November 22, 2021
By Hillary K. Grigonis
Collectible digital art sold as NFTs (or Non-Fungible Tokens) has exploded in growth this year. Getting started with NFTs, however, can be confusing and expensive to photographers who are new to the space. Enter Quantum’s NFT Launchpad, a new platform that curates and mints the work of fine-art photographers as NFTs.
While other platforms that curate and sell NFT art exist, Quantum claims to be the first on-chain platform that’s made exclusively for photographers. The platform curates a new NFT collection each week, using one of a handful of different distribution models.
[Read: What are NFTs Anyway? A Photographer’s Guide to the Digital Art Craze]
Once a collection mints, buyers receive a randomly selected piece from that collection. Receiving a random piece for a set price is a practice that has been used with other NFT launches, sometimes generating buzz and buyers hoping to receive a rarer piece in the collection.
According to Crypto Briefing, the Quantum NFT launchpad aims to help give photographers additional exposure without overpricing the art. Most pieces sold on the new platform have sold for under one ETH, Crypto Briefing noted. A single ETH isn’t pocket change—while the value of ETH changes often, at the time of this writing, one ETH was worth more than $4,000.
[Read: Lindsay Adler’s 10 Steps to Selling Photographs as NFTs]
Quantum launched earlier this year, co-founded by Justin Aversano, Kris Graves, Alexx Shadow, EXP_Table, and Jonas Lamis. Aversano had previously launched 100 images in a series called Twin Flames. But, once NFTs exploded in the art space, the series jumped in value. A single NFT from the collection sold by Christie’s last month for more than ten times the original estimate at $1.1 million. Aversano is an artist and curator and also the co-founder of the non-profit SaveArtSpace.
Co-founder Graves uses his 20 years of curating experience to select collections to launch on the platform. According to Crypto Briefing, the platform looks for images that tell a story. Quantum also says that it’s looking to represent a diverse range of photographers.
Quantum aims to make NFT photography accessible to both the artist and collectors. While any artist can create an NFT, the process involves converting currency to blockchain and paying GAS fees. Those costs can make NFT an expensive experiment for pieces that do not find an audience. The process and terminology can also be confusing for artists new to NFTs, a blockchain process of verifying the authenticity of digital art work.
Artists and collectors can learn more by visiting Quantum.Art.
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