By: Sher Zada
Cryptocurrencies are on one hand have been financially nudging every digitally conscious person for earning across the globe, have cascaded ways of advertisements and opened venues of cultural and archaeological preservation on another hand as well. The aspirants of art and music hold a right track in the rush of crypto culture, that’s called Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). The business hype created by the digitally run cryptocurrency planed ground for NFT. However, the question would be squaring double in the minds of many digitally less aware readers like me that actually what is an NFT? An NFT is platform of digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. They are showcased online and bought and sold virtually, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying softwares as many crypto currencies, means the same block mechanism is used as used for crypto transactions. Before the existence of Cryptocurrency, we never hear too really on a system that enables us to own something that was completely digitalized. We passed around videos and motion graphics, refurnishing and reposting them, but there wasn’t such trend like current opportunity to automatically assume complete, concrete ownership over a digital file or artwork. The rise of NFT’s changes this, allowing creators the authority to rent digital artworks out, to sell them or showcase them according to their well. Thought the concept of NFTs surfaced since December 2012 with the inception of “Colored Coins” a project Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, had a lead role in building on the Bitcoin blockchain. But due to some script language technicality could not get proper pitch till 2014, the year that is associated with grand emergence of NFT. Counterparty was the first peer-to-peer financial platform/open-source to launch online protocol built on the Bitcoinblockchain. However that took a time gape of nearly six years to return the trend of Non-Fungible Tokens. In March 2021, Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, sold an NFT of his work for $69 million at Christie’s, leading as a catalyst for booming crypto art technology. There exist immense potential in the NFT space, and we can see more quality crypto artists like Trevor Jones, Fewocious, Pak, Trevor Jones, Slimesunday, mostly the aforementioned artists have been working touching the historical artistic phantoms of west through NFT. While Goran Pin a European portraitist, seems to lead the Arab NFT revolution. Goran Pin a European artist, but it’s quite interesting that he has been coining his expertise in countries like Bahrain, Brunei, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia ,according to Pin the mentioned countries are historically significant for NFT art pieces. The work of Goran Pin is focused on the first-ever portraits of 16 rulers from 10 Arab countries. Which he thinks would lead to Arab NFT revolution. Ping encircled half of the Kings and Queens Collection aimed bringing a significant historical impact in the field of NFT revolution from Arab world. Goran Pin would be the first Portraitist who has minted following Arab royal rulers (Kings and Queens) portraits on crypto blockchain system. From Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, from Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah , from Jordan, King Abdullah II , from Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah ,from Malaysia, Al-Sultan Abdullah of Pahang , from Morocco, King Mohammed VI , from Oman, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said ,and from Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani , from United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi III , Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikh Saud bin Rashid Al Mualla, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi and from Saudi Arabia, King Salman Portraits.
According to Pin, “in previous times, portrait paintings were mainly reserved for rich and powerful class in societies. But after the emergence of technological era of NFT and crypto world it seems, will not happen now, so a lot changed today; just the digital world takes over”. Pin views that it is hard to establish digitally fixed values for antiques, artworks, and other collectible items, but it’s evident that some of them worth millions. But he believes that the leading art appraisers estimate that Kings and Queens Collection might have a higher value than Mike Winkelmann’s record-smashing $69 million due to the historical landscape of Arab royalties who have not been digitally pin pointed in the past by any portraitist .Interesting is that no portraits from the Kings and Queens Collection are not available for sale at the moment. Goran Pin started Connecting Digital and Traditional Art World Exhibition, which introduces and put crypto art into traditional art galleries worldwide. Pin argues many developments are happening in this decentralized blockchain technology. No matter what it looks like at first glance, NFT art is safer for investment than buying crypto curencies from an investment perspective, because it sustains for long as it not fungible and not rotting at all. NFTs will topple the traditional art system as much as Bitcoin and Ethereum are going to change the financial landscape. People have made a lot of money from Bitcoin. If one would invest $100 when the coin first launched in 2009, his/her Bitcoin could be worth millions of dollars today. It can be said that crypto art will be a much more transparent and direct type of market than what we are used to seeing in the traditional art world. Blockchain technology changed our lives and evolved slowly but constantly. It has also had a profound impact on almost all spheres of human activity. On one hand NFT would reduce the chances of theft and will be helpful in restricting illegal smuggles of antique and rare items in future, while another hand it will provide opportunities of earning for the portrait artists, who are being suffered due to the current Covid-19 pandemic since 2020. While the post-pandemic would be an era of NFT a hope of preservation our art culture from forging and stealing and prism of ownership for the painting portraitists.
