NFT’s – Beauty is in the eye of the beHODLer

October 19, 2021

Written by Stephen Moran

A popular topic at the moment is the emergence and boom of NFT’s within the world of crypto and trading. People have increasingly been joining the buying and trading of digital art through NFT’s. NFT’s, or non-fungible tokens, is a piece of data stored as a contract on a blockchain which allows it to be a unique digital asset that isn’t interchangeable. This is in comparison to a fungible asset such as money or oil which is swappable.

For the majority of people, the idea of NFT’s as digital art is hard to gauge as a legitimate industry. It does seem hard to grasp the longevity at first however, in recent times people have been catching on to the trend of buying and selling various NFT’s through online marketplaces. The NFT market tripled in 2020, reaching more than $250 million and during the first quarter of 2021, NFT sales exceeded $2 billion. Popularity is increasing, and it only seems a matter of time before NFT’s are an integral part of society.

Currently, we are in the wild west period of NFT’s. This means that some people have massively capitalised and made ridiculous money but also people have lost everything. This is due to the lack of regulations in the industry for example tax laws etc. However, the future is only going to be bright, and the development of future use cases is endless.

The Future

As stated above, the majority of NFT sales so far have been through digital art, and more specifically PFP (profile picture) projects. These can be anything from avatar pictures to animals and dogs which people can use to flex and collect just like sports cards and clothing. The most well-known PFP projects are Cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

However, the utilities of NFT’s can be much more functional and useful to society. For example, the future will see any sort of digital ticket being NFT’s. Due to them being unique, it will make tickets impossible to forge. It can also allow artists or organisations to profit from any re-selling through royalties.

Furthermore, NFT’s has allowed musicians to tokenise and publish their work as non-fungible assets. This has created another avenue for artists to monetise their creations. Famous artists such as Eminem and Lil Pump have already utilised NFT’s. This comes hand in hand with film, TV and any form of creation.

NFT’s are something everyone is going to have to get used to in the future and it’s going to be interesting to see the development of the industry in the years to come.

Share This: