In my younger years, I used to collect pinballs and Pokémon cards. At the time, that was a very big fad. Over the years, fads have arisen and then disappeared again. Just like the fidget spinner. Every kid wanted to get one. That popularity and fad also disappeared. Recently, a new craze has emerged in the field of digital collectibles: the Non Fungible Token (NFT).
An animation of a flying cat was sold for about $600,000, a virtual map of Homer Simpson for $320,000. You could bid on the first Tweet from the founder of Twitter. And Elon Musk made a song about NFTs that he offered as an NFT. Also, the disaster girl meme was sold for $500,000.
In this article, I discuss what NFTs are and what you can do with them.
What is an NFT?
An NFT is unique and cannot be replaced by anything else. Bitcoin on the other hand is fungible. A bitcoin is not unique and can be exchanged for another bitcoin. You then trade one bitcoin for another. So a fungible token is interchangeable while an NFT is not. Physical money is fungible too.
In 2017, CryptoKitties was one of the first NFT projects to receive a lot of attention. It is a game built on the Ethereum blockchain that allows players to collect, breed and exchange virtual cats.
How does NFTs work?
An NFT runs on the Ethereum blockchain. The Ethereum blockchain supports the NFT through the characteristics of the Ethereum blockchain. The special feature of the Ethereum blockchain is that certain decentralized applications, aka Dapps can be built on top of the Ethereum blockchain.
What can be found on the NFT market?
All sorts of things, as long as it's digital. For example, drawings and music. It really should be about digital creations.
Is the token linked to the digital art?
Yes. Once you have created digital art and uploaded it on an exchange where you can sell your digital creation, your creation is linked to an NFT. This means that you are the 'owner' of that creation.
What's the point of NFTs?
NFTs have a few advantages for artists. You can now sell your artwork online that there otherwise might not be much of a market for. If you come up with a cool idea, you want to sell it via Christie's or iMessage App Store? Not a chance. For beginners, NFTs are a great opportunity to showcase your work.Everytime the NFT is sold or changes hands, the creator receives a percentage of the sold NFT. If your work gets more popular, you'll see some of that benefit in hard cash. No third party labels are needed anymore. You just create your art, sell it as an NFT and receive your payment everytime the NFT is sold.
How to buy NFTs?
You need a wallet where you can store cryptocurrencies and NFTs. You also need to buy some cryptocurrencies to store in your wallet. You can buy cryptocurrencies at an exchange. You can also buy cryptocurrencies via credit card. After you have bought cryptocurrencies, you can transfer the cryptocurrencies from the (crypto) exchange to your own wallet.
Do research in what kind of exchange you use to buy crypto, because the fees can vary.
How to sell NFTs?
The process to sell your NFT can vary per platform. Basically, you upload your digital work to a platform. After your work is uploaded, you can make an NFT of your digital work. After that, you can sell your work via the platform. You can provide a description and you can set your own price. The artist is in control of his own creations!
Can people still copy the original NFT?
Yes, nothing stops others to make a copy of the digital art and resell it. But the artist retains the copyright and ownership of its work. If the original artist wants to challenge his resold NFT, the original artist can back up his claim using the blockchain. He can prove that he created the original work.
Why are some NFTs worth millions?
This is a matter of scarcity and uniqueness.
In addition, authenticity also plays a role in the rise of NFTs. The uniqueness of the tokens is easy to check and the origin can always be traced back to the original creator. This way, NFT owners know for sure that they are the only ones who own a digital collector's item.
NFTs get their value further from their immutability, one of the foundations of blockchain technology. Non-fungible tokens cannot be destroyed, deleted or duplicated. They exist only on the platform on which they were created and are stored in the blockchain. Moving them to another platform is not possible.
On what platforms can I buy and sell NFTs?
- Opensea
- Superrare
- Decentraland
- Nifty Gateway
This blog was written on 7 August 2021. This article was updated on October 11, 2021.
BTC address: bc1q3nnm8m2vrsv8med8a38dl37g8l3mm4wa7ph7wj
ETH address: 0x38b84E2D3B50F83A067A7488C1733180651f418A
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