JOHANNESBURG : As South African artist Fhatuwani Mukheli paints a portrait of a woman at his Johannesburg studio, he is creating not only the work before him but also a digital asset destined to adorn a virtual world.
"There's a virtual world where people are buying land in it," said Mukheli, referring to the metaverse, a three-dimensional digital reality that tech giants like Microsoft and Facebook say is the future of the internet.Mukheli's customers receive both the actual canvas and the NFT, while other artists on The Tree sell up to five limited edition NFTs for each piece, akin to digital prints. Mukheli has already made thousands of dollars by using the platform.
Critics say blockchains, digital ledgers used to store information, are not climate-friendly because they guzzle computing power.