Houston NFT Power Players | Houstonia Magazine

Technological advances are unfolds before our eyes – not least in the world of cryptocurrency, digital art and their perception as material assets. Houston is a city that is leading the way in its innovation, and we are witnessing this digital world infiltrating the city through several different media, such as NFTs.

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are collectibles, but digital – “one-of-a-kind” works can come in various forms, including digital photos, videos and songs. Sold online, usually through users’ crypto wallets, NFTs provide ownership of a unique virtual object. Usually, the purchase of an NFT gives owners exclusive rights for personal or commercial use.

Although the concept may seem like a temporary trend, data shows that NFT dealers have pushed the market to $ 17.6 billion in sales over the past year. On top of that, the NFT Marketplace Open Sea, where users can buy and sell NFTs, reached the record in January 2022 with $ 5 billion in monthly NFT sales.

Houston-based business magnates immerse themselves in a similar virtual space, making status in digital currency. Tilman Fertitta started a Bitcoin rewards program for Landry’s hospitality group, and personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee accepted the virtual coin for his former River Oaks property.

NFTs, on the other hand, open the door to wider access: artists can create and sell their work online, and consumers can invest in and buy digitized real estate while fully owning their acquisitions. And over the past year, Houston’s NFT landscape has grown, from Chopstar’s “chopped not slopped” remixes to a reimagining of the Houston Texans’ first franchise victory in 2002 over the Dallas Cowboys.

Jose Cervantes says NFTs have the power to change the world as we know it. Cervantes is the creator of Astroworld DeFi, the world’s first virtual amusement park developed on the Ethereum blockchain, modeled after Houston’s historic theme park.

“I think we can become one of the cities on the world stage with the use of NFTs and cryptocurrencies,” says Cervantes. “Houston is well positioned to lead in the NFT and blockchain areas.”

When Cervantes discovered the NFT world, it was easy for him to create a virtual Astroworld. The game offers nostalgia for him, both as the creator and as a player. Scheduled to launch this summer, Astroworld tokens will program the open-world 3D browser. The tokens will give users access to the amusement park, games and rides by purchasing the park’s season pass for games – or a lifetime pass, which costs $ 3,000.

Entering the world of digital art is not as linear for anyone. Erick Calderone was in ceramic tile for many years before he began experimenting with generative art in 2017, and discovered Larva Labs’ Cryptopunks project. The interactive, coded artwork served as his creative outlet from work until he decided to focus entirely on his passion and founded one of the most successful NFT platforms to date.

“I have always had a passion for art and technology and an interest in exploring how the two intersect. Early on, I spent time tinkering with a technology called projection mapping, which required me to use code to produce visual output, says Calderone. “When I discovered the Cryptopunks project, I realized the incredible potential of the technology behind NFTs.”

As a generative art pioneer, Calderone’s Houston-based company, Art Blocks, is an online community where users can buy, sell and trade static images, 3D models and interactive experiences. But the process is what sets Arts Blocks apart from the rest: the end product is delivered when NFT is purchased. Buyers choose a generic style they like, purchase NFT, and an automated version of the work is created by the Art Blocks algorithm and sent to the collector’s Ethereum account. In this sense, the buyer is part of the creative process – art would not exist without them.

In addition to NFTs cultivating a space for mixed media, independent artists have found alternative ways to find investors through the digital universe.

Compared to listeners who stream or buy music on a platform like iTunes, where end users are only licensed to listen to music, musical NFTs give fans of artists a closer relationship, giving them legitimate ownership of music made by certain artists. Houston producer Apex Martin leads the pack. Martin, whose production credits include Maxo Kream, Kanye West and Travis Scott, partnered with Mint Songs, an NFT audio marketplace. His project, What We Doin Apex!?, Is a seven-track EP in which he applied for 33 Ethereum coins as an advance to create the project, for which he traded 40 percent of royalties to his investors and gave them partial ownership.

“My goal is to eliminate the need for support from big labels,” says the platinum-selling producer, explaining his use of NFTs in the music industry. “This way I get control over the music in the community and myself.”

Users who support the project via the cryptocurrency Ethereum receive collectible NFT Apex tokens. The top bidders on the project get additional privileges, such as one-of-a-kind album graphics NFTs, priority viewing of music videos and early warning of future NFT releases from the producer.

While these three NFT users approach technological assets from different avenues, each shared a similar sentiment: Bayou City is a progressive conglomerate of creators.