Tung Yuk Li, Founder and CEO of Triple X.
Tung Yuk Li. Courtesy Tung Yuk Li.
The Baer Faxt: How can I get prepared for collecting digital art, and what defines good trading platforms in the field of digital art?
Tung Yuk Li: First and foremost, it’s important to have security awareness regarding the wallets you use to purchase and contain your digital assets, understanding the options available on different blockchains for digital wallets and physical “cold” wallets. This will help to best manage and protect your assets, in order to avoid the devastating consequences of mistakes—for instance, unknowingly clicking a fraudulent link in an email (always… trust but verify), allowing that website to have access to your digital wallet, then losing control over the very fundamental thing that needs to be protected, otherwise known as a phishing scam.
Then, it comes down to actually finding artists that you appreciate and getting a sense of how they approach their works as well as their careers. For example: Are they really that sophisticated and interesting artistically, or are they the kind of creators that know what most people are seeking in this era and then smartly “design” their works through the eyes of the public or an audience that they’ve targeted? I’m not praising a particular approach here, but it’s better to develop a perspective after understanding more about these factors. You should always be careful with potentially misleading signals or big narratives and price tags as well.
It’s better to know for yourself beyond what the market shows and what the high-profile collectors in the digital art and Web3 space say in public. At the end of the day, you can always consult with experts, experts that stand for honesty, longevity and integrity.
Next: after you have made your selection and collected the works, you should consider ways of displaying the digital artworks. Everybody always asks: “How do I show the works I bought? On my phone? TV?” Well, high quality screens that are modular do exist and they can change everything you thought about what digital art was and could be. You can completely change the viewing experience and the environment it’s in via the equipment you use to display and the space’s arrangement, creating a timeless experience and atmosphere. We’re in content industries, and the quality of that content and the experience it brings should always be the central elements and principles for a long-lasting legacy.
Lastly: “good trading platforms in the field of digital art”. This is an interesting one, and before I provide my thoughts, I do want to point out one thing that I always share with people: when it’s an NFT it doesn’t mean it must be a digital artwork, and not every single digital artwork that you see is or needs to be an NFT. It’s important to know this and differentiate between these two concepts and their existence if you truly want to participate in this medium that will only thrive even more as we are entering the next stage of the technological era.
In the last years, looking at the Web3 and NFT space, which has been closely associated with digital creations, there’s been a few major trading platforms, like OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, or MakersPlace, and many more platforms that are on different blockchains and either embrace all categories of NFTs or focus on digital art NFTs, which excludes what we call PFP, a.k.a. profile picture projects (such as what people like to call the Bored Apes and “that pixelated one,” also known as CryptoPunks).
All kinds of trading platforms have risen and fallen, come and gone. Most, if not all platforms, have gone through ups and downs regarding their revenue and size dramatically in the last few years. We could have hundreds and thousands of trading platforms that serve the same purpose of showcasing something and wanting to be major distributors and platforms for sales, but it won’t matter if the artists’ market is not being supported consistently and especially if the quality of the works is questionable. It’s better if collectors pay attention to where the artists are, to and follow those artists; but artists, please be careful where you go, who you work with and how you approach the sales component of your works—here you get the power, but be mindful how you use it. It’s never wrong to think broadly and approach your audience responsibly or have assistance from experts.
So my answer is this: finding or using so-called “good” trading platforms is not the most urgent issue. More importantly, for now the most critical and relevant things that you can do is identify the artists you love and want to support for the long term, then evaluate the works they release and how they release them (because now there’s an also option for digital artists to just build a simple website working with smart contract teams to then operate and manage the sales of digital creations without a major distributor/platform’s involvement). You should try to see through the narrative of the platforms and creators, see who’s associated with it and how things have been done, then make your decision based on the few factors above. Platforms still need some years and elements to grow into something that we can rely on for their credibility, capability and longevity.
At the end of the day, find experts. We need to revive the common sense that we build good and quality things with experts or by supporting them. Don’t just look at and listen to the noise and temporary narratives, it won’t last.
