NFT: owning digital space
According to GWI research, the “typical” global internet user now spends nearly 7 hours per day — 6 hours and 58 minutes — using the internet through all devices.
To put this in perspective, if we imagine that the average person sleeps 7 to 8 hours per day, the average internet user now spends more than 40% of their awake life online. From a child to an adult, every age group has ridden on digital space. So whether you are in the office or at home, you probably would be engaged on any of the digital platforms for most of your day. In this sense, digital space has become the second home in our day-to-day lives.
A home is a physical space, which has an ownership guarantee, so like the other physical assets, if however digital assets start a mechanism of ownership, will it be sustained? From a small video clip to digital artwork such as poster, 3-D art, music, meme, or a simple snapshot, everything has its uniqueness and acquires a place in a digital world, the idea is to recognize the ownership of that particular entity.
However, if that kind of asset is going to be certified of ownership so to say, what about its replication? Once clicked and shared/ posted, a snapshot will be accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime! So what is the relevance of ownership?
An example will help you get the idea behind it.
Assume I took a photograph, and the photograph is original to me. I certified it as mine and thus became the legal owner of it. Then I shared it on social media, where it can be replicated, imitated, and iterated an infinite number of times by anyone. However, the original piece will remain with me, and I am the rightful proprietor of that photograph. This is the idea behind NFT.
The Monalisa painting is one of a kind. Several artists attempted to replicate it almost exactly, but the original painting is now housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is a physical artwork, but NFT deals with digital assets only.
Recently we have seen NFT of the first-ever tweet authored by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in the online auction. The historic first tweet from the account of @Jack reads “just setting up my twttr.”
There are thousands of diverse examples of this kind ranging from a Nyan Cat character to a Bored Ape to a collage, everything found a place in this digital wave.
How does nft validate ownership of digital arts?
NFT stands for non-fungible tokens. “Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. That means, unlike regular currencies which can be replaced with the same amount of value, these tokens can not. A 100 rs note and 10 coins of 10 rs are exchangeable, as they have the same worth, however, these tokens can not be exchanged like this. NFT works on blockchain technology. You may or may not be familiar with blockchain technology. So far, the Ethereum blockchain has been used in it. To describe it in nutshell, a blockchain is a decentralized distributed database that stores the data of an ever-growing list of records in blocks, which provides the most secure way to store any digital data in a distributed format. The distributed format means that these records will be available at every network node.
First, digital artists can use the blockchain criterion to create a token with a unique ID following the terms. Tokens that have their unique value and do not have an option to other tokens are referred to as NFT. Artists can link the NFT to their digital art when they publish this NFT. This is sometimes referred to as the “NFTization” of digital art. Through the possession of NFT, it is now possible to prove that it is the original.
So the digital art is attached to the token to own that digital piece authoritatively.
In the NFT marketplace, NFT artists can sell NFT linked to digital art. Users of the marketplace can find and buy this NFT, and the transaction history will be noted on the blockchain during this time.
Another issue is the trust in the transaction, which concerns about
Traceability is a characteristic that is centered on details about NFT holders. The holder is recorded on the blockchain at the same time the NFT is issued, and all subsequent transactions are also recorded on the blockchain. As a result, the buyer can trust the seller to be the current holder of the NFT and trade with confidence.
Nonetheless, because the concept is new, the pace of growth, sustainability, and potential market are all areas of concern.
Whether or not nft grows to its estimated market size, the virtual world will undoubtedly create thousands of new opportunities for this new generation.
