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It has always been known that artwork is expensive to store and can cost as much as $100,000 per year for a large collection. Valuable artwork is often purchased to sit in a box where no one will appreciate it.
The way we approach artwork and storage solutions has changed because of the NFT space. The advantages of NFTs are significant for avid art collectors, who no longer need to pay for physical space to store their valuable assets, nor need to deal with the logistical difficulties of finding a place for them. They can collect NFTs using marketplaces and use the technology to store them digitally.
When faced with a crushing reality, the benefits diminish. Over $30 million in losses have been caused by rug pulls and NFT losses over the course of two months. Imagine the distress that users will experience if their digital assets go missing. To promote the long-term growth of the space, we need to be able to tell users that we can provide them with the highest level of security for their assets, like in the traditional art world. The NFT space will have difficulties in retaining and acquiring users, posing a challenge to the mainstream adoption of these digital assets.
Storage protocols that want to minimize the damage exist, but not all of them offer comprehensive solutions. Some of these give users a URL to a third party where the NFT data is housed, which adds an external dependency. Data that is stored on-chain can be manipulated more easily.
Can anything be an NFT? You need to know what to look for.
IPFS is a flawed storage solution. IPFS provides storage solutions for digital assets. The owner is responsible for maintaining the data. The NFT will disappear if the owner stops sustaining it. The lack of incentivization IPFS provides operators makes it not uncommon for the nodes to clear data to make more space on the network. IPFS storage is designed for a wide variety of use cases.
The good news is that on-chain storage solutions can fix that problem. Users can be reassured that their assets will not be lost and that they will always be fully recovered if they mint, buy or sell NFTs on marketplaces that implement native storage solutions. One of the storage solutions tailored to NFTs and recovery is the Cascade protocol from Pastel Network.
Protocols can maximize the decentralization of NFT storage by breaking up the data into chunks and distributing them across the network of SuperNodes. Even if a disruption causes most of the nodes to go down, NFTs are still recovered. Using native storage solutions instead of third-party centralized server guarantees that no NFTs will disappear.
There are 3 non-Digital Art NFT use cases that are set to take off.
Entrepreneurs looking to build NFT marketplaces should take this into account when choosing a storage protocol for their digital assets. It is an important factor when choosing the best NFT platform to buy, sell and mint assets. Entrepreneurs, creators and collectors need to have access to the educational tools and resources needed to trade and store collectibles safely.
What is an NFT? The next billion-dollar coin sensation is inside.
