We talked with one of the founders of the project Urpaq.NFT, which creates digital tokens from the works of Kazakhstani artists, promotes and sells them.
Timur Tazhbayev, co-founder of Urpaq.NFT, @urpaq.nft
About the Urpaq project.NFT
The Urpaq.NFT project started a year ago. The NFT technology seemed interesting. We gathered Kazakhstani artists and exhibited their finished works in the form of digital tokens.
As we developed, we formed a vision for ourselves: we are fighting digital inequality. The goal of the community is to make sure that a guy from Taldykorgan has the same opportunities to exhibit works in NFT as his peer in the Bronx. We unite Kazakhstani artists and introduce the world to our culture.
Today the community consists of 22 members. These are not only artists, but also programmers, designers, investors, composers, graphic specialists — representatives of creative professions.
One of the last sold works is a painting based on the January events in Almaty. This is a pure sale, that is, we do not know the buyer. The price is 0.4 Ethereum or about $ 1300. All the money received, with the exception of the commission, was sent to a charitable foundation that helps the city.
What is NAT
NFT is part of a phenomenon like Crypto. Conventionally, you can imagine a machine that produces the same candy. These are cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. It is called the standard protocol. Then they came up with a new machine that produces unique candies. This is the NFT.
The starting point of the NFT industry can be considered 2017. Then OpenSea was created — the largest marketplace of digital tokens. Today it takes up half of all transactions.
The process of creating an NFT is called mint. Another important term is drop. It means transferring the token to another wallet or putting it up for sale.
For artists, NFT is like a new kind of brush, a tool that allows you to create more widely.
Art in this area takes a small share. Most of it is used in games, for example, for character development. In addition, non-interchangeable tokens can be presented as supporting documents. Example: a bill of sale for a house.
How to create and sell NFT
Creating an NFT is a simple process. It is necessary to open a crypto wallet, for example, MetaMask and connect it to the marketplace. Then fill out the form and upload the image.
NFT is an author's product. Everything in it should be original. It is desirable that there is something else besides the picture: animation, music. You also need to add a description and engage in promotion. Therefore, the token is the fruit of the work of many specialists.
We use several platforms to promote NFT. Twitter is the main social network where we publish all the news.
A good NFT is the fruit of the work of many specialists
At Discord, we participate in communities that allow us to be on topic and keep up with the trends of the sphere. There is a chat of our community in Telegram, we also follow Russian-language channels there. One of the best is NFT Bastards.
We do not use advertising. We believe that it is ineffective. Cryptocurrency is a subculture in which there is no place for corporations. Personal communication is important here.
About trends
In 2022, two main trends dominate.
The first is the appearance of a big game. Game projects have already been created in which you can earn money, but their technical quality is not high. Therefore, the whole industry is waiting for the arrival of large companies. One of the likely contenders is Microsoft.
The second trend is decentralized autonomous organizations — groups of people who collect money and buy a certain item, for example, a painting, and distribute the rights to own it among the participants. It looks like an investment, considering that the value of the purchased will grow.
Different technological applications are being invented for NFT. For example, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently wrote about the idea of making the token non-transferable. It will be possible to store artist portfolios in them.
About the plans
We are working on the collection Saka gold. The idea is to digitize the elements of the golden man costume. We want to send a real replica of gold to each image.
We are launching a project in which the user will be able to create his own NFT avatar.
We also cooperate with artists who create projects on social topics, help them to accommodate and sell their works.
