With the meteoric rise of NFTs, it was only a matter of time till the ever-popular Photoshop hopped on board. Still, Adobe’s announcement of building NFT verification into the app made waves in the greater crypto community. Artists and enthusiasts alike are excited by the platform’s addition, seeing it as a way to make NFTs more accessible and secure. But is all the fanfare justified? Let’s dive into exactly what the new “prepare as NFT feature” is and what it means for the future of NFTs.
The new feature, that is now available on the most recent version of Photoshop, is called Content Credentials. As an image is edited in Photoshop, Content Credential saves the identity data and stores it as metadata. Adobe accounts and their corresponding Content Credentials can be linked to social media and crypto wallets. When an artist who uses the Content Credentials feature sells their art as an NFT, potential buyers will be able to see a certificate tied to the Adobe credentials. This gives buyers the peace of mind that they’re buying a legitimate NFT, and it gives artists protection from potential counterfeits. This ability to verify the history and authenticity of an artist’s work could have huge implications for the future of NFTs, tamping down concerns of counterfeiting, fraud, and scams.
Despite this, many are still unsure about how the feature will actually stop counterfeiting. Anyone can right click and save an image, and there’s nothing preventing that person from minting that image as NFT. So how would Content Credential actually stop counterfeiting? In an interview with The Verge, Adobe Executive Vice-President Scott Belsky said:
Prepare as NFT
“If we can cryptographically signature the artists and the actual provenance of the object, like what layers, what pixels, where the sources came from and everything, that illuminates a massive gap in this new digital collectibles world, that I think could be very empowering to artists, could make sure that we flip the model and sort of say, ‘Hey, I only want NFTs that I know were created by the original artist.’”
Belsky envisions a future where consumers make the decision to only purchase NFTs that have some form of verification, enabled by Abode’s Content Credentials. Purchasers would refuse to accept the risk of unverified NFTs and exclusively support artists who utilize Content Credentials. While this may seem unrealistic for those unfamiliar with crypto, it makes total sense if you understand the greater crypto community. Crypto and NFTs by nature are decentralized. Users take a direct role in governing and running the blockchain. This means that owners and investors are already dedicated to making these systems work as well as possible. Given the choice between purchasing unverified NFTs or NFTs that have been verified by Adobe’s credentials, many crypto users will opt for the latter. And in a space driven by its users, Adobe credentials could quickly become the expected standard for all NFTs.
Another important part of Adobe’s NFT shift is their partnership with NFT platforms. So far they have partnered with KnownOrigin, OpenSea, Rarible and SuperRare. The partnership enables users to see Adobe’s credentials if the artist used them so they can verify the NFT is authentic. Again, this has huge implications for the future of NFTs. The NFT community is often skeptical of “the establishment” that companies like Adobe are a part of, and “the establishment” is still apprehensive about DeFi, crypto, and NFTs. But Adobe partnering with the big exchanges lends them both credibility. Adobe brings its reputation as a renowned and respected software company, and exchanges like OpenSea bring their reputation as leaders in the NFT space. This helps all parties involved get more respect where they need it. A partnership like this could be exactly what NFTs need to truly break into the mainstream.
Lastly, Content Credentials shows how much room for growth there is in the NFT space. Most other big name companies like Adobe have yet to support crypto and NFTs. But as companies continue to slowly join in, the market continues to grow. There are countless platforms like Photoshop that could introduce similar features and ignite the market. Music production platforms like Logic and ProTools introducing NFT features could open NFTs up to a whole new market. Video editing platforms like Premier and iMovies could do the same. There is so much room for growth, and we are only just beginning to see the full potential of NFTs.
Photoshop’s introduction of built-in NFT verification brought widespread acclaim from the NFT community, and that acclaim seems to be justified. Adobe’s Content Credentials helps prevent counterfeiting and gives Adobe/NFT exchanges even more credibility. In the future, it’s likely that more mainstream companies like Adobe will follow suit and embrace crypto and NFTs.