I’ve been noticing that a lot of people either don’t really understand NFTs, or mock them because they think it’s a silly (10 Reasons Why NFTs Are Stupid). This leads me to believe those who don’t understand them don’t fully understand selling art, digital art, or prints. Yes, I sell prints in my store. Some people even sell clip-art and design sets that are solely digital. Can people simply choose to right click, save as, and print them? Yes. Can they hang it on their wall without me knowing? Yes. Can they put them on their website? Well, they can, but then I can have it taken down if I really want to fight it. Unfortunately, this happens so often to digital artists that it’s a given. The theft of digital art is nothing new.
As many will point out as a deterrent to NFT-buying, can people right click and copy your NFT? Yes. Can they add it to their private wallet? Yes. Can they put a stolen NFT in a wallet where everyone can see? No. Why? Because you can easily prove they are not the owner based on the file information and their accounts will be banned from whatever NFT marketplace/website (Ex: OpenSea, Rarible, and Crypto.com) they are displaying them on. Your wallet holds your NFTs and currency. If you buy from reputable artists and galleries — it’s yours and you can look at it or display it. You can display it in a digital frame, display it online, display it offline, whatever. It’s your digital print. Depending on what you bought it will either be 1/1 or a multiple 1/x (but that specific print number will be yours, similar to buying a real life numbered print).
The Climate Controversy Swirling Around NFTs is another point brought up to disincentivize people about getting involved with them. “When someone makes, buys, or sells an NFT using Ethereum, they’re responsible for some of the emissions generated by those miners. What’s still up for debate is whether NFTs are significantly increasing emissions from Ethereum or if they’re just taking on responsibility for emissions that would have been generated by miners anyway.”
Does the selling and creation of art digital and non digital alike effect the environment? Yes. What are the main environmental impacts of a contemporary work of art?
Figuring out the culpability of NFTs is a little like calculating your share of emissions from a commercial plane flight.
Joseph Pallant, founder of the nonprofit Blockchain for Climate Foundation
In a time where more of us are using virtual reality headset (Around 171 million people are already using VR in some way today, XR Today) or carrying around digital photos and currency on our phones; this is inevitable. Artists are always trying to survive and thrive through whatever technology changes occur. Offering original works physically as well as digitally is just smart..