Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market
The adoption of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology by the art industry, creates a digital art market. NFTs also change the way artists earn a living from their creations and enable digital asset ownership which impacts any potential digital art owners. This thesis reviews the avail...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
School of Economics
2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613196019302400 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mwesigwa, Timothy |
| author2 | Georg, Co-Pierre |
| author_browse | Georg, Co-Pierre Mwesigwa, Timothy |
| author_facet | Georg, Co-Pierre Mwesigwa, Timothy |
| author_sort | Mwesigwa, Timothy |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The adoption of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology by the art industry, creates a digital art market. NFTs also change the way artists earn a living from their creations and enable digital asset ownership which impacts any potential digital art owners. This thesis reviews the available academic literature on the impact of NFTs on three elements of the art industry; it's structure, it's creators and it's consumers. I find that the history of the art market determined its modern structure, which is divided between primary and secondary markets, each market dealing directly and indirectly for art with original artists, respectively. NFTs foster disintermediation in the secondary art market, made of traditional intermediaries like art dealers, by enabling a more efficient copyright management mechanism on the blockchain. Additionally, because NFTs enable unique digital identification of digital art, they create a new market for digital assets which extend the structure of the art market to encompass the digital realm. However, the current legislation concerning digital property is structured in a way which favours licencing models which do not enable full ownership of digital files. The hybrid nature of NFTs transactions, which have elements of both sales and licensing agreements, creates the main challenge policy-makers face to craft regulation applicable to NFT transactions. Common law plays a crucial role in this process by balancing digital contracting and property rights which ultimately affects investment in digital property. NFTs also enable the implementation of novel funding models for artists on the blockchain. These include fractional equity in art and the efficient payment resale royalties, which are previously put forward through the Artist's contract, but only practically achieved using NFTs, smart contracts and tokenisation on the blockchain. This thesis lays the foundation for subsequent studies to explore other substantial segments of the NFT market, especially the collectables and gaming segments |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39702 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:17.361Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | School of Economics |
| publisherStr | School of Economics |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39702 An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market Mwesigwa, Timothy Georg, Co-Pierre Economics The adoption of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology by the art industry, creates a digital art market. NFTs also change the way artists earn a living from their creations and enable digital asset ownership which impacts any potential digital art owners. This thesis reviews the available academic literature on the impact of NFTs on three elements of the art industry; it's structure, it's creators and it's consumers. I find that the history of the art market determined its modern structure, which is divided between primary and secondary markets, each market dealing directly and indirectly for art with original artists, respectively. NFTs foster disintermediation in the secondary art market, made of traditional intermediaries like art dealers, by enabling a more efficient copyright management mechanism on the blockchain. Additionally, because NFTs enable unique digital identification of digital art, they create a new market for digital assets which extend the structure of the art market to encompass the digital realm. However, the current legislation concerning digital property is structured in a way which favours licencing models which do not enable full ownership of digital files. The hybrid nature of NFTs transactions, which have elements of both sales and licensing agreements, creates the main challenge policy-makers face to craft regulation applicable to NFT transactions. Common law plays a crucial role in this process by balancing digital contracting and property rights which ultimately affects investment in digital property. NFTs also enable the implementation of novel funding models for artists on the blockchain. These include fractional equity in art and the efficient payment resale royalties, which are previously put forward through the Artist's contract, but only practically achieved using NFTs, smart contracts and tokenisation on the blockchain. This thesis lays the foundation for subsequent studies to explore other substantial segments of the NFT market, especially the collectables and gaming segments 2024-05-27T08:30:22Z 2024-05-27T08:30:22Z 2023 2024-05-23T13:03:51Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39702 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce |
| spellingShingle | Economics Mwesigwa, Timothy An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market |
| title_full | An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market |
| title_fullStr | An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market |
| title_full_unstemmed | An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market |
| title_short | An investigation of the impact of NFTs on the Modern Art Market |
| title_sort | investigation of the impact of nfts on the modern art market |
| topic | Economics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39702 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mwesigwatimothy aninvestigationoftheimpactofnftsonthemodernartmarket AT mwesigwatimothy investigationoftheimpactofnftsonthemodernartmarket |