Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are unique assets created based on blockchain technology and using the Ethereum network. They are created with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. Unlike cryptocurrencies, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency.
The distinct construction of each NFT has the potential for several use cases as it is the ideal digital representation of physical assets like real estate and artwork. NFTs can also be used to remove middle-men and directly connect artists with audiences or for identity management thanks to blockchain properties. By now, NFTs have simplified transactions and created new markets.
What an NFT can be?
Art
The most popular form of NFT is art. Some of the most expensive NFTs are works of art. The most valuable NFT ever sold is called “EVERYDAY’S: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS” by Beeple ($69 million). Also, video art, short videos and even GIFs are considered in this category. One the most expensive videos “Crossroad” developed by Beeple sold for $6.6 million.
Music
Music used to be a fungible good for decades, being recorded and distributed on records, cassettes, CDs, and digitally. However, more recently musicians and DJs have joined NFT world and started selling their work as NFTs, and have their concerts hold on the Metaverse. Using NFTs, musicians may save 100% of the money, which has attracted many musicians to NFTs.
3. Video games and their items: Video games has just recently entered the NFT space. in fact, companies do not sell entire games as NFTs. They sell in-game contents such as skins, weapons, cars, clothing, characters, etc. as you already know, an NFT asset is unique and exclusive to one buyer. Therefore, there is a limited edition version of an NFT in the market.
Trading Cards/Collectible Items
NFTs also can be digital trading cards. Just like limited edition baseball cards selling for thousands of dollars, NFT market allows trading these items as virtual versions of trading cards or NFTs for high prices.
Companies provide the chance to trade all types of collectible items on the NFT market, too. Anything that is collectible, could be an NFT and enter the market.
Big Sports Moments
Memorable sports moments are short clips of significant moments in sports history, like a winning goal. These clips can be as short as 10 seconds but cost a lot.
Memes
A meme is an idea, behavior, image, or style that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The person in the meme is the actual seller. Some popular memes are Nyan Cat, Bad Luck Brian and Disaster Girl, but the most valuable meme to date is the Doge meme, which sold for $4 million.
Domain Names
You can register a domain name and sell it on the NFT market. If you buy a domain name on the NFT market, you may claim exclusive ownership of the name without needing a middleman.
Virtual Fashion
Creators also can design clothes virtually and sell it in NFT market. Virtual fashion NFTs are used to dress up online avatars.
Photography
Many photographers have already showed their interest in NFT markets and have already joined it. Among highly priced NFTs, some are photographs. NFT photos could be mixed with motion and represent a wider range of NFTs. A quick search gives you lots of related information.
Miscellaneous Online Items
A tweet, a comment, Facebook statuses, articles, Snapchat Stories, or TikToks or anything digital which seems valuable can also sell in NFT market.
Can NFTs be physical?
The short answer is that yes, physical artworks can be minted and sold online as NFTs. NFTs are typically digital tokens, but they can be attached to physical assets such as actual paintings or any valuable asset. When physical assets attach to NFTs, they turn to be a part of the NFT, in other words, these two aspects of the asset are sold and traded as a single entity.
Physical assets attached to NFTs include:
- Creative work such as film and music tracks
- Fine artworks like paintings stored in an art gallery
- Multimedia files
- Real Estate and stocks
Just like a normal NFT, the digital NFTs associated with physical assets are uniquely identifiable, due to the certain characteristics of NFTs. Therefore, attaching a physical artwork to an NFT will be a perfect method of digital verification for a wide variety of valuable assets in many different types of markets.
Can NFTs be copied?
As you may already notice, NFTs are embedded on a blockchain. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital format. The Blockchain also help to identify the true owner of the image can be verified.
The blockchain further includes a chain of transactions; it records all information related to an NFT on the market from minting to all owner to owner sells. This digital ledger is then split between every machine in the network. The blockchain is constantly updated and checked by every computer on the network. As a result, it is difficult to steal the ownership rights of an NFT or, simply saying, copy the NFT and change the related data.
Can NFTs be screenshot?
It is pretty easy to make a screenshot from everything. But it is already known that a screenshot is not as worthy as a real asset, physical or digital. Also, we know that a screenshot can be turned to an NFT and sold, as it is a JPEG or PNG image. However, it is odd if anyone actually pay for a screenshot.
It is in fact a bad idea to turn any screenshot into an NFT for some reasons. The most critical reason that an NFT screenshot does not work is the gas fees in order to create an NFT that is high. With such expensive gas fees NFTs should be valuable to mint. However, the chances of a screenshot NFT be valuable just is not that high.
The second problem with a screenshot NFT is that they just are not cool enough to get attentions. A quick look at the NFT market then shows that the most valuable NFTs fall into the following categories:
- Unique digital artwork (ie. Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, etc.)
- Music NFTs from successful bands.
- Video clips from popular sports (ie. NBA Top Shots)
It is easy to notice that screenshots do not fit into any of those categories which explains why screenshots are not particularly unique.
Although one or two screenshots may have attracted enough attention to make some value, a large number of them are not exciting to collectors.
