NFTs offer employment and income for creators in unbanked markets

We all have friends or family members that are incredibly talented in creating artwork or writing original songs, but we often see them drifting into mainstream careers such as graphic design, marketing, movie studios, or record companies, and that is if they are lucky enough to live in a part of the world where such opportunities exist. Rarely do we see such talented people rewarded or making as good a living for their own creations as historically art and musicianship has been a viable career option for the very few.

According to a World Bank report, 1.7 billion people globally are unbanked that’s 1-in-4, which means no access to finance, credit, or online banking and payment systems giving them no ability to operate on the world stage, and certainly little opportunity to either buy or sell in the Art world.

NFTs fundamentally enable change in this paradigm for everyone no matter geographical location, social class, gender, employment status, or income, everyone has an opportunity to create, earn, and feed their family.

What are NFTs?

NFT – Non-Fungible Tokens are really a unique address that identifies an Item, a video, a piece of art, or music that identifies it as the original copy with its data stored on a blockchain secured by complex cryptography making it immutable and cannot be altered or stolen, meaning the artist or creator of the NFT, or estate after passing, can be rewarded a % of all future sales of that NFT forever.

Why would someone want digital art rather than a real physical piece?

This is the same question asked about music singles and albums before the iPod and movies before streaming – technology advances and provides options. There will always be a place for people who like their VHS tape collection or vinyl records but now there are options for portability, green living, and less plastic waste. The digital artwork now being created is not only flat 2D images but often incorporates complex Ai-generated animation or 3D AR and VR technology attributes. And of course, you can place and change your digital displays anywhere around your home, and even if the display screen is stolen, you still own the original version of the art.

I can already buy licensing to art or music online through various websites why do I need an NFT?

Yes you can use the artwork within the parameters of the license you purchase for the duration of that license, this is not the same as being the owner of the piece and licensing it yourself for others to use, or creating your own virtual gallery that anyone can visit in a virtual display on a website or within a metaverse thereby generating income opportunities or just boosting your Klout within your social network.

“Why not right-click an image then I have a copy?”

This is the same as saying “why buy a digital copy of a music album or movie when you can download a pirate version off the internet for free?” This practice of pirating will probably never stop but most working people are happy to buy their own legitimate copy of a pop or rock stars work or buy their favorite movie to download to add to their collection and be happy to know they have a genuine high-quality copy they can watch and listen to any time and the record company, musicians, actors, and technicians will get paid for their hard work and those industries continue to flourish through the mass market embracing of digital technology solutions for enjoying music and movies over the past 20 years.

The ability to generate consistent income for many musicians and artists has traditionally never been easy with a very small % ever actually earning a full-time liveable income from creating their own work, and maybe only 1 or 2 of their items hit a high value on their lifetime and this would often be just a one time sale or for a musician the sale to a music licensing house. An original copy of a piece of art or music that has been created into an NFT on a blockchain secured by complex cryptography will immutably prove not only it’s a genuine original copy and who the original creator was but also that creator will be rewarded every time that artwork is resold in the future. Just like the MP4, NFTs are revolutionizing the art industry to ensure the career for an artist or musician can have longevity, reach a global audience, and create an income for a larger % of creatives that want to make a living from their own creations.

Why do I have to use cryptocurrency to buy an NFT?

This is actually not the case, there are many NFT providers, such as crypto .com and some online NFT platforms, that offer both FIAT currency solutions and Cryptocurrency solutions for the purchase of an NFT.

The reason some people may want to use Cryptocurrency is that one Bitcoin has the same value in USA as it has in the Philippines or Nigeria and whether or not you are CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a laborer in a factory, cryptocurrency is creating an equal playing field for anyone in the world to participate in a world what may be traditionally seen as more exclusive to the first world, middle class to wealthier individuals.

NFTs have no practical use in Gaming as its nothing new and a money grab.

Does art need practical use? We have already established how a blockchain registered item (NFT) is very easy to prove ownership and very hard to steal and provides long-term income and employment opportunities for talented creators who may otherwise not earn an income in return for their creativity.

Within mainstream gaming, currently valued at $200bn globally, uproar has been caused amongst traditional Gamers playing titles from AAA studios like Ubisoft or Epic games as NFTs are starting to be introduced. There has been a long-standing issue with “Loot Boxes” in games that entice players to purchase them on top of the original retail price of the game and is seen has been seen a money grab for a number of years now. The introduction of NFTs into the mainstream gaming market has triggered a kneejerk reaction as its seen as yet another money grab by established gaming studios and has understandably created a backlash, with “Scam” being the buzzword and gamers being blinded to genuine benefits NFTs offers to the gaming industry, developers and creators all around the world.

Many games already allow digital in-game items to be traded amongst players for in-game currency, but if you stop subscribing to the gaming service or you try to sell your items privately outside of the game for real-world money you will likely be banned from the game, as many AAA gaming studios want you to spend your money with them, you do not have ownership of the game or the items. This has created gaming black markets where individuals expose themselves to identity theft by selling their gaming accounts for upwards of a few thousand dollars.

An NFT ingame item, belongs to you personally, not the gaming studio, so even if you no longer subscribe to a game you still own the item, and no one can take it from you or ban you, and you, not the studio can earn money by selling that item, the item is registered to you and is immutable on the blockchain and NFT markets such as Opensea have many layers of security to prevent fraud and identity theft. To a USA player, they may say “well I don’t care about $50 for selling that ingame item”, however to a player in another part of the world this may feed his family for a week, when there are very few opportunities for much of the world’s population to scratch a living it’s not a bad option, especially if you are an NFT creator.

No current non-NFT based game will allow players to make money outside of e-sports tournaments. The quality of NFT games continues to improve with a number of superb Gaming studios emerging with multibillion-dollar valuations to complete with the mainstream industry dinosaurs.

NFTs are just scams for people to get rich quickly.

Where there is money to be made there are always criminals, this has been true for thousands of years, from fake artworks, jewelry, and counterfeit money. One of the truly great things about blockchain technology is the complex algorithms and cryptography that make it very easy to identify a fake and an original as the “blockchain address” is immutable, cannot be altered, and yet is easy for any regular person to look up online to confirm without the need to be an Art historian, archeologist or Geologist and radically reduce the potential to be scammed.

NFTs provide an opportunity for the bounds of creativity in digital art to be pushed and enable talented artists and musicians to be able to make a genuine living from their creativity, is it a bad thing that they can, and are making good money? Not every NFT creator will make money of course and the market will calm down and the truly talented creators will be rewarded and the scammers, crypto Kitties, Punks, and Monkeys will disappear as a short-lived fad but the technology is here to stay.

NFTs are giving art a more prominent place in society, providing income opportunities when there is otherwise mass unemployment or low wages, it provides an even playing field for anyone in the world to participate in earning money through their talent and creativity regardless of geographical location, social class, opportunity, and income and only improves culture and civilization as a whole.