What Are Non-Fungible Tokens and What Do They Represent?

Have you heard about non-fungible tokens (NFTs)? They have become a boom in digital media recently. They are digital assets; many people and industries are selling them with blockchain on the internet.

The CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, sold his first tweet from 2006 as an NFT for 2.9 million dollars. The fast-food chain Taco Bell has also released NFT recently. Non-fungible tokens have been used in Art, Sport, Music, and other fields. But what are NFTs…? Why are they getting popular?

What are non-fungible tokens?

An NFT is a non-fungible token existing on a blockchain.

• A token is a sign of ownership of an asset. It is also known as a cryptocurrency or crypto-asset, a digital asset that utilizes cryptographical functions to go through with monetary exchanges. Bitcoin and Ethereum are two of the largest cryptocurrencies. As tokens are kept on the transparent blockchain, it is easy to see who owns something.

• Fungible is goods or assets that are exchangeable or replaceable with another. For example, money is fungible because a pencil can be exchanged for a few dollars.

• A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique token that cannot easily be interchangeable with another. They can be used to restrict digital creations to be copied and shared, to issue a limited number of digital artworks, and to sell unique virtual assets. NFTs can represent digital items such as photos, videos, and audio.

Why are non-fungible tokens useful?

In general, it isn't easy to prove that your digital items are authentic when you publish them on a social media or website which doesn’t verify your ownership. However, NFTs can be a solution to this problem! Non-fungible tokens can trace the details of creators, owners, and artworks and the published dates recorded on a blockchain. This enables buyers to know that the digital collectibles they buy are original.

What are NFTs used for?

• Artworks

Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, is a famous digital artist. He has sold many of his artworks for millions of dollars. In 2021, Beeple sold an NFT of his collage work titled “Every day's: The First 5000 Days” for $69 million at Christie’s.

Games

Dapper Labs introduces a blockchain game called CryptoKitties. In this game, players can breed and adopt different types and colors of digital cats, 100% owned by players. It has more than $40 million in sales.

Sports

In 2019, Dapper Labs collaborated with the National Basketball Association and created digital trading “NBA Top Shot cards” that passionate basketball fans. These cards show highlight moments of the NBA with a limited amount. It has raised more than $500 million in total sales.

Can NFTs be used in 3D media and opportunities?

Yes. In fact, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and presenting them in a new way is a new trend in blockchain technology, which has been noticed in the art and gaming worlds.

A digital artist, Krista Kim, has sold her digital house “Mars House” at an NFT marketplace SuperRare for over $500,000. Anyone can experience this in virtual reality (VR). She believes that there will be a marketplace of digital AR and virtual real estate assets in the future.

CryptoCarz is the first VR racing game built on blockchain. Every car represents an NFT, so players had full ownership and control over their collectible cars. Unfortunately, this game finished in 2019.

ART Labs sells a collection of 3D food, “MetaMeals #1”, on OpenSea, which is the largest marketplace for crypto collectibles.

Products with integrations of NFTs may dominate the future of digital business. Non-fungible tokens are one of these products that have been gaining more and more traction in recent months.

As more industries and companies begin to embrace this new paradigm, we will begin seeing non-fungible tokens become a thing of the past and outdated in a short time.

Should I create my NFTs?

NFTs are an interesting way of adding value to digital assets. Businesses can attach a specific property of an asset to a unique identifier which helps make the asset more secure when stored or traded.

NFTs can be a new revenue stream for many fields, including art, games, sports, and eCommerce, as they may be used as a means of ownership within decentralized businesses or with smart contracts.

If you are looking to create unique assets and secure ownership with blockchain, ART Labs: 3D & AR platform for eCommerce can help you create lots of opportunities in both the 3D and NFT worlds.