recently, Chris (who quite literally cannot stop himself from speaking about NFTs) asked one of the gallery curators “Where’s the NFT wall?” The mood changed instantly from welcoming and warm, to stiff and cool. The curator was obviously perturbed by the topic. She brushed the question off simply, stating “that’s not the kind of art we carry”.

Naturally, Chris had to take the bait.

He dug in more and, when pressed, she began listing off the many reasons NFTs were the worst thing since the invention of the Kindle.

Did we forget to explain FUD? It stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. A mindset of pessimism. Most of the time the information causing FUD is incorrect or baseless.

She stated that all the people behind the origin of NFTs were former Wall Street traders who were “kicked out” following the economic housing crisis of 2008. Essentially, she was saying they weren’t allowed back on Wall Street, so they invented something else to screw people out of their money, i.e., NFTs.

Her second point–Anyone could claim rights to a great artists’ work, mint it as an NFT, and claim to be the creator. Thereby committing plagiarism without consequence.

And her final, feeble argument? She suggested that there was nothing worse for the environment than block chain technology.

Chris comes well prepared with rock solid facts and counterarguments for every one of her points. But he could tell any counterargument made would have fallen on def ears. I (Emma) had long since abandoned the conversation as the awkwardness had risen to a level I could no longer bear. Chris joined me and we spent the rest of our day enjoying beautiful works of art and chuckling to ourselves over the exchange.

But the question we’ve been asking ourselves since is why is the fine art world so fearful of NFTs? The truth is its an answer we can’t quite put our finger on ourselves. Why does digital art pose itself as a threat to traditional art? What we think the gallery curator we spoke with fears is digital art becoming more relevant than fine art. We believe what she doesn’t understand is that some day they will be one in the same.

We’re excited for future posts where we will dive into the origins of NFTs and cypherpunks, the fact that crypto and NFTs in general are pushing mining operations to find renewable and sustainable energy sources, and do NOT even get us started on the topic of provenance and how that could essentially put an end to plagiarism in art forever. Basically, don’t succumb to the FUD. Question everything and stick with us. We’re out here fighting the FUD and bringing the facts.