You've probably heard of NFT, if not then are you living under a rock? NFTs stand for Non-Fungible Tokens. It is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded. NFTs are digit goods, like images, audio, or videos.

But then how did the idea of NFT come from?

As we dive more into social media and technology, our focus has been shifting from physical stuff to digital. Now stuffs on the internet are harder to monetize. Suppose I were to make a sketch of Naruto (if you don't know who Naruto is, seriously what are you doing ?), and someone takes a photo and prints the picture, or someone else sees my sketch tries to make his own, it wouldn't really affect me. By seeing the shades of the pencil you can easily differentiate between my original sketch and the fake ones. Now, what if I were a digital artist, and drew a sketch on my Ipad. As soon as I shall release my sketch on the internet, people can get the exact same image via just a simple right-click or some other method. Since more and more people can just get the exact looking sketch without even paying, the value drops down.

This is where NFTs show up. NFTs are non-fungible meaning they cannot be interchanged. NFT uses blockchain to verify who owns the digital product. They are like a token. When you buy and sell NFTs, you are generally buying and selling your virtual ownership over a product. So what are the advantages of NFTs?

Advantages of NFTs :

• Artists now have a new way to earn and fans a new way to support them.
• NFTs end boring long contracts. Instead smarter contracts are used, like, every time an NFT is sold, they get a percent of the pay.
• NFT opens the door for collectors to collect their rare NFT items. Collectors love to have rare stuff, may it not be anything popular or powerful.
• Using NFT, you can be the sole owner of the token, for a digit piece authenticated by a fraudproof system.
• Anyone can make money out of NFTs. NFTs can be traded and each NFT has a market value.
• NFTs are a very accessible place investing to get started than the Stock Market or the Housing Market where u need the fortune to get started.
• NFTs open up new communities among people. It may give some a feeling of belonging when u buy NFTs from a group.
• In the world of metaverse you may be able to show off your NFTs like you do to your physical goods.

But then everything that looks appealing has certain disadvantages.

Disadvantages of NFTs :

• NFT gives u the ownership, but it doesn't makes you the owner. You cannot use an NFT you bought and sell it in merch, or use it as your logo for your brand.

• NFT aims to help artist, but right now they are not made by some visionary artist instead by opportunistic people who just want the money they are making out of it.

• Almost all NFT transaction are made by ethereum. Ethereum uses Proof of Work, which requires a lot of computers to contribute their power to this network, and is using a lot of energies.

• For every 10 NFTs you see, you'll find only one from a legitimate artist, and the rest are from person who never touch the brushes. They basically take an already copyright work and tokenize it, or even pixelated it to sell it. So if you buy anyone of these you will be breaking copyright infringement.

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• NFTs might be trending now, but there's no confirmation that it will be trending in the future. People might get bored, or you may not be able to show your owned NFTs in the future digital world, and thus the value will drop dramatically and in the end you maybe left with your virtual ownership of a jpeg image.

I think NFTs are famous because not what they are instead the technology they use. What happens in the future, we can't really tell. All we have to do is wait and see.

Thanks for Reading

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Till we meet Again,

Arindol Sarkar.