The right technology for digital creators and investors in digital objects.Forctis AG is pleased to announce the launch of the NINA Digital Art TokenPlace platform, a place where artists can create freely and trade with trusted digital rights management. More than just another NFT marketplace (or TokenPlace, a “marketplace for tokens” as is referred to on NINA, and a registered trademark of Forctis AG) the NINA Platform has been built around a breakthrough digital rights management (DRM) technology aiming to reset and redefine the NFT landscape.
A key component of the Forctis DRM solution is a new image, animation, and movie format with natively enabled encryption. The use of this format allows artists to create freely without depending on subsequent distribution technologies for protecting their IP rights. The encryption takes place right at the moment digital objects are generated by artists, giving them complete control over their digital creations.
A major impact brought by the new NINA encryption will be in preventing malleability or future alterations, changes or morphing of digital works without the artist’s consent. Artists will be able to sign their works digitally, embedding this feature into the digital objects themselves just like a signature on a canvas. This digital signature remains accessible and can be validated throughout the lifetime of the digital artwork with no need for an external ledger (whether centralized or not) or third-party intervention. Says Forctis AG CEO and NINA lead designer, Eduardo Salazar, “it should take the authentication of digital artwork typically transacted as NFTs to a completely new level.” Placing rights management back in the hand of artists, collectors, and curators for digital objects traded through NFTs.
He also adds that “open blockchains are not suited for distributing content their authors want to be protected.” Though mechanisms exist to prevent theft, “they typically rely on content being placed behind walled gardens, usually controlled by a single entity” hence said content, and the NFTs linked to them, “can disappear if the hosting company goes out of business, something that in the crypto world happens frequently without notice.”
According to Salazar, smart contracts could be engineered to prevent undue access to the content being linked to them, but “unfortunately that does not change the fundamental issue of the content itself not being natively protected. Hence, smart contract vulnerabilities remain a tempting attack vector (besides wallet hacking) for anyone determined to gain full access to your favorite, and possibly expensive, digital photograph.” He mentions that “even on a permissioned blockchain, or otherwise using a traditional centralized infrastructure, once a plain JPG or GIF is out of the box then anything can happen.” NINA encrypted format is meant to provide that missing layer of protection against undue access and malleability.
The question of provenance naturally comes to play at this juncture. Blockchain technology seeks to address this issue by the mere expedient of placing transaction records in the open. According to Salazar “tracing back the originating [or minting] wallet is relatively easy, but provenance somewhat falls on its back if whoever minted the NFT had no legal rights for doing so.” He mentions that stealing artwork from marketplace ‘A’ to remint it on marketplace ‘B’ (typically on different chains) has become a widespread and concerning issue for artists, and although community-based policing help mitigate this issue “it is unclear as to how effective it can become at scale, and anyway it happens post-facto, once the damage has been done.” He, therefore, believes that “notwithstanding the importance of assessing provenance, authenticity is still key and popular digital formats do not provide a means to natively and securely guarantee it.” That is another issue that NINA attempts to solve.
Salazar concludes that “what we have designed with NINA considerably reduces the attack surface over NFT content typically deployed as plain JPG, GIF or MP4 files.” By focusing on the object being tokenized, NINA “provides a step-change in the way such content can be distributed, which is not limited to the blockchain.” Despite the relevance that blockchain-based solutions have acquired in the last few years, in his view, the latter feature “should not be downplayed and it may prove to become a key strength.”
The NINA TokenPlace has been conceived as a fully curated platform for fine art. According to Isabelle Ganz, Forctis COO, “we are focused on bringing talented artists, mostly young but also more established ones, and to build a vibrant community around them.” The aim of the platform is to offer “a unique mechanism to make their art visible whilst enabling them to directly manage their IP and the long-term value of their creations.” In that sense, “NINA places IP management back in the hands of artists, who have complete control over how they offer their artwork on our TokenPlace” according to Ganz. She adds that “the ultimate aim of our technology is to help artists and to offer them a platform for growth” and also makes clear her conviction that “NINA is bound to become a truly collaborative and transversal community in terms of skillsets, backgrounds, beliefs, motivations and aspirations.”
Another facet of NINA is that it allows creators to offer digital-only and also phygital (physical plus digital) artwork. Ganz adds that “this is of key importance to many artists, particularly those coming from the more established art space, or having a traditional art education.
In summary, she believes the variety of work to be found on the NINA TokenPlace will be “incredibly rich and unique.”
Final remarks
The NINA Platform and TokenPlace were launched on August 22, 2022, and can be accessed through https://ninatokenplace.com. Registration either as a creator or a user is completely free; creators should, however, submit a portfolio to the curation team for evaluation. Creators and users on NINA must undergo a KYC (Know Your Customer) verification process to comply with anti-money laundering and other legislation, which is managed by an independent and fully licensed third party.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NinaTokenplace
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Media Contact
Company Name: Nina TokenPlace
Contact Person: Eduardo Salazar
Email: Send Email
Phone: +34 615 17 48 29
Country: Switzerland
Website: https://ninatokenplace.com/
