Just Tech Me At

Fully On-Chain NFT Art: Using SVGs for Smart Contracts

January 2023

NFT Art has become the rage amongst artists looking to showcase their talents in innovative ways. Merge, one of the most expensive NFT Art pieces known, sold for $91.8M USD in December 2021. Kids as young as 12 are displaying their artistic talents on NFTs. OpenSea, a well-known marketplace for NFTs, is said to have done over $3 billion USD in sales in a single month.

Wondering how this all works? This article will explain what NFTs are, how NFTs are used as a medium for digital art, and what role SVGs play in the tokenization process.

NFTs and NFT Art

You might be asking yourself "What is an NFT?". For starters, NFTs fall under the category of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has two forms: Coins and Tokens. Coins are generated from their own blockchain and are non-unique while tokens are created using the blockchain protocol of an existing coin and can either be unique or non-unique. Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) are unique tokens, hence the term "non-fungible." While two coins are exactly exchangeable, two tokens cannot be exchanged in such a way. To illustrate, consider this: two single dollar bills can be swapped for each other for the exact same value. However, two paintings by Renoir cannot be swapped in the same manner. Each painting is unique and carries its own value.

As a general matter, NFTs have many uses. It is the token's project developers who define how the token can be used. One of the possible uses of NFTs is the tokenization of artwork. NFT Art is a token like any other crypto token. However, the face of these tokens carry unique digital artwork. It is the demand for the artwork that drives the value of the NFT. Tokens have quickly become an art medium. Today, many artists are turning to marketplaces like OpenSea, Nifty, Magic Eden, and Mintable to gain exposure in the form of NFT Art.

SVGs and their Role in the Tokenization Process

Digital art can be in many file formats. PNG, JPG, and SVG are three of the most common digital formats used for images. While PNG and JPG file formats are used for pixel images, SVG (scalable vector graphics) is an xml-based file format designed specifically to define two-dimensional vector images. Such images are often used in the centralized web space because they are scalable, load faster, compact in size, and easy to integrate with other web technologies such as CSS and Javascript. As an added bonus, the SVG file format allow vector images to be searchable by web engines.

While SVGs offer centralized web developers many great benefits, there's another major advantage to using SVGs that is of particular interest to coders of blockchain smart contracts. SVGs are text-based which makes the use of them a more efficient path to a fully on-chain NFT.* That is, the image associated with the contract can be stored on the blockchain as part of the contract. This is not typically how NFTs are created. Most smart contracts involving NFT Art will store the associated image "off-chain." This means that the actual image will either be stored on a centralized server or in a distributed storage system (i.e. InterPlanetary File System also referred to as IPFS). Why store an image off-chain? The answer is without a doubt "gas fees." It is the size of images and the gas fees associated with those images that make storing art on-chain undesirable. Therefore, images are normally stored outside of the blockchain (off-chain).

* The term "Fully On-Chain" refers to encoding the image as well as metadata, embedding the code within a smart contract, and storing them all on the blockchain (smart contract, image, metadata).

Vector graphics and SVGs : The Science Behind the Images

Vector images can be two or three-dimensional. However, as previously stated, the SVG file format was designed to define two-dimensional vectors. For the purposes of NFT Art, we are referring to two-dimensional artistic representations. "Vector graphics" is the term used to describe a form of computerized graphics. It is based on the mathematics of coordinate geometry in which shapes are defined as a set of points. For instance, in a two-dimensional coordinate representation, the vector would be defined in terms of p = (x, y). In an SVG file, this mathematical definition appears in xml text format which can be encoded (Base64) and embedded into a smart contract. Image formats like PNG and JPG are defined by pixels and do not offer this coding benefit. By embedding the encoded representation of a vector image within the smart contract, NFT images can be stored on-chain.

Converting Images to an SVG

Do you have an image that you would like to convert into an SVG? The following video demonstrates how Adobe Express can be used to convert a png image file into an SVG. Simply Sign-up for a free Adobe Account and get started.

Conclusion

The tokenization of art has made a big splash. For NFT Artists wanting to reap the full benefits of a chained consensus-based decentralized storage network, SVGs may be the answer. Tokenized art stored on-chain at reduced gas fees- sounds like a viable option. Although SVGs may not be appropriate for all art rendering, it's a path worth considering. As NFT Art continues to grow, both blockchain developers and NFT marketplaces will no doubt be working diligently to meet the demands of this growing crypto use.

For more articles related to blockchain technology, see the following articles:

Learn Blockchain Technology with Tutorials Point

Visit Tutorials Point!