The year 2021 brought many changes in the world of technology but undoubtedly one of the main news was something called NFT but what are NFTs? Here we explain it to you.
NFT significa Non-fungible tokenNon-fungible means "non-fungible". According to Wikipedia, fungibility is the property of a good or commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable and each part of which is indistinguishable from another part. Therefore, an NFT is "non-fungible", meaning that it is unique and cannot be replaced.
Taking this definition into account, we understand that an NFT is something unique. For example, a single collection card is a non-fungible example.
How do NFTs work?
Most NFTs, work on the Ethereumblockchain network, although there are also NFTs on the Solana, Polygon and others. If you don't know what blockchain is, here we explain it. Blockchain is a "block network" that in a very general way, what it does is to work as a group to have an accurate record of transfers, properties and amounts in a network. For example, if I have a Bitcoin and I want to transfer it to another person, the blockchain will make sure that I have that bitcoin in my wallet and that the other person who will receive it exists. In this way, all the information is validated by many anonymous blocks.
NFT's are digital assets, such as a photo, an audio file, a video or any digital asset linked to the blockchain network. That is, when you buy an NFT, the blockchain network validates that this digital asset is now owned by you and no one else. Think of it as a digital "certificate" that validates ownership of a digital asset. And yes, you will always be able to right click on an image and save the image but that does not mean that the rights to that image are yours.
For example, the image above, is part of a collection of NFT's called "Crypto Punks" and was sold for 2,500 Ethereum or $10.2 million approximately.
NFT's have recently become popular as many influencers such as artists, athletes and musicians have decided to buy NFT's and this, has brought a lot of attention to the NFT market.
How to buy an NFT?
To buy an NFT, the first thing you need is to have the cryptocurrency of the network you will be using. Ethereum is the most popular blockchain network today for buying and selling NFTs. To buy Ethereum in Mexico, you can do it from Bitsothe main cryptocurrency exchange in the country
Once you have the cryptocurrencies, you can buy an NFT in a marketplace such as OpenSea, Mintable or Rarible. In these digital marketplaces, you will be able to find different collections and choose the one you like the most.
In order to make your purchase, you will need a digital wallet that can connect to the marketplace. We recommend you to use MetaMask as it is the one that connects the easiest.
In short, NFT's are digital contracts validated by the blockchain network that validate the ownership of a digital asset and anyone can buy and sell NFT's using a marketplace.
