Why do I still NFT?

The hype cycle. The scams. The get rich quick schemes. Yes, the NFT marketplace is full of them and so is the traditional art world. I suspect there is no more or less grifting or scamming in cash than crypto. Unfortunately, artists being exploited is not new.

I minted my first NFT in 2022 and I still mint some of my digital and new media work on the Ethereum or Tezos blockchain. I am interested in technology, decentralized power structures, peer to peer networking, and provenance. Crypto Art / NFTs are squarely at the center of this Venn diagram. Like all technology, I am neither pro- or anti- NFT. I am a curious explorer. I like a good experiment. I've found value, community, and plenty to critique in the Crypto Art space.

Minting a contract for digital art or even physical art on the blockchain is writing a public contract that time stamps creation and provenance in a way that's permanent and public (maybe semi-permanent*). Despite the noise, despite the crashes and the grifters, I'm still curious about what emerges when artists have direct access to global distribution and transparent ownership records. I keep minting because the experiment isn't over. The technology still offers possibilities for how artists and curators can work, connect, and build. I'm not done exploring them yet.

* Blockchains are resilient but not immortal. The infrastructure and hosting around NFTs—images, metadata—can disappear. I hope someone creates something like the Internet Archive for preserving crypto art.