Is the art world discovering Tezos?: How to become an NFT collector before it’s too late
Did you see the Tezos NFT panel at Art Basel this year? Or did you hear that Marina Abromavic announced an NFT series on Tezos? For those in the know, the environmentally-friendly Tezos blockchain is home to one of the world’s most exciting digital art movements, which, interestingly enough, developed completely independent of the so-called ‘art world’. In fact, if you’re just clueing in and have never heard any of this, don’t worry dear reader, the art world itself is just beginning to figure this out. And, having spent time in the depths of the mandala, let me tell you, collecting opportunities abound, so do not fear, if you act now, you are, in fact, still early.
But how to begin, you ask. Let me bring you up to speed on how you can participate in this low-cost ecosystem. First you’ll need some Tezos tokens because all of the artworks are denominated in the currency of the blockchain. And maybe you’ve heard the headlines that crypto is in a historically brutal bear market, so it’s cheaper than it’s been in some time (Tezos hit a high of $9.12 last year and currently trades at $1.50, i.e. artworks that were previously $91.20 are now $15). As a major cryptocurrency, Tezos can be bought on the largest exchanges such as Binance (my personal favourite) and Coinbase (renown for its high fees). Both have smartphone apps, and if you need more information on how to use them, visit YouTube, the native home of crypto education.
Next, you’ll need a Tezos wallet. My personal favourite is the Kukai app, which can be found here: https://wallet.kukai.app/. Once you have your Tezos from Binance, send it to your Kukai wallet that you’ve previously set up. This wallet enables you to connect to websites to buy and sell NFTs. Once you have the Tezos in your wallet, you’re ready to do business. It might take you a day or two to get familiar with the wallet and the general functioning of the ecosystem, but the learning curve isn’t as bad as you might think. Think of it as the price of admission.
Next, you’ll need a place to shop for art. The main marketplace is objkt.com, which acts as an aggregator of all the other marketplaces, so it’s a good place to start. There are two other marketplaces that you’ll need to visit on their actual website: versum.xyz, a site that aims to cater to higher end artworks, and fxhash.xyz, the post popular generative art marketplace. Other mentions include teia.art, which can be purchased on objkt.com, and newcomer, type.art, where you can buy and sell type-based art.
As far as collecting works is concerned, don’t be thrown off by what you see on the surface. These are open marketplaces where anyone that has a Tezos wallet can post (including you), so some digging is required. But coming from someone who’s been neck-deep in this for the past three months or so, if you dig you will find. Just be careful out there — once you get started, you may find it hard to stop.
— originally published in International Paneling
