What is an NFT? Top Guide for Beginners
Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are the trend right now. Celebrities, men and women, are getting interested to dig deeper about what an NFT is. Some people considers NFTs as an investment. You can exchange it into other cryptocurrencies to fiat money or it can also be deposited to your bank accounts. Take for example, Grimes. This artist has earned about $5.8 million with one of her NFTs namely “Earth.” These NFTs depict a cherub spinning a globe, an art that was sold out in just 20 minutes.
There are also other NFTs that have been a talk of the town, like the Nyan Cat. This was an internet meme that was sold for 300 ETH. In today’s exchange, that is equivalent to about $690,000 when exchanged to fiat money.
With this information, you might be wondering what an NFT is by now. Is it some sort of money? An investment? Or something that you own? Well, let me help you understand it better.
WHAT IS AN NFT?
NFT is a digital property that is usually an equivalent of real-world things like art, music, games, and videos. Since NFTs are “non-fungible”, this means that you can’t have these sold or traded to any kind of property as well as other NFTs. This investment is usually bought with cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is an example of a cryptocurrency. This industry started around 2014. After many years, NFTs have become the trending topic globally. People of all ages have started to sell and create their own NFT as a form of investment.
WHY ARE NFTS VALUED?
Why are NFTs valued? You might be wondering. Simply, NFTs give you huge bragging rights plus the value it holds. Think of owning an original Mona Lisa painting. Everybody wants it. Everybody can have their copycats but it’s only you who have the owns the original copy. NFTs can be in a form of art, music, painting, image, or any videos. It is encoded inside a digital ledger that keeps all the transactions. Although it works in the same way as cryptocurrencies, there is a difference between NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Since NFTs are non-fungible, they are not allowed to be sold or traded. NFTs have their own identity or ownership.
WHY ARE NFTS UNIQUE?
To put it simply, one Bitcoin will always be equal to one bitcoin, even when it is traded. NFTs are different. You can’t sell an NFT artwork in exchange of another NFT. I know some of us have seen an art exhibit or been inside an art gallery where arts are put on sale. This works just the same for NFTs. You get proof of ownership plus some bragging rights being the real owner, which in return is what most collectors value.
NFTs are sold through Ethereum, which is a block chain or ledger that stores all transactions for each type of NFT. Since it belongs to the Ethereum block chain, NFTs can be sold with Ethereum currency or also known as ETH. As of the moment, the value for a 1000 ETH at $1,122,120.00. It can change from time to time.
WHERE TO GET NFTS?
There are a lot of online platforms that enables you to get NFTs using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Dogecoin. Some markets also lets you purchase NFTs using fiat money, or in dollars.
Before buying or getting NFTs, you need to make sure that you have the resources to acquire ownership of these NFTs. First, you need to have a digital wallet that you can use to store your cryptocurrencies, or purchase cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. You can definitely use your credit card to purchase cryptocurrencies in platforms such as Kraken, eToro, Coinbase, and Paypal.
Here are the top three marketplaces that you can get NFTs from:
OpenSea.io
The world’s first and largest marketplace for NFTs is the OpenSea. This site was founded in January 2018 and has been in the market for over 4 years now. YouTuber Logan Paul has also organised his own NFT that cost $3.5 million. This also helped NFT marketplaces grow more. In using OpenSea, you are able to see the Explore tab. It shows the NFTs that are currently on the market and are for sale or auctions. You can also see real-time top stats on their Stats tab.This showcases the list for the top-selling NFT collection on the market. OpenSea will also let you create your own NFT. You can start purchasing and selling as well.
Rarible
It is an online software that allows creators and artists to purchase and produce crypto assets in their digital artworks. Rarible also exists on the Ethereum block chain and has their own cryptocurrency called RARI. When you own and purchase RARI, you are able to vote on properties affecting the network, supervise creators, and curate other featured artworks.
Foundation
Among the well-known marketplace for NFTs on the web, Foundation, or stylized as “foundation.app”. It is a place for live auctions to take place. It offers live bidding of various digital artworks, as well as foundation artworks. This marketplace is considered to be one of the simplest and easiest to navigate for NFT artists. It provides a simple user interface. This NFT marketplace also exists on the Ethereum block chain, which means that artworks produced in foundation.app are tokenized using non-fungible tokens.
NBA Top Shot Marketplace
If you are a fan of basketball and have been hooked to any collectibles, then the top shot marketplace is for you. The National Basketball Association and Women’s Basketball Association has built a closed marketplace for NFTs. It includes video clips and play highlights that customers are able to purchase. This marketplace uses the Flow block chain developed by Dapper Labs and you can only buy and sell by using Top Shot.