Crypto in general and Non-fungible tokens (NFT's) especially would eliminate the necessity of intermediaries and gatekeepers. Well, not really.
OpenSea, the biggest NFT-marketplace, wanted to stop free minting because of the staggering amount of fraud. "Over 80 percent of the items created with this tool were plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam", they said.
Plagiarism is easy, it just involves copying a digital image and putting it on a blockchain. There are various marketplaces to choose from and various blockchains. The average small collector has no idea how to verify whether the same work has been offered as an "unique" NFT on another blockchain and marketplace or even on the same blockchain or marketplace.
Enter Hermitage Museum and British Museum but also auction houses such as Sotheby's to provide sourcing and authenticity to the art NFT's. This can be coupled to metaverse exhibitions but also to physical places to show the work. These gatekeepers give investors and collectors the necessary confidence to spent lots of money in order to acquire digital entries on a blockchain.
