NFT stands for ‘non-fungible token’. That breaks into two parts – ‘non-fungible’ and ‘token’. Something that is fungible is interchangeable so “non-fungible is everything that is unique. A painting like the Mona Lisa that you see in the museum, or in the digital world, a video you create, a tweet or a piece of digital artwork,” says Dr. Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers Business School.
The token section refers to its digital existence and the fact that it is protected using blockchain technology. To break it down even further, an NFT is simply a digital asset that, because of its existence on a blockchain (we’ll come to that later), can’t be replicated. What it means for you is you have an opportunity to certify a unique object or piece of art is authentic. It can be used for anything an alarm for an easy transfer of ownership. There are an infinite number of applications for NFTs.
While the most common example of NFTs today is digital artwork, it could be a whole host of things. GIFs, songs, videos, tweets, digital skins for games, or even headshots of William Shatner (yes, that is an NFT you could buy.)
You are recorded as the owner of that product in the blockchain, in the same way, that you could be the owner of a physical painting, one-of-a-kind vinyl, or a poem that only you have a copy of.
An NFT is simply a digital asset that lives on a blockchain. It can be used in digital rights management to establish ownership and to track changes in ownership over time. Blockchain is a secure, distributed database that enables transactions to be conducted directly between two or more parties with a high degree of fidelity, even if the participants are anonymous. It’s most commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, but there are many other uses.
A NFT doesn’t have to be a work of art. It can be a Word document, an audio recording, a PDF, or even a tweet. “There’s no difference between a NFT and a document with metadata,” said Nick Donarski, CEO of ORE-Systems and a veteran of cybersecurity and blockchain technology.
What’s important about NFTs is that they establish ownership in an immutable fashion, and that’s where it gets interesting for businesses.
How do NFTs work?
An NFT relies on two pieces of technology – a blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Blockchains are a term you’ve likely heard before as they quickly became a popular concept in the digital age. A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger, or in other words a shared electronic database. It’s similar to Google Drive or Dropbox with the exception that, while you can add to it, you can’t remove or edit anything. There isn’t just one singular blockchain. There are loads of them and they all work slightly differently. At a very high level, most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin or dogecoin, but its blockchain also supports these NFTs, which store extra information that makes them work differently from, say, an ETH coin. It is worth noting that other blockchains can implement their own versions of NFTs.
At the most fundamental level, an NFT purchase also grants the buyer some basic rights, such as being able to post the image online, or use it as a profile image. That’s about it, though, unless you count bragging rights as well.
By coding automatic payouts into the smart contracts on the NFTs’ blockchain, artists can be paid royalties on secondary sales. For example, without NFTs, a ticket scalper will keep every dime of profit they get by selling their ticket to someone else. However, with an NFT, a cut of the profits will go to the one who created it as long as it’s coded into the smart contract. For artists, it is clear how this is a huge boon. This aims to fairly compensate the original creator for the work after the first sale without having to rely on intermediaries of any sort.
NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger that records transactions. You’re probably most familiar with blockchain as the underlying process that makes cryptocurrencies possible.
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:
- Art
- GIFs
- Videos and sports highlights
- Collectibles
- Virtual avatars and video game skins
- Designer sneakers
- Music
Even tweets count. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever tweet as an NFT for more than $2.9 million.
Essentially, NFTs are like physical collector’s items, only digital. So instead of getting an actual oil painting to hang on the wall, the buyer gets a digital file instead.
They also get exclusive ownership rights. That’s right: NFTs can have only one owner at a time. NFTs’ unique data makes it easy to verify their ownership and transfer tokens between owners. The owner or creator can also store specific information inside them. For instance, artists can sign their artwork by including their signature in an NFT’s metadata.
What is an NFT Collection?
NFT Collection Means a collection or a series of NFTS. While Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets having distinct characteristics. A particular asset may have any number of different NFTs (e.g., one piece of art or one piece of real estate).
With these distinct qualities, the object’s digital representation may be created. Real-world physical assets may be represented using NFTs. In a trustless setting, a distributed, community-owned ledger may store a representation and exchange it Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets having distinct characteristics. A particular asset may have any number of different NFTs (e.g., one piece of art or one piece of real estate). With these distinct qualities, the object’s digital representation may be created.
Real-world physical assets may be represented using NFTs. In a trustless setting, a distributed, community-owned ledger may store a representation and exchange it.
Through this feature, NFT offers buyers ownership certificates of digital items and protects the value of their upcoming transactions. A CoinDesk report claims that artists can digitally sell their artwork globally that can generate higher profits at one-piece works and royalty plans. NFTs are a major upgrade over previous types of tokens. Gamers can also own in-game property or goods and sell them to earn money. Most of the NFT tokens are manufactured using the two Ethereum standards ERC- 1155 and ERC-721.
How do you know if an NFT is real?
NFTs are a digital version of the property. The word “Non Fungible” means one of a kind. On the other hand, the most fungible thing in the world is an American $100 bill. If you look at world trade, 85% of all transactions are done in American dollars because it’s fungible. $1 gets you something, it doesn’t matter where you are.
Non-fungible is the opposite because there’s just one of them. You can have copies of it, but ownership resides with one person.
This is how the digital artist, Beeple, sold his NFT at Christie’s for $69 million dollars.
What is an Autominter?
An autominter is an application that will automatically mint your NFT collection to the blockchain.
The blockchain requires two assets in order to create an NFT. The media file itself, and the metadata to link to the media file and describe its attributes. Once an artist has these assets, they are able to then make an NFT. Creating a singular NFT is easy, and can be done by simply using a service such as OpenSea. However, deploying an entire collection to the blockchain becomes more complicated. An autominter enables the artist to create a smart contract without coding experience, and launch a mint sale directly from a website.
