There’s money to be made buying and selling rare digital art on the blockchain in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). But what is crypto art?

Here’s a sneak peek at my upcoming blog, 7 Misconceptions About Crypto Art. This article aims to dispel some of the misconceptions and guide you through the facts…

1) How do I buy crypto art on the blockchain?

There are several online marketplaces to buy crypto art. Think of it as a peer-to-peer auction like eBay meets Christies with digital artworks for every budget. Each artwork is authentically created by an artist and tokenized as a digital asset that you can own and trade. Browse through the artworks on one of the many curated galleries where artists show their work directly to consumers. If you’re new to the world of crypto and the blockchain the easiest way to buy is to pay in USD on sites such as Makers Place https://makersplace.com/ and Nifty Gateway https://niftygateway.com/.

Once you see something you like, either place a bid and wait to see if a) someone outbids you or b) the artist accepts your offer. Alternatively, if the artist has specified a ‘list price’ and you think the artwork is worth it, you can offer the full price to buy it now. The crypto art is then transferred to your ownership using a transaction that sends the digital asset to your unique address on the blockchain.  Unlike eBay there may be no deadline for the artist to accept your bid and if they don’t accept within a few days you can assume they are waiting for a higher bid.

If you are already into crypto currency and are specifically looking for single-edition digital artworks you can get an Ether wallet and pay in ETH on the Ethereum network. Sign up to SuperRare https://superrare.co/ and they will create a Fortmatic wallet as part of the sign in process. This wallet address is owned by you, controlled by a private key and will securely store your crypto art purchases and your ETH balance. The wallet can also be used for purchases on other crypto art platforms. There are various ETH wallets available including the most popular wallet MetaMask https://metamask.io/ which is a browser extension offering peerless power and flexibility.

 Several other curated platforms are available for example Known Origin https://knownorigin.io/ and Blockchain Art Exchange https://www.blockchainartexchange.co.uk. To be accepted as an artist on any of the above galleries, artworks must be of a high standard so you can rest assured that an artist’s work has been vetted and everything in the gallery meets the curators quality and authenticity  criteria.