Digital art and trading cards |
What are NFTs?
NFTs are a booming market on the internet. In the last year alone, more than 25 billion dollars in sales were made with the digital works of art and trading cards. But what exactly is an NFT?
The abbreviation stands for Non-Fungible Token and describes a unique original file that cannot be copied. For this purpose, the file is provided with a so-called token, which in turn is recorded in an Internet database, the so-called blockchain. “The token can change hands, which can then be tracked, and you can see the current status,” says Prof. Christoph Meinel (68) from the Potsdam Hasso Plattner Institute in an interview with BILD.
NFTs can be bought and sold on online marketplaces such as OpenSea, SuperRare, Mintable or Zora at the highest bidder or at a fixed price. Payment is usually made with a cryptocurrency such as ether. Online marketplaces usually charge a fee for transactions.
As with a real work of art, the value of an NFT depends on how desirable the content of the file is. For example, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold the world’s first tweet for $2.9 million. “In addition to the collector’s prestige that can be publicly displayed, NFT can offer access to various services,” says Sven Wagenknecht (32), editor-in-chief of the crypto magazine “BTC-Echo”. The rapper Cro (32), for example, is giving away a total of ten NFTs, the owners of which receive free admission to his concerts for life.
Recently, however, there have also been a lot of negative headlines about NFTs. The average price of traded files fell from just under $4,000 at the beginning of May to just under $300 in the meantime. At the same time, around 90 percent of investors have turned their backs on the market with unforgeable files.
However, the long-term development cannot be predicted. However, the currently low price of NFTs could also be a good moment to start trading in digital goods. And for fans and collectors, the NFTs of their stars and clubs count for more than a possible increase in value.