When NFTs first hit the mainstream media, most people thought it was an elaborate joke. By the time we were getting the hang of what it is, and its prospects, the founder of Twitter had already put an autographed tweet for sale as an NFT. His tweet was sold for $2.9 million.
So What Is An NFT, You May Ask?
NFT is the acronym for Non-fungible token. Make sense?
Let’s make it more straightforward. An NFT is data stored or accounted for in a digital ledger. This data represents something specific like a piece of artwork, a song, an email, a picture, or any digital file.
Let’s break some of the tech jargon down. “Non-fungible” means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced by anything else. Simply, it’s one of a kind. For example, a bitcoin is fungible, meaning if you trade one bitcoin for another bitcoin, you still have bitcoin. But, a unique one-of-a-kind trading card, on the other hand, however, is non-fungible, meaning, If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different. It’s all coming together.
So How Do NFTs Work?
A large portion of NFTs is a part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin and Shiba Inu. Still, its Blockchain also supports these NFTs, which store extra information that makes them work differently. Other blockchain technologies can have their own NFTs.
Bitcoin isn’t an NFT. But a simple gif or picture of the logo of a cryptocurrency can be an NFT and may sell for thousands of dollars or even more, as we have seen in the news in the past few months.
If I Buy An NFT As A Picture, Cant People Copy It Or Screenshot It?
Well, this is true, but not absolutely. Let us use this example. There are so many paintings and pictures of Monalisa, but there can be only one original. Pablo Picasso owns the copyrights to the Monalisa painting, but someone else owns it. So, when you buy an NFT, the artist may still retain the copyright and reproduction rights.
As an artist or an NFT owner, there is a feature that you can enable that will pay you a percentage every time the NFT is sold or changes hands, making sure that if your work gets popular and sky-rockets in value, you will see some of the profit. Today you can sell a simple screenshot for as much as $500,000.
Can I Make A Quick Buck With Limited Risk Through Other Means?
Well, what do you think? Yes, you can! Part of what you can do is making money through trading bots. They are automated trading systems, and you can get started by trade with the Bitcoin System.
What Other Benefits Can I Get From Owning An NFT?
One of the obvious benefits of buying NFT art is that it lets you financially support artists you like. You also get bragging rights that you own the art, with a blockchain entry to back it up.
Even though every NFT is a unique token on the Blockchain, one messy side to NFTs is how a one-of-a-kind art piece could also be a trading card, with more than a few hundred copies of the same artwork. Some people treat them like they’re the future of fine art collecting, and some people treat them like Pokémon cards (mega-rich people also have a way of getting these NFTs). That is why you can download a picture online that someone else on the other side of the earth’s hemisphere paid $10,000 for. Crazy right?
Where Can I Buy Or Sell NFTs?
A couple of marketplaces have popped up around NFTs including OpenSea, Rarible, and others.
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