So let\u2019s say you bought an NFT. Not because you want to make a bunch of money and you\u2019re just going to flip it \u2014 we\u2019ll call those people the JPEG flippers \u2014 and not because someone sold you on a big idea about \u201ccommunity\u201d and you didn\u2019t buy an NFT so much as a link to a Discord \u2014 those are the yacht clubbers \u2014 but you bought it because you just liked the way the thing looked. Maybe you\u2019re a collector, maybe this is the first valuable piece you\u2019ve 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!<\/p>\n

On one hand, you have plenty of ways to get your digital art on display. It\u2019s just a picture, after all. (You could even \u2014 gasp \u2014 just print the thing and hang it on your wall.) Virtually any screen you have will display it fine, and it\u2019s always right there on your phone anyway. But your 50-inch LCD panel won\u2019t do justice to the piece, though, not really.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Scott Gralnick has been thinking about NFT displays for a while. He\u2019s now the co-founder of Lago, a company building a $9,000 NFT frame designed for high-end collectors, but he\u2019s 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. \u201cI have a multimillion-dollar collection,\u201d they\u2019d say, \u201cand I had to retrofit it to a TV. I don\u2019t want to show it on my computer, I don\u2019t want to show people my phone, how can I get this into my home?\u201d <\/p>\n

Gralnick and his co-founders set out to build something for those folks, but also something that might entice traditional art buyers \u2013 who might not grok the idea of phone-bound art at all \u2014 to get into the NFT space. \u201cI had friends who were doing dinners with Christie\u2019s and Phillips and Sotheby\u2019s, and they get NFTs, they get minted works of art,\u201d Gralnick said. \u201cBut it came down to one question every time: how do I enjoy this at home?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gralnick now calls the Lago frame a tool for \u201cmass consumption\u201d of NFTs, which is quite a thing to say about a $9,000 frame. The team wanted to make absolutely sure you couldn\u2019t 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. \u201cMaybe they build something unlockable,\u201d Gralnick said by way of explanation. \u201cIf I do the right gesture sequence, it unlocks it. Or maybe I turn around and actively throw it to the other frame.\u201d 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\u2019re 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\u2019t own, though, so no pretending that ape is yours.) In that sense, the frame can be both a display and a distribution channel \u2014 an NFT museum in your own home.<\/p>\n