Three letters have been the punchline of a gigantic meme upsurge in the year 2021 and have even carried onto the current date.
NFT.
You may or may not have heard it before, but if you're an internet native there is a 99.9% chance you're familiar with this term.
What’s an NFT?
So what are NFTs? You may ask yourself and others that question whenever you see it on the internet. It’s something that blew up later in 2021 and has been taking the virtual world by storm either as an ironic meme- or amongst curious innovators, a real investment opportunity and a way to innovate online.
Before you even look into investing money in a picture of an ape (or something else), just find out what it actually is before jumping ship with all that cash.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, meaning you cannot just copy/paste or save it to own it, there is a special token that represents you actually owning the art piece.
An NFT can be a picture of anything, there are series of NFTs being made, here’s the most popularly known, and meme'd, Bored Ape Club;
It doesn’t exactly seem like much right? I’ve literally just pasted this thing into my article, well, I don’t own it at all.
What do they do?
It is basically conveyed by most who regard it in a positive light, as an “art exhibition” and owning the rights to an image online,
You’re more likely to see people shrug this new fad off as something which will die in the coming months or bundling it up with cryptocurrency- the latter of which is right in a way, but not necessarily hitting the bullseye.
Many, if not all, of these NFTs are tightly knitted with crypto, as they are both internet property and can actually be bought by using Ethereum (a type of crypto).
There is a psychology behind all of this, some people do not thoroughly understand some of the words in the abbreviated phrase “NFT” for example whilst still buying them, what does fungible mean? You may ask yourself if you don’t know, but if you do - good job.
“Fungible”
Adjective; replaceable by another good - can be replaced easily.
So NFTs being “non-fungible” means they cannot simply be replaced, like something that is one of a kind which you may own.
How do I buy one myself?
This requires you to open an Ethereum-compatible crypto wallet, otherwise it might be hard for you to obtain one. Now before even thinking of buying one, it is recommended you educate yourself on what exactly you’re buying - or else you are plunging into a form of chanced gambling.
So that you understand fully, it means you will need to know what you’re buying. The bored ape yacht club has been the most successful NFT series, meaning something like that is what you’re going to want to find; but before it gets popular, so your money gains value.
It is an investment, similar to real life collectables. It can either bump the value you invested up, or take away from it, taking either a monetary loss or a gain.
Who makes/invests in NFTs?
From food companies like Burger King and Taco Bell to more hip-styled franchises like Adidas, they have all started up an NFT based project. Although this can inspire some to get in on the craze, it isn’t all what it seems to be.
It means that these companies will be using NFT systems and series to promote their authority, allowing their customers to buy those NFTs, give them money in exchange for a chance of it rising up in price, for one reason or another.
Although you get notable people, investing in such properties- with footballers like Neymar Jr. and others actually putting them up as profile pictures after spending thousands of their earned cash on them
From being a thoroughly bastardized internet meme, are they wrong? Or is the internet shenanigan actually a justified money-making strategy?
Assessing NFTs - is it a good investment?
It is simply just like collecting anything else, cards, funko pops, coins- if you have a passion for it and a good knowledge capacity, you’re probably going to do well. However if there is ONLY money on your mind, and that’s it, then there is a huge probability you’re going to fail.
So it really depends. Take a good long think about it, and if your business plan around such NFTs could work, it is reasonably realistic and you’ve got the tools, contacts and knowledge to make it work, by all means, go for it.