HOW DO NFTs WORK?

It’s crypto 2021. Cryptocurrency is in and all shopping centers and dealing authorities have become online. Bitcoin is blooming over $50,000. PayPal has accepted Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash. But the most interesting type of blockchain called the non-fungible token or NFT is increasingly in demand and selling up to $69 million. How NFT Works. Recently, NFTs are empowering the world art collection. They serve as proof of ownership of an original piece of valuable art, which is mainly built on trust. Now NFTs are considered superior to the current paper system of art ownership or copyright for many investors and art collectors. So, what do you think of what is NFT? Let’s overview some basic definitions of terms associated with NFTs.

NFTs

NFTs stands for “non-fungible tokens”. An NFT is a digital asset that links ownership to unique physical or digital items like artworks, photos, real estate, music pieces, video clips or more. So NFT can represent a painting, a trading card or even a house. Generally, NFTs are units of data stored on a blockchain digital ledger. It is a kind of certificate of authenticity and ownership. An NFT is unique, non-interchangeable, can never be adjusted and can never be stolen. NFTs use the cryptocurrencies blockchain technology to work. NFTs are modern-day collectibles, which have been bought and sold online.

Digital asset

A digital asset is anything that exists in a computerized format and has a right to own, for example, a right to copy, reproduce, modify, duplicate and otherwise use. All the things whether computerized documents, photos, audio or visual content, images or other similar digital data (e.g., JPGs, GIFs, MP3s and MP4s) are all digital assets.

Blockchain

A blockchain is a type of database, but unlike a basic database, it is a series of data blocks that are linked together like a chain. A blockchain creates a shared digital ledger and records the activity and information in blocks within the chain. Each blockchain ledger is further stored globally across thousands of different servers, shown by everyone. This peer-to-peer technology facilitates the process of recording and tracking transactions of digital assets and is nearly impossible to falsify or tamper with data.

Non-fungible tokens vs Fungible tokens

Physical money and cryptocurrencies both are fungible in the sense they can be traded or exchanged for one another. They’re also equal in value like one dollar is always equal to another dollar and similarly, one Bitcoin is always worth another Bitcoin. While Non-fungible means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. A one-of-a-kind trading card, an NFT, is non-fungible.

Non-fungible tokens vs cryptocurrency

Even though both are based on blockchain technology, the key difference is cryptocurrency being fungible. So a Bitcoin can be exchanged for another Bitcoin. However, you cannot do so for an NFT. A non-fungible token is strictly bound to one particular digital asset and cannot be replaced.

What can NFTs be used for?

The uses of NFTs become more and more fascinating and valuable. They are mainly used as tickets and tokens. They are ownership certificate of fashion-oriented, Luxury or counterfeit goods. People have always enjoyed collecting memorabilia, trinkets, and other similar items. NFTs provide a way of ensuring authenticity, a kind of digital signature or stamp of approval. NFTs can be a prototype of a painting, photo, music, video or real estate. Recently, NFTs has also entered the game industry and provide gamers with a way of owning unique in-game items.

Generally, NFTs are created and stored on the Ethereum blockchain, yet other blockchains such as Flow, Solana and Tezos also support NFTs. Anyone can review the blockchain and the NFT ownership can be easily traced and verified with no change in information or entity.

An NFT has only one owner and this ownership is controlled through a unique ID and metadata which can never replicate. These NFTs are minted through blockchains. Smart digital contracts have been made that assign ownership and manage the distribution of the NFTs. When user creates an NFT, they execute some codes stored in smart contracts given as different standards, such as for Ethereum it can be ERC-721. This information is then added to the blockchain where the NFT is being minted.

All types of digital goods can be created as NFT including artwork, images, game, stills or video from a live broadcast, music pieces, collectibles, cards, memes or famous tweets of known personalities. The file size of the original digital item, for which an NFT assigned, doesn’t matter because it remains separate from the blockchain.

Exclusive rights or limited-edition print to the NFT depends on the type of NFT or the copyright or licensing rights granted by NFT creator. NFT creators can also create shares for their NFT. Thus creators, investors and fans have the similar opportunity to own a part of an NFT without having to buy the whole item.

Can NFTs be replicated or printed?

You can copy a digital file as many times as you want and also the same for an NFT. But NFTs have something that can’t be copied and this is indeed ownership of the work. So, anyone can buy a Monet print but only one person can own the original. Today almost all NFTs have been viewed online but not all artists give permission for them to be printed. That’s why, unlike a physical work of art, it isn’t confined to one form created by art specialists.

Do NFTs have to be original?

The truth is, NFTs are just tokens that represent an asset completely separate from the original assets themselves. Because every NFT represents a unique original asset, a single NFT can’t be duplicated while maintaining the same value as the original. As art prints of an original are made, used or traded, the same way NFT’s are valid and original parts of the Ethereum blockchain. So, they are individual tokens with extra information stored in them that can be used and traded.

Ethereum Addresses in crypto wallet MetaMask

Making Ethereum addresses is actually making ENS names. It is just like making website domain name that create IP address more memorable. Thus ENS names have valuable Ethereum addresses, usually based on length and relevance. There will be no need of a domain registry to facilitate the NFT ownership with ENS.

What is ENS?

Making Ethereum addresses is done by Ethereum Name Service (ENS). Which uses NFTs to provide your Ethereum address with an easier-to-remember name such as fbwallet.eth or walletme.eth. So, seller will ask the buyer to send ETH via ENS name rather than complex codes or digits like ABC123456789. There are many other crypto wallets as well but the easiest way to make an ENS name is to use “MetaMask”, having an Ethereum wallet. With your wallet, you will be able to send and receive ETH, thus it is an NFT business account. You can download MetaMask free app on your iPhone or Android smartphone. You have to buy and keep Ether (the cryptocurrency based on Ethereum) in this wallet.

How do ENS name work?

It makes trading on an NFT marketplace easy.
It receives all cryptocurrencies and other NFTs.
It is a check point to a decentralized website, like ethereum.eth.
It stores arbitrary information such as profile details, Twitter accounts info and email addresses.

How to create NFT art?

Being an artist, creating NFTs for your own artwork is a great choice. There are many reliable platforms available that can help you to start. This process is simple and easy. The NFT platforms always guide you through the process of the creation of an NFT. Once you have an ENS name through MetaMask wallet created, you are ready to create your own NFTs. You can create a single or multiple collectible depending on your work of interest.

The steps involved in creating an NFT are as follows,

Pick or make a piece of innovative and appealing artwork that can be a digital painting, a text, a piece of music, a video, images or a card, designed on any software like Photoshop or video editor.
Search and go to any reliable NFT marketplace like opensea.io or Rarible.com
Connect your MetaMask wallet with the NFT marketplace.
Fill in all the information needed, then save.
Put a name for your NFT collection, then click the “Add New Item” button.
Select “Choose File” to upload your artwork (PNG, GIF, MP3 or another file type).
Get to the work.

How are NFTs minted?

The process of minting is actually tokenizing your artwork as an NFT on a marketplace. It is very easy to mint an NFT because NFT marketplaces have a simple infrastructure where all users have to follow instructions that are essentially signing and connecting with a smart contract. But first, what do NFT minting mean? Specifically, minting is the process of manufacturing coins using stamping or coining techniques in metalwork. Whereas, minting crypto or NFT minting is the process of validating information, creating an NFT in a new block, recording that information into the blockchain and making some transactions needed for this process.

Steps involved in Minting an NFT

The steps involved in minting your NFT are as follows,

First you have to create your NFT with the same procedure discussed above.
Click “Create” to start minting your NFT or sometime after creation of NFT click “Mint”, where you will need to sign the transactions.
Wait patiently till your NFT is safely stored on the blockchain, IPFS or Arweave.
You can either set a price for your NFT or auction it.
The NFT you created will then show up in your wallet where you can then list it on the site.
You can then sell the NFT for your associated assets, using digital wallet like ERC-20 token.

Where You Can Mint an NFT

There are many reliable NFT platforms where you can create and mint an NFT including:

Opensea
Mintable
Rarible
Foundation
Nifty Gateway
MarkersPlace
SuperRare
Async Art
KnownOrigin
Axie Infinity

Why do NFTs have to be minted?

When you plan to create an NFT of the digital version of your artwork, you must first mint it. Minting an artwork refers to the act of tokenizing the artwork and its copyright. This is done by uploading your artwork to a given NFT platform, where the blockchain network is verified by issuing a token. The United States Copyright Office presented a summarized form of its basic rules, which are equally applicable for NFT items. According to these rules, any original artwork of creator when minted (be it music, paintings, video, or any other creative work), is fully protected under federal law.

Does minting an NFT cost money?

Yes, there is a payment known as a gas fee required, when you mint your NFT before you can list it. This is not like a commission rather it is a cost to mint an NFT due to network transaction fees which are necessary for sending all transactions on the blockchain. These transaction fees vary by network and NFT platform you used. If using an Ethereum-based blockchain like OpenSea, it will be ETH gas fees, but for others like BakerySwap, it will be BNB gas fees. There can be $100 USD just to mint an NFT on Ethereum while non-Ethereum options can be cheaper but with less exposure. An analyst Nerds Chalk shared that the least payment to mint an NFT is about $70 on Ethereum blockchain. According to other crypto analysts, minting a digital artwork to NFT can be often free to between $70 to $100. However, you will pay a gas fee based on the final sale price of your NFT, which could be 2.5% of final sale value.

How do NFTs work for artists?

In the context of profitability, individual NFT artworks are the most popular and valuable non-fungible tokens. NFTs provide unique and clear proof of authorship by the artist, thus in the minting NFT, an artist is always being the original owner of the digital artwork. For an artist, NFT is the smartest choice ever and Social Media Marketing is a great way to make yourself known. For an NFT Collection, artists usually post their several NFTs on all their social media accounts, present each one and aware their audience for the release two weeks before the drop.

How do NFTs work for music?

In a music industry, an NFT is defined as a rare collectible stored on a digital blockchain ledger. Artists and musicians collectively can create audio or video NFTs in various forms like MP3, MP4, GIF, etc. for their fans who pay them cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Bitcoin or any other. With the Opulous, the first platform for music copyright NFTs, artists can set their future real music royalties in Opulous Music NFTs. So fans can actually earn money from the music they love just by owning these NFTs. The other value of NFTs for musicians is unlockable feature of an NFT, making it more reliable and secure. Music creators can include additional premium within the contract of an NFT like a one-on-one video call with a fan, copyrights of getting some music rewards, or even giving away partial ownership of a song.

How do NFTs work for games?

NFTs games are levelled up in a fast-growing industry these days. People have been playing through the NFT platform like Axie Infinity and are earning handsome money from it. For instance, the people apparently earn as much as $100 a day in an NFT game. The use of NFTs by cyber games can explain their NFTs feature and utility like characters, consumables, accessories, tools and other tradeable items. You can sell your in-game NFTs to other collectors and players and even earn tokens with play-to-earn models.

The versatile benefits of NFTs in games have been associated with excitement as NFTs can be used as analogue collecting cards, as an avatar, for individual zeal and fandom or to simply profit from any special moves in video games. A ‘magical sword’ in a game like Legend of Zelda provided as an NFT can be a rare collectible by improving its properties or appearance over continued use. The game industry is also ready to switch to cross-game uses of NFTs, thus no longer depend on one game. Players could continue to use their acquired NFTs in other games. For example, they could transfer their unique shovels of Minecraft into their favorite games on Roblox.

Play to Earn Games

Axie Infinity has become the most well-known play-to-earn game while the famous CryptoKitties relies on in-game NFTs. you can earn a fungible ERC-20 token like Smooth Love Potion (SLP) in Axie Infinity or SKILLS in CryptoBlades, and you can earn NFTs for collectible items in CryptoKitties. These gameplay mechanisms consider the traditional ways of generating income with NFT games. Generally, players are making $200 to $1000 USD per month, or even more depending on the market price and time invested.

More complex NFT games or advancements in existing blockbuster games may emerge. The blockchain company ‘WAX’ with established rights holders is developing NFTs for unique axes in World of Warcraft or for new skins in the game Fortnite. And both are getting benefits from every trade of these NFTs cards.

How much is an NFT worth?

Photographers, musicians, filmmakers, and gamers are going out of their way to churn out NFTs. The simplest way to explain the worth of NFTs is to compare them to some physical products. You can buy a painting in both of these as physical and as an NFT form. If you are paying a big amount for rare pieces of art the exact applies for NFTs. So put simply, anybody can tokenize their digital work to sell as an NFT but it’s worth has been raised by recent multi-million-dollar sales this year.

On 19 February, a sale of $500,000 has shown for an animated GIF of Nyan Cat, an NFT meme of a flying pop-tart cat. A few weeks later, musician Grimes earned more than $6m for her digital NFT art. Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey sold an NFT of the first-ever tweet for $2.5m. A new record on sale of an NFT is Beeple’s digital art for $69m by Christie’s auction. French firm Sorare, a seller of NFTs football trading cards, has raised up to $680m.

What makes NFTs so valuable?

The value of an NFT is whatever is the value of the artwork that it represents. Moreover, NFTs are valuable because their uniqueness and ownership can be totally verified, they can be openly utilized across applications developed by different companies, and they can be traded easily through secondary markets. These features draw up newly strengthened use-cases and business models. NFTs are the virtual and volatile part of the already existing crypto marketplace. However, it is a great opportunity in investing in NFTs but traditional art and collectibles are hard to value and difficult to invest in if you don’t understand the market.

Is it profitable to make NFTs?

You can easily trade NFTs by selling and buying them with profitable deals. Creators can make income 1,000 times more than their work’s initial price, although not for all NFTs. NFTs are sold for cryptocurrency or fiat money through smart contracts whose transactions are recorded on a blockchain. The average sale price, according to rankings on OpenSea (the most popular NFT marketplace), is shockingly high. By the record, the average price of an NFT sold on SuperRare is 2.15 ether or $5,800, on Foundation is 1.27 ether or $3,500 and on MakersPlace is 0.87 ether or $2,400.

Are NFTs mainstream now?

NFTs industry has boosted in popularity this year, the shocking sales volume of $2.5 billion observed in the first half of 2021. Meanwhile, the industry is in its early stage but has a great potential to get into the mainstream. NFTs convert assets into tokens so that they can move around within this modern system. This uniqueness has to completely transform markets like property, vehicles, accessories, special items, secret things, costly and complex assets. Similarly, if most of our lives will have to spend in virtual worlds in future, probably the things that we could buy be bought and sold as NFTs.