You can buy this entire curated NFT museum as a single NFT

We often think of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as the key to owning a piece of digital art — but what if you could use that same smart contract system to purchase an entire museum? That unusual prospect is exactly what the Museum of Digital Life (MoDaL) is pitching. An NFT packed with individual NFTs.

The virtual museum idea is in itself an intriguing prospect for NFT collectors. Rather than picking out one piece of art at a time (of the millions available on the marketplace), you’d let the museum’s curators create a collection for you.

More enticing still: MoDaL’s collection will not be static. Much like a physical museum, the Museum of Digital Life’s curation will grow and change as time goes on. At launch, MoDaL will include a dozen individual pieces, including 2D images and videos and 3D interactive objects. MoDaL’s creator, Delta Reality, is even promising “whole 3D environments and 3D experiences.”

Own it all — Buying the Museum of Digital Art is an investment in the unique digital space’s evolution. This is a full virtual museum we’re talking about. You can “walk” through it and watch the exhibits as many times as you’d like, interacting with other museum guests as they do the same.

When you buy MoDaL, you’re buying the rights to everything contained within it, too. That entitles you to all the project files for each piece of digital art. If there’s any catch here, it’s that you won’t actually be able to sell off those pieces of digital art as your museum makes room for new ones, at least not on your own. Delta Reality says MoDaL’s future curation will be a collaborative effort between the owner and the Delta Reality team. Trading complete creative control means you won’t have to do all the collecting work yourself, though. And any sales of the museum’s art will be used for upkeep and future acquisitions.

Endless applications — The NFT market has drawn harsh criticism from the public as it’s continued its exponential growth. This ire is justified in some regards. The popularity of NFTs has proven opportunistic for scammers; plenty of jabronis have fallen prey to malicious cash-grabbers.

The proliferation of NFTs has also opened up space for creative digital possibilities. Million Token Website allows users to buy “digital land” and use it however they’d like. Meme creators are finally profiting off their internet fame. Women are reclaiming their images by using smart contract technology. NFTs are even being used for creative fundraising for vulnerable populations.

MoDaL isn’t the first virtual NFT gallery we’ve seen, but the ability to own the museum is certainly novel. What’s next? An NFT that contains within it a collection of NFT museums?