As usual, if you are in the business at the right times, or better, if you are one of the main actors, undoubtedly, you can/could earn and make profits, otherwise it looks like a bubble and, as the most, … followers of nothing.
First of all a definition: an NFT (Not Fungible Token) is unique metadata referring to a specific cryptoart, which makes it unique, as it is non-fungible, indivisible and cannot be exchanged. For these reasons, acquiring an NFT means owning the original art piece. When an NFT is acquired, the purchase goes through a blockchain, which validates the transaction and records the new acquisition.
Only a quick view and some questions:
What is a non-fungible token?
In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged – like money. With money, you can swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value. However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible – it means it has unique properties so it can’t be interchanged with something else. It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be one original painting.
NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but which have no tangible form of their own. The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
How do NFTs work?
Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind. But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated. With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold. As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain.
The records cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. NFTs can also contain smart contracts that may give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
How much are NFTs worth?
For example, but everything is only volatile: in theory, anybody can tokenise their work to sell as an NFT but interest has been fuelled by recent headlines of multi-million-dollar sales.
On 19 February 2021, an animated Gif of Nyan Cat – a 2011 meme of a flying pop-tart cat – sold for more than $500,000 (£365,000).
A few weeks later, musician Grimes sold some of her digital art for more than $6m. It is not just art that is tokenised and sold.Christie’s sale of an NFT by digital artist Beeple for $ 69m (Euro 50m).
French firm Sorare, which sells football trading cards in the form of NFTs, has raised $680m (£498m).
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the most prestigious NFT collections in the world. A collection of 10.000 NFTs, each depicting an ape with different traits and visual attributes, Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry and Post Malone are among their star-studded owners. The price of entry is 52 ether, or $210,000.
… as with crypto-currencies, there are concerns about the environmental impact of maintaining the blockchain.
What’s stopping people copying the digital art?
Nothing. Millions of people have seen Beeple’s art that sold for $69m and the image has been copied and shared countless times. In many cases, the artist even retains the copyright ownership of their work, so they can continue to produce and sell copies. But the buyer of the NFT owns a “token” that proves they own the “original” work. Some people compare it to buying an autographed print.
by Alain Chivilò via BBC
First of all a definition: an NFT (Not Fungible Token) is unique metadata referring to a specific cryptoart, which makes it unique, as it is non-fungible, indivisible and cannot be exchanged. For these reasons, acquiring an NFT means owning the original art piece. When an NFT is acquired, the purchase goes through a blockchain, which validates the transaction and records the new acquisition.
Only a quick view and some questions:
What is a non-fungible token?
In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged – like money. With money, you can swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value. However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible – it means it has unique properties so it can’t be interchanged with something else. It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be one original painting.
NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but which have no tangible form of their own. The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
How do NFTs work?
Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind. But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated. With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold. As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain.
The records cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. NFTs can also contain smart contracts that may give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
How much are NFTs worth?
For example, but everything is only volatile: in theory, anybody can tokenise their work to sell as an NFT but interest has been fuelled by recent headlines of multi-million-dollar sales.
On 19 February 2021, an animated Gif of Nyan Cat – a 2011 meme of a flying pop-tart cat – sold for more than $500,000 (£365,000).
A few weeks later, musician Grimes sold some of her digital art for more than $6m. It is not just art that is tokenised and sold.Christie’s sale of an NFT by digital artist Beeple for $ 69m (Euro 50m).
French firm Sorare, which sells football trading cards in the form of NFTs, has raised $680m (£498m).
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the most prestigious NFT collections in the world. A collection of 10.000 NFTs, each depicting an ape with different traits and visual attributes, Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry and Post Malone are among their star-studded owners. The price of entry is 52 ether, or $210,000.
… as with crypto-currencies, there are concerns about the environmental impact of maintaining the blockchain.
What’s stopping people copying the digital art?
Nothing. Millions of people have seen Beeple’s art that sold for $69m and the image has been copied and shared countless times. In many cases, the artist even retains the copyright ownership of their work, so they can continue to produce and sell copies. But the buyer of the NFT owns a “token” that proves they own the “original” work. Some people compare it to buying an autographed print.
by Alain Chivilò via BBC
