You may have heard of the news of celebrities spending thousands of dollars just for an image, not for Vinci, Picasso or Van Gogh pieces, but for cartoons, memes, GIFs. All these expensive pieces of art have one thing in common-- they are NFTs. So, what are they? Today, we are going to describe what these are, what makes them so expensive and how you can use them to your advantage.
NFT stands for non-fungible token. An owner of an NFT can boast about having an item solely available to them. This way, NFT-collectables become uniquely precious. The avid fan of these items would find it refreshing. For example, one may be proud of owning an NFT launched by one’s favourite pop star. Many celebrities (especially from the west) have launched their creations available through NFTs, for instance, Eminem, Paris Hilton, and Lindsey Lohan. Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda has sold NFTs with a song.
Before delving deep into the concept of NFT directly, let us try to understand stuff that is non-fungible.
Non-fungible means that something is completely unique and cannot be replaced with something else. For example, you cannot replace the autograph of your favourite cricketer with another autograph because you have something unique in your possession. This sense of uniqueness drives more people to own NFTs. Once you own an NFT, you are the sole owner of that image, cartoon, GIF, video, and so on. Now, to understand what makes it so expensive?
One of the most common answers is cryptocurrency and blockchain.Many cryptocurrencies go around us, and some popular ones are Tether or XRP. Cryptocurrency is a computerised currency built using cryptography. The business value of cryptocurrencies is billions of dollars but they are volatile. Just a decade ago, bitcoin had very negligible value. In the case of buying and selling NFTs, a user needs to mostly use Ethereum which is extremely expensive with ETH 1.0 being equivalent to Tk 298,801.19 at present. All kinds of transactions for NFTs get stored in a blockchain, a highly-secured digital ledger that only the owner can access.
Main purpose: Autographs, Cryptopunks (specially generated characters), blockchain-based games like Axie Infinity are chart-topping NFT items. The purpose of these uniquely available items is that the technology allows the content to be merely original. It would be impossible to have a duplicate copy of an NFT on the blockchain. Anyone can buy an NFT but the bonafide item would only be available to one person.
Usefulness: The New York Times once reported that a small number of teenagers use NFTs to get their collaborative group work of creating electronic artwork done, even when they belong from different parts of the world.
NFTs do have a commercial quality to them. One seller may decide to sell NFTs at auctions. Financial settlements might also be possible between the seller and the buyer. NFTs also allow you to earn a percentage of money from each exchange, and you can benefit from your item's popularity.
The usefulness of NFT items would depend on yourself and your purpose.
You might want to turn your creations into NFTs if you think they will not have much market attention. Since NFTs are somewhat particular, they would grab attention if put in the right place for advertisement. However, an artist can always reserve copyright and replication rights for an artwork.
Collecting NFTs: Every NFT is an original token available on the blockchain. However, if someone recreates an original piece of work, then there would be an exact duplicate or a reformation of an archetypal item available. But, the blockchain storing the main work would not allow any replica. For example, artworks looking the same as the Mona Lisa are available everywhere, but the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is a unique piece of art.
It would be a pleasant task to build your reservoir of all things one-of-a-kind. If you collect NFT art, you may exchange them in return for more money than you bought them. You may also build up an individual collection of stuff from your favourite artists or celebrities. This way, you can show support for your icons.
Websites for getting and selling NFTs: Niftygateway.com, opensea.io, rarible.com are some popular websites known for selling NFTs. In order to start trading NFTs, you first need to create a digital wallet to store your cryptocurrency. MetaMask is a renowned wallet for such purposes.
The writer studies computer science and engineering at East West University, Dhaka. [email protected]
