What’s all this fuss about NFTs nowadays? Is it a form of cryptocurrency? A quick way to get rich fast? A way to success, or just a huge scam?
The newspapers, banners, and billboards make it sound like purchasing an NFT is like you have already won bigtime in one of the many fast payout casinos. These online casinos draw you in by offering very generous promises like a referral bonus, some free spins to get you started or a free seat at the roulette table. But does this guarantee a big win or a lucky strike? This should keep you on your toes, right?
Rest assured that buying an NFT is nothing like that.
An NFT is a Non-fungible Token
In economics, a fungible asset is something that has easily identical units, such as money.
When it comes to money, you can swap a E10 note for two E5 notes and have the same amount of money.This is impossible if anything is non-fungible, which means it has unique qualities that prevent it from being interchanged with amazing else.
It could be a house or a one-of-a-kind piece of art, such a Rembrandt or a Monet. You can photograph the artwork or purchase a print, but only one original painting will ever exist.
In the digital world, NFTs are one-of-a-kind assets that may be purchased and sold like any other piece of property but have no physical form of their own.The digital tokens might be compared to ownership certificates for virtual or material assets.
Who makes these NFTs?
Artists and content creator have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to monetize their work thanks to blockchain technology and NFTs. Artists, for example, no longer have to put up for sale their work from side to side galleries or sale houses. in its place, the artist can sell it as an NFT directly to the consumer, allowing them to keep a larger piece of the profit for themselves.
Additionally, artists can program royalty into their software so that they receive a percentage of sales when their work is sold to a new owner. This is a strong selling point because most artists normally do not receive additional proceeds after their first sale.
Even Snoop Dogg and Lindsay Lohan are among the celebrities who have jumped on the NFT bandwagon, sharing unique memories, artwork, and moments as securitized NFTs.
How to get your Hands on Some NFTs?
Any digital image can be purchased as an NFT in theory. However, there are a few belongings to keep in mind while buying one, especially if you’re a beginner. You’ll need to choose a marketplace to buy from, a digital wallet to store it in, and the cryptocurrency you’ll need to complete the transaction.
OpenSea, Mintable, Nifty Gateway, and Raible are some of the most popular NFT marketplaces.
Fees, on the other hand, should be avoided. Some marketplaces charge a “gas” fee, which is the amount of energy required to conduct a blockchain transaction. Other fees may include the cost of changing dollars into Ethereum (the currency most commonly used to purchase NFTs) as well as closing costs.
Make sure that you are fully aware of the process of setting up a crypto wallet and familiarize yourself with the transaction processes of cryptocurrencies before you start looking into NFTs!
Why not Make your own NFT?
Technically, anyone can create a work of art, convert it to an NFT on the blockchain -a process known as mining-, and sell it on their preferred marketplace. You can also add a commission to the file, which will pay you every time someone resells the piece.
You’ll need a wallet set up, just like when buying NFTs, and it’ll need to be loaded full of the required number of cryptocurrencies. The real issue arises from the requirement for money upfront.
You must also account for conversion fees and pricing fluctuations based on the time of day. As a result, the costs might frequently be far higher than the sum you receive for selling the NFT.So keep an eye on it!
Most Expensive NFT Ever Sold
The First 5000 Days by artist BeepleEverydays, was the most valuable NFT ever sold. It was sold at Christie’s auction house for a staggering $69.3 million to a guy named Vignesh Sundaresan. This was ten times the price of any NFT sold at the time. This astronomical price places it among the top one hundred most valuable works of art in history.
It’s impossible to decide which NFT wins the prize for the craziest item ever sold. There’s no shortage of strange goods available in the NFT market, from William Shatner selling a set of Shatner-themed trading cards (one of which was an X-ray of his teeth), to Grimes’ digital WarNymph baby-themed artworks. The sky is the limit!
Should I invest in one?
It’s one thing to buy an NFT because you like it or to make (or lose) a few quick bucks. Investing in NFTs, on the other hand, is a different story. It’s still a nascent market. Even a Da Vinci painting or a rare Babe Ruth baseball card took some time to become extremely valuable.
Because NFTs are digital, it’s difficult to compare them to cherished conventional artworks like statues and paintings. On the other hand, we live in a world where one Bitcoin is worth more than $56,000. So digital items can be quite valuable and even hold their value for long periods of time.
In any event, if you want to invest in NFTs. You’ll need to learn a lot about this complicated world because each NFT market is unique. It could also be quite expensive. Ethereum trading may be rather costly due to the network’s recent congestion, which has caused gas fees to surge. Finally, you’ll have to plan carefully and keep up with the frequently shifting crypto trends.
In conclusion, you can make money by investing in NFTs, but you’ll need to conduct your research first.