We saw how in 2021, the number of Ethereum users rose due to the explosion in NFTs. Save a few of successful artists and PFP projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), OpenSea, which launched on the Ethereum blockchain, was the big winner in the rally.
The Ethereum blockchain undoubtedly still remains the leader for NFTs, but since 2021, we have seen other chains try to get a share of the pie. Solana NFTs users saw their assets increase in astronomical value from mint prices on collections like Solana Monkey Business and DeGods over the past few months, so much so that OpenSea recently moved to support Solana NFTs.
While a lot of these chains NFTs arts are uninspiring and their PFPs look like cheap works, one other blockchain has developed a solid digital art ecosystem since NFTs gained popularity with the masses. Tezos.
Tezos is an open source Proof of Stake blockchain that is energy-efficient, security-focused, and seamlessly upgradable. As one of the first and longest running Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains, Tezos operates without the large energy requirements required of other types of blockchains. In fact, Tezos consumes two million times less energy than Ethereum. Plus, it only costs a fraction of 1 tez to create (or "mint") an NFT on Tezos—that means Tezos NFTs are eco-friendly and more accessible for people around the world.
Tezos prides itself in these three areas: Pioneering Proof of Stake; Energy-efficient & Sustainable and Rapid Innovation. Over the years, Tezos has some setbacks—including slow rate of slow adoption and a weird marketing campaigns, it is definitely doing something right in the NFTs art domain. They were so focused and good till the guys at OpenSea in 2021, made a blogpost for plans to support Tezos NFTs. But, for some reason best known to them, that update was put on hold. With no OpenSea support, early Tezos NFT enthusiasts moved to the now-defunct decentralized marketplace Hic et Nunc (now Teia).
When Hic et Nunc hit the NFT space in March 2021, it sparked a revolution for digital artists across the globe. With a trade volume of 10.9 million Tezos (approx. $ 50 million) in less than a year, the marketplace quickly became a significant player in the NFT field, despite the lack of wider media attention. The artists, developers, and collectors on the platform were not only users, but developed into a social and artistic global community where young and upcoming creators moved side by side with renowned veteran digital artists. The website, hicetnunc.xyz, was taken down by its owner in November 2021, but the decentralized core – the NFTs, the smart contracts, and the artworks themselves – remained accessible.
These days, platforms like objkt and fxhash, which is a sort of Tezos equivalent to Art Blocks, are making waves.
Top NFTs artists such as iRyanBell and mrkswcz (pictured) have chosen to mint their work on Tezos because of its low fees and energy efficiency—Tezos already uses Proof-of-Stake—and the pieces are often much more affordable than those on Ethereum. It may interest you to note that, some artists have similar works minted on both Tezos and Ethereum, and they often price their Ethereum NFTs much higher than Tezos. This begs the the following questions: are Tezos NFT arts is undervalued? Or, are Ethereum whales propping up the NFT market and Ethereum NFT art needs a correction?
I would like think that paying attention to what is going on on Tezos could be profitable. Granted, Ethereum still dominates the NFTs space and likely will for a while, but there is probably some alpha in discovering promising artists on Tezos when they are yet to be blown.
ICYMI
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