what is NFT? NFT consists of the first letters of three English words: Non, fun and token, which is worthless when translated into Chinese.
actually, even if translated directly, I don't think you can quite understand what a worthless token is. I'll give you a simple example, and you'll understand immediately.
if I have a 1 RMB in my hand and you have a 1 RMB in your hand, I want to exchange it with you, and you will think, no problem, then exchange it. Because 2 yuan belongs to the same value. Then, if the 1 yuan in your hand has Jay Chou's signature, you won't exchange it with me when I want to exchange it, because the value of the 1 yuan in your hand may be worth 1, yuan.
this is the meaning of tokens with different values. It looks the same thing, but its value is different. Jay Chou's signature is unique.
why has NFT received special attention from the whole science and technology circle and trend circle in recent years?
Because Christie's held an unprecedented digital art auction on March 11th last year, in the past, digital art could not enter the auction house for auction. A very important reason is that digital files are easily copied, and there is no way to verify their source and authenticity.
everyone should have seen this work on the screen by now. This work comes from an American artist named Pipper. It took him fourteen years to upload a digital artistic creation on his social network every day, so this work was auctioned at Christie's on March 11th, 211. The title of the work is "5 Days", and the final auction price is $69 million.
So, before we speak today, let's give you a gift worth 69 million dollars!
I provided high-definition pictures. Please move your finger to download this picture or save it quickly.
do you think the pictures stored in your mobile phone are exactly the same as those in the auction? The answer is that it looks exactly the same, but if we want to sell this picture to others today, will anyone want to buy it? I didn't want to buy it, just like I was going to change a hundred dollars signed by Jay Chou in your hand just now. You don't want to exchange with me, because the value is different, because there is no unique signature.
This is why digital art can enter the auction house with NFT technology from now on, because we can know the source and we can make it a unique creation.
the technology behind p>NFT has several cores. The first is of course the technology of blockchain. The technology of blockchain is not the focus of today's discussion, but it must also be mentioned briefly.
throughout the NFT distribution, there will be a publisher role. This publisher must launch his products through some platforms above the blockchain. For example, the artistic creation just mentioned is the casting process that must be cooperated with the blockchain by Christie's. Therefore, it must have a platform through which to publish smart contracts. This ingenious contract records that this artwork is unique in the entire blockchain. How do we verify that it is unique?
I think this is the most confusing point for everyone. Please take a closer look, clap your hands and take a closer look.
Because the blockchain has a feature called ledger, it is not recorded in a centralized company host like traditional works or computers. It is not made up of one computer, but recorded by millions of computers in the whole blockchain, so this record will be thrown to different computers for recording. We call these records nodes. .
These people's creations will be recorded on different nodes. In each node, it will be written: "Today, a pair of creations produced this contract through this platform, and then left a piece in it." These blocks are called blocks, and every next transaction will be connected in series through the next block, so after each block is connected, we call it blockchain, which is the origin of blockchain.
We can imagine what would happen if someone tried to tamper with or steal this work today. Only so many computer records can be modified at the same time, but this style is actually not feasible, because there are millions of such nodes in the world recording this ledger, and it is precisely because of this feature that the uniqueness of this distribution mechanism can be guaranteed.
this is not the most critical point of smart contracts. The next most important function given to NFT by smart contract is that it can be automatically executed and can continue to distribute value and benefits during the creation process.
today, if a buyer wants to buy the NFT made by this publisher from me, if we say that the buyer bids 1 million, we will pay 2.5% of the handling fee for each transaction. For example, it is 25, yuan, but in this step, I have to pay 1, yuan in royalties to the publishing house, plus 875, yuan for the works that the buyer bought from me. These three amounts constitute the total amount distribution of the buyer's 1 million transactions. In this step, I will pay the publishing house a royalty of 1, yuan.
in fact, for NFT, the impact of smart contracts is definitely not just works of art. Imagine if you are a real estate agent today and you are responsible for building houses. When the first house I built was sold to seller A, it was a traditional transaction. However, if 1% of the transaction amount is returned to you when seller A sells the house to seller B, the logic of building a house will be different at this time, because you will consider how the house can be built.
of course, it's not just physical objects. As I just said, the logic of building a house is different from that of trading. I don't just calculate the income when I buy a house for the first time MINUS my cost, but I hope that my way can be continuously traded and even added value. Because every value-added transaction will return a certain amount of royalty income to my account, I hope my house can be used for a long time and can be value-added for a long time. We need to think about it.
so is insurance. Now the insurance must rely on the insurance policies of these insurance companies, and then we will decide whether to give you insurance.
Jin, there is no need for it in the future. In the future, as long as these insurance brokers create a smart contract, which insurance portfolios can be built according to the buyer's own conditions. When something happens to you, the smart contract will be automatically allocated to your account, and even it can extend the value of your smart policy to your next generation.
So it is the same for insurance practitioners. Your job now is to maintain this series of protection, but the protection of the next generation in the future can be handed over to your children, because smart contracts can automatically help you make such transactions, which will generate a continuous income.
Of course, you can think of more, such as lawyers and medical care. Every day, many people bring your smart electronic devices and may collect your sleep data.
But have you ever thought that your sleep data can actually be sold? Some research institutions need to collect a lot of people's information to connect these data when they want to do sleep research. However, your data itself is NFT, so you can sell it to a research institute that really needs your sleep data, and then you can receive a certain amount of money every time you use it for research, so this smart contract can be used in many different fields, not just artistic creation.
NFT has changed a form of the whole transaction value chain.
Anyone who has seen this video congratulates you on earning $2,, because this 24-second video of James dunk, the NFT on the NBA Top Shot blockchain, has reached more than $2, in 21 years.
but I personally suggest that when people don't know much about the true ideology of NFT, there are many risks or technical considerations hidden in it that you don't know.
the first is that a wallet with virtual currency is a wallet. The wallet of virtual currency is a bit like everyone's bank account, but the biggest difference is that because the blockchain is decentralized, it does not have a bank or a central regulatory unit to manage these virtual currencies. But through everyone's different computers, we call them nodes, or those who provide computing power in mining, we call them miners, and they are saving the computing data of these virtual currencies.
Our virtual wallet is divided into three main types. The first one is called centralized wallet, which is more like a traditional institution, that is, a virtual currency that can be traded in an exchange or a company, and then it will provide you with a trading account.
The second type is the cold wallet, which is a hardware device. It is not connected to the network at any time. Maybe it is a USB disk with the password of your public key and private key recorded on it. When you need to access it, you can insert it into the computer or device before accessing your wallet.
thirdly, it is an app or a web browser program, which may be in your mobile phone or computer. You can access your currency with the password of your private key when you need it more.
Of course, these security and convenience are different. In short, we need a place to put virtual currency.
The second part is to buy these cryptocurrencies. There are several ways, such as the centralized exchange I just mentioned, the new york Stock Exchange or the foreign exchange exchange exchange. One place can be directly exchanged. For example, I use an etheric coin now, which is about 5, RMB, so you can exchange it for a one-dollar etheric coin with 6, Taiwan dollars. You can exchange it at this exchange rate. The second one is that you can also buy and sell foreign exchange.
Of course, P2P can also be used. If you feel particularly troublesome, if the people around you have etheric coins, I can buy them from you. Of course, you can transfer RMB directly to me, and then I will put etheric coins into your cryptocurrency wallet through my cryptocurrency wallet, and that's it.
The third part is that we need to choose a platform for issuing NFT. For example, we just mentioned that you can build a public chain on the blockchain, like NBA Top Shot, which is built on the blockchain of flow, or we choose the mainstream Ethereum as the publishing platform, and then we can issue my NFT on it by paying the casting fee through the cryptocurrency wallet.
Of course, if we want NFT to be sold, the most important thing is actually marketing. I wonder if you have heard that many celebrities have recently started to issue their own NFT. For example, the founder of twitter has turned his first twitter into an NFT and sold it on the blockchain, and it has sold more than two million dollars, so it is a unique imprint accumulated over a long period of time, which is the proof of its time stamp and unique value.
regarding the future development of NFT, if you go to Google, many people will say that it will be a bubble or a fraud at all, huh? In fact, there is nothing wrong with NFT, because its value-added is too fast. There are too many people who want to profit from speculation and speculation, just like the dot-tom crisis in the internet bubble in 2, so there will be a wave of bubbles in the future.
But this technology will still remain after the bubble, and it will be used in more different industries.
It's not just for commercial use. In the future, the diploma we get from going to school will also be an NFT, because there are many fake diplomas and work permits now, so how do you verify it? It's impossible to verify it with the issuing unit by manual means, but through the time stamp on the blockchain.
In fact, MIT did this two or three years ago, but it will become more popular in the future, and the government will use more blockchain and NFT.
For example, many trees can only be cut down by the government. If each tree is labeled with a unique label, the market can judge who is illegally cut when buying. Then it can be used as many possibilities for commercial or legal use. Although there is a risk of bubble in the future, the use of this technology will continue now.
maybe it makes sense to put it in the open world of the meta-universe.
Ready Player One's films have made beautiful predictions about the future world. In the world of Oasis, everyone has a free role. Here, classic characters of video games of different dimensions gather together, and rich digital content and articles can also circulate at will. In this flashy virtual world, a loser in the real world can also become a superhero.
"Behind every dream, there is an energetic and adventurous person. They expect nothing but surprises. "
What Hal Finney said may be the best explanation of NFT fanaticism at present.
The next issue will tell you the story that Metauniverse and NFT have to tell, so please look forward to it.
The title map is from Unsplash, based on the related Q&A of CC protocol: