NFT? What are these Non-Fungible Tokens?

The Blockchain brings us every day nice surprises, it goes beyond the simple framework of Cryptocurrencies. This time, let’s take a look at the NFT.

The ERC-721 Tokens.

ERC-721 were publicly announced in a December 3, 2017 Tweet from CryptoKitties, “We’re the first ERC #721 compliant non-fungible token on the Ethereum Blockchain. It’s a fully functioning dApp with working smart contract and a web UI.“

The ERC: Non-fungible Token Standard #721 was opened on September 22, 2017 on GitHub, and then created on January 24, 2018: EIP-721: ERC-721 Non-Fungible Token Standard on eips.ethereum.org. They was created by Dieter Shirley, William Entriken, Jacob Evans and Natassia Sachs.

But specifically what are the Non-Fungible ‘things’? What are the Fungible ones?

‘Fungible‘ objects are things that do not have their own identity, they are not unique, and are interchangeable. We can’t individualize them (because of the quantities: Litre of milk, Kilos of cereals …), they can be replaced by something else of the same nature.

They are: 

• Of the same quantity and quality
• Of the same kind and quality 
  • Tons of Wheat
  • Medicines
  • Mass-produced furniture
  • Money 
  • Cryptocurrencies

Money, because let’s say you make a $10,000 deposit in a bank, you can’t ask the banker to give you back the same bills, with the same serial numbers, that you gave him: Same quantity and quality

Cryptocurrencies are also fungible, because they can be split, and if you sell 1 BTC, then buy it back, it will not be the same one you sold: Same kind and quality

Contracts can also be fungible, let’s take this example, you store 3 Tons of wheat, when you get it back, it will still be 3 Tons of wheat, but it won’t be the same grain, nor the same exact quantity of wheat grains.

‘Non-fungible‘ objects are things that have an unique individuality, that are irreplaceable, forgery-proof, non-duplicable, and can’t be fragmented.

NFT Tokens have an intrinsic value given by their rarity.  They can’t be modified, neither by the creator of the NFT nor by its owner, as for example: You buy the Mona Lisa, you can draw a Moustache on it, but if you buy a NFT Artwork, you can’t modify it in any way.

In the ‘Non-Fungible’ objects we find:

• Building/House
• Airplane Ticket (Numbered Seat, Airplane ID, Your Name, and Reservation Reference, which makes this object unique)
• Collectible Game Cards (Football players, NBA …)
• Digital NFT (which are protean: GIFs, Music (Kings of Leon, a rock band from Tennessee released an NFT Album on March 5th 2021, well, it’s more like an animated cover, in limited edition and ‘Golden Ticket’ to have special access to their next concerts), Videos, Drawings …)
• Virtual Items from Video Games
• Video Game Characters (CryptoPunk)
• Virtual Real Estate (Metaverse & Multiverse)
• Crypto Artwork
• Digital Fashion items (such as Nike which launched its NFT Sneakers collection: CryptoKicks, but also the Luxury Brand Louis Vuitton launched a series of 30 NFT collectibles).
• etc …

NFTs in the Blockchain environment.

These NFT Tokens are used to identify an object or a Work of Art on the Internet. The holder of the NFT is the proof that he IS the owner of the object in question.

Anything can become a Artwork on the Internet: 

• Tweet: Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter, published the very first Tweet on March 21, 2006, which says “just setting up my twttr” is up for auction, and has already exceeded $ 2.5 Million
• Meme: the Nyan Cat (Created in 2011 by Torres, this meme has become the most famous in the world digital culture), sold for 300 ETH (500 000$) on February 19, 2021
• Video: This one by Beeple (10 seconds video) which represents Donald Trump lying down, naked, covered with inscriptions, was sold for $6.6 Million !!!

The Virtual Art Market on the Blockchain completely revolutionized this industry, firstly because an NFT can easily be traced, and especially since its creation, to the last owner, the NFT is a proof of authenticity. Secondly, in terms of the notion of digital property.

NFT and Virtual Art are perhaps a speculative bubble, and have a bright future ahead of them.

In 2020, there was an increase of 299% of sellers, compared to 2019, to reach a value of $250 Million in 2020

For 2021, some specialists estimate the market at $1 billion 

For the record, on Thursday March 4, 2021, Banksy’s painting ‘Morons’ (bought for $100,000) was publicly burned during a Mourning Ceremony for Banksy’s Work in New York (which you can see on this video), and then transformed into an NFT, which will be sold on Sunday March 7, for the sum of 228.69 WETH ($415,000)

The NFT news is very eventful since the beginning of the year, I invite you to take a look at it 

See you soon

Christophe WILHELM

Bitcoin Meister

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