?What is the NFT

It means “Non-Fungible Token,” and refers to a virtual asset that cannot replace a token in a blockchain with another token. This is a means to digitally tokenize existing assets such as games, art, and real estate by clarifying ownership of assets.

Since NFT is based on blockchain, all related information such as ownership and sales history is stored in the blockchain, so it is possible to check the first issuer at any time and forgery is impossible.

In addition, while virtual assets such as existing cryptocurrency have equal conditions depending on where they are issued, NFT has a separate unique recognition value and cannot be exchanged with each other.

For example, the price per bitcoin is the same, but when NFT is applied, one coin has a separate recognition value that cannot be replaced with another coin.

Image from : Crypto Kitty & NBA TopShot Homapage.

NFT’s start is “CryptoKitties,” developed by startup Dapper Labs in 2017, which is a game in which users breed cats with NFT attributes to make their own rare cats.

In particular, the game’s digital cat was traded for 110,000 U.S. dollars in late 2017, drawing attention. Starting in 2020, Dapper Labs has been working with NBA to provide “NBA Top Shot” service, a NFT trading platform, on which users can trade short-edited videos of famous players. Dapper Labs has signed a license agreement with the NBA and has created and sold NFTs in a limited number to maintain scarcity.

Image from : Christies.com

Since NFT can give scarcity and uniqueness value to virtual assets, its influence has been rapidly increasing recently, focusing on digital art, online sports, and game item trading. A 10-second video clip created by digital artist “Beeple” can be viewed online anytime for free, but it was sold for $6.6 million (7.4 billion won) on the NFT exchange in February 2021. In March 2021, Grimes, wife and singer of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, auctioned off 10 digital painting collections titled “War Nymph” with NFT technology for $5.8 million (6.5 billion won) in 20 minutes.

In the next post, let’s take a look at the recent marketplace utilizing NFT.