NFTs are currently taking the world of digital art and collectibles by storm. Just as people worldwide believe Bitcoin is the digital answer to currency, NFT is now seen as the digital answer to collectibles. So what are NFTs and what are their applications to life?

What is NFT?

What is NFT?

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, which is a unit of data on a blockchain digital ledger. To simply put it, NFT is a digital asset that exists on a digital chain (blockchain). This blockchain acts as a ledger, ensuring the authenticity of assets and owners.

Back in the day, most digital content and objects can be reproduced infinitely. But that’s not the case for NFTs. Each minted NFT has a unique identifier and belongs to a unique owner. As a digital asset, NFT is commonly traded in cryptocurrencies, but sometimes also in US dollars.

NFT’s application in real life.

NFT – Digital Assets

With NFT special characteristics, digital products can become a unique version of themselves, even if the image is multiplied into many copies, with the contract attached to the image, the asset can still be easily identified. Just like in real life, even though there are millions of copies of the Mona Lisa paintings, the one painted by Leonardo Da Vinci is still worth up to 700 million USD and is the most expensive painting in the world to date.

In-game NFT 

NFT has attracted considerable interest from game developers. NFT can provide a lot of benefits to players, allowing them to actually own the item whether the game still exists or not. Players can trade their in-game NFTs back and forth between players as a kind of asset. This is the factor for the explosive GameFi wave at the end of 2021, led by Axie Infinity with the project’s peak capitalization reaching approximately 10 billion USD.

Axie Infinity – NFT game with a market capitalization that has peaked at $ 10 billion in total project value

Property investment and mortgage

Both NFT and DeFi (Decentralized Finance) share the same infrastructure. DeFi apps allow you to borrow money using collateral. Both NFT and DeFi are working together to explore the use of NFT as collateral.

Domain

Domain names are also NFT products because they are different, unique, and have long been in the business of domain names.

Developing contents

Lebron James’ NFT Set

Music, tweets, memes, and technical content can all become NFTs, making that content unique and meaningful.

One of the most popular NFTs in recent days is NBA Top Shot, a partnership between Dapper Labs (the creator of CryptoKitties) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). The venture generated $230 million in revenue, and the company also just received $305 million in funding from a team that included Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant.

The top-priced video reels include:

• LeBron James “Cosmic” Dunk: $208,000
• Zion Williamson “Holo MMXX” Block: $100,000
• LeBron James Block “From the Top”: $100,000
• LeBron James “Throwdowns” Dunk: $100,000

• LeBron James “Holo MMXX” Dunk: $99,999
• Steph Curry’s “Deck the Hoops” Controller: $85,000

• Giannis Antetokounmpo “Holo MMXX” Dunk: $85,000

• LeBron James “From the Top” Dunk: $80,000

These unique NBA moments are minted and hit the market through “discount packs.” Most of the regular ones are sold for only $9, but the exclusive packs can be sold for even more.

NFT protocol

Various protocols have been developed for NFT distribution. The most prominent of these is ERC721, which is a standard for issuing and trading non-fungible assets on the Ethereum blockchain.

A more recent improved standard is ERC1155, which allows a single contract to contain both fungible and non-fungible tokens.

You can learn the difference between ERC721 and ERC1155 right here. 

Top NFT exchanges today.

OpenSea

The world’s top 1 NFT exchange – Open Sea

One of the pioneers in the NFT industry, OpenSea first launched in 2017, in NYC, co-founded by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah.

Transactions on OpenSea take place via smart contracts, which means that no central authority or third party has the right to hold the items under your control. Instead, users will store items in a wallet of their choice – whether it’s a mobile wallet like Coinbase Wallet or Opera Touch or an in-browser chrome extension like MetaMask. This provides transparency, security, and better recognition of creators’ work, thanks to transaction immutability.

Nifty gateway

Nifty Gateway was created by a cybersecurity company called Gemini and acquired by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in November 2019. It is an exclusive NFT marketplace that incorporates blockchain technology into works. Collective art aims to create a rich set of assets of high value.

Exchange NFT Nifty Gateway

Nifty Gateway creates a space dedicated to music and artwork that has been curated by the Nifty team. This is where the world’s top artists and creators gather. Users can find music works by famous DJs and musicians such as Deadmau5, Carl Cox, Gramatik, Ozuna and rapper Lil Yachty.

Superrare

Super Rare, founded in 2017 by John Crain, Charles Crain, and Jonathan Perkins, is a proprietary art-focused NFT marketplace based on the ETH Blockchain. That means it’s very difficult for users to get their work on the platform. However, once you’ve joined Super Rare, there can be a lot of potentials for your artwork to hit the ground running and sell for sky-high prices.

Supperrare NFT platform

In fact, the main feature of this platform is the reliability of using the Ethereum blockchain, artists and collectors can always be sure that proposed NFT works cannot be modified.

Summary

Many see the NFT as the future of property ownership. They believe that every type of property, from event tickets to houses, will eventually tokenize the ownership this way.

However, there are still many risks that remain when investing in NFT. Like virtual currencies, the NFT remains unregulated. Anyone can create and sell NFT assets and there is no guarantee of their value. Fraud is also a big risk in a market where so many participants use nicknames.

Therefore, before participating in any market, you must also learn and equip yourself with sufficient knowledge!