Jack Dorsey's first tweet was sold as an NFT for the oddly specific price of $2,915,835.47. Memes are making their way into India's NFT space, allowing you to purchase viral images and videos. Amitabh Bachchan is set to launch his own NFT collection in November. If you haven't heard of NFTs, let me explain what they are.
The acronym NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. 'Non-fungible' means something is non-replaceable and non-exchangeable. To illustrate, consider having 2000 INR; you can exchange it for four 500 INR notes. These notes are fungible, as they are interchangeable.
However, items like the painting of the Mona Lisa or your house cannot be exchanged for someone else's house or another painting. Therefore, 'non-fungible' means unique and non-replaceable. The 'token' in NFT signifies proof of ownership in digital form. In other words, you cannot physically touch the ownership agreement; all records are stored publicly and visible to all blockchain users.
Hence, NFTs are tracked by blockchain users. Now, let's delve into what blockchain is. Blockchain is a decentralized system in which financial transactions occur without involving third parties or banks. If 10 lakh people are using a particular blockchain, every individual will have access to information about every transaction. This creates a public record, and the need for a traditional bank is eliminated.
How to buy and sell NFTs?
From now on, you know that one can buy and sell NFTs, but how does this work? Here's the answer: Imagine you're at a fun fair (Mela) where you want to trade goods (NFTs) using a digital currency (Crypto) from your digital wallet (platform). To engage in buying or selling NFTs, you essentially need three things.
The first step is to create a digital wallet. Metamask is a popular and well-supported platform that utilizes Ethereum, a cryptocurrency widely accepted at various fun fairs. The official and authentic website for Metamask is metamask.io, as there are numerous fraudulent sites. Metamask functions as a Chrome extension you must install on your browser. Once installed, you can create a wallet by providing details such as your wallet's address (its identity), name, and QR code. It's important to note that you can create multiple wallets.
Next, you'll need to acquire some Ethereum cryptocurrency and deposit it into your wallet. With Ethereum in hand, you can now explore fun fairs where you can actively engage in buying and selling NFTs.
OpenSea is one of the largest platforms for this purpose. On OpenSea's collection page, you'll find an array of popular NFT collections. These NFTs can be purchased or even created and subsequently sold, all using Ethereum. Additionally, sometimes when you buy an NFT, you might gain access to the creator's Discord community. These communities often consist of highly influential cryptocurrency professionals and offer opportunities to connect with amazing individuals.
Keep in mind that engaging in buying, selling, or creating NFTs usually involves incurring a gas fee, which is subject to change every second. This is how platforms like OpenSea generate revenue. To keep track of the current gas fees, you can visit etherscan.io/gastracker.
As you can see, the popularity of NFTs is on the rise, and this trend is gaining momentum due to the inherent privacy of transactions. This phenomenon marks a significant step towards the evolution of Web3 and decentralization, granting more power to the public. The ability to engage in transactions with masked identities is reshaping the way we interact with digital assets and is emblematic of a new era in the digital realm.