NFT's, everyone has heard about them but what exactly is an NFT?
Well, to dive into the topic we first need to take a look at the term NFT. The term NFT was first coined by Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash on 3, May 2014 at a convention in New York City, New York. An NFT or non-fungible token as the acronym stands for. Is a modern technology based on the idea of the blockchain (for more see here). Used chiefly for things such as art like the "crypto punks" NFT line or the more popular "BORED APES" NFT line just to name a few there is actually more to the idea of NFT'S than just digital art made by some AI.
While yes that is the current primary purpose of the technology. It can also be used for things like the identification of individuals or groups as well as be used for things such as digital record keeping and more.
Back to our focus on the art side of the NFT technology, most NFT ART is done via AI
technologies such as the "Dream AI art NFT generator" that I personally use for my NFT artwork that can be viewed here.
There is a lot of debate as to whether in general or not NFTS and more broadly AI art, in general, should be considered art due to the lack of actual traditional artistry, to those people I say " a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Now, what do I mean by that you ask? Well just look at almost any song or piece of music made within the last decade, most of it was done electronically without having ever even touched a real instrument beyond maybe a midi keyboard. Could you then not say the same thing about AI-generated art?
when making a piece of AI art the artist will use a program such as the aforementioned Dream art NFT generator. this is done by feeding the program a series of prompts ranging from a single word to multiple sentences. Once the prompt has been given the program will then generate an image based on the prompts given similar to the above image made by me using the Dream art NFT generator app. Though this process seems fairly straightforward it can take hours to get a decent image even when using the same prompts. most AI artists will use the same prompt possibly dozens of times ( my record is 10) before they have a usable image.
once an artist has a workable image they can then take the art and "mint' it on the blockchain through an art market for NFTS such as opensea. this minting process is done to ensure a public ledger is kept to record who owns the rights to the item at any given time. once an NFT has been minted the artist can choose to keep the item for themselves or sell it off to another interested potential buyer. once a buyer has obtained their NFT they can do a myriad of things with it such as make it their profile photo on sites such as Reddit, Twitter, and many more.
ok so I have my NFT and I made it my Twitter profile photo is that all Ithan can do with it? Seems kinda lame to me. OH on the contrary my friend, you can do so much more with it than that!
lots of apps and games such as the popular metaverse application IMVU as well as other popular metaverse applications such as the metaverse platform made by the company formerly known as Facebook also support NFT integration. This allows you to turn your digital NFT into a piece of art to be hung on a virtual wall as you do with real-world physical art. and the potential is only going up from there! not only can you use this new NFT you bought as wallpaper for your fave computing devices, a profile photo, or as an accessory in a compatible game app or program, but you can also use it as a speculative investment.
Wait I thought investments were things like stocks and bitcoin and stuff like that? you say. You are right kinda. once an NFT is minted and sold to the buyer it is stored in what is likely the same "Wallet" you keep that 15$ you spent on bitcoin 4 years ago and forgot about. (Go check on that btw.) once stored in your wallet such as the metamask wallet (my preferred digital wallet application) you can then hold on to the NFT for as long as you wish to let it gain value or you can sell it off to someone else who is interested in the piece. So there you have it, the basics of NFT'S and how they work.
* Nothing in this post is to be taken as financial advice or investment advice these are just the thoughts of a random shmuck on the internet.*
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