News Tech and Science

What is an NFT? You will definitely google it once you find out that ‘memes are being sold for millions’

Five Charged In France Over 'Bored Ape' NFT Theft

NFTs mean “non-fungible token” and it lets you sell and purchase ownership of unique digital items. One can also keep a check on who the owner is using the blockchain.  It can technically contain anything digital, such as drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games.

What’s an NFT?

An NFT can either be unique, like an original painting, or one copy of many, like trading cards. But the blockchain monitors the ownership of the file.

“Remember those days where people would line up for the newest Nike Air Jordan sneakers at the physical store? This is the new digital equivalent,” said Katie Haun, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He added, “It’s everything that brings together culture, and it’s also a bet on the future of e-commerce.”

NFTs have been the latest trend as some are selling for millions of dollars. High-profile memes like Nyan Cat and the “deal with it” sunglasses have been ready for auction.

The artist Grimes lately sold some NFTs for nearly $6 million while an NFT of LeBron James collected over $200,000. The Kings of Leon is the first band to launch its new album in the form of an NFT. Whereas, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Friday he’s selling his very first tweet as an NFT.

“Digital artist Beeple posted a new work of art online every single day for 5000 days. Those pieces have been brought together in one digital collage every day: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, minted as an NFT, and are being auctioned off by Christie’s. The current bid is $ 3M,” Technology enthusiast, Tanay Jaipuria wrote in a tweet.

NFT meme jpg tweet digital assets
A digital art by Beeple that was auctioned off as an NFT at Christie’s for $69.3 million.

What is an NFT by The Verge:

Non-fungible token.

That doesn’t make it any clearer.

Right, sorry. “Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different. You gave up a Squirtle, and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, which StadiumTalk calls “the Mona Lisa of baseball cards.” (I’ll take their word for it.)

What is an NFT by DIGIDAY:

NFTs are non-fungible tokens. They act as a non-duplicable digital certificate of ownership for any assigned digital asset. Basically, it is a smart contract that is put together using bits of open source code, which anyone can find from platforms like GitHub, and used to secure that digital item. Once the code is written, it is then minted, or permanently published, into a token (most commonly a token called an ERC 721) on a blockchain, like Ethereum.

What is an NFT by FORBES:

Most simply, an NFT is an entry on a blockchain, the same decentralized digital ledger technology that underlies cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. But unlike most bitcoin–which is fungible, meaning that one coin is essentially indistinguishable from another and equivalent in value–tokens on these blockchains are non-fungible. That means they are unique, so they can represent one-of-a-kind things, like a rare William Shatner headshot or even the title to a piece of real estate.

How to Buy NFTs?

There are several marketplaces on which you can buy and sell NFTs:

YellowHeart, the platform that Kings of Leon used to release their various album NFTs, is a music-based platform that ensures authenticity of concert tickets and seeks to prevent scalping using blockchain.

How to create or sell NFTs?

Esquire explains: Are you an artist or content creator of some kind, looking to make a buck (or potentially several million bucks) off of work that is otherwise not inherently monetizable? You could make your piece an NFT. Say you have a doodle you want to turn into an NFT, or a comic strip, or something like Nyan Cat, the animated cat with a Pop-Tart body and a rainbow trail, which just sold as an NFT for about $580,000. The process differs from site to site, but it can start on platforms like Nifty Gateway, where you can apply to create a project to be sold as an NFT on their marketplace.

Memeconomy Week underway

The creator of Nyan Cat, Chris Torres who sold it as an NFT or non-fungible token, has started an event, called Memeconomy which is a series of auctions spread over weeks. Classic memes are being sold there by the original creators on the blockchain. With this event, Torres expects to offer appreciation to both the meme creators and the NFT community. If you are wondering how to buy NFT in Canada or the USA, you should find a viable NFT marketplace that offers good benefits for holding an NFT on their platform.

The following memes would be included under the hashtag #memeconomy:

  • Bad Luck Brian
  • Coughing Cat
  • Kitty Cat Dance
  • Scumbag Steve
  • Twerky Pepe

The event is already happening and the first meme, Bad Luck Brain, sold for more than $37,000. Coughing Cat is currently being auctioned.

The Memeconomy could help creators make money in the form of crypto and let them exhibit their recent work if they have any. It could also help to find friends through setting up the Memeconomy event and conversations in the NFT community. Torres believes, in the long run, the meme NFTs will turn into collectibles, and “eventually somebody’s gonna want to have all of them.”

Tags







Daily Newsletter