NFT is a rage now! Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) is taking the collectables world and digital art by storm! It is giving more power to the content creators, including the digital artists. So, what exactly is NFT? Why is it trending?
What is NFT?
NFTs are unique cryptographic tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. Notably, they’re secured by the Ethereum blockchain and are built using a consistent standard known as ERC-721.
According to a study from NonFungible and L’Atelier, the total value of NFT transactions quadrupled to $250 million (approx £178 million) last year. The number of digital wallets trading them doubled to over 222,179 as well, claims the study.
In 2017, the NFT ecosystem came into existence with the launch of collectables projects like Cryptokitties and Cryptopunks.
What makes NFT special?
According to Ethereum.org, Non-fungible is an economic term that’s used to describe things like furniture, a song file, or a computer. These things are not interchangeable for other items because they have unique properties.
On the other hand, fungible items can be exchanged, as their value defines them. For example, 1 ETH is the same as another ETH or fiat cash.
When you buy an NFT, you receive a certificate secured in Blockchain technology, which makes you the owner of that specific digital asset. It is non-replicable, can’t be substituted, and can only have one official owner at a time. Moreover, NFTs are transparent and no one can modify the record of ownership or copy/paste a new NFT into existence.
Since they are Ethereum-based, NFTs can be bought and sold on any Ethereum-based NFT market.
How to buy and sell NFTs?
NFT works for pretty much any digital work, be it videos, photographs, songs, and 3D renderings. Artists can create and then sell to people who want to buy them. The buyer doesn’t get any physical product but they do get ownership of the digital object on the blockchain record.
To buy NFTs, you can check out a bunch of online marketplaces like OpenSea, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, and more. Since the ecosystem is expanding rapidly, we can expect more marketplaces in the upcoming days.
To sell NFTs, you will need to connect your Ethereum wallet to your platform of choice. If you have NFT and want to put it for sale click on the asset, follow the “Sell” instructions.
All said and done, some people see NFTs as just the latest fad. On the other hand, many digital artists see this as a potential tool to fight identity theft. It’s too soon to predict the future since the NFT is still in its early stage and the applications are limited.
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