If you follow news concerning the digital world you may have come across the term NFT. Recently the phenomenon has received a lot of attention when a digital-only artwork was sold for $69m at Christie’s auction house. If it is not yet clear to you what NFTs are, what they are good for, and who buys and sells them, read on, as we will dig into this topic.
Finns are into digital technology and blockchain is gaining space in the country, so we discussed NFTs with a Finnish iGaming expert Auli Wälkky, who told us about NFTs in a nutshell. Read more about Auli here.
What are NFTs?
First of all, we should explain the NFT meaning. NFT stands for non-fungible token. Fungible is a term in economics, and it means that something is interchangeable. For example, you can exchange dollars for euros, or simply swap a 10 euro note for two 5-euro notes. If something is non-fungible, it is unique, and its value cannot be easily determined. For example, a painting of Van Gogh is non-fungible.
An NFT is a collectible digital asset that holds its value in cryptocurrency and in the form of either art or culture. So, an NFT token is different from regular cryptocurrency in the sense that it cannot be exchanged like-for-like, as for example Bitcoin can. NFT art is similar to other collectible items.
Who buys and sells NFTs?
NFT collectors are just like regular collectors of oil paintings, sculptures, unique cars, or comic books. The difference is that the art object is fully digital, and it comes as a JPG file or music file. The problem with digital artwork is that it can be easily copied, stored, and distributed to millions and this is when “tokenization” comes in. By tokenizing NFTs, owners create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.
NFTs in gaming
NFTs are also sold and bought as in-game purchases across different video games. The NFT tokens in this case can be unique weapons, skins, or avatars. If you buy an NFT you will own it and the official ownership of it will be yours—you are not just renting it for the duration of your play. The concept is proving to be very popular, and, in fact, new games are being created based totally on NFTs.
NFT in the casino industry also has a huge impact. Crypto casinos have been becoming more and more popular as they give total anonymity and enhanced financial safety to players. Non-fungible tokens, though, give even higher security to both players and the casino as NFT cryptos are easy to verify. These tokens can be traced to their precise origins and therefore it is easy to avoid fraud. As a casino player from Finland, you will have a chance to play at crypto casinos. You can even find a kasino ilman talletusta so you can test out the games for free before you decide to make a deposit.
NFT’s that are worth millions
Basically, anybody can create and sell NFTs and all you need is a marketplace that brings together the buyers and the sellers. NFT Binance (a cryptocurrency exchange) is a platform that started trading NFTs earlier this summer, but you can trade at other marketplaces as well. All you need to do to start trading is set up an account, deposit some cryptocurrencies and start trading. NFTs are not always worth millions but some of the pricey ones were these:
- Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsay promoted an NFT on the first-ever tweet and got bids of over $2.5m.
- Digital artist Beeple sold an NFT for a record figure of $69 on Christie’s.
- An animated Gif of Nyan Cat was sold earlier this year for $500.000.
Some say that NFTs are just a bubble though and while some artists will make good money with it, nobody knows if the phenomenon is here to stay, or it will be soon forgotten.
Conclusion
NFTs are becoming very popular among collectors and these tokens are giving further security to financial transactions in the gaming and iGaming businesses. Some artworks are traded at sky-high prices while less valuable ones can be accessible for anyone on NFT marketplaces.
