Art, Blockchain, and Virtual Tours are three trending subjects these days. They are quickly evolving independently and by collaborating with each other. When they merged, they created cryptoart.

What are these fields all about?

These three fields don’t seem to have much to do with each other, right?

Art is focused on generating value in the form of various artworks. Whether an artist is painting, sculpting, creating music, or just creating digital assets with the power of a PC (3D renderings, music, paintings, etc.), he is adding value to someone who wants to purchase their creation.

Blockchain (and Web3 technologies) is about changing the whole infrastructure of how businesses operate on the internet. They are using smart contracts to facilitate transactions, without a need of a lawyer. You can verify your identity, send money, lend and borrow money, get insurance, etc.

All of these without interacting with any type of paperwork.

Virtual Tours offers an immersive experience of a real venue in an online environment. You can navigate freely through a building, interact with certain objects on display. 

It’s used by Amazon to create value out of touristic attractions in the COVID-19 environment. It may be most suited for commercial applications such as Real-Estate Developers and Architects. But it still works like a charm on creating a great eCommerce experience, much like Valentino does. 

But how do these all fit together?

Recently this year, Blockchain and Art have been holding hands quite strong. Websites such as Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, and Rarible are using blockchain technologies to embed an NFT (non-fungible token, a.k.a. an artwork) into the blockchain. These art pieces are called cryptoart.

How?

Well, it’s complicated and it’s out of our purpose, but The Verge has a great article about them, read it here. 

In short, what these platforms do is to take a submitted artwork, run it through a series of algorithms on the blockchain, and it gets displayed on their marketplace. 

More than that, each artwork displayed is actually a unique token that cannot be traded to another, but it can be transferred in Ethereum (ETH).  

This allows an artwork to forever be on the blockchain and have a clear history of owners and purchases that will never be edited because it’s impossible. It also means that artists can sell their artworks in such a way.

Yeah, like that is a real thing…I hear you say.

It is a real thing, and artists have sold their artworks for up to $6.6 million a piece in the month of February 2021 alone using these platforms. 

Okay, but how do Virtual Tours fit in this blockchain-cryptoart scheme?

We already know that Virtual Exhibitions gained a lot of traction recently. Artists can showcase their cryptoart in a virtual environment without the need for an actual space to rent. We do this here, at Panorender, for artists too.

Sadly, this technology hasn’t been implemented on either of these platforms, not yet at least.

We are here to express our opinion on how it can be done and why it’s appealing.

First of all, we must acknowledge that buying cryptoart is not just about owning it. It’s about viewing the whole vision of the artist on the world through their exhibition, and resonating with at least one cryptoart piece that you need to have in your possession.

This is just a complete experience that a simple website listing cryptoart on auction like it’s a more visually pleasing version of eBay on the blockchain cannot offer.

Or could it?

Yes, it could. Cryptoart and Virtual Tours are a great match. But how?

Panorender can create such an experience for such websites. Imagine each artist’s page/store/exhibition would be, instead of a list of items, a wholly immersive experience.

Imagine entering their page, and be welcomed with a 3D environment resembling an Exhibition, divided into rooms, that has the artist’s artwork on their walls; literally. 

Just like this:

Okay, now imagine that instead of just photos, you could see any NFT format such as video, gifs, 3d models, etc. You can even click on them to better see them, as well as purchase them with ETH.

You can find more about the features of virtual galleries by visiting our article here.

What does the cryptoart movement mean for Artists?

Artists will simply have another way to showcase their artwork (cryptoart) on the blockchain, as opposed to a regular art gallery.

No real renting fee, no transportation risk or cost for artworks, no hidden costs…basically no risks associated with displaying their artwork in a regular gallery.

They will only need to pay a small publishing fee (which can vary from $0.1 to $30, depending on the platform chosen and the infrastructure it uses), and eventually fill out a form to get accepted to the bigger platforms.

Who buys these expensive artworks?

In the real world, people with deep pockets usually purchase artworks, because they are valuable one-of-a-kind items.

On the blockchain, people who own large amounts of ‘Internet money’ usually buy them. These people are commonly known as whales, and they have probably tens of millions of dollars, if not even more in cryptocurrencies.

They see buying NFTs (artworks on the blockchain) as another investment. They keep it as a collectible, and maybe sell it to the highest bidder if they choose to.

Closing thoughts

Blockchain and Art are two fields that apparently work wonders together. Nobody saw this as an opportunity until recently. And now the market is booming.

I’m sure that Interactive Virtual Tours would make their way into such platforms selling cryptoart due to the large market value they have, and due to the large sums of cryptocurrencies their audiences have.

In case they are short on cash flow, blockchain can help them find funding opportunities through platforms like GitCoin Grants.

Do you like what we are doing? Don’t hesitate to contact us or share this article with someone you know who might be interested.

Are you a representative of one of these platforms and you got excited? We got excited too, that’s why we wrote this article. Get in touch with us so we could see how we could bring the future of digital environments on the blockchain!