ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NFT
Technology has taken us very far since past 10 years. This technological explosion ,in one way or other helps us in general and makes us work easier. One such technological outburst is NFT ,which was introduced in 2014 and is hyping up at present. NFT has its eyes on tangible and non tangible assets like art, videos, music etc…
This article gives you a better understanding of NFT. What it is? How do it works? And its uses…
WHAT IS AN NFT?
Nft stands for digital assets. They represent real world objects like art, music, and videos. These assets can be bought and sold online using crypto currency. These digital assets contain identifying information recorded in smart contract. NFT’s started gaining popularity since it’s introduction in 2014.NFT’s are becoming popular ways to own digital art work. NFT’s maintain unique identification code and works using block chain technology.
Before going to the core of NFT ,let’s understand the basic meaning of NFT or Non Fungible Token.
• The word ‘Fungible’, refers to replacability of a particular item.
To make it more clear, say for eg: you bought an item from online-be it a book or a shirt or any other digital item. If the same assets can be bought from the retail shops or from some other online store for the same price that you bought from online, then, those items are said to be replacable or FUNGIBLE.
• Non fungible:- A prefix non is added to fungible which brings about the meaning change as non replcable.
But how?
Let us apprehend this with another example.
Imagine you bought a new white shirt from a shop. This shirt can be replaceable, as the white shirts of the same material or same pattern can be available at some other shops or online store. But, this white shirt can be made unavailable by simply painting a flower on it, if you wish. Your painting on the shirt will make it an unique one. If anyone wishes to have the same piece ,they have to approach you for, this shirt with a painting is unavailable any where in the world except you. Thus, this shirt becomes unique and non replaceable or NON FUNGIBLE.
So, NFT’s deals with this sort of non fungible tokens.
HOW DO NFT’S WORK
NFT depends on block chain technology. Then, what is a block chain technology? Block chain technology refers to a public ledger that securely records all sorts of transactions. A technology that makes the functioning of crypto currencies such as bitcoins possible. Block chain ensures the safety of the stored items. The data entered here is irreversible.
Although there are many block chains to support NFT, they are largely dependent on Etherium block chain. An NFT is minted from digital objects. By minting, unique token is published in block chain and is recorded in smart contract. This token posses a unique token UPI which has meta data of our assets in a JSON file. Meta data stores information about our NFT, such as name, image, description etc…..
Digital assets like art, Gif’s , video games skins etc are minted by NFT. Most interestingly, NFT even considers tweets. Jack Dorsey, the co founder of twitter sold his first tweet as an NFT for 2.9 million. Yet another instance is that of Bored Ape of Yacht club. Have you heard about Bored Ape? They are a bunch of digitally created Apes. It is a collection created by Jimmy yeth Mc Nelis .Universal music has bought to form a band called KINGSHIP.
NFT s exists only digitally. So, you might think how is it possible to buy and sell objects digitally? Interestingly, you will get a digital file instead of an original item. To make it more clear, If you want to buy a painting of Da vinci, you will get the painting in a digital format, not the original one. Yet another exciting feature is you will get exclusive ownership rights. Means, only a single person can be the owner at a time. As pointed out before, the unique identification codes of NFT’s, easily verifies their ownership and enables the transfer of tokens between the owners.
USES OF NFT
Block chain technology and NFT’s gives opportunity for the artists and content creators to sell their products online. Generally, artists sell their art by exhibiting in the galleries or auction houses. Here, the artist can sell it directly to the customers as an NFT. Its advantage is, atists can keep more of the profits. Moreover, artists will get a percentage of sales whenever their art is sold to a new owner by maintaining the royality rites which is an exciting feature. Normally, they donot receive any benefits after their art is first sold out.
HOW TO BUY NFT?
Are you looking forward to start your NFT collection, then you need to own some items.
1. Digital Wallet – Digital wallets allows you to store NFT’s and crypto currencies.
2. Purchase crypto currencies – You need to purchase some crypto currencies like ether, or any other currencies that which your NFT provider accepts. Cryptos can be bought using credit cards on platforms like Coinbase , Paypal etc…Then you will be able to move cryptos from the exchange to your wallet. Exchange charges are applicable so, beware of the fees when you buy a crypto. Crypto exchange charges may cost at least a percentage of your transactions.
POPULAR NFT MARKETPLACES
Some of the popular market places are:
• OpenSea.io: This is a peer-to-peer platform bills. It is a reservoir of digital items and collectibles that are very rare. To begin, you have to create an account to browse NFT collections. To discover new artists ,you can sort pieces by sales volume.
• Rarible: Just like OpenSea, this market is democratic and open that helps artists and creators to sell their NFTs. RARI tokens helps the holders to look into features like fees and community rules.
• Foundation: Here, artists must receive “upvotes” or they must be invited by fellow creators to post their art.
FUTURE OF NFT
Technology is evolving at higher pace. NFT’s are going to stay here or a while but its durability cannot be predicted. Already a huge amount has been invested in NFT’s within a short span of time.It offers bright future for artist as it brings the customers and creators closer.
