What Is An NFT?
A Basic Explainer For Beginners
Introduction
Today, I’ve come to spread the gospel of NFTs. I’m sure most of you have heard of NFTs. They've literally been the catalyst to mainstream crypto adoption. Projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, CyberKongz, and Pudgy Penguins have pretty much become household names. As popular as this sector of crypto has been, not everyone understands the obsession.
Throughout the past few months, we’ve had the privilege of explaining the allure and purpose of NFTs. So, we figured why not write a brief explainer for anyone that has questions about the wonderful world of NFTs? Kathryn eloquently expresses my sentiments regarding NFTs.
So, take this journey with us, as we answer the most basic question of what an NFT is.
What Are NFTs?
NFTs are non fungible tokens. Non fungible tokens have unique properties that make it impossible for them to be interchangeable with other assets. Whereas, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and altcoins are fungible tokens (Ex: you can interchange one Bitcoin for another 1:1). NFTs are also very limited or one of a kind.
NFTs are digital assets that are stored on the blockchain, but they can also represent real world assets.
The most popular types of NFTs are:
NFT Art
NFT Collectibles
NFT Gaming Items
NFTs act as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets. Ownership of these certificates can be easily verified via whatever blockchain the certificates are housed on.
Where To Purchase NFTs
You can purchase NFTs from a variety of NFT marketplaces. A few of the most popular marketplaces are:
And many others…..
You can find a robust list of NFT marketplaces on Dapp Radar. *It is to be noted that this site has not yet listed the Cardano and Solana NFT marketplaces*
For Cardano NFTs, you can visit cnft.io.
If you’d like to purchase some Solana NFTs, you should visit SolSea or Solanart.
At the moment, OpenSea is the most popular marketplace to purchase NFTs. It currently trumps any other marketplace in daily volume.
Utilities Of NFTs
Ok, so we’ve explained what NFTs are, the different types, and where to purchase. The last thing we’ll expound upon are the different use cases.
Certain NFTs give the holders tokens just for holding them. An example of this is the $BANANA tokens that CyberKong holders receive.
There are a plethora of other use cases for NFTs listed below:
NFT Insurance and IP rights are areas that are still under the radar. As NFTs continue to become more mainstream, I anticipate that these will among the more important use cases in the space.
Kevin Chaiken gives a very practical use case for NFTs.
Clout.Art pretty much sums up 90% of the popular use cases for NFTs at the moment.
It is to be noted that crypto is an ever expanding industry. As the industry continues to expand, and teams continue to become more creative/innovative, it is highly likely that we will see NFTs used in ways that we’ve never imagined.
Instead of a physical driver’s license and/or passport, we could possibly be issued NFTs instead. The possibilities are truly endless.
Conclusion
As you can see, NFTs will play a very big role in the shaping of the crypto industry. This is the ideal time to learn more about the
Well, that about wraps things up. I hope I’ve been able to provide a comprehensive view into the world of NFTs.
This is only the first phase. We plan to continue to take you all deeper down the rabbit hole. So stay tuned.
Finally, I will leave you all with another excellent tweet that puts the idea of NFTs into perspective.
This will help many Newcomers! Good job!