The world’s first permanent NFT art museum has opened in Seattle, with the goal of “pulling back the curtain” on blockchain-based digital art.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is a kind of digital asset that has recently gained traction, with NFT artworks commanding millions of dollars. NFTs are built on top of a blockchain, a decentralized database of transactions.
Since its inception on January 14, the museum has provided a physical location for artists, producers, and collectors to show their NFTs while simultaneously educating the public about this relatively new market for digital art.
Jennifer Wong, co-founder and curator of the Seattle NFT Museum, commented, “We saw the importance of being able to see this kind of art in a way that allows you to genuinely slow down and observe all the details.”
On April 16, local digital artist Maksim Surguy visited the museum’s ‘Climate Conversation’ exhibition, which features his works that may be printed in physical form or sold online as NFTs.
“Previously, if you make a digital artwork or physical artwork, there were a lot of limitations about who can see the artwork or how they can own it,” said Surguy, who works in the technology industry in Seattle and began creating crypto-based art a year and a half ago.
According to a March research by Ireland-based Research and Markets, the global NFT sector is expected to reach more than $21 billion in 2022.
“An NFT is just a contract that signifies the ownership of an asset of some kind,” said Peter Hamilton, who co-founded the museum. “These tokens… are basically a contract that says this serial number belongs to this piece of art, and if you own this token, you are the rightful owner.”
The museum has an active program of activities throughout the year.
“I can’t emphasize enough how important the educational part of this museum is,” said Hamilton. “We’re trying to onboard folks and help them see what the value of NFTs are and help people pull back the curtain a little bit on what blockchain is and what its utility is.
