The sky-high NFT selling rates have sparked the typical puzzlement and mockery, which has long plagued the crypto industry that has failed to find a useful application for its capabilities outside of trading currencies.
Because many of the trades are using cryptocurrencies, which have changed drastically in worth over the previous two years, there is concern about the sustainability of prices.
The emerging market for these products shows a noteworthy, technically astute attempt by digital content creators to engage monetarily with their consumers and cut out intermediaries.
Many NFT purchasers are enthusiasts and admirers who brag about their purchases on social networking sites or televisions in their houses. Others are attempting to profit from the rise in bitcoin value. Many people consider it a kind of amusement that incorporates betting, sports cards collection, investment, and day trading.
So, what are “Non Fungible tokens” exactly?
A fungible token is a resource that may be traded as a like for like in economic terminology. Consider USD or Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum: they both have similar worth and may be readily swapped.
For instance, a Bitcoin can be replaced with another Bitcoin, or in the non-digital world, a $5 note can be replaced with a $5 note. A non-fungible item, such as an antique home or a vintage vehicle, has its inherent worth.
NFTs are created by combining this concept with the cryptosystem registered on the blockchain ledger. These are essentially electronic c
ertifications of provenance that may apply to graphic design or, well, fairly whatever else that is digital, such as sound recordings, videos, animation, GIFs, and even this post.
Non-Fungible Tokens verify an item's provenance by storing the information on a blockchain network that is kept on servers all over the world, making it almost difficult to misplace or delete.
These certificates are now popular in the collection community where they have been used to tackle an issue that is inherent to digital merchandise: claiming possession of stuff, which could be freely and indefinitely reproduced.
According to NonFungible.com, the monthly revenues of NFTs exchanged have increased from a mere million to $241 million since
September 2020. The NFT frenzy is causing havoc in the conventional arts, gaming, sporting, and premiums industries since the marketplaces are now available to anybody with an Ethereum wallet and a willingness to link to the blockchain ledger.
Artworks are typically launched and auctioned in groups, with buyers being assigned randomly.
Decentraland, a digital environment where you may gain tracts, mansions, and connect with other users, is a haven for gaming junkies and lockdown-averse people. A LeBron James dunk was bought for $208,000 on NBA Top Shots, and Jack Dorsey's first tweet was gained for $2.9 million.
Brief History of NFTs
Colored Coins
The concept of NFTs has been around since December 2012, when “Colored Coins” was launched on the Bitcoin blockchain, a project that Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum founder, was a part of.
It was born out of the desire to issue real-world assets like real estate on a blockchain. Eventually, the constraints of Bitcoin's programming language did not keep the application alive.
The notion of Colored Coins allowed for experimentation and established the basis for future successful NFTs.
CryptoPunks
On the Ethereum blockchain, CryptoPunks established the world's first marketplace for rare digital art in October 2017. The project's creators displayed 10,000 distinct cartoon characters that anyone with an Ethereum wallet could claim-free.
All of them were immediately claimed, resulting in a thriving secondary market where collectors traded them for higher rates. Because the ERC721 Ethereum token had not yet been established, the CryptoPunk NFTs were issued on a mix of the ERC20 and ERC721 Ethereum tokens.
CryptoKitties
CryptoKitties, which went viral and raised $12.5 million in funding, signified the mainstreaming of NFT in 2017. CryptoKitty virtual cats may be bred.
They have a unique number and a 256-bit genome containing DNA and many features (pattern, mouth shape, hair, eye shape, base color, accent color, and more) that are handed down to their digital feline offspring.
The cartoon collectibles have reached over 5,000 ETH in volume at the height of CryptoKitty buying, breeding, and trading. Founder Cat #18 was sold for 253 Ethereum (about $110,000 at the time of sale).
This was eventually surpassed by the $170,000 selling of “Dragon” for 600 ETH in September 2018. CryptoKitties soon grew in popularity, causing a spike in pending transactions on the Ethereum network, accounting for over
10% of network load and threatening to crowd out competing apps.
In response, Ethereum miners raised the gas cap, allowing more data per block and more transactions per second. To accommodate the recent phenomenon, marketplace sites such as OpenSea and RareBits arose.
Counterparty
Counterparty, a P2P financial platform/open-source internet protocol founded on the Bitcoin blockchain, was established a few years later, in 2014. It includes many initiatives with their assets, such as trading cards and memes.
In 2015, the makers of the Spells of Genesis game used Counterparty to become the first to release in-game assets on a blockchain. By October 2016, collectible memes featuring the iconic green frog had been released. Pepes are a rare find on Counterparty.
Counterparty has a slew of projects running on its platform, many of which include NFT-like assets. With the rise of Ethereum in popularity in early 2017, memes began to be exchanged there as well.
In March 2017, Peperium, a decentralized meme marketplace, and trading card game, was unveiled.
It allowed anybody to create memes that would live forever on IPFS and Ethereum. Peperium, like Counterparty, had an associated token with the ticker symbol RARE, which was used for meme production and payment for listing fees.
As the trading of rare Pepes on Ethereum became more popular, two innovative technologists launched their own NFT service with a twist. John Watkinson and Matt Hall discovered they could produce unique characters on the Ethereum network.
The number of characters would be restricted to 10,000, and no two would be identical. Their initiative was dubbed CryptoPunks in honor of the Cyberpunks, who experimented with Bitcoin antecedents in the 1990s. Watkinson and Hall gave a CryptoPunk out free to everyone having an Ethereum wallet.
All 10,000 CryptoPunks were quickly claimed, and a bustling secondary market for buying and selling them arose. CryptoPunks, interestingly, did not follow the ERC721 standard since it had not yet been developed, but they were also not completely ERC20 because of its restrictions.
As a result, CryptoPunks are best defi
ned as a cross between ERC721 and ERC20.
Major NFTs
Rare Pepe
Memes were just a matter of time until
they made their way to the blockchain. People started issuing "rare Pepes" as assets on the Counterparty platform in October 2016. This frog figure is included in a rare Pepe, which is a sort of meme. These memes have a large following.
The Rare Pepe Meme Directory is a specific sort of meme trade. The Rare Pepe Meme Directory includes "experts" that confirm the rarity of the Pepe memes, as if being on the Bitcoin blockchain was not enough. Putting aside the oddness, this example shows that customers seek distinct digital products.
The Homer Pepe is a user-generated card from Joe Looney's Rare Pepe collections platform, which was launched in 2016 and was incl
uded at the Rare Art Labs Digital Art Festival in 2018. Kell purchased the card for $38,500 at the first-ever live auction for blockchain art.
At least one Rare Pepe has changed hands in the last few days for 149.99 ether, which is almost $500,000 at current rates. Another copy was sold for 111.1 ETH on Monday morning.
Such prices fall short of the million-dollar purchases garnered by certain CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, but industry insiders believe the Rare Pepes may ultimately bring in much more money owing to their historical significance.
PepeCash
PepeCash is a card similar to the others in this
directory, except it is liquid. Currently, around 700 million Pepe Cash is in circulation. PepeCash is Pepesphere's money.
PepeCash is required to pay your submission fee for your Rare Pepes to be included in our directory and wallets.
Some individuals are also developing games that make use of PepeCash. Following the sale of RAREPEPE, GOXPEPE, and SHITCOINCARD to market purchasers, PepeCash was given to all holders. FoldingCoin miners get a part of PepeCash as well. The rest was burnt after various giveaways on Twitter and in the Telegram conversation.
Lambo Crypto
Lambo is an abbreviation for Lamborghini, a high-end automobile that costs at least $200,000. When Lambo is a slang term for the sort of exotic automobile, individuals want to gain when the value of their crypto assets skyrockets.
Many individuals feel that investing in cryptocurrency is one method to become wealthy (fast). As a symbolic gesture, crypto fans have purchased a Lamborghini. "When Lambo?" translates to “When are we going to get outrageously rich off of this cryptocurrency holding?”
When a new coin or token enters the market, this question constantly arises.
Many cryptocurrency investors regarded the digital asset to get out of their present financial difficulties, according to the cryptocurrency community's optimistic viewpoint. They saw it as a new way to live a luxurious lifestyle and
were determined to make it a reality.
In 2013, a member on the internet site 4chan reported about his purchase of a brand new Lamborghini using Bitcoin. The customer spent around 216 BTC on a 2014 Lamborghini Gallardo.
The tale quickly went viral. Since then, auto shops in the United States have seen a surge in the number of new clients looking to trade Bitcoin for a Lamborghini, as the new affluent spend their crypto riches on the Italian supercar.
The enthusiasm surrounding NFTs, like all other sensations on the web, may quickly burn out. Cryptocurrency values may fall more, or individu
als may end up losing curiosity as the epidemic subsides.
Alternatively, it may rise and rise onwards to greater heights. The attraction for sellers is there. They now have a solid platform where they can expect to get huge rewards for their hard work.
Although for buyers who are buying it for things other than sentimental value like a financial investment for the long term, have to weigh in the pros and cons and research deeply about the NFT and its potential market.
