What are NFTS?The most important questions and answers simply explained |OMR - Online Marketing Rockstars

In addition to "metaverse", the term "NFT" is the digital buzzword of the year.But wait a minute.Metaverse, NFT, blockchain-you still have no plan from this new tech stuff?No problem, here is the NFT crash course for everyone who wants to jump on the crypto train in time.

Anyone who has opened a completely any news page in the last six months has already read the three magical letters: NFT stands for non-fungable tokens and made headlines, especially in the context of digital works of art, which were sold for millions of dollars.After the big hype was sparked, the first corporations such as Nike, sports leagues like the NBA or the Bayern Munich football club moved quickly.But what exactly are NFTs, how companies have to do with them so far and whether you should also participate in the big trend game, that seems a mystery to many.With this explainer we want to remedy you.

Sounds cool, but I'm going too quickly.From the front please: what the hell is the metaverse?

You are right, sorry.If you want to understand NFTS and what role you play, you first have to understand what the great vision of the metaverse is.My colleague Roland wrote a detailed article about it, here we stay with the short version.The origin of the term "Metaverse" comes from the science fiction novel "Snow Crash" from the American Neal Stephenson published in 1992.

In it, Stephenson describes a dystopian future society in which tech companies dominate the world.The "meta person" is a completely digital, endless parallel world with its own eco system, in which people flee to escape the sad reality.There is a separate currency in the "Metaversum", the end of the game can meet with friends and consume goods.

The idea of this digital parallel world has inspired many great silicone Valley personalities.Google founder Sergey Brin said that Snow Crash was one of two books that had influenced his whole life.A few weeks ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg openly announced that he wanted to make a "Metaverse Company" from Facebook;Shortly afterwards the launch of Facebook's "Horizon Workrooms" followed, i.e. software for virtual meeting rooms.And US tech investor Matthew Ball sees in the metaverse "The gateway to most digital experiences" of the future.

The more digital our world becomes, the more happening is shifted to the Internet, the closer we are the idea of a meta verse-which does not have to mean that we will soon live in a dark age of the tech companies.After all, real life is not a sci-fi novel.So far, the metaverse only exists in the form of gigantic free-to-play game worlds, such as Fortnite or Roblox.Here, too, users can now go to concerts together, look at a movie or even celebrate their wedding.However, they are not connected to a large virtual space and so far only interesting for a few people.Above all, it is important for us, and we come back to our topic that it is the places where crypto technologies such as NFTS are used.

Still sounds too theoretical to me.

Then try it yourself.In addition to Fortnite and Roblox, there are numerous other virtual worlds that are accessible for everyone.Decentraland is one of the best known and largest virtual platforms in which even the British Kunsthaus Sothebys has opened a gallery.

Crypto Voxels, on the other hand, offers a good impression of the current advertising -related possibilities within the metaverse.Crypto Voxels is the largest crypto advertising network in the world, in which digital space can acquire useful properties and advertising boards in the form of NFTs.But you don't have to buy anything there.You can just walk around, look around and get a first feeling for the metaverse.

All right, I understood it, virtual world and such.But what exactly are NFTs now?

NFTS are digital, tradable goods within this metaverse.NFTS can be clothing for your avatar, but also the virtual collection card of a soccer player, the digital musical album of your favorite band or a screenshot of the first ever made tweets.NFTS can be digital sneakers, or an old internet meme.

NFTS have two important properties.The first is: as the name says, they are non-fungible, so not interchangeable.This differed from cryptocurrencies.If you have ten bitcoins, it doesn't matter which bitcoin you pay with.The value of the Bitcoin currency can increase or fall, but the individual Bitcoin always have the same value.The value of NFTS varies.If you buy a collection of 100 -looking football collection cards, the value of the individual cards may develop differently over time.

The second important property of NFTS: Each one has a clearly identifiable owner.The reason for this is crypto technology, which is both behind cryptocurrencies and NFTS, the blockchain.To go into the details would be out of touch, to put it simply: Blockchains are databases operated by millions of people at the same time.Because blockchain data is never deleted, all of them can ever be understood forever on their stored information.

That means: If you buy an NFT (or a cryptocurrency) today and sell tomorrow, this process will be saved on a blockchain and can theoretically be traced by everyone in the world forever.There are different types of blockchain, most NFTs use the Ethereum blockchain, because in contrast to the Bitcoin blockchain, it is not limited to cryptocurrencies.For this reason, NFTs are mostly acted in the Ethereum currency ether.

The price range of previous NFTs ranges from a few dollars to several million dollars.The NFT, which has been traded most expensive so far, is the graphic "The First 5000 Days" by the American artist Beeple.It was sold in March by Christie’s auction house.The buyer is a long-time crypto investor and paid around 42.000 Ether, which at the time corresponded to about $ 69 million.

This is damn a lot of money.Still probably only a short -term trend, so let's just wait until it is over.

The numbers say something else.In the first half of 2021 alone, risk capital providers worldwide invested around $ 17 billion in crypto-based assets, three times as much as in the entire previous year.The total value of the global crypto industry currently amounts to around $ 1.9 trillions, so about 1.600 billion euros.Still not as much as Apple's 2.000 billion euros in market capitalization, but still too much to disappear the day after tomorrow.

NFTS are treated in cryoti currencies.So some people have made a lot of money.However, these exorbitant sums also make it clear: digital currencies - with their price fluctuations by up to 20.000 percent within a year - attract aggressive speculators: inside, who use high investments in NFTS to make quick profits.Many financial experts: Therefore, regularly warn of a bursting crypto bubble.Regardless of this, the acceptance of institutions and companies increases compared to crypto payments and thus also NFTs more and more.Already 85 in Switzerland.000 dealers: inside payments in Bitcoin and ether too.However, there are still no comparable statistics for the German market.

Well, let's say the trend does not disappear.Then can I get rich quickly?

Realistically speaking, the probability is not high.So far there are only a few NFTs that have been sold for over one million dollars.And the most valuable among them are closely linked to the history and culture of the Internet.The 69 million dollar artwork "The First 5000 Days" by Beeple is a collage of digital graphics, of which he 5.000 days at a time (over 13 years) one produced.

Other valuable NFTs are, for example, the two cryptopunks.They were created by a Canadian team of development as one of the first NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain and sold for the equivalent of $ 7.9 million.The first tweet of Twitter boss Jack Dorsey brought it to $ 2.9 million.So if you are not a meme legend or related to the WWW inventor Tim Berners-Lee, it could be difficult with the quick wealth.

Unfortunately I am not a meme legend.But there are countless groups that have jumped on the NFT train.What about them?

Among the Early Adopters of NFT can be found above all large corporations that have invested part of their advertising budget in crypto art.Crypto art is mostly visual animations or graphics that are presented on online platforms such as OpenSea or rarible for auction.

However, it is difficult to speak of systematic success in the previous campaigns.The Buffalo shoe brand, for example, created virtual shoes together with the digital fashion agency The Fabricant.Under the hashtag #burningfor accompanying the campaign, around 30 posts with reference to the shoe can be found on Instagram.Coca Cola gave away digital refrigerators and threw a virtual launch party on the top of a coatosis.The refrigerator stands for sale for the equivalent of over three million dollars, but the only bid is less than one cent.And the suitcase manufacturer Rimowa produced a virtual cabin light for the aircraft and a loudspeaker as a.There are just two commandments for the cabin light.

Better than for the corporations, things are currently running for sports clubs.On marketplaces such as Sorare (here in the OMR portrait) or NBA Top Shot and swap fans different NFTs, from digital Panini stickers of their favorite footballers to video recordings of special basketball moments.The digital collective effect has been increased since international top teams such as FC Bayern Munich, FC Liverpool or basketball stars such as LeBron James have recognized how Lucrative License deals with such platforms should be.Basketball moments such as this, held in animated dice, achieve regular sales prices in the five-digit range.

understand.But I by chance no millions of advertising budget or a sports club.Now butter with the fish: should I participate or not?

To be honest: there is no clear answer to that.Also there is still no gold-to-NFT playbook, after all, the technology was only known to a wider audience at the beginning of this year.

If you take the step, you shouldn't buy a property including a billboard on cryptovoxels or in Decentraland.Also because the gas prices, a kind of service fee that you have to do for every transaction can quickly cost several hundred euros.Better to click through the different marketplaces, walk through the open worlds of blockchain games or seek artists who have experience in doing crypto art (to dt.: to manufacture) and start a cooperation with them.

It may be that as an early adopter part of a large digital turn that is just beginning.It may be that the large vision of the meta-verse fails and the NFT technology soon disappears from the scene.There is the risk of NFT, but also the chance.