Like most people, I have been hearing plenty about NFTs. Since I like technology and trying new things, I decided to start digging into things a bit more to get a better understanding.
What are NFTs exactly?
Ok so the obvious question for someone new - what are they? You can do a google search and find plenty of information on what a Non-fungible token (NFT) is but I’ll summarize it in a way that hopefully will make sense to you. Think of it as a digital receipt / proof for something unique that you purchased online. So that leads to the next question, what exactly can you purchase as a NFT? Well this is where it gets very interesting.
NFT for digital art
The most common use case that you will see right now, at least that I have seen, is digital art. You might be buying the ownership of the actual art, or just rights to use it. Like any artwork, I think you will have two main groups of buyers to consider - 1) people that are getting into the art because they want to keep the art, and support the artists and 2) people looking at it from an investment perspective.
The really interesting part is that anyone can create and sell NFTs. To test this theory, I actually went down the path of listing a picture that I took (and own) as a NFT on OpenSea which is one of the popular NFT marketplaces. For an artist, this opens the opportunity to get their work out for potential purchase.
Other NFT uses - in practice
I actually ran across a very interesting NFT use case from a company called Blokpax. I signed up and got 40 free NFTs they call Razz cards. Those Razz cards are typically tied to a real world trading card - think sports cards, or Pokemon cards. So using an example of some high value Pokemon card, it has 2048 associated “Razz” cards. They do eliminations, cutting the pool in half each time ( 2048 -> 1024 in the first round ). Your Razz might get burned or it might survive until the next around. If your Razz is the last card left, you get a “Vault Token” which is tied to ownership of the card. You can have them ship you the card, or you can sell/trade the “Vault Token” to someone else to transfer the ownership of the real card. I think this NFT use case has great potential to get attention from people. It was pretty fun trading Razz cards with other people to try to get multiple entries for the same real world card. The first round of cuts happened earlier today, so I’ll update this article to say how it went.
Update: I traded most of my Razz for Infinite Moments (see below) and the few I had left didn't win, but it was still fun.
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| One of my Razz tokens |
The same company, Blokpax, also has a different collection called “Infinite Moments” which are tied to moments in history, mainly sport related but other events too. These NFTs are not backed by a “real world” equivalent card, but they were still an interesting part of the overall Blokpax experience. These are closer to art or digital trading cards in the sense that you might buy/trade them as a collectors item. I believe the company is also planning to ensure holders of Infinite Moments (IM) cards will get certain benefits - for example “Elite Drop 1”, which happens 6 Feb 2022, will give each IM holder a free Razz for each IM they own.
Update 12 Feb 2022: I wrote a new post about getting started with Blokpax ( https://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2022/02/nfts-getting-started-with-blokpax.html )
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| One of my "Infinite Moments" cards. |
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| Another Infinite Moments (IM) card example |
Other NFT uses - in theory
There are so many potential use cases for NFT it is just a matter of which ones really gain momentum. Again, just because I wanted to try it out, I actually listed an idea - yes an idea - as a NFT. I basically laid out a problem, and if you buy the NFT you will get the solution. This was just another example of me testing things out to see if it was possible.
Another area that many people are talking about is video games. Today, for example, you can buy many things in games but most do not provide a way to sell or trade them. With NTFs, it could give you more control but I think gaming companies will be slow to adopt because secondary sales could cut into their profits especially if they rely on microtransactions.
Other thoughts?
Getting into NFTs is complex. Just dealing with so many options - crypto wallets, networks, marketplaces etc. Other bumps like moving money around might incur some crazy fees. There are also a ton of scams out there - I ran across at least one link that seemed like a support request but if you put the information in, they could gain access to everything you have. With crypto, if someone gains access to your wallet they can steal what you have and you are out of luck - much like cash in a real life wallet. I think, as NTFs continue to find use cases that people are interested in and work on making the technology easier to use, the adoption will continue.
If you are interested in getting into NFTs, start off by thinking about what type of project you are interested in - if you are into trading cards (either sports card or Pokemon) then Blokpax might be a good starting point. After that, do your research and move slowly. Remember that in most cases there is no guarantee that you can sell what you purchase for a profit (or at all), so only use money you are willing to risk. If you can, find friends or someone you trust that is willing to help you get moving in the right direction.
Links of interest:
Blokpax (My referral link) - https://app.blokpax.com/sign-up/ref/bpxcookiemonster
Blokpax (Getting started) - https://bigboystoys13.blogspot.com/2022/02/nfts-getting-started-with-blokpax.html
My ideas for sale - https://opensea.io/collection/random-ideas-4-sale
Blokpax Razz - https://opensea.io/collection/razz
Blokpax Infinite Moments - https://opensea.io/collection/infinitemoments
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