WTF is an NFT

Hello, lovely human on the internet! 

 So many of you have asked me to try and explain in simple words what an NFT is. 

 I’m happy to do it because I think the tech geeks and cypro-heads have done a really bad job of explaining something that’s actually really simple. 

So I’ll have a go! 

 Nfts are nothing more than a record on a public system that shows who made something and if someone bought it or passed it on or sold it. Think of it a bit like a logbook for a car that anyone can read online. 

HOW ARE THEY USED?

They are used in many ways, they could point to something physical like a real painting, some shoes, or a house. They could act as a ticket for a hotel, a restaurant, or an event. They can also point to a piece of digital artwork, maybe a film or a graphic file, or a piece of music. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ARTISTS?

 

Artists have been using them as you can trade these receipts using either normal currency or cryptocurrency, and for the first time digital art is finding some kind of value. There are many millions of artists globally registering their work using NFTs. As with all art, some is good, some are bad, it’s a matter of personal taste. There are so many different projects, from single works of art to whole elaborate worlds and communities. Here’s one that I made. 

They also work well as a kind of certificate of authenticity, as they are linked to the object, and are impossible to edit once they are created, they give proof that the item is real. 

THEY ARE CONTROVERSIAL.

 

Nfts are very new and still very controversial, as right now a lot of bad people are using them to rip people off, either making receipts for things they don’t own (i.e other people’s art) or making people think things are rarer than they are. Of course, there are real artists making real meaningful art and recording it as an nft and finally getting paid and some recognition, but the genuine projects are often overshadowed by the scammers.

WHERE ARE NFT’S STORED?

Nfts are stored on a Blockchain, think of it like a public record anyone can read, but to do that the early blockchains used a system that needed millions of computers which used evil amounts of energy. These blockchains are also used for currency like etherium, although nfts are a very tiny part of these currency chains they still contribute to environmental damage. The newer blockchains use a different system that doesn’t need loads of power so nfts on those platforms like ‘wax’ and ‘flow’ use about the same energy as a social media post, so they are much better. 

BUYING AND SELLING THEM.

Buying and selling NFTs is easy, there are several platforms that let you trade them. Think of these platforms a bit like eBay, you can list your NFT and people can buy it or even bid for it in an auction. 

However, just like with any art just because you might own the work doesn’t mean you have the rights to make copies of it. For example a big museum might have bought a painting from an artist, that doesn’t mean they can make postcards for the gift shop, they need to ask for that.

However, in the NFT creators can allow the reuse of the work. So many NFTs do infact come with the copyright too, some don’t.  They about about the ownership of the object they point to, not necesarily permission to reproduce it.

THEY USE A LOT OF ENERGY. 

 

Sadly the biggest chain used for NFT’s is etherium (all the chains have different names) and although it’s much better than Bitcoin in terms of energy usage it is still diabolical. Etherium claims to be switching to the super clean system (called serenity) in June but that remains to be seen. 

 

Right now artists, designers, product makers, or dapp (decentralized app) developers who use etherium need to take personal responsibility for the environmental piece of the puzzle if they choose. Some join carbon offsetting programs or plant trees. Others like me go much further than that. 

IN ONE PARAGRAPH, WHAT IS AN NFT?

Anyway, simple answer to what an NFT is –  a receipt that tracks the ownership of something, that gives the owner of the receipt access to either a digital thing, a physical thing, or an experience – it’s a bit like a ticket.

Anyway hope that helped.

 

Love

Stuart x 

 

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