So, you’ve heard about NFTs, but you still don’t quite know what they are. Well, you’ve come to the right place.
“In economics, fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable, and each of its parts is indistinguishable from another part.” ― Wikipedia
Losing focus already? No worries. NFTs are not as complicated as everyone is making them out to be. They are a form of cryptocurrency that can be used to publish art and music to blockchains, among other things, and with an added utility such as the ability to grant artists royalties. NFTs can also maintain verifiable copyrights to content creators, including signatures. It is easy to verify you have the real deal, whether there is only one copy or a million out there.
NFTs are different from other cryptocurrencies in the sense that the rest of them can be traded for an equal number and amount of that same currency, whereas individual NFTs are entirely unique. I would describe them on a blockchain as like a satoshi, which is the smallest unit measurement of Bitcoin (BTC), except with a digital fingerprint, all unique like snowflakes; this is how they lack fungibility, which is a good thing for many purposes. NFT applications are endless, but most exciting is the implementation of digital media in a variety of arts and their roles in blockchain-powered games.
Here is a short video explaining NFT basics for beginners by Rhett / Mankind on YouTube:
According to the Cointelegraph article "Beeple NFT sells for record $6.6M as bidding for 'Everydays' at Christie's hits $2.2M" by Joshua Mapperson, an anti-Trump NFT just broke the world record by selling for $6.6 million USD, with the prior record being $1.5 million USD. The NFT is epic, you can view it here.
"In the recent CNBC article “Crypto collectibles are selling for thousands - and celebrities like Mark Cuban are cashing in” by Ryan Browne, is it said that CryptoPunks, a now-aged NFT project, has generated $45.2 million USD in the last week alone, and that is only one project of many. People have already paid in excess of $700,000 USD for a single CryptoPunk NFT image/graphic. Many early generation NFTs are not impressive artwork; quite the opposite, so you can imagine what impressive, limited edition pieces will sell for in the near future! I am extremely excited about the future of NFTs and have no doubt they will be a large part of my role here at Cryptowriter/NFTwriter.
It is expected that card collections such as baseball, football, and basketball will be a heavy focus in the near future. It is important to note that digital art is better for the environment as it does not waste natural resources to produce paper. You don’t have to toss a canvas every time you want to change something substantial about a piece in digital artwork, either. This is not to say that traditional artists have no role to play, quite the contrary. Traditional pieces of art can be converted into digital pictures and be sold as NFTs, often making them even more beautiful with enhancements if that is the artist’s desire.
NFTwriter, a branch of Cryptowriter, has begun minting NFTs through WAX on the EOSIO blockchain, which is superior for dApps (Decentralized Applications) when compared to Ethereum’s chain. The inbound WAX NFTs and their creator's happiness will prove it - as if the gas fees weren’t already a massive red flag on the Ethereum blockchain. Artists should not have to pay outrageous fees to publish their work, and they should get more back in return for their efforts, talents, passions, and time expenditure. Far too long have artists not gotten the pay they deserve, even being routinely discouraged from entering into it as a career out of fear that they would be unable to make a living; I believe the end of that is near!
Artists attempting to use Opensea and Rarible, Ethereum-only blockchain NFT publishing websites, are looking at insane transaction fees just to give away their NFTs, let alone sell them. You may be wondering why they haven’t already been using WAX. WAX EOSIO NFTs are just now beginning to pick up in massive popularity with talented artists after being shadowed by the heavily congested and dysfunctional Ethereum chain. WAX’s EOSIO chain was not immediately recognized as necessary to NFT success before ETH gas fees were such a large problem, which doesn’t have a layer two solution (tx aka transaction fee solution) in sight, unfortunately. Now the ETH community is talking about layer three when layer two should have solved these issues ages ago, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
William Peaster, a prominent Ethereum figure, and ETHwriter wrote this morning that “The Ethereum community is in wartime mode when it comes to scaling. The gas fees are simply too damn high!” I have nothing but respect for Peaster, a hell of a nice man with a high level of intelligence. Still, I think he needs to wake up to the reality that people will not continue to be subjected to these unnecessary fees.
I made a lot of money flipping UNI, an ERC-20 token running on Ethereum. I abandoned it entirely yesterday morning because if the market crashes, I want to have a currency with a functional utility show for my investment. I do not believe NFT value will correlate with Bitcoin as much as other cryptocurrencies due to their intrinsic and aesthetic values. I am HODL’ing mine for the long term; regardless of which chain you are on, these NFTs are expected to go up in price dramatically.
It is easy to get too invested in something, but you have to know when something isn’t working anymore, and not string people along as a way to boost your odds of success; it’s widely known that Ethereum only works for the wealthy, and even for them, it is inefficient. There may be some promise in “Rollups” on Ethereum that would help with this problem, but I kindly doubt it. Rollups face integration problems, and if I have learned anything about the constantly-evolving world of cryptocurrencies, it is not to wait around for a solution when we have a better alternative already. Why wait for what may be when you can do what you want now using EOSIO instead of Ethereum?
I highly recommend you avoid Ethereum based NFTs as WAX’s EOSIO capability is active, and the support is about to take off like a bat out of hell. WAX supports both Ethereum and EOSIO blockchains for NFTs, but you’ll quickly learn why you want to use EOSIO - it is superior, and NFT artists will see more income and less overhead as a result. There are other neat features I can not yet announce, but stay tuned. There is an incredible movement behind this project with a universal support level I have not seen for anything but Bitcoin itself.
It is an exhilarating time for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. For those of us privy to the overwhelming amount of information to absorb, it is almost too much to handle without getting anxious because the possibilities are endless. It is clear that NFTs are not going anywhere except in the way of success. The market is about to blow up, especially in the wake of cryptocurrencies having gone mainstream.
Sly Jinx, a musician/artist, also known as 
For those interested in learning more about WAX, which stands for Worldwide Asset eXchange, I wrote WAX - The King of NFTs, and it contains a lot more information for artists, investors, and developers:
https://www.voice.com/post/@thomaswolf/wax-the-king-of-nfts-1613938213-1487508551
If you are a talented artist looking to get involved with WAX NFTs & NFTwriter, email me at [email protected] with some examples of your work or a link to your portfolio, and I will be happy to work with you on getting involved and onboarded.
NFTwriter is actively seeking new artists, and I will be heading the recruitment process. It may be the best decision you’ve ever made if you get involved on the ground level, and one thing you can count on is that I will never give you false promises. I worked hard to build an honest reputation since I started writing, and I had to remove myself from lucrative projects to maintain my integrity. It was worth it, and I am glad there is a place for everyone in the crypto-verse.
As always, comments, suggestions, and friendly debates are highly encouraged.
Stay smart & Stay safe.
-Thomas Wolf
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch
https://www.voice.com/post/@thomaswolf/nfts-explained-1614384554-819495683
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungibility
https://cointelegraph.com/news/beeple-nft-sells-for-record-6-6m-as-bidding-for-everydays-at-christie-s-hits-2-2m
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/nfts-why-digital-art-and-sports-collectibles-are-suddenly-so-popular.html
https://niftygateway.com/itemdetail/secondary/0x12f28e2106ce8fd8464885b80ea865e98b465149/100010001
https://www.voice.com/post/@wmp/l3-is-the-future-of-ethereums-rollups-scene-1614360703-829701102
https://twitter.com/merkleseeds
https://youtube.com/channel/UCt3l-pn2ET7R3BWAp6C3XKA
https://www.voice.com/post/@thomaswolf/wax-the-king-of-nfts-1613938213-1487508551
https://www.voice.com/post/@thomaswolf/nfts-explained-1614384554-819495683
DISCLAIMER
I am not a certified financial, tax, or legal advisor, analyst, or planner. The above information should not be considered advice but as an opinion intended to share information and ideas for entertainment and independent research purposes. Cryptowriter and its writers are not responsible for any losses or damages incurred as a result of misinterpreting personal opinions for professional advice.
This post was originally published for Cryptowriter in association with Voice.
