Last updated on May 25th, 2023 at 12:43 pm
What is NFT?
NFT is an abbreviation of Non-Fungible Token. This is a digital form of ownership, a non-replaceable token that shares its record with millions of interconnected computers through blockchain technology. The non-replaceable concept can be related to real-life examples. Suppose you have two pieces of paper one is blank and the other one contains an autograph of a personality you love. Someone asks you to exchange those two papers pieces, you probably change only the blank paper whereas you would like to preserve the autograph paper. In this case, the blank paper is said to be fungible or replaceable paper whereas the autograph paper is said to be non-fungible or non-replaceable. Another example better defines the NFT meaning, as we have ownership documents for things and assets we own such as property papers, vehicle ownership documents, etc. similarly non-fungible tokens are the ownership documents, and because they are based on blockchain technology they are called Tokens or NFTs.
The unique masterpieces of digital artwork that can’t be replaced or exchanged and possessed by any single authority (Business or Individual) are called NFT art. And the record of these NFTs’ ownership is maintained on decentralized ledgers of blockchain. The content such as the digital arts, illustrations, and paintings or the art produced by an artist in any other formats like video, gif, or jpeg can be owned digitally in NFTs. Domain names are also traded with this useful blockchain application, Many platforms also provide the domain names in a form of NFT.
History of NFTs
According to Wikipedia Kevin McCoy published an NFT video clip of her wife in May 2014 and that is considered the first NFT in the world. This NFT was based on the Namecoin blockchain and sold to his friend Anil Dash for over $4 in a live conference in New York City. By the year 2015, NFTs got more popular with the launch of Ethereum Blockchain, and the year 2017, was proved the best year for the NFT market because more people got aware of the NFTs, A game known as Cryptokitties got monetized by NFTs, which sold tradable cat NFTs collection. This made it more popular and the NFT market capitalization surpassed its value by 300% in the year 2020.
In the year 2021, more than $200 million were spent on NFTs within the first quarter of the year. And the number of NFTs related patents and trademarks registrations also increased in the same year. Many people across the globe compared this NFT period with Bitcoin’s early stage when it was sold for over 10 to 15 USD only and started investing in the NFTs market blindly.
Where NFTs are useful?
If a buyer purchases an NFT art he will be known as the owner of that digital asset but the copyrights of NFT art will remain the original creator of that NFT art. These NFTs are here useful in upcoming Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality projects, we can see the use of these NFTs in Meta’s Metaverse and many NFT art galleries, and museums. NFT arts are used to build a good-looking personal space in the metaverse which is considered the future of the internet. Many people and businesses are making their virtual offices beautiful thus they are paying higher amounts to win the auctions of NFT arts. These NFTs are also used for trading like stocks are traded, many exchanges like Binance, Coinbase NFT, Niftygateway, etc. are providing the platform to trade NFTs. Digital artists now can monetize their art by putting them for live auctions, and these auctions are held on NFT marketplaces like Opensea, Mintable, and Rarible.
NFT Marketplaces
1. Opensea NFT Marketplace: This is a US-based NFT marketplace founded in 2017 by two American entrepreneurs Alex Atallah, and Devin Fizer. NFTs can be minted and listed for sale on this platform with a Gas fee on the ERC721 blockchain whereas no Gas Fee is charged on Ethereum Polygon (MATIC) Blockchain.
2. Solanart: This NFT marketplace has a very low gas fee compared with opensea and it is based on the Solana blockchain. NFTs worth millions of dollars are traded every week on Solanart.
3. Rarible: In 2020, this NFT marketplace was founded in Moscow by Alex Salnikov and Alexei Falin. The user interface of this marketplace is simple and user-friendly that anyone without any prior knowledge of NFTs can easily make, and sell NFTs on Rarible. And further, it has the non-custodial type of wallet means the user either the creator or the buyer has the files stored on their computers not hosted or stored on Rarible databases. Rarible also makes millions of dollars every week by trading these NFTs. Rarible works under the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Model where the users of this marketplace have the right to make decisions for the platform.
4. SuperRare NFT Marketplace: This amazing marketplace was founded in the year 2017, by John Crain, Charles Crain, and Jonathan Parkins on the Ethereum blockchain was used. All single edition digital artworks are found on this unique NFT marketplace, the nature of collectibles here is social and all the transactions are transparent because these transactions are made on decentralized blockchains, hence they are more suitable for the social environment. This is transparent enough as if A creates art and lists it for sale and after 50 sales or any number of sales the record of each one by one is available publicly and everyone can see these transitions.
5. Enjin NFT Marketplace: Enjin is also based on the Ethereum blockchain marketplace, according to their website this Enjin was founded in 2009, and as of April 2022, Enjin has a team spread over 20 countries who make this marketplace more effective and build the futuristic world-class products. Maxim Blagov, Caleb Applegate, and W. Radomski are the Co-Founders of the Enjin NFT marketplace.
Conclusion
The blockchain and NFTs are the future of the internet which is also known as the third version of the web (Web 3.0). As the craze of the NFT is being more extreme day by day, maybe it could lead us to a categorized internet in the future, two categories the internet for the elite class people and another category for the poor people, or it could be the best version of the web till now. Nothing could be predicted accurately but if we look at the history of blockchain it can tell us what problems have faced Bitcoin to gain such value over time. The conditions weren’t habitable for bitcoin but now NFTs have a clear future and the concept of decentralization makes it more adaptable.