“So, what in the World are NF’s?”

“So, what in the world are NFT’s?”

By Siloh Moses of DipsandSticksDaily.com

If you have been wondering just ‘what in the world are NFT’s?, well guess what? You’re not alone.

Google’s keyword search data shows that interest in NFT’s or nonfungible tokens has surged to record levels, with traffic beating out search terms pertinent to many cryptocurrency assets ranked among the top 10.

What’s a cryptocurrency? A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.

A cryptocurrency (or crypto as it is called for short) can also be used to buy goods and services in the real world but is mostly used in online peer-to-peer digital transactions.

In layman terms, it’s considered ‘digital cash.’

And an NFT is a nonfungible token (or unit of data) that is stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain. This blockchain certifies that the digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFT’s can be used to represent items such as photos, video snippets, digital art, audio (music), and other types of digital files. Often purchased with digital cash or crypto.

To keep this a simple as possible (without going too far down the rabbit hole) we’re going to answer the topic at hand. If you want to know more about crypto’s or NFT’s, and want to go deeper down the rabbit hole, be sure to check out DipsandSticksDaily.com and subscribe to their free email crypto newsletter.

So, now that you have an idea of what NFT’s are, again non-interchangeable units of stored data that can be used to represent items such as photos, video snippets, digital art, audio (music), and other types of digital files. Often purchased with digital cash or crypto…The real question is “How do they work?”

When you purchase an NFT you become the owner of that piece of data, whether it’s digital artwork, a video clip, or a song… when you purchase it, you become its owner.

Depending on the rights of the NFT (governed by the creator), you the new owner can either, view it, own it, sell it, transfer it, and even make a commission on part of the sale once you sell it. Again, governed ultimately by the original creator and is written in the smart contract (unique computer code), (proof that you own it), at the time of purchase.

Now, there are limits to how much you can sell your NFT on the open market, and of course the crypto rights, in the US at least, belong to the NFT creator. NFT crypto rights or IP rights can last for 120 years in the US and the NFT creators keep all the intellectual property rights even after they sell that NFT to you.

What makes NFT’s valuable? The community based around an NFT make it valuable. How much someone in that community is willing to pay, makes all the difference. The scarcity of a NFT also brings it value. An NFT can sell for millions based on how many of that NFT have been ‘minted’ or created. A limited supply of any NFT can drive the price of that NFT well into the Millions of US dollars. Also, an NFT can have written in the smart contract (computer code) that the asset will change in appearance every time the asset passes hands and is sold. This makes it unique to own.

For instance, NFT’s in music. In March, the rock band ‘Kings of Leon’ generated $2 Million dollars in sales from their new music album that was offered as an NFT. The album sold at $50 a pop. NFT’s in Art, In June, the infamous covid Cyptopunk sold at Christies Auctioneers for $11.8 million dollars, and the biggest NFT sale to date goes to ‘The Beeple Art Compilation NFT’ which sold for $69.3 million dollars at auction back in March as well.

So, you’re sold, where can you go to buy your very own NFT’s? There are specified marketplaces online where you can go to purchase NFT’s in not just music and art, but in real world infrastructure, games, and collectables.

The most popular is Opensea.io; they raised $23 million from investors in March, plus recently raised an additional $100 million dollars to expand further into the metaverse with their product offerings. There’s Dapper Labs (dapperlabs. com) which raised $305 million in their latest round of funding and brought on investors in the likes of basketball great, Michael Jordan and famous actor Will Smith.

Speaking of sports and NFT’s, SoRare (SoRare.com); An NFT platform for fantasy soccer, raised the largest funding to date with $532 million with a $3.8 Billion dollar evaluation.

In conclusion, NFT’s are driven on supply and demand, much like cryptocurrencies. This supply and demand can have a significant role in their value and longevity as a collectable or an investment asset. Furthermore, there is little known at this point what the ‘use cases’ (real world application) are or will be for NFT’s in the future.

Massive demand has skyrocketed for them since the beginning of the year and massive adoption in multiple industries has helped create their buzz and news worthiness. When you combine art, music, entertainment, video streaming, gaming, and collectables, all the things we can’t live without, it’s no wonder why they have been ‘all the rage’ lately.

If you want to know more about crypto’s or NFT’s be sure to check out DipsandSticksDaily.com and subscribe to their free email crypto newsletter. To purchase one of your own crypto NFT’s, visit one of the NFT marketplaces mentioned above.