So you've definitely heard of NFTs, and you may even believe you know everything there is to know about them, but the world of NFTs is developing faster than most people can keep up with, from Pepe the frog memes to CryptoPunks to smart contracts and loans!
Because their sale and ownership are totally safe utilizing blockchain, Non-Fungible Tokens (as NFT stands for) have radically transformed the way most people think about assets online. So, whatever you already know about NFTs, here are some important facts you probably didn't know!
1. NFTs are Totally Unique
On the internet, this may seem impossible, but unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, NFTs are wholly unique one-of-a-kind tokens. Every NFT is essentially issued as a verifiably unique asset, which means it is worth whatever someone is willing to pay, according to Ethereum's ERC-721 token standard.
2. Anything Can Be an NFT
Anything that exists online may become an NFT, though it currently focuses on digital art, video game skins, and other similar items. Because of the technology's versatility, almost anything can be turned into a token.
Consider domain names, tweets, and short clips of music or video. By connecting it to a smart contract and proving evidence of ownership, almost anything may become an NFT.
3. NFTs Boost Artists to New Audiences
NFTs are causing a stir in the art world, and they're changing how people think about investing in art. Platforms like OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, and SuperRare are bringing in artists like Trevor Jones and Fewocious, and the market is exploding with opportunities to make a name for yourself as an artist, with nearly a million and a half daily unique users and over a billion dollars in sales in July 2021 alone.
4. Investing in NFTs can Make you Rich
Investors from all over the world are flocking to the NFT space to participate in the digital gold rush. Investors realize they'd be foolish not to step in and make some big cash with NFTS like CryptoPunk#7523 experiencing a remarkable seventy-one thousand percent gain over the course of a few years!
Still not persuaded? The generative art Fidenza#313 was sold for 0.58 Ether, or around fourteen hundred dollars, in June 2021. It was sold for 1,000 Ether, or 3.3 million dollars, again in August.
5. Artists can Make Money Indefinitely
Unlike the conventional art, in which the artist sells their work and so relinquishes all rights to it, NFTs encourage ongoing revenue production. The original artist can still get a share of future sales of their work, generally up to ten percent, thanks to blockchain technology and smart contracts. Look at the previous entry and figure out what 10% of 3.3 million is, then pick up your jaw.
6. Forgeries are Impossible
That's true, you won't be able to steal the Mona Lisa here! While over half of all art on the market is thought to be fake, NFTs and their smart contracts use the blockchain ledger to give infinite, eternal evidence of ownership.
7. The Gunky’s Uprising MP3 Made Big Money
Musical artist 3LAU sold a masterpiece of synth called Gunky's Uprising on the Nifty Gateway for a crazy 1.3 million dollars, proving that NFTs can be anything! The piece, which was created in collaboration with creative director SlimeSunday, perfectly captures the excitement that is coursing through the NFT Space.
8. Fractionalized NFTs are Major Business
Fractional NFTs are an excellent solution to distribute ownership of digital goods that are out of reach for most people. Take a look at the original Doge meme, which is now an NFT valued at nearly $4 million. This asset may now be purchased in fractional ERC-20 tokens and invested in.
9. The First NFT was Just Coloured Coins
The initial effort at an NFT was on the Bitcoin blockchain in 2012, when most NFTs were on Ethereum and were basically simply building up a metadata layer on top of Bitcoin to create different colored coins. Even now, work on this project is ongoing.
10. NFTs can be Minted for Free on OpenSea
OpenSea does not demand a fee to mint NFTs, unlike other platforms. Instead, a fee is charged on the final sale price, which is presently 2.5 percent. This is a fantastic method for novice NFT developers to get their feet wet in the industry with nothing to lose.
11. Damien Hirst is Playing with NFTs
That’s right, Damien Hirst! His idea is to highlight the value of digital ownership with a project called ‘Currency’. It features 10,000 hand-painted polka-dotted pieces of paper and for each, an accompanying NFT.
Buyers will have to choose between the physical art and the digital version, and one year later, either the artwork or the NFT will be burned, which forces people to choose which they value more. How very arty!
12. Beeple’s Everydays is the Most Valuable NFT
Beeple, a digital artist, made a project called Everydays, which is a mosaic of all of his work from 2007 and is meant to be a monument to the NFT space's and market's power. When this piece sold for a jaw-dropping $69 million, he proved his point.
13. Investment Gurus are All-In on NFTs
It's good that the NFT market valuation and transaction volume are doing so well, which is soothing to many, but the true feeling of security comes from investing gurus like Gary Vaynerchuck, who are dubbing the NFT area the next major disruptor, just as the internet and eCommerce were before it.
14. NFTs Can Be Used as Collateral
Now that dApps (or decentralized apps) are a thing, platforms like NFTfi have risen to allow NFTs to be used as collateral. Thanks to the interoperability of Ethereum’s tokens, you can use an NFT to borrow crypto against or to be held to issue loans on. This means that NFT owners and, possibly creators, can unlock major liquidity from their collectibles.
15. Ethereum 2.0 is Only Going to Help
One of the numerous issues with practically all NFTs being on the Ethereum network is that gas fees (the cost of doing a transaction on the network) are quite expensive. The fees are now due to Ethereum 1's proof-of-work premise, but when Ethereum 2.0 is released in 2022, it will convert to a proof-of-stake system, which will drastically reduce fees and transaction times.
16. Jack Dorsey Sold his First Tweet for 2.9 Million Dollars
Dorsey may have the appearance of a homeless pirate, but as the former CEO of Twitter, he has a keen eye for digital trends. That's why, following an unbelievable bidding war on V.Cent.co, he chose to sell his very first Tweet as an NFT and received a very nice two and a half million dollars.
Sina Estavi, the CEO of Bridge Oracle, was the final winner, and he also bid on some Elon Musk tweets. It appears that NFTs may also be used to preserve history, which is amusing given that the majority of users on Twitter appear to be ignorant of history.
Bottomline
So there you have it: lots of new important facts regarding NFTs that may or may not have surprised you. Anything is conceivable when you can take anything, slap a smart contract on it, and charge anything for it!
