we're going to be discussing non-fungible tokens or nfts. we're going to be touching on what nfts are how they can be used now. how they can be used in the future and some potential downsidesto nfts. i want to show you the vast and interchangeable dynamics of nfts in our digital economy before discussing nfts and the underlying blockchain there's a couple of concepts that we have to preface with my goal once you finish this article is to have the same mind-blown feeling that i had when i first learned about nfts.
.jpg)
so the concepts that we're going to preface with are what are fungible and non-fungible assets and also what exactly is a token fungibility fungibility is the asset's ability to be evenly swapped with an asset of the same type basically it is something that is interchangeable think of when you hand someone an ounce of gold when they hand you back another ounce of gold it is worth the same thing the same way when i hand you a dollar we both know that it's worth a dollar and therefore it can be exchanged for another dollar because the value is equal since we know fungibility is something that can be evenly swapped a non-fungible asset is something that cannot be swapped for the same amount of money or value imagine,
you have a pet and i have a pet for some reason we decide to swap pets be that a cat dog or monkey it doesn't really matter what the pet is it is a non-fungible asset because each of the pet has its own unique traits personality memories with the owner and etc. it doesn't really matter what the pet is because it's non-fungible each pet has its own unique personality character traits and memories with the owner some other examples are family heirlooms houses or cars whenever you have a car maybe you particularly like that car and you have memories with that car that's going to be worth more to you than it is to somebody else now you might be thinking there are some individual characteristics of these things which could allow it to be evenly swapped which allows us to understand that there are also things which are semi-fungible tokens a token is something digital or physical that can be exchanged for or represent a good or service tokens in the blockchain can be seen as something as a stake ownership or a store of value so the token in of itself does not have value but the underlying asset in which the token represents does.
so now that we got these concepts out of the way let's dive right into nfts what is exactly an nft an nft is a digital representation of an asset that cannot be evenly swapped or traded for another nft of the same type the very interesting part is that individual nfts can represent digital art tickets to event in-game items for video games virtual land and so much more the list goes on forever now this alone does not have inherent value but the value comes from the blockchain and the technology behind Them the blockchain adds unique properties to these tokens these properties include owner management positions and transferability on a decentralized platform so let's say you buy a piece of virtual land and you want to go listed on ebay you would find that it's not that straightforward there's a lot of steps that you have to take before you can do so like selling the land exchanging it for money and then selling it but this will not be the case for long the blockchain also imparts standardization tradability and programmability into these tokens there are so many nft marketplaces that have already begun to use this technology.
so you can begin using the nfd blockchains these marketplaces include openc.io and engine for example browsing through these marketplaces is where i had my eureka moment for nfts you can buy so many things from laser swords in a video game a plot of land or even a house but the interesting thing is with the technology behind blockchain let's say you bought all three of those things you purchased a laser sword a house and a plot of land well what you can do is you can take that plot of land put that house on the plot of land and in that house put up a sword stand where you can put your laser sword on display inside that house on that land even though it was not the same nft because the transferability and the mall being on the same blockchain type you can therefore have an ease of accessibility across all of these different nfts and access them in that way it is all interchangeable and since it is standardized it allows things like this to happen it is truly remarkable.
.jpg)
i was looking into a specific item on the marketplace which was a game in which you could have take any nft in which you have brought prior place it into the game and therefore have a game with everlasting content because content is always being produced because anybody can make an nft so pretty much anybody can make an nft and then what you can do is buy it and then place it into this game so it allows the first game for universal creators to come together and combine all of their assets and to create one overall universal game which is quite remarkable really you are also starting to see the world of virtual basketball cards take place with nba's new top shot nft marketplace here.
you can purchase moments of a player's professional career like a highlight and collect them like baseball cards or any type of sports cards really you are starting to see incredible amounts of demand for these items with just prices going upwards of five figures even six figures while the space is just starting to develop let's say you bought a wayne gretzky card for 720 000 which was the price it sold out in the past and you had actually bought a physical version so then you would have to take thought prevention into place and fire prevention in case the card was damaged or stolen instead you could buy a digital version which has no chance of being stolen or burnt in a fire due to the fact that in order to take out the blockchain you'd have to wipe out a global network of computers just to shut it down the only thing in this case you would have to look at keeping your wallet safe also these digitalized items that are being sold are also being partnered with physical items so let's say you bought a wayne gretches card on the blockchain you might have been mailed a physical version of that card but the real item was actually stored on the blockchain so you have a physical version to show off if you want to but you have the extra theft prevention and fire prevention or any overall prevention of it being damaged due to it being on the blockchain.
so now that we've discussed nfts and the key concepts we're going to look into the future of nfts not only can nfts be used for virtual worlds collectibles and games that can actually be used in a myriad of different industries while nfts could make the world of gaming more tangible and more rewarding due to the transferability and trade ability of these tokens this technology would also drastically affect other areas you can actually convert your nft that you gain from buying them or selling them on an exchange for real physical assets like a deed to a real house or even just a pair of shoes this would be the link from digital currency in the digital world to the physical.
which is what some of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world are trying to do right now anything in the world could be tokenized which just means putting it into a digital signature that represents a share or store of value for the underlying asset this means you could own a fractional share of a token that derives itself from a celebrity athlete or any person which also includes fictional characters you could also use this technology as a form of ownership for real-world collectibles that means you get if nfts Represent real-world documentation this would include business documentation birth certificates academic credentials like a diploma etc. also it can be a blockchain based digital storage for real-world high-ticket collectibles with proof of ownership being in your crypto wallet it is inevitable that nfts will learn new people that have not been looked into cryptocurrency so far and therefore will help the adoption of blockchain based technologies.
Thank you
@levycore
@alphafx
@steemitblog
@steemcurator01
@steemcurator02