Getty Images partners with Palm blockchain to launch NFTs

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have continued to be mainstream, attracting many players across different industries. Getty Images has been one of the latest companies venturing into the space. The company is currently planning the primary and secondary sales for its NFTs on Candy’s marketplace.

Getty Images plans to launch NFTs

NFTs are unique blockchain tokens used to signify the ownership of digital collectibles. The digital assets planned by Getty Images will be minted on the Palm blockchain, which is a sidechain running on the Ethereum mainnet.

The Getty Images NFT collection will feature more than 465 million images, including 135 analog photographs. The plan for these NFTs includes converting archives that have never been seen before into NFTs.

Primary and secondary sales for these NFTs will be listed on the Candy marketplace. This marketplace has attracted strategic partnerships across the sports sector, including signing deals with Major League Baseball, NASCAR and WWE.

The CEO of Getty Images, Craig Peters, noted that NFTs were a way of accessing new markets and attracting new clients. The CEO of Candy Digital, Scott Lawin, also added that the partnership was strategic because it will allow Candy to provide new NFTs that will focus on culture and history. The partnership will also allow Candy to move beyond sports sponsorships.

Photography enters the NFT space

Photography NFTs have become increasingly popular. These NFTs are now inching closer to replacing the top NFTs in the space, including Bored Apes, CryptoPunks and Okay Bears. Some iconic photography pieces have debuted as NFTs, attracting immense attention and sales.

Renowned photographers such as Aimos Vasquez, Anna McNaught, Cath Simard, Elise Swopes and Randall Slavin have sold their photos for NFTs, and their pieces have been valued at very high prices. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace by trading volumes, has a “trending photography” section that attracts significant user interest.

Despite their growing popularity, NFTs are still a controversial space in the non-crypto sector. NFTs collections such as Bored Ape are popular because they have mainly attracted crypto players. Some of the BAYC pieces are sold for millions of dollars.

However, the traditional industry has shown scepticism toward NFTs due to the effects caused by some blockchains on the environment. This has prompted environmental-conscious companies to work with blockchains that consume a small amount of energy. Getty Images has chosen to mint its NFTs in the Palm blockchain because it is environmental-friendly. The network claims to use 99% less energy than Ethereum’s mainnet.

The Palm blockchain was launched last year, but it has already collaborated with top players in the crypto space. The blockchain is compatible with the Uniswap decentralized exchange (DEX) and the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet.

While photography NFTs are picking up, the community seems less interested in such pieces, and it is more focused on NFTs that can operate on the metaverse or ones that can be used as profile images. Moreover, the top 100 collections on the OpenSea marketplace do not contain photography.