Crypto prices has been up 40% since last month and steadily holding, mostly due to the recent resurgence in the popularity of NFTs again.
Let’s talk about this new technology that lives on popular blockchain platforms such as Ethereum.
What is a NFT?
Non Fungible Tokens are unique tokens produced on a blockchain such as Ethereum. NFTs are essentially digital assets that can contain unique data such as photos, text, audio clips, gifs and other forms of data that aren’t too big on size.
Non fungible Tokens means that the tokens you are getting are unique compared to other Ethereuem coins where you can exchange one fungible Ethereum coin for another fungible Ethereum coin since they have the same value, so Non fungible token are priced at what you are subjectively willing to pay for that specific coin.
For example, look at this 1972 penny coin that’s been double died, it’s approximate value is at $500 and although it’s a a penny coin, due to it’s rarity and the market need for it, it’s subjectively worth more than 1 cent. And it’s basically the same with a Ethereum NFTs, Ethereum can mint a Eth coin that holds different data, instead of it’s usual code.
NFTs has been around for since 2015 but has only recently gained popularity in March 2021 due to the sale of a NFT art piece by Mike Winkelmann aka. Beeple for a grand total of $69.3 million dollars and I suspect that roughly $200–300 million dollars has been spent on NFTs since 2015.
The big question in the room is how NFT tokens are worth anything? When you can easily view them online for free with a quick google search or even just download them out right.
Well look at it like this, you can always google “Van Gogh starry night hd” and you will get a perfect copy of the image of the famous art piece… but that doesn’t mean you own it.
That is why NFTs are used primarily as a form of art nowadays. since it’s minted on a digital ledger, you can always prove ownership of the original Non Fungible token. However, that Doesn’t mean NFTs can’t be stolen, they are stored in a Eth wallet which can be stolen from if you expose your password keywords but many crypto users argue that traditional physical art has been stolen and counterfeited as well throughout history.
Are NFTs Worth Anything?
As a developer, I personally don’t think NFTs are good replacement investments for the long haul due to issues like hacking, NFT issuers, and longevity of the platform that it’s hosted on. If I buy a Van Gogh piece and stash it in my family safe somewhere, I know my grandkids will be able to access it a hundred years from now but I just don’t see a NFT token lasting over a hundred years, there’s just a lot of variables that can go wrong with holding digital assets for future generations.
However, I do think NFTs do have their value in our current culture and I can see it going up in price in the next few years or so. I am a firm supporter of the Ethereum platform and I do see it becoming a viable currency for decades to come, I just don’t know if a Token on the current platform will last hundreds of years. Who knows what will happen to our current tokens when Eth 9.0 comes out?
As a gamer and general nerd, I think NFTs will have it’s value in a memorabilia business stand point, I’m thinking like trading cards games such as baseball, Pokemon or even a Yu-gi-Oh battling NFT business.
But then again, what do I know? I’m personally am not an art investor with loads of money to back up my words and there seems to be a great want for it in the public opinion. Look at the previous example of the Beeple art piece for almost $70 million dollars, or Jack Dorsey of Twitter selling a NFT of his first tweet for for almost $3 million dollars, or the sold out web series called Stoner Cats from Mila Kunis worth $8 million dollars… Anways, you get my point. I’m just speaking my mind and not offering financial advice in anyway.
How to Buy NFTs
If you happen to be a Jack Dorsey fanboy and you want to buy his whole collection of NFTs of his tweets, I highly recommend you do your research on the marketplace you are buying your NFTs. You would have to get a Eth wallet first to store your NFTs and for a marketplace I would recommend using OpenSea which is the biggest platform for NFT trading.
Conclusion
That’s it for this week’s blog, hopefully you guys enjoyed this blog and you got some knowledge on what NFTs are and how they work. As a crypto enthusiast, I am very happy to see the growth of NFTs on the Ethereum platform and glad to see such widespread adaptation of digital assets. I personally don’t own any NFTs or will probably buy any time soon but I love to see any support on cryptocurrencies.
Stay tuned for next week’s piece and as always:
Thank you for reading and please leave a comment if you‘ve enjoyed and follow for more coding and tech content.
