NFT seeks expansion but sceptics abound as questions linger

An NFT work by Jonathan Leong aka ZXEROKOOL titled To The Moon And Back at The Culture Story.

AT the recent SEA Focus art fair, 2 booths stuck out like sore thumbs. TZ APAC (the Asia-based public blockchain consultancy supporting the Tezos ecosystem) and The Columns Gallery had set up several TV screens displaying non-fungible token (NFT) artworks.

Every other exhibitor there was an established art gallery displaying paintings, sculptures and installations by known artists - works that stayed still so one could admire them.

But at TZ APAC's booth, the NFT artworks kept materialising on the TV screens for a few brief seconds, before vanishing and being replaced by other NFTs - there were just so many of them.

Every now and then, a confused art collector would wander into the booth to ask TZ APAC representatives questions such as: "What is NFT?", "Is it a GIF?", "Is it a web address?", "My kids are buying NFTs. Should I buy some too?", "How do we know cryptocurrencies won't crash in 2022?"

For all the news and headlines describing NFTs' push into the mainstream, many traditional art collectors still aren't entirely certain what NFTs are, if these digital collectibles are worth the hype (let alone the price tags), and if NFTs will someday be a crucial component of their art collection.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 2 pm

Lifestyle

Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.

Sign Up

The truth is, no one knows the answers - except what NFTs are: a tradable unit of data stored on a blockchain.

Price volatility and long-term value uncertainties make Singapore museums reluctant to purchase any NFT for now. And it doesn't help that the Monetary Authority of Singapore recently issued guidelines to prohibit crypto trading service providers from advertising publicly and engaging third parties such as social media influencers.

With public institutions appearing wary of crypto and NFTs, so too are old-school collectors.

NO GUTS, NO GLORY

But some collectors are diving headlong into it, convinced that it is the wave of the future. Among them are Chong Huai Seng, an art collector of over 30 years, and his daughter Ning Chong.

They are currently exhibiting NFTs by digital artist Jonathan Leong aka ZXEROKOOL at their independent art space The Culture Story. They're helping anyone who's interested in acquiring the works set up a digital wallet and convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency - a strategy every gallery hawking NFTs is adopting.

Mr Chong says he is undeterred by the fact that there is little institutional backing for NFTs: "I can see where the institutions and the sceptics are coming from. But I'm reminded of the time when people were talking about blockchain and Bitcoin in speculative terms. I was aware of these things, but I'm now kind of kicking myself for not looking at them more seriously and purchasing some Bitcoin when it was a fraction of its current price.

"Crypto has gained so much acceptance and usage. I don't think we can stop history in the making. I'm always inspired by Steve Jobs saying you've got to be 'hungry', and you've got to be 'foolish' if you want to succeed. If you stick to the conventional wisdom, you're always trying to play catch-up."

The Chongs, together with Ning's brother and cousin, have researched and purchased a dozen NFTs in the past few months, including real estate in the metaverse. They're now looking at sports, music and video-game NFTs as potential investments.

Other collectors are taking baby steps into the crypto world: Nicholas Song, an in-house legal counsel, has a collection of over 70 physical artworks by mostly Chinese artists. But he recently purchased his first NFT at Hatch Art Project.

Hatch Art Project's NFTs of digital plants "grow" on blockchain the moment you purchase their "seeds". 

Hatch is selling NFTs of digital plants conceived by artists Ernest Wu and Jake Tan. When you purchase a packet of digital seeds for 0.2 Ethereum (S$834), you can see your digital plant grow on blockchain over time. All the 1,024 computer-generated plants are mild mutations of local plants and no two plants are the same.

Song says: "It's such a clever and surprising concept, and you don't know what your plant will look like until after it's fully grown on blockchain."

He adds: "To be honest, I'm not really fazed by the volatility of the crypto market or the fluctuating value of NFTs. I bought it because I liked it as an artwork, and I'm not thinking of selling it or anything."

COLLECTORS "TOO SLOW"

But Song and the Chongs are the exceptions among old-school art collectors.

Victor Chia, an art collector known for supporting young artists for almost 10 years, says: "A lot of the NFTs I see are just nice graphics. Unless I see an artist with a distinctly original vision and a new visual vocabulary, I'm not inclined to buy any of it . . . I'll wait till the dust settles and clear leaders emerge."

Meanwhile, the NFT world is minting many times more collectibles than there are collectors. Artificial intelligence and machine-learning, generative adversarial network (GAN) algorithms make it easy to computer-generate thousands of different versions of one basic concept. NFT series, such as the sought-after Bored Apes or the Singapore-created Woke Workaholics, boast 10,000 unique variations, with prices varying from a few hundreds to a few millions.

Some NFT creatives are getting impatient with the slow uptake by old-school collectors, who typically have more money than the younger digitally-native collectors who form a large part of the NFT collector base.

 TZ APAC's booth at the art fair SEA Focus drew many visitors asking basic questions such as "What is an NFT?".

Since the historic US$69 million purchase of Beeple's NFT in March 2021, NFT Asia - a community for Asian or Asia-based NFT artists - has grown from just a dozen to about 3,600 members.

Jonathan Liu, a founding member of NFT Asia, says: "What we want to do is to help build an infrastructure where collectors and artists can all evolve together out of the traditional art market . . . When people buy an NFT, they should just see themselves as buying art that just happens to be an NFT. NFTs must be thought of as art. And I think this will rely heavily on education, helping the general public better understand the creatives and technology."

To this end, NFT Asia's core members have raised 16.5 Eth (S$68,921) among themselves to mount an NFT showcase at the Art Dubai art fair in March, alongside established art galleries such as Perrotin and Galleria Continua. They fully expect to get questions such as "What is an NFT?" and "Is it a GIF?" from the visitors - but every answer will be seen as a win.

helmi@sph.com.sg

@HelmiBT