SOTA’s Solution to the Digital Content Ownership Conundrum
A Much Needed Push to Evolve an Old-Fashioned Industry
From the earliest civilizations of the world until today, art has continued to maintain an influential place in society. Similar to language, it serves as a reflection of culture. However, the difference between the two is that art is tangible. It is widely believed that during the era of ancient Egypt and Greece, the practice of collecting art took hold wherein art became perceived not just as a means of storytelling but as a symbol of luxury as well [1]. This continues to hold true today where the global art market was valued at over 67 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up from almost 64 billion the previous year [2].
The Landscape Today
In the advent of technology’s growing influence and the prevalence of online media, organizations and businesses have shifted to digital content creation in order to promote their business or products [3]. This has opened a huge demand for digital content. The continued rise of the number of digital natives will serve to further expand the market for digitized content for e-commerce, social media and even culture. Thanks to digital technology, more than ever before, access to art has opened up in new and unexpected ways, allowing unknown digital artists to promote their work to a wider audience without the need for auction houses or galleries. On the downside, however, is the existence of a prevalent problem that plagues an otherwise thriving digital art industry, which this is the limited scope of copyright protection offered to digital content creators. Current systems in place allow for widespread unauthorized digital copies to saturate the internet making it impossible to properly acknowledge and compensate creators for their work [4].
How NFTs and Platforms Like SOTA Are Changing the Game
Blockchain technology in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT) are digital assets that represent a wide range of unique tangible and intangible items like a photo or artwork. NFTs are changing the game because each NFT contains distinguishing information that makes it both distinct from any other NFT and easily verifiable. Additionally, ownership of these tokens is immutable, meaning collectors actually possess their NFTs, not the companies that create them [5].
SOTA is a multi-chain digital content NFT platform where users can create, sell and buy digital content NFTs easily. Creators can select to create and sell NFTs while users can follow their favorite creators, as well as buy and sell their collectibles in the SOTA market. It is crucial to note that in the platform, collectors are recognized and protected as owners of the digital works they have purchased. Plus, when the NFT is traded for the second time onwards, 10% of the seller’s profits will be returned to the wallet of the NFT creator as a licensing fee [6]. This allows creators to continually earn royalties for their work. Such an environment gives ample room for a decentralized market to thrive, allowing creators and collectors to freely interact and connect. In fact, check them out here [7] for more details about the project.
Marrying tradition and technology, the team behind SOTA is bringing fresh and much needed change to an industry that has long been in need of an upgrade.
[1] https://magazine.artland.com/a-brief-history-of-art-collecting/
[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/883755/global-art-market-value/
[3] https://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/Chapter5-KBC2-IP.pdf
[4] https://github.com/sota-platform/Sota-white-paper/blob/main/SOTA-WhitepaperV1.0.pdf
[5] https://www.coindesk.com/what-are-nfts
[6] https://landing.sota.finance/en
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzxYNbENnko&feature=emb_logo
