🎨 How it Works: NFTs

Today's Highlights

• The Digital Art Phenomenon
• Blockchain jobs - a listing of fresh jobs related to web3/blockchain/crypto.
• In Other News - a few interesting developments we're tracking.

The Digital Art Phenomenon

Blockchain applications such as cryptocurrency have increased in popularity these past few years. But no blockchain phenomenon has yet rivaled the rapid rise (and decent) of NFTs this year. Many prominent athletes, celebrities, and internet influencers have bought into this trend, and NFTs have been making headlines ever since.

NFT stands for non-fungible token. It means that it is unique and can’t be replaced with anything else. For example, something like a bitcoin is fungible because you can trade it for another bitcoin, which is the same exact thing you previously had. But a one-of-a-kind Pokemon card is non-fungible because if you trade it for a different card, you now have something else entirely.

NFTs are all mostly part of the Ethereum blockchain. The blockchain keeps track of who’s holding what NFT and it facilitates the trades. NFTs can be anything digital but the most popular use of it is for digital art. They can be sold for millions of dollars, much like a famous painting in real life.

One of the negatives of an NFT is that anyone can really download a picture of the NFT, a practice that is common in online circles where people buying and holding NFTs are made fun of. But even though a jpeg of the art can be downloaded, the rights and ownership of the NFT are still in the hands of the owner, much like how many counterfeits exist of famous paintings. Only the original is worth anything.

NFT sales have already slumped since their peak earlier this year, but Web3 enthusiasts can still be hopeful that NFTs will still be around as blockchain revolutionizes the internet. But they will only stick around if NFTs are applied to more common use cases instead of just prominently being for digital art collections.

💡 Blockchain Jobs

In Other News