Are NFTs worth the rage?

Are you someone who is tired of listening to your relatives, friends, celebrities, or neighbours gloating about NFTs at all times? And you don’t understand a word they say? Or do you also feel like buying NFTs but have no idea about what it really is? The truth is that you must be living under a rock if you haven’t heard about NFTs yet. But don’t worry! This is a secret that will be kept between us. Read this article to learn about the intricacies of NFTs and then form an opinion if they are worth the rage or not. This article will give you an in- depth analysis of NFTs or Non-Fungible Token and will help you understand its importance and relevance.

All you need to know about Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs

NFT is an acronym for Non- Fungible Token. They are digital collectibles that can be purchased and traded using digital cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum. These irreplaceable collectibles use blockchain technology for authenticity. Let’s understand it with the help of an example: Cash currency and bitcoins are fungible assets i.e replaceable or that can be interchanged with something of equal value. On the other hand, an NFT is non fungible i.e it has unique properties which makes it irreplaceable and it cannot be traded with something else.

NFTs are similar to your physical assets. The only difference is that they are digital and therefore can be treated as digital collectibles or digital assets. NFTs can literally be anything digital. It could be photos, videos, drawings, music, books, artificial intelligence, tweets, DMs etc. Even this article can turn into an NFT if you want. Also, we have good news for all the authors or publishers who are searching for a platform to begin the journey of learning or bidding NFTs for Books. RollingSlate is providing such a platform. You can bid on current book NFTs or list your book as an NFT to earn money and popularity.

Now let’s come back and further learn about NFTs. The main concern of those who know even a little bit about NFTs is - are NFTs worth their hard-earned money? Or the rage?

Some researchers say that NFT is a bubble. While many experts and world-renowned leaders believe that NFTs are not going anywhere and are here to stay. They are encouraging people to start investing in them as soon as possible to reap the returns in the future.

NFTs have been around since 2014 but they gained massive popularity only recently after a digital artwork raised a massive amount of $69,346,250. Yes, you read it right! You can take a moment to inhale it in. Mike Winkelmann popularly known as Beeple is a digital artist behind this extraordinary achievement. Now let’s find out what made this masterpiece unique. The artist Beeple posted the first art piece online on 1 May 2007. After that he posted a new art piece every single day for thirteen-and-a-half years. Recently he compiled those individual pieces together in the form of a collage. He named it called Everydays: The first 5000 days, a unique work in the history of digital art. In this digital masterpiece, he stitched all the same themes and same color palettes together to add an aesthetic vibe to it.

The multiple marketplaces that have popped up where you can buy and sell NFTs are OpenSea, Grimes’ choice, Nifty Gateway, and Rarible.

Some Pros and Cons of NFTs:

Research says that a person must consider NFTs as any other form of investment. Clearly understanding the purchasing and selling process, being aware about all the possible risks is a must. After researching and calculating the risk, if you think that you should invest then you must go ahead and take the leap. Now let’s delve into the pros and cons of NFTs.

Pros:

- NFTs or Non-Fungible Token allow artists and creators to directly generate money from their hard work. A significant example of this aspect has been mentioned above. NFTs eliminate the involvement of third parties or brokers to sell or market their art. Thus, an artist can freely interact and transact directly without paying any commission of their work to the third parties.

- The description mentioned on the token can never be altered or disrupted by anyone. It establishes a system and prevents forging. This data can never be erased, misplaced, tampered or removed from the blockchain. This attribute of NFTs assigns it a high value and thus deemed collection worthy.

- People who purchase the NFT acquire its ownership which is the best part. Buying an NFT is just like purchasing a physical asset. It provides you some basic usage rights, such as being able to post the book online or set it as your display picture. You can sell it any time you want to for a profit by tracking the value. It also gives an added bragging rights to the owner of the book with a blockchain technology to back it up.

Cons:

- Just because you have the ability to buy NFTs does mean that you should buy them. One must be aware of its risky nature. NFTs are still in their nascent stage and people don’t have previous records or history to learn its technicality from. But if you are still willing to give it a try, then you should start with investing a small amount.

- NFTs are considered digital collectibles or digital assets which makes them prone to capital gain taxes. Just like you pay tax when you sell stocks at a profit, similarly you pay tax when you sell NFTs at profit.

- The value of an NFT is highly subjective. Maybe you liked something and you felt that it was worth the price of the bid and you purchased it. This means that during the time of resale you may or may not receive the price you paid during the purchase. There is even a possibility of not being able to resell it at all if no one wants it. Therefore, be prepared for all the possibilities before purchasing an NFT.