Over the last few years, the world of Cryptocurrency has become one of the most lucrative industries in the world, in fact it is arguably the most lucrative. The price of Cryptocoins has skyrocketed with 1 Bitcoin now the equivalent of over $60,000. For a long time, Bitcoin was the only game in town but as its price continued to rise and blockchain technology became more accessible, we began to see the inception of other coins.
Now, in 2021 there are over 6000 digital coins available to buy and trade with, an incredible rise compared to 2013 when there were just a handful of coins on the market.As Crypto and digital coins became more popular, we have started to see the technology behind it become innovative. So much so that artists have now utilized it to create digital assets called ‘NFTs’. Now, I know what you are thinking— “We just started to understand cryptocurrency and now there’s something else we need to wrap our head around?!”. And honestly, I get it. At first glance, NFTs can appear to be confusing, and some may not have the patience to learn about them. But it is a lot simpler than it seems. Here is everything you need to know about NFTs.
To start with; what does ‘NFT’ mean? NFT stands for ‘Non-Fungible Token’, and its name is a big clue as to just why they are so popular and so expensive. As they are Non-fungible pieces of art, they are completely unique and cannot be replaced with something identical. This is where they differ to Cryptocurrency, in that one Bitcoin for example can always be traded for another bitcoin.
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The token itself holds ‘totally unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger that uses blockchain technology to establish proof of ownership’. They are digital pieces of art that hold value, just like physical art. They could come in the form of an image, a gif, a video or even a piece of music. In simpler terms; they are Crypto-baseball cards that are made to be collected. A one-of-a-kind card is Non-Fungible as you cannot trade it for an identical card, just like an NFT.
The concept of NFTs can be traced back to 2012 with ‘colored coins’ which were first issued on the Bitcoin blockchain. Colored coins are tokens that represent assets and prove ownership of many assets such as cars, real estate and even shares of a company.
However, the first NFT as we know it was created by Kevin McCoy. He minted “Quantumn”, a digital image of a fluorescent, pulsing octagon, in 2014 and in 2021 it went on sale for an eye-watering seven-million dollars. The image itself is not as quality as some of the tokens we are seeing today purely down to the changes in and accessibility of technology now compared to then. We are now experiencing a verifiable explosion in popularity for NFTs and it has now been adopted by the mainstream.
So where can you buy NFTs?
Many brands are joining this, still new industry. DraftKings, for example, has an NFT marketplace that allows sports fans to buy tokens, there are five drops on the scheduled drop day – users must join the queue to purchase one. Should they prove to be successful, they can then access their NFT in their portfolio. Users can then sell off their portfolio to other customers, hopefully for a profit!
The marketplace is very diverse in that there are multiple platforms you can use to purchase them. Lets take a look at where else you can purchase your NFTs.
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NBA Topshot MarketplaceNBA
Top Shot is the NBA and WNBA’s official marketplace for NFTs. On this marketplace you can purchase collectible video clips and play highlights of some of the biggest and best moments in the league’s history. It is also more affordable than some marketplaces with some of the collectible moments available for just a few dollars.
Axie Marketplace
As NFTs became popular amongst the gaming community it was only a matter of time until we started seeing developers create their own marketplaces. The way video game ‘Axies Infinity’ utilized it is maybe the smartest we have seen in the gaming community In the gaming community. In the game, Axies are mythical creatures that players can purchase and train. They can then battle with other players Axies’ to earn rewards. On the Axie Marketplace, players can buy new Axies, as well as entire lands and other items, as NFTs for use within the game. All Axies’, of course, are unique to the player.
OpenSea
OpenSea is one of the biggest NFT marketplaces in the world. They have a plethora of digital assets on their platform from images to virtual worlds and also supports creators who want to mint their own token. It supports over 150 payment tokens and is free to sign up and browse, making it a great place for those who are new to the world of NFTs.
As the popularity of NFTs only seems to be growing, it becomes increasingly likely that we are not only seeing the future of Cryptocurrency but also of art itself. Promising creators a new way to connect with their audience and a quick and easy income stream to boot, don’t be surprised to see more notable artists make their first foray into the world of NFTs
