The world is changing rapidly and there is an explosion in this fast-evolving digital space.
It is crazy and the whole world is going even going crazier.
That’s the feeling I experienced when I first heard of the new technology which is taking the sphere by storm.
You may be one who will experience the same thunderbolt.
And this bombshell is ” NFT”
It is seen that this NFT is making headlines about people paying huge money for clip art and becoming billionaires in no time.
You might be wondering: what is an NFT?
After hours and hours of reading and thinking, I tried to get into the fundamentals
Okay, let’s start with the basics.
Table of Contents
Meaning Of NFT
NFT stands for Non-fungible tokens.
The non-fungible token is a unique digital asset that cannot be replaced with anything else. These are digital assets that may include digital art, digital pictures, memes, video, and games.
NFT is built with a similar kind of programing as used in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum but that is something where the end is similar. Physical money along with cryptocurrencies are “fungible” which signifies that they can be traded for one another. In contrast to this non-fungible tokens by their very own name are “non-fungible” and hence cannot be traded or exchanged for one another.
Specifically, NFTs are typically held on the Ethereum blockchain, although other blockchains support them as well.
An NFT is created, or “minted” from digital objects that represent both tangible and intangible items, including:
- Graphic art
- GIFs
- Videos and sports highlights
- Collectibles
- Virtual avatars and video game skins
- Designer sneakers
- Music
Types of NFT
There are various types of NFT but the most widely used type of NFT which is common on the market is as follows:
ART
One of the most popular NFTs is the Art and it is the only kind of NFT that sells the best out of the rest. Every art NFT is unique in its creative design making and cannot be duplicated, making them scarce, rare, and restricted. The function of the NFT was to help and provide the artist with their best online works. As of day, the most expensive NFTs are works of art.
And as per the record the piece of work by artist Beeple known as: “Everyday’s : The First 5000 Days” was sold for a whopping price of $69 million.
MUSIC
The second high in the NFT spectrum is music. Music has been fungible for decades and decades. But with this blockchain-embedded technology artists and musicians can create their very own NFTs and auction off these various forms of digital media in the market and their fans pay using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others. The artists even get royalties every time a buyer of that digital copy sells it to someone else. Artists and musicians now and in the future can make millions of dollars by selling digital versions of their art, music, video, photos, and many others.
DJ and music producer 3LU made $11.6 million and a Canadian musician named Grimes made $5.8 million by selling their music NFTs.
VIDEO GAME
Another frontier in the NFT space is video games. Blockchain technology in gaming is driven by non-fungible tokens and digital assets that are represented as game content. These are the tokens that are limited, scarce, and rare that facilitate player ownership.
NFT games are modeled as play-to-earn which provides the players the opportunities to earn money as they play. Besides this, gamers can monetize their playing time by buying and selling the game NFTs. In addition, trading is also conducted using cryptocurrency through a blockchain marketplace which functions as an auction house.
As a business, NFT games help developers to monetize their creations while giving users the ability to earn cryptocurrency just by playing the game
Gaming-related NFTs and blockchain gaming generated billions of dollars of revenue in 2021.
NFT digital games can potentially provide new ways for content creators to monetize their work, often through social tokens, digital art pieces, collectibles, or in-game items among millions of gamers.
MEMES
Recently memes have turned into something no one has ever expected and the credit goes to NFT. NFTS can be almost anything like a piece of digital art, a poem, a song, or a card and it is not surprising that memes inevitably found their way onto the blockchain as NFTs.There are many meme creators in the market who are selling their work as NFTs.
Most of the memes to be highlighted are Nyan Cat, Bad Luck Brian, Trollface, Grumpy Cat, Disaster Girl, and the most popular Doge meme.
DOMAIN NAMES
Domain NFTs (also known as decentralized domains, crypto domains, or blockchain domains) offer various unique advantages to traditional domains. Domain NFTs are also usually one-time purchases, in comparison to the Web-2 domain business models.
NFT domains are also 100% user-owned and can send and receive other compatible cryptocurrencies and tokens as payment. It functions as a cryptocurrency public address. NFT domains are domains that live on a public blockchain and give users complete ownership of their stored data. The main benefits to owning one are simplifying crypto transactions by replacing wallet addresses with the domain name and easily creating and hosting websites on web3. If you buy one on the NFT market, you will be able to claim exclusive ownership of the name, cutting out the middleman.
Some of the other types of NFTs are trading cards, collectible items, Big Sport moments, and virtual fashion.
How to Buy and Sell NFTs
It sounded irrational when portable network graphics(PNG) or graphics interchange format(GIF) was bought for thousands and millions of dollars. Now, Web 3.0 is encountered with another million-dollar question.
And the question is how to buy and sell NFTs.
Before reaching the answers it is very important to understand and know that NFTs are purchased with cryptocurrency. And most of the transactions in major marketplaces are done with Ethereum and a cryptocurrency wallet. Since this is a trending question, you need to understand why you should buy NFTs. There are many reasons why people buy NFTs. The primary one is because they want to invest in a new, and volatile asset.
With lots of collections named the Crypto Punks or the Bored Ape Yacht Club the market for NFTs exploded and saw their skyrocket.valuations As the world advances more towards a digital sphere, a lot of our interplay and time is spent online.
Moreover, as the concept of a metaverse pursues to catch speed, a set of people want to own rare, verifiably, and limited authentic digital art.
There are people who might buy an NFT as a gift to someone. The reasons can be different, but it’s a fact that the market has evolved and will boom.
Popular Market Places
In the crypto space, there are various online marketplaces where there is an option to buy and sell non-fungible tokens. The majority of platforms are based on the Ethereum blockchain, Cosmos, Polkadot, or Binance Smart Chain and these are the non-Ethereum NFT services
All NFT marketplace works differently, mostly they have a wide range of NFTs to buy. Although the expert buyers always choose a marketplace, depending on the type of nonfungible token they are looking to purchase. Basis the token usage the following types of NFT marketplaces can be categorized :
Types of NFTs Marketplaces
- Mass marketplaces
- Non-curated, self-service crypto art marketplaces
- Curated or invite-only crypto art marketplaces
- Gaming Platforms
- Sports NFT marketplaces
- Niche NFT marketplaces
Some of the largest market places to buy and sell the NFTs are
- OpenSea.io
- Rarible
- Foundation
Steps to buy NFTs at different marketplaces:
Step 1: Get a wallet and fund it
You need a digital wallet with funds to buy NFTs.For example, the currency you will use to buy is Ether (ETH).
There are many web wallets and the most popular web wallet for NFTs are Metamask, Coinbase, wallet connect, Fortmatic, etc. Connect your wallet to move to the second step.
Step 2: Browse the NFT Collections
Step 3: Find something you want. Buy Now or Make an Offer
Step 4: The Actual Purchase.
Selling NFTs at different marketplaces
Two ways to sell NFTs:
- Selling a minted NFT – This is the way for content creators.
- Selling an NFT that has been already bought and is now willing to sell.
Selling a minted NFT is the endpoint of the nonfungible token creation (or minting) process. Minting refers to an easy procedure after which representing innovative products such as works of art, collectibles, songs, memes, etc., becomes a part of the blockchain, tamper-proof and secure, and the content becomes “tokenized.”
As a result, these are digitally tracked when re-sold from this time on, and also these digital items can be sold and traded as NFTs, as well.
Process for minting the NFT
To start minting, content creators need to follow the steps
Step1: Signing into the crypto-wallets.
The content creators give access to their accounts on the NFT marketplaces websites
Step 2: Create a new NFT
Step 3: Upload a high-quality representation of the digital item that needs to be converted into non-fungible tokens along with NFT catchy name and description.
Step 4: Decide whether it will be a single-edition token or it belongs to a collection.
Step 5: Create to mint an NFT
The creators need to sign their NFTs and pay the gas fees to complete the minting process. Contrary to this in other cases, content creators sell their NFT from their accounts on the NFT marketplaces.
How to sell the bought NFTs
The process of selling collected nonfungible tokens is somewhat more complex than the process of selling freshly minted ones.NFTs.
The main difference between the two types of the seller is here the collectors will not receive royalties when NFTs from their temporary collection is sold. The percentages of royalties for all future sales go directly to the NFTs’ original creators or to the wallets.
The copyright always remains associated with the content creators for their creative products in form of NFTs. On the other hand, the collectors receive collection temporarily in the form of nonfungible tokens.
Final Thoughts
This ultra lucrative technology and marketplace is full of risk and accrues a dramatic impact. Buying and selling NFTs is not as hard as you would think. However, be aware of scammers in this field, and also keep an open eye on the extreme volatility.
Wash traders have riddled the NFT field with fake trading volumes to make them more appealing to investors. This is a very young and emerging market with unregulated policies in most of the jurisdictions. Hence, it is necessary to take precautions and proper steps to protect your capital.
An iconic quote by Dane Scarborough well fits her “IGNORANCE IS YESTERDAY’S PROFESSION”
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Deep knowledge about a new concept of NFT in a very simple manners.