{"id":8176,"date":"2022-06-10T18:03:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T23:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/?p=8176"},"modified":"2022-06-19T14:33:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T19:33:42","slug":"nfts-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/?p=8176","title":{"rendered":"NFTs, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have questions about this emerging… um… art form? Platform?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s nothing like an explosion of blockchain news to leave you thinking, \u201cUm\u2026 what\u2019s going on here?\u201d That\u2019s the feeling I\u2019ve experienced while reading about Grimes getting millions of dollars for NFTs<\/a> or about Nyan Cat being sold as one<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the year since NFTs exploded in popularity, the situation has only gotten more complicated. Pictures of apes have sold for tens of millions of dollars<\/a>, there\u2019s been an endless supply of headlines about million-dollar hacks<\/a> of NFT projects, and corporate cash grabs<\/a> have only gotten worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this news may have left you wondering: what is an NFT, anyhow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After countless hours of research and discussions (most of which were against my will), I think I know. I also think I\u2019m going to cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, let\u2019s start with the basics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT IS AN NFT? WHAT DOES NFT STAND FOR?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Non-fungible token.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t make it any clearer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right, sorry. \u201cNon-fungible\u201d more or less means that it\u2019s unique and can\u2019t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible<\/em> \u2014 trade one for another bitcoin, and you\u2019ll have exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is\u00a0non-fungible<\/em>. If you traded it for a different card, you\u2019d have something completely different. You gave up a Squirtle, and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, which\u00a0StadiumTalk<\/em>\u00a0calls \u201cthe Mona Lisa of baseball cards.<\/a>\u201d (I\u2019ll take their word for it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do NFTs work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a very high level, most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain, though other blockchains have implemented their own version of NFTs. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin or dogecoin, but its blockchain also keeps track of who\u2019s holding and trading NFTs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you pronounce NFT?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost everyone spells it out, saying \u201cen eff tee.\u201d The brave call them \u201cnefts.\u201d<\/a> The enlightened have never had the word cross their lips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s worth picking up at the NFT supermarket?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NFTs can really be anything digital (such as drawings, music, your brain downloaded and turned into an AI), but a lot of the current excitement is around using the tech to sell digital art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You mean, like, people buying my good tweets?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think anyone can stop you, but that\u2019s not really what I meant. A lot of the conversation is about NFTs as an evolution of fine art collecting<\/a>, only with digital art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But yes, someone could <\/em>buy your good tweets. The founder of Twitter sold one for just under $3 million<\/a> shortly after we originally posted this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could you do a real quick rundown of what the blockchain <\/strong>is<\/strong><\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, they\u2019re pretty complex, but the basic idea is that blockchains are a way to store data without having to trust any one company or entity to keep things secure and accurate. There are definitely nuances and exceptions there, which you can read about in our blockchain explainer<\/a>, but when most people say \u201cblockchain,\u201d that\u2019s the kind of tech they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also… a lot of nuance about whether NFT\u2019s are on the blockchain or not, which we\u2019ll dig into in a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oooh, foreshadowing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know, I feel like a real writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So do people really think this will be the future of collecting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure some people really hope so \u2014 like whoever paid almost $390,000 for a\u00a050-second video by Grimes<\/a>\u00a0or the person who paid $6.6 million for\u00a0a video by Beeple<\/a>. Actually, one of Beeple\u2019s pieces\u00a0was auctioned at Christie\u2019s<\/a>, the famou\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry, I was busy right-clicking on that Beeple video and downloading the same file the person paid millions of dollars for.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow, rude. But yeah, that\u2019s the awkward bit<\/a>. You can copy a digital file as many times as you want, including the art that\u2019s included with an NFT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But NFTs are designed to give you something that can\u2019t be copied: ownership of the work (though the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, just like with physical artwork). To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No shade to Beeple, but the video isn\u2019t really a Monet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think of\u00a0the $3,600 Gucci Ghost<\/a>? Also, you didn\u2019t let me finish earlier. That image that Beeple was auctioning off at Christie\u2019s\u00a0ended up selling for $69 million<\/a>, which, by the way,\u00a0is $15 million more than Monet\u2019s painting\u00a0Nymph\u00e9as<\/em>\u00a0sold for<\/a>\u00a0in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whoever got that Monet can actually appreciate it as a physical object. With digital art, a copy is literally as good as the original.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the flex <\/em>of owning an original Beeple…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think I remember hearing that NFTs\u00a0<\/strong>are already over<\/strong><\/a>. Didn\u2019t the\u00a0<\/strong>boom go bust<\/strong><\/a>? Like\u00a0<\/strong>for real this time<\/strong><\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales have absolutely slumped since their peak, though like with seemingly everything in crypto there\u2019s always somebody declaring it over and done with right before a big spike. Am I predicting that NFTs are about to make a comeback? Absolutely not, but I\u2019m sure there are plenty of folks in NFT-based communities that are sure they\u2019re still on the gravy train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh no you\u2019re about to talk about the apes aren\u2019t you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure am!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you haven\u2019t heard about the Bored Ape Yacht Club, it\u2019s one of the most successful NFT projects, with apes (which are procedurally generated and have unique characteristics) selling for millions of dollars. The company behind the series of NFTs has created a spin-off cryptocurrency<\/a>, broken the blockchain<\/a> for a few hours with how popular one of their sales was, and even acquired other massive NFT brands<\/a>. And a reminder: this all happened because people really like saying that they own a picture of a Bored Ape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People like, for instance, Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton, who discussed their apes on TV in a clip that went viral<\/a> for being soooo<\/em> uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This kind of club isn\u2019t\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0a new phenomenon \u2014 people have\u00a0long built communities based on things they own<\/a>, and now it\u2019s happening with NFTs. It could be argued that one of the earliest NFT projects, CryptoPunks,\u00a0got big thanks to its community<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have questions about this emerging… um… art form? Platform? There\u2019s nothing like an explosion of blockchain news to leave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[254,3421,3424],"tags":[888,3427],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8176"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8178,"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8176\/revisions\/8178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.jlbn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}