nft display screens made in china

Viide begins in 2022 as a web3-native project for NFT display and interaction, quickly attracting thousands of users. Richard, the co-founder of Viide, says that Viide aims to build a "Decentralized Screen Network", and he descripes Viide as the web3 version of Focus Media, a company that operates the largest network of lifestyle media across Chinese cities.

In a small room packed of investors, Richard reveals the Viide products in an exlucsive roadshow: the 10.1" tabletop Viide Asio and the 22"- 55" wall-mount Viide Athene that fully covered all the NFT display scenarios in both public and private spaces.

He says that Viide NFT display products are entering the IRL web3 space all over the country and Viide is launching  OddOwl Club(OOC), a new NFT project of 10,000 PFPs to connect on-chain data and IRL users and allow the holers to share all the profit of Viide"s B2B operation, including advertising.

Among the investors, there are major manufacturers of coin miner, art and NFT collectors, and web3 infrustructure providers. Richard shows them how to connect wallet with Viide display and how to cast NFTs on multiple displays. He compares Viide to Focus Media, an unparalleled advertising network with the absolute leading market share on elevator TV and poster media and cinema screen advertising media across China.

"Focus Media created the elevalor TV market from zero. Now in every condo and every office building, you are watching ads on their screen." His remark is well-based. According to the recent report of the 10B worth listed company, Focus network has reached about 300 cities. Among them, 2.33 million Focus owned media spots in buildings are available for uptake, covering about 200 Chinese cities and regions and 50 major cities in South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Some 44,000 elevator TV screens are available for media content distribution, covering 125 Chinese cities and regions. More than 1,900 movie theaters and 13,600 movie screens in more than 280 cities. As China"s top ads media platform, Focus is omnipresent in the everyday life of urban consumers.

Richard met one of the inverstors in an IRL event held by Viide and its partner space(a crypto theme bar) in Shanghai. A variety of web3 spaces are springing out in major Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. And not surprisingly, all these spaces are all reaching out to Viide - the rising NFT display champion in this country, to please their customers with top-notch NFT showcasing. To that end, Viide makes the deal even more attractive. The member of its own NFT project "OOC" and its partner communities are promised with a series of VIP privileges in any spaces that has partnered with Viide.

"We have taken the form of co-mint to give the holders of our partner communities priority to the whitelist. Meanwhile, the commercial profits of Viide and the rewards of collab events will be contributed to the OOC prize pool and continuously returned to OOC holders. And because of the particular vibe of web3, holders tends to go IRL and participate in the community gatherings, NFT exhibitions, and web3 forums. OOC can be a sustainable way to fuel both on-chain and IRL operation. And it helps us see the greater picture of web3 advertising." Richard sees OOC as the bond to connect onling community and the real life. Some of the most avtive Chinese NFT projects have partnered with Viide to promote their images in the built environment.

"Viide DeScreen not only dispays NFTs, but displays the look of web3 advertising in the future. GMI(gonna make it)!" Richard says in the end, depicting the greater picture of Viide and its DeScreen Network.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the new assets that one would want to flex and show off before all. And why not? After spending millions on NFT art and building a classic NFT collection, it is natural that you would want to display it where everyone can see. In fact, there are several smart and creative ways you can flaunt your NFTs beyond the virtual worlds.

Collectors and galleries are both on the lookout for new ways to display digital art. Unlike physical traditional art like paintings and sculptures, which can be simply framed or encased and kept on the mantle top, displaying NFT art is a bit tricky. One needs to show its authenticity, maintain the various defining factors and give the true feel of the digital art (whether video, audio or other kinds of artworks) while putting it up for show.

Such is its undeniable craze and hype that methods of displaying an NFT collection are also gaining serious momentum. It is becoming a way to experiment as well as attract the attention of the NFT community, which helps in buying and selling NFT art.

With the rise in celebrity interest and attention from famous auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the NFT space is soaring at an unhindered rate and hence the need to flaunt and show your NFTs is also becoming quite crucial to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Taking NFTs out of the digital space, there are real-life art galleries across the world that have the infrastructure to display NFT art collections. These galleries have state-of-the-art digital screens that display the artworks and provide all the related information.

Art galleries such as Bright Moments Gallery in Venice, Blackdove in Miami, US, Quantus Gallery in the UK, Asia Art Centre in Taiwan and Superlative Gallery in Bali’s Superlative Secret Society (SSS) host exhibitions and showcase artworks created by Web3 artists as well as display curated NFTs by collectors from all over the world.

Not just galleries in the real world, the digital realm’s artworks demand online art galleries where you can flaunt them in style. These NFT galleries make displaying NFT collections very easy, and there are quite a number of them out there.

For instance, OnCyber, an online art space, allows users to display their crypto art and create their own shows. For this users need to connect their blockchain wallets. For this, they can choose from the three options available — Connect Ethereum blockchain through Metamask browser extension, Temple Wallet can grant access to Tezos blockchain and Fantom to Solana. Users can then host an NFT art show to flaunt the NFT art on their registered blockchain wallet.

Other similar platforms include names like Showtime, which claims itself to be the Instagram for NFTs and Lazy, a digital venture by Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban.

One thing that is absolutely true for NFTs is ‘if you got ‘em, flaunt ‘em.’ After splurging millions of dollars for a funky ape, rare memorabilia or a cool gummy bear, it only makes sense to flex your collectables all over your social media platforms.

Take cues from celebrities like Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton and Eminem who display their NFTs as profile pictures and share them on their Twitter and Instagram feeds. Premium and verified blue-ticked Twitter accounts have the privilege to upload NFTs as profile pictures and Meta will soon be bringing a feature to showcase and sell NFTs on Instagram as well.

In Tokenframe products, you can print your entire NFT collection or a few of them on digital frames which come equipped with anti-glare screens, speakers, rotatory functions and more. Unlike frames of other artworks, these frames of crypto art also show the QR code and give all the information about an NFT and you can switch between different ones on the same frame as well.

What if we said that you can print videos and put them on display? Infinite Objects makes it possible. It provides cool solutions to keep your favourite NFT closer to yourself by inserting the video file into a 12 cm x 17 cm digital frame. It then plays the video or GIF on loop forever and doesn’t even require any software to control it.

Another example of cutting-edge technology is provided by Looking Glass Factory which has the most futuristic and stylish solution to flaunt your digital assets. The looking glass portrait allows users to convert their 3D NFTs into holograms, something that wasn’t previously possible without virtual reality (VR) headgears.

Another lucrative way to display your NFT collection online is to enlist your blockchain wallet in NFT marketplaces. These marketplaces offer fun shopping experiences to NFT enthusiasts who can not only display their crypto art here but also see what others are up to in the NFT art space.

Big marketplaces like OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation and SuperRare also help you get noticed by taking your NFT collection to the world. You can buy, sell and mint digital art as well as interact with other creators and collectors and be a part of the larger NFT community.

NFTs are extremely versatile, and their display doesn’t have to be limited only to a digital frame or an NFT marketplace. Crypto art can be easily brought to the digital universe and flaunted in the metaverse.

Metaverse like Spatial, Decentraland, Roblox, Sandbox and many others have their own virtual worlds which provide space and platforms where collectors flock to see and showcase their NFTs. Spatial uses VR technology to bring collectors and creators closer to its art galleries while Decentraland’s 100x Art District is a haven for digital art fanatics.

Like Decentraland, Sandbox allows users to buy virtual land using cryptocurrencies and use it to host NFT art exhibitions and display their collections. It provides a great way to interact with other creators and also sell your art.

Metaverse also hosts various events, like a Fashion Week, music concerts and meet and greets, where auctions become a big part of selling and buying NFTs which automatically make for an amazing way to flaunt your NFTs.

Thinking of displaying NFTs most simply and conveniently? Printing the artworks like any other normal image and putting them in a regular frame of choice is the way to go. This is what collector Andrew Coathup shared in 2019 when he got the right to print his NFTs.

The idea is why should an artwork be only limited to the virtual world or live within screens? You can feel and touch your NFTs by printing them and then using any QR code generator to issue a QR code for the artwork’s URL.

If you wish to make it more durable and long-lasting, you can opt to go for aluminium plates. Solid NFT is one such platform that provides a solution. By a process called sublimation, the NFT is printed on the aluminium sheet along with an authentication panel at the back, which has all the transaction and ownership details.

The rise of NFTs represents a real opportunity for Chinese artists to leverage technology to connect directly with fans and collectors while dramatically increasing their earning potential.

The Tezos ecosystem’s flourishing artistic community and commitment to growing blockchain adoption in Asia is also supporting the growth of NFT art in the world’s most populous nation.

While A Duo was already a high profile musician, her successful NFT song sale reflects the new power of the creator economy — where audiences will clamor for desirable digital content produced by independent artists, designers, musicians, writers, and celebrities.

Consequently, NFTs are emerging as a key way for Chinese artists at all levels to monetize their content and make meaningful connections with their fans.

Asia’s appetite for digital collectibles is strong, and despite regulatory caution, including a government ban on cryptocurrency, NFT art has already escaped obscurity in China.

The UCCA NFT exhibition showcased the works of over 60 artists, including pieces by Beeple, hot on the heels of the artist’s record-breaking $69 million NFT sale at Christie’s auction house — which was a global milestone in the rise of NFTs.

NFT art continues to gain momentum through significant real-world exhibitions across Chinese territories, such as Art Basel Hong Kong, and through branded displays and collaborations, in line with a burgeoning local online market for NFT collecting.

One of China’s top NFT creators, Song Ting, helped to develop the open source community in China and began curating exhibitions to showcase local blockchain-based culture in 2019.

Next up, we have a trailblazing @Forbes 30 Under 30 artist who curated China’s first auctioned #NFT in traditional auction houses. The beauty of her work is a result of a marriage of three worlds: blockchain, AI and art.

Her artwork — which uses NFTs, animation, and AI to breathe new life into traditional imagery and topics from Chinese literature — has generated significant interest in China. In fact, she made history by achieving the first sale of a blockchain-based artwork via a traditional Chinese auction house.

“As an ambassador of International Olymp’Arts, I needed to find a more sustainable and energy-friendly way to create digital artworks. ‘NFTs for good’ is very important to me, so Tezos was a logical choice.”

Beijing-based algorithmic artist, Reva, transitioned from working as a software engineer to becoming a full-time creative in late 2018, with her main source of income now being NFT sales.

She also co-founded WeirDAO, a collective predominantly comprised of China-based NFT artists, designed to encourage peer-to-peer communication and collaboration.

Reva said the evolution of NFTs enabled Chinese artists to expand their horizons, support each other through art focussed ecosystems like Tezos, and forge new relationships with collectors.

Chinese NFT artist, Riniifish — known for her animated pieces that convey a tiny yet vibrant universe of bugs — believes the Chinese market may take a bit longer to embrace more diversity in aesthetics, as many are still wary of taking a chance on crypto-art.

“That being said, the NFT community in China is getting bigger and bigger, and there are some awesome artists that I know here who are very talented. They keep their minds open, which is very cool,” Riniifish said.

She said minting NFTs has helped her grow in her identity as an artist and gain more opportunities, such as a collaboration with a fashion brand and an upcoming solo exhibition in Milan, Italy.

Some major tech companies involved in China’s NFT space, like JD.com, Baidu and Alibaba affiliate Ant Group, have committed to a range of self-regulation measures, such as requiring real-name authentication and only supporting legal tender for sales.

Another government-backed initiative that will expand access for Chinese NFT artists and collectors is the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN). This public-private nationwide infrastructure project will support the deployment of applications built on public chains to spur mass adoption of the technology across China.

For example, cultivating the talent of China-based teams building on the Tezos blockchain through various grants has helped drive innovative projects that support a flourishing arts scene. For instance, the NFT art curation and universal identity platform Dataverse, which has seen more than 60 million data streams created since its launch.

There are also plans for Tezos NFTs to feature in a number of significant events on the Chinese arts calendar, such as Photofairs Shanghai and displays held in the West Bund cultural district, bringing digital assets into the physical world.

Despite the regulatory barriers to blockchain and NFTs in China, there’s clearly booming interest in the exploration of the technology — being led by creatives, developers, and collectors on the Tezos blockchain, helping democratize the art scene.

Beeple sends buyers of his NFT artworks display frames produced specially by Infinite Objects Inc., a New York City-based startup that makes “video prints.” QR codes linking to each work’s unique NFT are signed by the artist and built into the reverse of the frames, which are sent in sleek gift boxes.

For the longest time, Infinite Objects was an NFT platform without the NFTs. The company has worked with artists since 2018 to make (often limited run) series of physical display frames highlighting a specific digital work of the artist that looped forever. Sure, users could watch that looping video on the Infinite Objects website whenever they wanted, but the value was in owning an official copy of that artist’s work. Sound familiar?

When the wider popularity of NFTs as a speculative asset hit earlier this year, Saavedra saw a huge opportunity as internet users began discussing the future of digital art and digital scarcity. His team had already flirted with NFTs, partnering with artist Beeple back in December — months before he would spring out of relative obscurity in art circles with a $69 million sale at the Christie’s auction house — to release “physical tokens” of NFTs he was selling on the platform Nifty Gateway.

Saavedra sees a bigger opportunity for companies and creators in the NFT world to make their assets more approachable and understandable to a general audience with what his company is building, but he also sees a chance to transform NFTs from blind ownership to something more focused on actually appreciating the digital art that’s been purchased.

“When it comes to ownership, it’s exciting to be buying an NFT for $500 or $5,000, but what’s not exciting is having to open Safari on your phone to show it off,” Saavedra tells TechCrunch. “This physical vessel that we’ve designed is just so understandable for people who maybe don’t even understand what the blockchain at all, but they certainly understand limited edition physical merchandise.”

Accessibility is a core aspect of our mission. For moving image artworks, the idea of permanently marrying a digital piece to a physical object inherently changes how collectors can own and display a video art piece. However we see a ton of potential across all types of video—whether it be entertainment, popular culture, sports, video games, and of course user generated, personal content. In terms of accessibility, our current price point reflects the value of the content. Our long-term mission is to make video collectible across those content categories and making it as cost-friendly as possible.

Our product is explicitly not a gadget—it features no buttons, switches, or connectivity, and certainly does not require use of an app. The primary goal with this design was to make a display not feel like a tablet; the last thing we want is someone to feel that they can tap or swipe our display. Our goal is to present moving images in their purest form. In many ways our product is like “paper” on which we “print” video—and the acrylic design was where we landed in trying to achieve this. That being said, we are working on a variety of form factors and materials, to make our physical form as flexible as the content it can hold.

This Valentine’s Day, let that special someone know your love is as infinite as a GIF that loops forever. Giphy is partnering with “video printing” companyInfinite Objectsto sell six Valentine’s-themed GIFs that are memorialized on a digital display and will sell for $49 each. The original GIFs were created by Giphy Studios, the company’s in-house creative agency, and they feature cute animations like cherries, cats, and dinosaurs in love.

But $49 sounds like a lot for something that’s basically a digital photo frame with even less functionality since the videos can’t be swapped. Infinite Objects’ aim is to be more of an art collectible than a gadget. Its pieces are normally editioned displays that start around the $250 price point and treat each video as a limited piece of art. “You are not buying a gadget; you are collecting a video,” the company explains on its FAQ page. “An Infinite Object is a looping video in a permanent display that you can’t update. There are no buttons, no connectivity, and no app.”

“We are always seeing beautiful moments on screens that we don’t get to spend nearly enough time with,” says artist Jeremy Couillard. “They are often in online video clips, fleeting scenes in film or Looping in art galleries as video we cannot access at home.Infinite Objects is an opportunity to make a video that could be Lived with, something that wasn’t just to quick consume online or in a video game.”

Infinite Objects is the lovechild of Giphy and Planeta, and is essentially a “printed” video. The frames display up to 24 hours of video content on a single loop. It’s a permanent display, meaning you can’t change the video and there areno updates, apps, or buttons. It’s just art that moves.Pretty cool, right?

So let’s say you bought an NFT. Not because you want to make a bunch of money and you’re just going to flip it — we’ll call those people the JPEG flippers — and not because someone sold you on a big idea about “community” and you didn’t buy an NFT so much as a link to a Discord — those are the yacht clubbers — but you bought it because you just liked the way the thing looked. Maybe you’re a collector, maybe this is the first valuable piece you’ve ever acquired. Either way, you bought it not to sell it or use it. You bought it to look at it. You want to hang it up in your home!

On one hand, you have plenty of ways to get your digital art on display. It’s just a picture, after all. (You could even — gasp — just print the thing and hang it on your wall.) Virtually any screen you have will display it fine, and it’s always right there on your phone anyway. But your 50-inch LCD panel won’t do justice to the piece, though, not really.

As NFT art gets more valuable, and as artists begin to care more about how their digital art is displayed in the real world, the question of how to display your digital collection has become a more complicated one. Galleries that want to promote digital art are having to rethink not just the devices they use but also the way they light their gallery and how people move through it. Artists, used to their work always keeping the shape in which it was created, now have to think about both digital and physical versions of their creations. Art collectors are often faced with an entirely new set of decisions about how to display their pieces. And you thought NFTs were complicated.

Scott Gralnick has been thinking about NFT displays for a while. He’s now the co-founder of Lago, a company building a $9,000 NFT frame designed for high-end collectors, but he’s been in crypto and Web3 for nearly a decade. When he talked to his fellow crypto whales, Gralnick says, the same thing kept coming up. “I have a multimillion-dollar collection,” they’d say, “and I had to retrofit it to a TV. I don’t want to show it on my computer, I don’t want to show people my phone, how can I get this into my home?”

Gralnick and his co-founders set out to build something for those folks, but also something that might entice traditional art buyers – who might not grok the idea of phone-bound art at all — to get into the NFT space. “I had friends who were doing dinners with Christie’s and Phillips and Sotheby’s, and they get NFTs, they get minted works of art,” Gralnick said. “But it came down to one question every time: how do I enjoy this at home?”

Gralnick now calls the Lago frame a tool for “mass consumption” of NFTs, which is quite a thing to say about a $9,000 frame. The team wanted to make absolutely sure you couldn’t confuse the frame for a TV, so they selected a 33-inch, square, 1920 x 1920 display. An optional camera sits below the frame, just above an optional soundbar, both of which artists can use to augment their pieces. “Maybe they build something unlockable,” Gralnick said by way of explanation. “If I do the right gesture sequence, it unlocks it. Or maybe I turn around and actively throw it to the other frame.” You can use the Lago frame to display one NFT, or use the companion mobile app to cycle through your whole collection. Or, if you’re so inclined, present a rotating set of pieces curated by NFT influencers. (Gralnick says these come with clear indications about which pieces you do and don’t own, though, so no pretending that ape is yours.) In that sense, the frame can be both a display and a distribution channel — an NFT museum in your own home.

Astronomical price and all, Lago sold its entire stock in pre-orders. That’s not surprising: the dedicated NFT screen is a booming industry. Tokenframe’s displays run from 10 to 55 inches, and cost up to $2,777. Netgear has actually pivoted its digital photo frame business into an NFT one — and its Meural screens run up to $599.95. Canvia pulled off a similar pivot. Blockframe and Danvas and others all make similar promises about their luxury digital art displays, though most startups are still firmly in the hype and pre-order phase. For the DIY crowd, you can use a Raspberry Pi and the TokenCast protocol to build your own NFT screen on the cheap.

Because all you technically need to get in the business is a LCD display — and not even a particularly high-end one — startups in the space have come and gone quickly. Qonos, for instance, launched in 2021 and said it sold out its first run of frames that could access the owner’s own collection plus a whole gallery of Qonos-curated artwork. Now there’s practically no sign left of Qonos other than a private Squarespace website. (Qonos founder Moe Levin didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Joe Saavedra, the founder of Infinite Objects, thinks all of this is a bit much. A lot of companies, he says, “are really making televisions that do a lot less than a television. And in the end it’s a gallery, a slideshow of your NFTs, so it doesn’t matter if this NFT you paid $10,000 for and this one was an Airdrop, they’re all right next to each other. And you’re just swiping through.” When he set out to build an NFT frame, he wanted to build the least interactive, least gadget-y thing he could make.

Infinite Objects got its start by “printing video,” which in practice means embedding a display inside a simple frame, setting a single video to run on a loop forever inside that frame, and shipping it to you. “When you take it out of the box, it turns on in your hand,” Saveedra says. “It doesn’t have any buttons or switches, there’s no interface whatsoever.” The result is much closer to a painting straight out of Harry Potter — a moving piece inside an immovable object that hangs on the wall or sits on your shelf.

Saveedra is now doing the same thing with NFTs. Infinite Objects worked with Mike Winkelmann, who you might know as Beeple, to make and ship physical versions of every NFT Winkelmann sells. It also works with Dapper Labs, and is the official frame of NBA Top Shots. Getting your NFT printed starts at about $120. You can buy frames from 6.4 to 11.4 inches tall, the displays surrounded by either bamboo or acrylic. The displays themselves aren’t particularly impressive — 1024 x 576 on the largest model, lower-res than the original iPad in 2011 — but Saveedra seems to think the very existence of a durable physical object is the most important thing. “If it’s on a TV, I can just flip it, right?” he says. “All right, cool, next.”

Some artists, Sacks said, care deeply about the screen their artwork ultimately ends up on. They’ll dictate a specific resolution and aspect ratio, even the size at which their piece should be displayed. Others will go so far as to actually create the object on which their work should be displayed. In that case, Sacks says, “The artist is providing us a sculpture. The art is not only the content; it’s the object that comes with it.” But many of the things bitforms shows and sells are what he calls “unframed works,” in which the file gets sold and the buyer can display it however they’d like.

At the Quantus Gallery in London, things work a bit differently. Josh Sandhu, a co-founder of Quantus, says that when the team was getting set up for its first NFT exhibition, they tested six or seven different TVs. Now 36 Samsung Frame sets line the walls, some vertical and some horizontal. “The matte look, it is quite similar to an actual print,” Sandhu said. “They’re pretty quality.” Quantus wants to experiment with other display ideas — Sandhu wants to build a wall of retro TVs, run a VR exhibition, and figure out holograms — but for now TVs do the trick.

This is the thing about NFT art and how we display it. It’s ultimately not a question of graphical fidelity or pixel density, but one of purpose. Do you buy an NFT so you can look at the JPEG all the time? Or is an NFT about your relationship with the artist, with other collectors, even with the underlying technology? And maybe just as important, who gets to decide? With physical art, most of these decisions are made when the art is made, and as it changes hands it becomes impossible to track and control. With NFTs and the blockchain, the tracking is the point; artists can know exactly who owns their work, and collectors can know exactly who created it. So whose art is it, really?

Nobody I spoke to claimed to know the answer. And nearly every one of them said that’s part of the fun. NFTs have one definite use. They’re an act of provenance, a claim of ownership and authenticity that was never possible before. Artists are coming to appreciate the technology for that. (And for the ludicrous sums of money they make minting NFTs.) Now, as prices and enthusiasm drop and the JPEG flippers and yacht clubbers fade out of the scene, the art crowd is beginning to figure out how the digital and physical art worlds interact. And exactly what resolution that requires.

At the opening, the gallery in 798, Beijing’s trendy art district, was buzzing with excited guests, including a Financial Times reporter who walked around an exhibition space densely packed with LCD screens showing the crème de la crème of non-fungible token (NFT) art: Beeples and CryptoPunks, among others. The show did so well it got an extended run in Shanghai.

About a month after the opening, Chinese regulators outlawed crypto trading and mining once again, rattling the NFT community. In the months that followed, however, NFTs were considered to be somewhat safe from regulation because they weren’t yet clearly classified as potentially risky financial instruments. It became hard to find a crypto company, or bro, in China that wasn’t starting an NFT hustle.

Today, something has changed. The exhibition’s two curators say they are still hopeful about China’s ecosystem for NFTs, but both are looking for new opportunities away from the country.

The fact that she has moved to the U.S. is indicative of a wider shift that has taken place in China: NFTs remain alive and well in the country by several measures, but they are not what you’d expect. They might look like the low-resolution, funkily clothed avatars seen in freewheeling international markets, but in China there are fundamental differences.

They exist in a regulatory gray area, without clear and comprehensive laws. NFTs are not banned in China, but they can’t be bought with crypto and can’t be used as a speculative investment, as traders often do elsewhere in the world.

The view of Chinese authorities is shown in the very name: They are called “digital collectibles,” not NFTs. Big Chinese tech firms Ant Group and Tencent changed the NFT references on their sites to “digital collectibles” in October, likely a move to distance the products from their global crypto counterparts.

Rather than open networks that anyone can use, such as the Ethereum blockchain, in China the collectibles are built primarily on permissioned blockchains amendable only by authorized parties. This gives companies and the authorities greater control over the content. Rather than startups like OpenSea, several Chinese NFT auctioning platforms are built by well-established Web2 tech firms. The government and corporations are trying to curb the “financialization” of NFTs, meaning stop the popular speculative investment that took place during the last crypto bubble.

China’s legal market in “digital collectibles” is booming: Metaverse-focused information platform Gyroscope Finance estimates that as of June, 681 NFT trading platforms exist in China and that since March, 100 new platforms have been set up each month. But, all in all, “NFTs in China [are] not developed under the premise of a free market. It’s more like digital art, which is easy to buy but is hard to sell,” said Peng Chi, a visual artist from China who has used the technology for his work.

BlockCreateArt’s co-founder, Sun Bohan, quoted data from Lead Leopard Research, which found that about 4.56 million NFTs worth $150 million were sold in China in 2021.

On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the hashtag #digitalcollectibles has been viewed over 350 million times. Others, related to specific NFT drops or memes, have received widespread attention.

However, the platforms usually don’t allow NFTs to be resold for at least a set period of time, to curb retail traders from “speculating” – a word Chinese regulators often use as a reprimand against the crypto market overall. Crypto, which has been banned in the country as a transaction method, can’t be used to buy NFTs.

“China is quite interested in the NFT market, but will only support the NFT market under the Chinese system, the federated chain system and the digital RMB [yuan] system,” said Sun, who initiated and curated the April 2021 exhibition as co-founder of Beijing-based Block Create Art (BCA).

“NFT projects derived in this context [without crypto] will still evolve around these centralized guidance directions and cannot be called a pure and complete NFT market,” said Sun, who, like co-curator Wang, is currently in the U.S. to open a Web3 gallery in Los Angeles and connect his business with the North America and Southeast Asian markets.

In addition to regional NFT marketplaces, many Chinese citizens have access to marketplaces like OpenSea and Magic Eden by using virtual private networks (VPN), which can bypass China’s internet firewall blocking content deemed unsavory by censors.

According to data from DappRadar, China is one of the countries that sends the most visitors to its NFT pages. However, relative to its population, China ranks low. Over time the number of people across the globe turning to DappRadar’s NFT pages has declined, according to data the company supplied. This is a trend that has echoed across crypto markets this year because of economic events and major crypto companies collapsing including stablecoin issuer Terra, hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and centralized finance lender Celsius Network.

There is no national policy on NFTs in China to define what platforms can and can’t do. This creates compliance risks for creators, platforms and brands active in the space, who have no clear compliance guidelines, said Nassim Toui, communications manager at venture capital firm Sino Global Capital.

In April, three banking industry associations issued a statement looking to “resolutely curb” the financialization of NFTs, meaning financial risks related to hyping the assets, money laundering and other illegal activities.

There are many investors hoping to benefit from NFTs in China, but they are “just looking for profits between the cracks,” said artist Chi. “Because of no sound regulations, probably the life cycle of China’s NFT will be greatly shortened. In the long run, I"m not optimistic.”

At the same time, regulators see value in NFT technology beyond art. Red Date Technology, a state-backed firm that is building an “internet of blockchains,” has created a multi-chain platform for developers to build and launch NFTs. Red Date claim that transactions on this platform surpassed the Ethereum mainnet’s daily volume on June 29 and Aug. 18. CoinDesk has no way of independently verifying Red Date’s data.

At the same time, at least one local government policy calls for further investment and development of NFTs and the metaverse. The city of Shanghai called for the development of the industry in its latest five-year plan, published in June, particularly for the protection and circulation of intellectual property.

The government’s main concerns are financial and cultural, BlockCreateArt’s Sun said. As long as people don’t invest unwisely and lose their money, or use NFTs to promote political, violent or pornographic content, the government will not try to eliminate the industry.

“It"s not the right time yet” for regulation, Red Date CEO He told CoinDesk, adding that it may take another six months or even one year “for the regulator to fully understand [NFTs], for them to see that the market has become mature, and that they know where to regulate. Right now, they don"t even know where to regulate.”

In late July, at least one-quarter of the CAC’s list of approved blockchain licenses were NFT platforms, up from 2% in the previous batch, wrote Beijing-based political affairs consultancy Trivium China in its newsletter.

Major tech companies have launched their own Chinese NFT platforms and are looking to get in on the action. Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Group, Tencent, Baidu, and JD.com are among the tech giants that have launched their own platforms or NFT collections.

In June, Tencent’s super-app WeChat, through which much of China’s digital life is conducted, changed its content policy to ban content related to NFT trading.

Just days later, 30 institutions issued a self-regulation code in which they promised to resist the financialization of NFTs and adhere to rules about licensing and real-name authentication. Ant Group, Baidu, Tencent and JD.com signed the document.

However, with platforms mostly doing single sales for each digital collectible – meaning each NFT can only be sold once for a certain period of time – their potential for transaction commissions is significantly lower than for their international counterparts. Tencent closed one of two NFT platforms in order to cut costs, Chinese media outlet Jiemian reported in July 20.

Similarly, big brands have entered the field: There are some successful examples of marketing using NFTs, such as sportswear brands Li-Ning’s latest marketing event in Beijing’s trendy Sanlitun neighborhood using Bored Ape Yacht Club, said Wang. However, not all big brands are necessarily savvy enough to do NFT drops, and some celebrities are afraid they could be doing the wrong thing, she said.

Some big tech firms are doing NFT drops overseas, such as streaming platform Bilibili and social e-commerce site Xiaohongshu. While they are very conservative at home, these companies are participating in Web3 outside the great firewall, Wang said.

Red Date’s He said that on the DDC platform the majority of traded NFTs – around 70% – constitutes digital merchandise, such as paintings and images sold by brands. These are sometimes combined with offline elements, meaning buying an NFT grants consumers access to some limited-edition physical goods, He said.

There are more novel applications of NFTs, such as event tickets, but these are sparse. “We see a lot of good ideas,” but they are far from implementation, He said.

The best NFT displays are the perfect way to show off your NFT art collection. When choosing between the best NFT displays and the new digital art frames around at the moment you need to look closely at how these devices connect to crypto wallets, NFT markets and screen resolutions.

The best NFT displays are designed with non-fungible tokens in mind and put art verification at their core; bespoke NFT displays offer more features to ensure your coveted NFT collection can be seen, heard and verified.

I"m here to break down some of the jargon and complexities of choosing the right NFT art display frame. Likewise, if you still need to know more about NFTs, we have our "what are NFTs?" guide – it"s a must-read. We also offer advice on which NFT markets to use and how to make and sell an NFT. NFTs can even be books, such as upcoming NFT Broadside.

Once you"ve understood and created an NFT, and bought some of your own, it"s time to display them. The best NFT frames and displays will offer connection to your cryptocurrency or NFT wallet, as well as high quality visual and audio output. Most good NFT frames are gallery quality and feature wood frames and high-end tech.

Netgear"s Meural Canvas II enables connectivity to the NFT MetaMask crypto currency wallet and reinforces the brand"s good track record in digital art frames. This means you can link an NFT directly to the screen and manage the display from your crypto wallet. It will also display a verifiable QR code and associated metadata. No wonder this frame won Best NFT Display in the recent Creative Bloq Awards 2022.

The frame looks great too. It has a wood finish and canvas inner that houses the screen to give it a traditional picture frame feel. Using the TrueArt Technology you can adjust the image clarity and backlighting to ensure the screen always displays the highest quality image.

As well as NFTs, the Meural Canvas II can also display any digital art and video file, which can be uploaded from the associated app. The screen can be used vertically or horizontally (using a swivel mount, sold separately). Art can be automatically and manually adjusted to fit the frame"s dimensions.

Tokenframe is one of the newer brands on my list and is unique in that it"s a top NFT display created by an NFT art collector for other collectors, and this one is being used in homes and art galleries alike. While some digital frames on my list are from brands that have adopted NFTs to their tech, Tokenframe has been designed for NFT art.

The secret is the Tokenframe app that enables you to have complete control over one or more of these elegant digital art frames. You can directly connect your crypto wallet to the Tokenframe and only verified NFTs can be cast to its display; you can invite friends as guests to cast to your Tokenframe but they can also be deleted. The app enables you to adjust the background colour and resize the art to fit the frame"s ratio.

The frame itself is well-made and designed to mimic the look of a traditional picture frame; it"s made from real wood, features a fabric surround and the screen is sharp and has an anti-glare coating to ensure the artwork is always visible. I saw a number of Tokenframe devices in The NFT Gallery in London, and they impressed me.

The Canvia – Smart Art Canvas is another display that enables you to connect your NFT wallet directly to the digital screen. This means the frame will verify your collection as it"s streamed or uploaded.

Canvia has a great reputation as a gallery frame maker, and is bringing that knowledge into the home. The frame"s ArtSense technology automatically adjusts the backlighting and screen settings to suit the art and the room"s lighting, ensuring your NFT collection matches your room"s ambiance.

The anti-glare screen offers energy saving features and you can connect it to Alexa for full voice control. Coming in white, cherry, wood grain, and black this Canvia frame has a high-end feel and look of a traditional canvas frame. Using the app you can also zoom and display portions of an artwork.

While some digital frames support NFTs, the BlockFrameNFT – Digital NFT Display Frame is built primarily around non-fungible tokens. This full HD display has been created with NFTs in mind and as such you can connect a number of crypto currency wallets to the device, including MetaMask, WalletConnect and Temple Wallet. At present Coinbase"s wallet isn"t supported.

The process is simple: after signing and acknowledging ownership of the NFT art you can cast your Ethereum or Tezos based NFTs via TokenCast. If using MetaMask the display offers the choice of showing your metadata and a QR code that directs viewers to your address.

The display is prone to stuttering if the file size is too large or graphically demanding. The maker suggests its frame is best suited to still art or small videos. The frame also lacks built-in audio output and no touch screen, which means this feels light compared to other NFT frames in this list.

Is it a TV or a picture frame? It"s a bit of both. The 4K AI upscales everything you view, and when not watching TV it returns to Art Mode to automatically display your favourite images. Sitting flat against a wall and coming in four interchangeable, magnetic frame colours – black, white, beige or walnut – it has the feel of a high-end digital frame and looks great.

Blackdove and its Blackdove Digital Canvas are on the super-high end of the NFT frame spectrum. These are displays purposely designed to connect to NFT wallets and display art in pin-sharp glory. These Ultra HD displays are actually Samsung tech and have been developed with the South Korean company.

What you"re actually paying for with Blackdove is the app and proprietary software that drives these swish NFT displays. You can connect to a MetaMask wallet and securely import art from most main NFT marketplaces. Blackdove also supports its own marketplace of thousands of artists and limited edition NFTs.

The pitch from Blackdove is a gallery level of design and quality in your home, and frames range from the standard 49" screens all the way to 98" displays. The company also offers a "white glove" installation service usually reserved for art galleries and museums. With this in mind, prices start at $4,180.00 / £4,180.00.

The Lago NFT display is taking pre-orders now (price to be confirmed) and looks like one of the more innovative displays you"ll be able to buy. It"s currently not out but the Lago digital frame has been demoed and looks very interesting as it combines a 4K display, unique square proportions, and gesture control.

The manufacturer promises its frame will be connectable to almost all NFT wallets and places proof and provenance at the heart of its display. It"s the tech inside the Lago frame that catches the eye, as it mixes a 4K screen with a built-in sound bar, voice control and gesture support to immerse you in the NFT art.

The accompanying Lago app promises to enable you to verify NFTs, follow artists, curate collections, and track NFT collections and drops. There"s already a burgeoning community around the Lago frame and app.

The best NFT displays: frequently asked questionsCan I print and frame an NFT?If you own the blockchain token to an NFT then you have the right to print it and frame it. But some NFTs have different contracts, so check with the IP owner if not your creation. If doing this it"s best to print off a QR code to send viewers to your art or collection. You can find a guide to creating gallery-standard labels at The Practical Art World blog(opens in new tab).How do you display an NFT?1. The easiest way to display an NFT is on a marketplace like OpenSea, Rarible or Mintable.

5. You can print your NFTs on canvas and frame them. Make sure you own the NFT!Can you frame an NFT?Yes, digital frames enable you to display your NFT art and collections. The best ones are internet enabled and offer the option to connect to a cryptocurrency wallet like MetaMask. This means your ownership of the NFT can be verified alongside your art.

Like so many things, the world of art is going digital. Much like digital music, it has taken some years of technology and business model evolution to make it happen. The music business has transformed itself from content sold as ownership of physical media to a subscription model that offers up most of the world’s recorded music at the swipe of a screen. The art world, of course, has been a physical one for the most part. But now, innovative digital technology and business models are democratizing the enjoyment of fine art for many through NFT.

Let’s take a closer look at Blackdove, a digital platform using NFT technology to enable people to purchase, collect, display, and manage authentic digital art on any high-quality display anywhere in the world, from Miami, FL, to Sydney, Australia. As Blackdove puts it, they want to make the world a bit more beautiful through the magic of NFT digital displays. Read more about Blackdove and how you can beautify your spaces below!

When NFTs first exploded onto the scene in 2021, one of the first questions on many buyers’ minds was how they could display their digital art. As valuations for many NFT collections quickly climbed during 2021, the technology to display them steadily emerged.A year on, products to display NFT artwork are becoming more common as more venues source ways to stage in-person NFT exhibitions and collectors are increasingly eager to physically showcase what they’ve purchased. The latest to enter the space? Danvas.

Launched earlier this month at in New York, Danvas bills itself as the “first luxury digital display,” with its Series G frames rendering digital artwork in micro-LED technology. “We really see this as an entirely new product,” Jeanne Anderson, CEO and Co-Founder of Danvas, tells Jing Culture & Crypto. Digital displays for NFT artwork, she adds, represents a growing market which will continue to evolve as more artists join the space.

The Series G frame by Danvas is billed as the “first luxury digital display,” which renders digital artwork in micro-LED technology. Image: “Fragments of an Infinite Field” by Monica Rizzolli / Stephan Julliard

To Anderson, the mainstreaming of NFT art points to “the beginning of a digital renaissance.” This spike in digital art commerce has led to a burgeoning of hardware offerings answering an apparent need to give NFTs physical form. Tech giants from Samsung to LG are offering smart TVs equipped with QLED and OLED displays that can be linked to their respective NFT platforms, and startups such as Infinite Objects and LAGO are creating tailor-made showcases for digital art.

Consumers are not the only target audience for these display frames. The increasing number of NFT galleries, as well as cultural venues hosting NFT art exhibitions, is supporting the development of the digital display industry.

The SuperRare Gallery in New York, for example, boasts display partners including Samsung, Meural, Blackdove, and Planar. Meanwhile, TokenFrame, a display company first started in Puerto Rico, has been one of the leading manufacturers and sellers to galleries across the world including the Web3 Gallery in New York, the NFT Gallery in London, and Metacollect Gallery in Australia.

MetaSill, another display company, has taken one step further to create displays that are interoperable, meaning they can connect to tokens on different networks such as Solana and Tezos. This opens the market up even wider because it allows galleries and venues to feature work by artists who don’t work on the Ethereum network exclusively.

The increasing number of NFT galleries and exhibitions have supported the growth of the digital display industry. Image: The Web3 Gallery, which works with TokenFrame / @web3nycgallery on Twitter

Where organizations once balked at the technical expertise required to stage a digital art show, these displays present a solution to what might be a challenging installation. More so when the frames themselves are NFT-ready.

These displays often track and provide provenance of each token so viewers know that they are observing the original artwork and not being presented a fake counterfeit piece. They can also see the history of past holders digitally, giving them better insight into who has held that token in the past and what kind of stories come along with that knowledge. On Danvas, artworks are cast from the Danvas app, which houses a library of digital art that is linked to a user’s crypto wallet.

Additionally, according to Anderson, displays add an extra layer of due diligence because “it makes sure to reinforce the fact that the artist has gotten a royalty for the sale of this artwork and has been paid.” Royalties are a huge part of the attraction for artists because they are unique to NFTs.

What might be a barrier to wider consumer adoption of these displays remains their price tag: Danvas’ Series G frame retails at $34,500, while offerings by LG and Blackdove go for upward of $1,400. Smaller frames, though, could start at around $200, putting them within better reach of collectors. But for now at least, digital canvases largely remain luxury assets for luxury consumers (or organizations), with the further growth of the sector hinging in no small part on accessibility.