What is an NFT, the “Certificate of Authenticity” that moves millions of dollars

During these weeks it is more and more common to read or hear that a NFT Has been sold. It is one of the acronyms of the moment and in Spanish it translates as non-fungible token, that is to say a a digital asset that receives a sort of “certificate of authenticity”. Is unique in the cyber world.

If a person purchases an original work of art from a certain artist, the most explicit evidence of this act is the signing and hanging the painting at home, for example. But what if we were talking about a digital work of art? There may be thousands of users who have a copy of this file (like the number of copies of the chart) but only one person will have the original, that is to say their NFT.

the NFT gives you some kind of sense of belonging to a digital asset, which can be a song, a video of the NBA or a tweet. The non-fungible token is recorded, with a unique string of characters (numbers, letters and signs) that represent it on the blockchain, this unalterable “ledger”.

A good is considered durable when it does not wear out due to its use and is also unique, because it cannot be replaced by another like it. The blockchain or the blockchain has systems that allow the creation of unique digital identifiers to be exchanged. So we could all create our NFTs (although that doesn’t guarantee someone will buy them).

Can be created NFT of all kinds of digital elements, from tweets, photos, videos, memes, songs or digital artwork. Today, the world’s creators can market their assets, their original works and, being on the blockchain, the buying process is decentralized, and both seller and buyer guarantee the authenticity of the good.

To create the NFT, you must first choose the blockchain to use. The open source Ethereum platform is the most widely used cryptocurrency to pay today. Indeed, the opensea.io site, one of the most used to buy and sell NFTs, specifies that to enter its market you have to have a wallet (a virtual wallet) of ETH (Ethereum) to use their service. They recommend doing this with the MetaMask wallet.

Furor NFT

We are talking about non-fungible digital assets, or NFTs, because the world of art, entertainment and media began to adopt it. The NBA, for example, launched last year Top Shot, a non-fungible token market, with videos of historical moments sold.

For its part, the Canadian musical group The weekend announced a few days ago that a song will be released under the name NFT. Before, Kings of Leon became the first group to release their latest album as a lasting asset and artist Grimes (partner of billionaire Elon Musk, who is also testing the technology) sold a collection of NFTs for around $ 6 million.

On the other hand, the tech journalist Kevin Roose, of The New York Times sold a day ago column on NFT for more than half a million dollars, for 350 units of the Ether cryptocurrency.

Last week, the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, He sold a digital version of his first tweet for over $ 2.9 million after an auction that lasted more than two weeks. At the time, the American artist Mike Winkelmann, said Beeple, also sold a digital work for just over $ 69 million Christie’s auction house.

The examples continue until they reach the most unusual places. The humanoid robot Sophia, developed by Hanson Robotics, produced a work of art, from artificial intelligence and a few days ago he sold his NFT in Hong Kong at auction.

And everything would indicate that it has only just begun.

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