Before starting
Hold on tight. anyone could be very presumptuous in trying to explain a specific technology in a very accessible way. and maybe even inaccurate at first. But then we’ll go deeper. Together.
How to explain something that you can collect and put in your basket? And later you can sell it. All these things are digital. So yes, you can have a digital basket or a digital pocket. They do not exist in the real world. But they are useful to the real world and it is the only way we created where the whole world knows you are the owner of this thing. Nobody can steal from you or can replicate this object. It is only yours. And you can prove it. You can show it to the world if you want it. And if you are tired of it, well then, you can transfer, donate, sell it. It’s up to you. Having this object in your basket or on your ‘wardrobe’ is also a way to demonstrate your support for something. You bought them because you wanted to sponsor something. It is a little bit different from donating. But also you show the world that you really care about it. Stay together, come along with us. We will start to mention some technical terms. Slowly, please.
This is the “thing” we mentioned earlier that you can put in your basket. NFT is an acronym for “non-fungible token”. It is like a digital certificate. You can store it on the blockchain. You can have a “basket” on this blockchain as well. A “basket” of NFTs.
A few definitions before going deeper:
Fungible: Fungibility is the ability of a good or asset to be readily interchanged for another of like kind. Dollars,bitcoins, euros, they are all fungible.
Non-fungible: Each NFT contains data that differentiates it from any other NFT. Non-fungible assets are just normal stuff. Fungible assets are the odd ones out!
Token: a token is an object that represents something else, such as another object (either physical or virtual. Crypto tokens represent an asset or specific use and reside on their blockchain.
Blockchain: Blockchain refers to a decentralized public ledger that records transactions across many computers. Blockchain has no central point—all information is stored in many different computers at once across the internet, and this makes it hard for anyone to break into a single computer or steal the data.
Because the human being “invented” a new way to deal with digital assets. We have tons of digital stuff, we’ve just never really owned it. Recently we, human beings, discovered a way to store these digital assets and created the possibility to have a unique owner. This “detail” changes everything.
Nobody can dispute if you are the legit owner. If you have this digital asset, this information will be “registered” on the blockchain. Anyone can check it.
It is yours. It is your property. You can do what you want with it.
The fact that we discovered a way to distribute this information through computers around the world (blockchain) opened a whole new market.
Starting with digital art. Now there is a way to attribute an art made by a famous artist, to the owner. So people can buy, donate or sell it. It is tradable. Crazy, no?
The buzz came to the media because a lot of artists started to explore this new possibility which can show the world the future. New generations give more value to digital things. Maybe everything will be a token in the future. And this token will represent a digital/physical object.
Yes. You’ll need to have something like a bank account to be able to receive, to donate, to send an NFT. When we say that people are “collecting” NFTs, it means they are buying it.
When you buy an NFT the token will have a new owner. And the owner will be you. You are represented by the number of your “account”.
By installing a software you will have a wallet. And this wallet will contain all the addresses (the information about your account). These addresses will be used to communicate people that want to transfer something to you for instance. It is free to have a wallet. You can create a wallet in your computer (installing a software), or you can create an account in a crypto exchange (like a bank) and they will manage this account to you. But wait. let’s go back to NFTs....