NFT (non-fungible token) is a concept we hear frequently nowadays. The popularity of NFTs has exploded noticeably in recent months. The crypto community’s enthusiasm to invest in these digital assets has driven their prices to sky-high as the most popular NFTs have been sold for millions of dollars. Therefore, we have examined this concept thoroughly and simplified it for you!
What is the meaning of NFT?
NFT, is a type of digital token that represents a unique digital asset on a blockchain, such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), or Avalanche (AVAX). These can be purely digital assets or tokenised versions of real-world assets. In modern societies where art is independent and very important, works of art have begun to make their power felt with money. Thus, crypto art, the new face of art, emerged with the discourse “Code is the new art and art is the new money”. Like cryptocurrencies that continue to exist in the digital environment, works of art also meet with art-loving buyers who want to invest in the digital environment.
Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs are not interchangeable, so they serve as proof of reality and ownership in the digital world. NFTs are used by decentralised applications (DApps) to mine unique digital goods and crypto collectibles. These can be used to represent items such as video, gif, audio, photos, 3D models, virtual lands, and other types of digital files. However, access to any copy of the original file is not limited to the recipient of the NFT. While copies of these digital items are available for anyone to acquire, NFTs are tracked on the blockchain to provide the owner with proof of ownership separate from copyright. Furthermore, when an artist creates his/her work of art as a non-fungible token, the artist creates passive income for each sale of the product.
So, NFT’s have three main characteristics:
- Indivisible
- Indestructible
- Verifiable
What products can be NFT?
Digitally anything can be NFT. But what matters and is valued by collectors is the uniqueness of an NFT product. The more unique a product is, the more attention it receives.
Why did NFT get so much attention?
Firstly, for artists, NFT offers a new market where they can present and monetise their products. NFT works are a great opportunity, especially for digital artists who have difficulties in bringing their works to art lovers. Artists can get the values they desire for their work. Also, as with physical art, an artist may retain copyright and reproduction rights. What’s more, NFTs also has a feature that will pay you a certain percentage each time the artifact is sold or changed hands (secondary sales). This allows the artist to make a profit if the work is very popular and its value suddenly rises. For this reason, more and more artists are eager to produce NFT works. In terms of a buyer or a collector, the biggest advantage of NFT artifacts today is that their value is indexed to cryptocurrencies. You can sell an NFT artifact you buy in an unimaginable amount later.
How can you buy NFTs?
NFTs are purchased with cryptocurrency, usually ethereum, Solana, polygon, or avalanche. Ethereum is the market leader, and the dominant marketplace is the OpenSea platform. You will need a crypto wallet like MetaMask to be able to connect to the blockchain.
NFT Marketplaces
NFTs meet with buyers in digital marketplaces or the artists’ websites. With the world’s largest base of artworks, OpenSea offers a wide range of art for collectors, including ERC721 and ERC1155 assets. Here you can buy, sell, and discover digital artworks.
In the meantime, it should be noted that the products offered for sale in OpenSea are not limited to works of art. With Virtual worlds, you can create blockchain-supported digital realities and offer them for sale. These virtual spaces, produced and hosted by the crypto community, are already opening the doors to the future for us.
As a sports brand or athlete, you can sell your blockchain-based digital products through OpenSea. For fans who are also collectors, it is possible to find many options at OpenSea, from football to golf. In addition to these products, OpenSea also offers options for card collectors.
Some important NFT examples:
- Mike Winkelmann, nicknamed Beeple, owns the most important and highest-selling NFT artwork in the world. Beeple’s digital artwork sold for $69.4 million at Christie’s Auction House in London.
- NFTs can represent collections in digital format like card collections. In February 2021, a LeBron James dunk NFT card on the NBA Top Shot platform sold for $208,000
- Elon Musk’s wife, Grimes, launched her WarNymph digital art collection last Sunday. Grimes generated $5.8 million in revenue through sales. The influence of Grimes’s reputation and the use of the Mars theme, which has been talked about a lot lately in the works, have a great impact on the income she earned.
- Nigerian digital artist Osinachi made a portrait of Kobe Bryant using Microsoft Word and sold it for $28,000. The artist says that his life has changed with digital art.
- The brand, which created the virtual sneaker brand under the name of RTFKT Studio, earned $3.1 million in revenue by selling 600 pairs of sneakers designed as NFT.
For more examples: 21 examples of NFTs and how to get inspired by them
With the advancement of technology and the increasing importance of digital platforms, new concepts enter our lives every passing day. NFT is just one of them. NTF, which started a new period especially in art, seems to become more widespread in the coming days and predicted that many people will earn more money from it.
