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WTF Are Nfts
WTF Are Nfts
WTF are NFT
POTD APRIL 7, 2022 Y J HANFRATZ
NFT. lockchain. Metavere. Crptoart. eeple. WTF are all thee term
ou’ve een hearing aout in the new latel?
Welcome to the future. Where Faceook i now Meta, our online exitence i an avatar,
and everthing ou own i digital. To undertand NFT and crptoart, ou have to
undertand thi revolution in digital aet and ownerhip and how more and more
people are placing value in it.
eeple verda NFT that netted $69 million dollar at a Chritie
auction
You can ee thi prevalent in moile or video game with in-game purchae where ou
can u a new weapon or a ‘kin,’ thing that have aolutel no real-world ue outide
of that peci c game. The ounger generation are ued to pending ton of mone
online, ut m older rain ma not get it – a I grew up with ton of phical to. ut
we live in a world where we pend much (too much) of our da on our device. When
we’re pending more and more of our time online, thoe digital good and how we
we’re pending more and more of our time online, thoe digital good and how we
preent ourelve ecome increaingl important. To ome people, it’ all that matter.
ut like oftware, MP3, and even event ticket – anthing digital can e copied or
forged. How can ou know whether what ou’re uing i legit? how up to a porting
event with a fake ticket, and ou’re out of luck; thi i where proving digital authenticit
and ownerhip i crucial and will onl ecome more important a everthing move into
the virtual realm. All the area of our live where phical document like car title,
mortgage, or driver’ licene exit – all thoe thing can e eail forged and will
eventuall e replaced online record. We alread live in a world where ou can
digitall ign our taxe.
How can ou verif digital authenticit and ownerhip?
nter NFT.
NFT tand for non-fungile token.
WTF doe that mean?
An NFT i a pecial digital token repreenting a unique ID that i linked to a digital aet
An NFT i a pecial digital token repreenting a unique ID that i linked to a digital aet
that cannot e replicated and i the ke to verifing not onl authenticit ut ownerhip
of that aet. You can ue an NFT for anthing: event ticket, a JPG, GIF, MP4, even
muic. If ou u a concert ticket NFT from Ticketmater, ou are guaranteed that it’
authentic and can prove ou own that ticket.
How?
ecaue NFT are tored on the lockchain (itcoin i tored on a itcoin lockchain)
where nothing can e forged or changed. Man lockchain have their own token or
coin. itcoin and dogecoin have their own lockchain – kind of like how each caino
ha their own chip the ue a currenc that ou can onl ue in that peci c caino
and nowhere ele.
Think of a lockchain a a permanent leger or a maive preadheet to which anone
can add a new row of information to it, like the unique ID of an NFT that i attached to
a digital concert ticket. The lockchain can check the authenticit of our ticket
cro-referencing it againt the lockchain “preadheet”. Copie of thi preadheet
are tored on man computer o when ou need to acertain the authenticit of a
digital aet, it need to e checked againt each of the preadheet copie to verif
which i an original or fake.
A mentioned efore – NFT can e literall anthing digital. ut let’ talk aout art, or
crptoart, a thi i the mot common tpe of NFT that ou’ve proal heard of.
Motionographer ha een a eacon for digital artit for ear. In the pat, the onl wa
artit could ell their artwork and have omeone collect or own it wa via print,
painting or other tpe of phical form.
Wh can’t digital artit make mone o몭 of their art?
Well, ecaue no one would u a JPG that ou could jut right-click and download,
right? Wh would ou u a Picao painting when ou could jut right-click and
download an image of a Picao?
ecaue right-clicking and downloading a photo of a Picao doen’t mean ou own that
Picao. That JPG image i worthle. Jut like owning a potcard print of a Picao
doen’t mean ou own the original that i worth million. The ame goe for whatever
digital art that ou could ave on our computer.
In the traditional art world, how can ou verif the
authenticit of a Picao and who own the original?
There are plent of forgerie out there. How the’re veri ed i the record of that art’
provenance, which i tored art expert, mueum, and gallerie. ver time an
original painting i old, a record of that ale and the new owner i recorded and
ecome part of that art’ provenance. Art expert, mueum and gallerie are aicall
the phical form of a lockchain. Without thee intitution, forger would e
rampant, and art value would plummet due to the di cult of proving authenticit.
efore NFT, digital artit had no wa to attach provenance to their art, to de ne
efore NFT, digital artit had no wa to attach provenance to their art, to de ne
ownerhip or authenticit. NFT (right now) are literall the onl wa for omeone to
e ale to a the own a digital aet or crptoart and to aign value to it.
$1500 for a tin tu몭ed animal? Make total ene!
How i value aigned to crptoart?
From carcit, due to the fact that crptoart i not reproducile, and from the perceived
value. ome people aign maive worth to a piece of rectangular cardoard with a
picture of a dead aeall plaer on it. Or mall tu ed animal lled with platic pellet.
Wh? Purel ecaue the collector of thoe oject aign a value to it due to the
carcit and demand. That’ literall it. In crptoart and NFT, it’ aigning value to the
artit, the digital art, and the computer code attached to the digital image. ome people
onl u crptoart for peculation purpoe, almot a if it were a meme tock. ut
other ma purchae it ecaue the want to upport the artit and feel a connection to
the work or the communit that i uilt ehind an artit or an art project.
Confued?
To e honet, the moment I think I undertand all thi tu , I’m oon reminded how
much I don’t undertand. The digital world i evolving quickl, and ome people are
diving into thi purel ecaue of FOMO. ome aolutel hate NFT ecaue there are
a lot of environmental concern for certain lockchain ecaue of how much energ
the ue.
ut to a there i no value in digital art i to a that digital artit add nothing of value
to ociet. Digital and lm photographer are treated equall. Jut ecaue our tool of
choice are a Wacom pen and monitor veru a paintruh and canva hould not
devalue what we do a artit. NFT and lockchain are in their earl da – we’re
talking a ine cient and clunk a Geocitie weite in the earl da of the World
Wide We when people aked “WTF i the internet?” – and the’re not perfect, ut the
pave the wa for digital artit to nall e treated on the ame level a traditional artit
and to that I a – it’ aout time.
HAR
TAG: itcoin, lockchain, crptoart, digital art, digital aet, metavere, nft
AOUT TH AUTHOR
J Haenfratz / eeden.com/
J Haenfratz i a multi mm awardwinning 3D artit & educator aed in Denver. He' Creative
Director at chool of Motion and ha poken at 3D event acro the gloe. Hi work ha een featured
in 3D World Magazine & worked for rand like Nike, Apple, NA, and Microoft.
MOR Y J >