N.F.T. : Non Fungible Token
If you've landed on this blog because you typed "what is NFT" then well, first of all, welcome to this page... hopefully I can explain clearly what it is about.
Let's try a simple comparison. When you buy a house, to prove in an undisputed way that you are the new owner, you receive the property deed, right? Simply put, a piece of paper considered as the evidence of lawful ownership.
Credit : Credit: Beeple (b. 1981) / EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS.
Well, when you buy a digital good (which could be anything from digital art, a tweet - yes, you could buy a famous tweet that made history for example - an image, a music file, a gif...) you can now get the digital equivalent to what you know as property deed. A digital token that is unique, tamper-proof and non fongible. Something that says unequivocally that you are the owner and that it is the original one, not a copy. It's a collectible digital asset (with information stored in it that is unique), owned and sold/purchased in the form of a cryptocurrency but it is different from a bitcoin. There can be copies, but it won't have the same value as the original one - exactly like in real life.
Credit : Jack Dorsey's first Twitter tweet ever going back to 2006 - just auctioned by the founder in March 2021 (sold for....US$2.9M)
Why would one buy a digital art piece?
Well, for the same reasons you would buy a physical one. To start or complete a collection. As an investment. Or just because you enjoy it.
Once a digital creation (again, which could be many things) becomes an NFT, it becomes unique, and has officially an owner, therefore can be sold (by that owner only) and purchased....
Where would one sell an NFT if they had one?
There are already a few different platforms specialised in that type of transaction., like Valuables (sell your tweets there!) Rarible, super Rare, Open Sea, Bakery swap - depending on what you want to sell or buy... But more mainstream platforms will start selling that too very soon (major auction houses already do).
Also, for each platform, you need a specific wallet, filled with cryptocurrency.
The 3 big things happening with NFTs right now
1 / NFTs drops : coming from the fashion industry, it is being applied to the world of digital art right now. Drop culture is everywhere, creating that sense of urgency that is currently turning every category, product, or experience into a luxury one.
2 / NFTs x gaming industry - with people now being able to buy and own digital collectible assets from online games, not just to play with them, but to actually own them beyond the game itself.
3 / NFTs x brands : in the coming months and certainly next 2-3 years, we are going to see a huge number of brands, advised by the same creative agencies, investing in NFTs and selling all sorts of digital assets online. Gifs, videos, sounds. It's going to be everywhere .... up to the point when NFTs will become mainstream and everyone will move on to something else....
Tomorrow, in the coming years, all of us, without being particularly experts, may buy a piece of digital clothing, jewellery, designer's furniture,,,
Above : a Gucci ghost created by someone who sold it for US$3,600
Sources & Additional reading