Miami’s conversations have been taken over by Art Basel, one of the biggest art events in the world. This event will descend back upon Miami in December.

Digital art and a number of non- fungible tokens events will be featured,  including the Cube Art Fair.  NFTs have taken the art world by storm. They are built upon crypto blockchain technology, which is a digital ledger of proof of ownership. However, as the name implies they are digital. They’re often shown and presented on digital screens. There is much debate in the art world if this is seriously considered to be art. If somebody were to simply take a screenshot, post it and show it on a screen then, it gets to the idea of scarcity and originality.

With the rise of NFTs, bananas duct-taped to walls, and countless other unique creations… one must ask if art is truly in the eye of the beholder, or does art have to be constrained to fit into today’s art guidelines. This question gets to the heart of the future of arts; what is arts and what is not art?

A few months ago Digital Artist, ‘Beeple’ sold his NFT artwork for over $68 million at Christie’s! It was a huge inflection point for NFTs breaking into the traditional art world. This is one of many NFTs that have been used over time to seize landmark sports events. The piece is a collage made up of 5,000 individual images, which were made one per day for more than thirteen years. So, is art is anything that brings joy to the viewer?

“Giving people the chance to collect these things is a different experience than just viewing them on YouTube.” Mike Winkelmann (‘Beeple’ Digital artist) said.

Gary Vaynerchuk, A Social Media Investor who just launched his very own NFT series made 20 million dollars in just 5 days!

“An NFT is a digital certificate representing a one-of-a-kind asset just like a one-of-a-kind rookie card. 2 days ago Next Mickey Mouse or Hello Kitty Could Be an NFT”

– Gary Vaynerchuk, The New York CNN Business Serial interview 

There is still much discourse in debates as to whether NFTs are truly masterpieces.  Although visually fascinating, the question lingers of if you are able to take a screenshot of something and present it on the screen doesn’t justify the cost.