NFTs– non-fungible tokens– are booming. In simple terms, they’re unique digital tokens establishing the authenticity and ownership of all manner of digital things. Tweets, collectible basketball cards– even a single digital pixel. But it’s in art world where they’ve grabbed the most attention — and the highest prices. So what the hell is crypto art? Who’s buying it, who’s selling it, and who cares? We met up with some of the crypto art world’s star players to find out.
Reggie Watts Explains NFT’s to Joe
NFT is a fancy mathematical way of proving you own the original copy of something. A bit like anyone can get a copy of a painting that looks identical but people will pay a huge price to be able to say they have the original.
What Are NFTs and How Do They Work?
NFTs are non-fungible tokens that are digital assets that represent tangible and intangible items.
These can range from collectible cards, drawings, music, digital real estate, tweets, and much more.
At a very high level, most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain.
NFTs are essentially designed to give you something that can’t be copied
In this video I explain:
- What are NFTs
- Characteristics of NFTs
- What are NFTs used for
- How NFTs work
- Examples of NFT Art
What are NFTs? | CNBC Explains
Investors have been spending millions of dollars on digital collectibles known as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. CNBC’s Ryan Browne explains how these crypto-based assets work and why they’ve become so popular.
NFTs, Explained
Yes it’s hype. But it could change our world.
The Video That Will Get You To Start Your NFT Journey
Gary has starting to get very excited around the NFT (non-fungible token) space. The emerging space built on blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize how people make art, buy products digitally and express themselves more uniquely on the internet. There will be plenty of projects that do not become the next pokemon, but there are also many that will. Start learning now about NFTs and the potential opportunities so as it grows, you can make the best decisions possible when you are ready to jump in!
NFTs Are Fueling a Boom in Digital Art. Here’s How They Work | WSJ
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have exploded onto the digital art scene this past year. Proponents say they are a way to make digital assets scarce, and therefore more valuable. WSJ explains how they work, and why skeptics question whether they’re built to last.
Billionaire Winklevoss Twins Talk The End Facebook, Bitcoin, And NFTs | Forbes
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss didn’t grow up underdogs. But after losing an epic battle with Mark Zuckerberg over ownership of Facebook and being shunned in Silicon Valley, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are back—this time as budding Bitcoin billionaires at the center of the future of money, the creative economy and quite possibly a new operating model for Big Tech itself.
The 39-year-old brothers’ hottest venture, digital art auction platform Nifty Gateway, is basking in the glow of a sale at Christie’s, where the gavel is about to fall on the 255-year-old auction house’s first-ever sale of a nonfungible token (NFT) artwork, a one-of-a-kind computer file tracked on a digital ledger known as a blockchain. Nifty Gateway put the artist, Mike Winkelmann, who goes by Beeple, on the map through a series of “drops” starting last year. Before the day ends, Gemini’s custodial business, which houses digital assets securely, will receive a $69 million cryptocurrency payment for Beeple on behalf of Christie’s, making his “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” the third-most-expensive work sold by a living artist, after Jeff Koons and David Hockney.
Much of the world still thinks of the 6-foot-5 twins as the crew-rowing chumps played by Armie Hammer in The Social Network, the hit 2010 movie about Facebook. At Harvard, classmate Mark Zuckerberg had swiped their idea for a social networking site, building an empire with 2.8 billion worldwide users and a personal fortune now worth $97 billion. A dozen years after they settled with Zuckerberg for $65 million in Facebook stock and cash, the Winklevii, as they are widely known, have emerged as leaders of a technological movement whose core operating principle involves digitizing the records of all assets globally, decentralizing control and cutting out gatekeepers—including Facebook.
The Winklevii say they’re just getting started. Through their holding company, Gemini Space Station, which owns their crypto exchange and Nifty Gateway, and via investments made by their family office, Winklevoss Capital, the duo have invested in no fewer than 25 digital asset startups. These fledgling companies are laying the foundation for what the brothers hope will be a new virtual world that they and others call the “metaverse,” in which digital assets like art, music, real estate and even entire businesses are created, bought and sold—and, most importantly, governed—by the blockchain. Many of the companies they’re backing are positioned to thrive in this three-dimensional version of the internet ruled via peer-to-peer computer networks, where participants rather than powerful companies profit.
“The idea of a centralized social network is just not going to exist five or 10 years in the future,” Tyler predicts when asked about Facebook. “There’s a membrane or a chasm between the old world and this new crypto-native universe. And we’re the conduit helping people transcend the offline into the online.”
How Tokenization Will Change The World
Tokens, NFT’s, ERC20, ERC721, what do these all mean? Today we are going to be taking a dive into the world of smart contracts and we will discuss what tokenization is, examples of tokenization use cases, why businesses should issue tokens, the difference between fungible and nonfungible tokens, strategies for tokenization and lastly technical token standards.
What is tokenization?
A token is a digital artifact that represents a metered resource. They are often implemented via smart contracts: a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. Tokenization involves many layers of security to ensure that a token successfully represents its unit of value.
These layers of security include:
• Leveraging real world legal contracts that are valid across multiple jurisdictions and governments
• Crypto economic security which sets a high waterline for a financial cost that must be breached before anyone can think about conducting an attack
• Cryptographic security which confers digital ownership in the form of private keys and even physical securities
Tokenization in Real Estate
A commonly discussed theme of tokenization is the reduction of transaction costs. Token use cases become apparent when reflecting on the current real estate market. Today, there is no national real estate exchange of meaningful size or activity. The markets primarily involve brokers matching buyers and sellers per transaction. The value of properties within the market are subject to non-market forces such as the social value of home ownership and the idiosyncratic appeal of each house, which is why home seekers generally want to inspect a property before purchasing. Some economists claim that these factors add to the transaction costs when trying to buy or sell a house which makes it very difficult to achieve the critical mass needed for an efficient exchange.
Tokenization is a method that could potentially unlock a new system of exchanging real estate assets that was previously not possible due to high transaction costs. Through tokenization it is possible to tie tokens to individual properties by building on existing fractional ownership legal agreements. IT automation and contract templates can reduce transaction costs to the point where fractional ownership is affordable for residential properties, instead of only large commercial buildings/expensive assets. Since tokenization in essence is just software, tokens can be split into as many subdivisions as appropriate, and because the tokens would sit on the blockchain, we can confidently prevent any instance from owning two of the same shares or fabricating a deed. We know the technology is available now to create this, it just depends on market interest, business models, regulatory environment and asset governance.
Why should you issue a token, or digitize assets into tokens?
There are a variety of business benefits in issuing tokens and digitizing assets, some of which include:
• Near Real Time Settlement: International asset transfers may be cleared, settled and disbursed globally in seconds to minutes, with transparency and certainty
• Cryptographic security: Digital signing and cryptography ensures immutability and privacy; zero knowledge and secure computation allow for private validation without human auditors
• Verifiable digital ownership and history: Through blockchain we can ensure tokens cannot be double spent while enabling full traceability as assets evolve and change hands
Fungible or non-fungible?
What is fungibility?
Fungibility is the property of a good or commodity that have units that are interchangeable and indistinguishable. Think of a US dollar, no one cares what dollar they have or where it has come from, as long as they have the dollar. The more non fungible an asset is, the more quality and scarcity comes into place.
Fungible
Bitcoin is a fungible cryptocurrency; it does not matter what address your bitcoin comes from (unless of course it is a blacklisted address). Z Cash is also a cryptocurrency based on anonymity where it is purely anonymous and one of the most fungible cryptocurrencies.
Non-Fungible
On the other spectrum, there are crypto kitties which are digital collectable cats that are unique and can evolve and have children. Believe it or not, various digital cats sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars now.