What is an NFT?
NFT stands for Non-fungible token. You may have seen the term somewhere across social media in the form of an artwork, collectible, or even an in-game item. Today we will be focusing on two of many possible forms of NFT’s, collectibles and in-game/usable items. Ethereum.org describes NFTs as, “a way to represent anything unique as an Ethereum-based asset”. In other words, these tokens allow the creation of objects with value and scarcity. Most of the time, the tokens’ values are represented through some sort of digital asset through the cryptocurrency Ethereum. In addition, the tokens are non-fungible, meaning one token does not hold the same value as another. A good example is how a baseball card and another baseball card do not hold the same value even though they are both baseball cards.
So Why does this matter?
Upon first look, NFTs look like an overhyped image, with no substantial technology or content behind it. However, the way in which the Ethereum network allows the NFT to be used is what creates value in it. NFTs follow rules and guidelines that ensure they are compatible with the Ethereum blockchain. In other words, when the token is being created it is given reach to a global Ethereum community. So what does that mean for users? Creators are given a global market where the works they release pay royalties and credit the artists. The NFTs themselves can be traded, sold, or even used in complex financial products. Instead of going to take a traditional loan, you can put up an NFT as collateral when taking out a loan.
Where can you find NFTs?
The primary site I found for NFTs was a site called Opensea (https://opensea.io/). On the site there were collections and featured artists, with their works either up for bid or for sale.
Some Popular Artists:
Cryptopunks: Pixel style character collectibles
Cryptopunks is a prime example of how simple some NFts can be. After a ‘punk’ is released people can resell and try their best to buy a ‘punk’ that they are after.
Twitter account with all of their sales: (https://twitter.com/cryptopunksbot?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Bored Ape Yacht Club: A collection of apes bred with different features. “Each Bored Ape is unique and programmatically generated from over 170 possible traits, including expression, headwear, clothing, and more. All apes are dope, but some are rarer than others.”
The Bored Ape Yacht club is a prime example of how artists are using technology to find new ways to create. The apes are made using a combination of Illustrator layers and a few lines of code to then create one of a kind apes with different features (fur color, hats, eyes, clothes, mouth).
https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/
Older Examples of this ‘Gene Creation’:
Crytpokitties: Cryptokitties uses this same idea of possible traits with a slightly different approach. With Cryptokitties, you can breed the cats you already own to create new other kitties.
Interactive Media:
The other type of media I wanted to share is more ‘usable’ NFTs. This has to do with Decentraland, a virtual world with its own marketplaces, games, and activities. The land has parcels of land available for sale with its naming system of areas. In the lands, certain areas exist and users use their crypto-wallets to access materials.
NFTs in Decentraland
In decentral and NFT’s are can be used to customize your own character, but the interesting part is that the items are available on multiple sites/sources.
On Opensea there exists a collection of “Decentraland Wearables” and at the same time, you can get items on Dentraland’s own Marketplace. Now why is this interesting? It’s like buying in-game skins/items from outside the game and being able to trade the items without using the game at all. In other words, Decentraland creates an approachable environment for people to use NFT’s and see how such technology can be used.
My Thoughts:
Overall I am extremely excited to see how the NFT world has begun to take off. The huge influx of people interested in NFTs because it seems more approachable than Crypto and coding brings in a lot of new users and people bringing the visions of many founders to fruition. That being said, I believe there is a long way for this technology to go. The majority of coverage that I see covers the hype around collectibles—which is cool— but really downplays the potential that NFTs can have. NFTs, bring in the idea of uniqueness in tokens and digital items which hints at the idea of a decentralized yet more connected internet. Right now we use platforms that aren’t really connected with each other and don’t really want to talk to each other, but NFTs might change how users interact with the internet. They could use their wallets with tokens of information that is only accessible to them to use between networks and platforms, who knows. Going back to the idea of where NFTs are at right now, I really like the seemingly positive aspect of the community. The technology seems to give creators of many different aspects of media the ability to take the leap of faith and pursue more creation, and in return, there seems to be an audience that responds positively to it. That being said there probably is a lot of over-valuation with people trying to extract only a profit from tokens. I look forward to the further development of the technology and where it might take us. It would be super cool to have your wallet connected to your messages and have a use (outside of Decentraland or something of the sort) for your NFTs.
NEW LENSES: Experimental Capture and Release 
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