NFTs for dummies

I am a dummy. I still have no clue wth is an NFT. I mean I know what it stands for but what the heck are they?
Can someone just explain to a dummy in plain english what NFTs are?

As far as I know, to me, it just seems to be some wacky made-up industry / niche for the ultra wealthy people to have "assets" which are only famous and valuable because rich people have agreed to make it valuable. In other words, NFTs have no real value. They are just made up values. You take some graphic artists to design silly logos and avatars and then have ultra rich people buy the rights to it to brag to the world they now own an NFT exclusive to only them. So draw some pixels of a monkey's ass hanging out of a trash can and sell it as a unique, one-of-a-kind item called NFT and pay $400,000 for it.

I don't get this at all LOL.
Sounds like we can eliminate world poverty now if everyone just learns how to draw.

You buy a painting from an art gallery. Real painting in the real world. That's art!
Someone can click a picture, reprint it and say they own the painting but obviously, it's not the same cause you own the original one.

That's exactly the same in the digital world. Instead, you hold the painting digitally and can validate the originality using the blockchain(every painting has a specific address).

This is what so far the NFT world has been but now there's more to it.

Imagine if you could get free clothing and merch from the artist you got the painting from? Multiple of them for years just because you got the painting?
Or even better, what if you could get profits from the artist's business for eternity?

That's what the NFT world is evolving towards. NFT with Utilities.

Today, there are even some NFT projects that if you own, you will get exclusive access to special invite-only restaurants that nobody else has access to.

It's a pyramid scheme, it only grows if more people come in the game and make purchases.
It will eventually collapse if you ask me.

TheGreyMatter said:

You buy a painting from an art gallery. Real painting in the real world. That's art!
Someone can click a picture, reprint it and say they own the painting but obviously, it's not the same cause you own the original one.

That's exactly the same in the digital world. Instead, you hold the painting digitally and can validate the originality using the blockchain(every painting has a specific address).

This is what so far the NFT world has been but now there's more to it.

Imagine if you could get free clothing and merch from the artist you got the painting from? Multiple of them for years just because you got the painting?
Or even better, what if you could get profits from the artist's business for eternity?

That's what the NFT world is evolving towards. NFT with Utilities.

Today, there are even some NFT projects that if you own, you will get exclusive access to special invite-only restaurants that nobody else has access to.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply. I still don't really get it. If someone took a digital photo of a tree and said here is the original digital photo of the tree in raw format vs a digital copy of it in jpg or bmp format, I wouldn't care to have the original raw format one. To me, the photo is exactly the same. Of course if the quality of the original photo is 10x higher quality than a copied one that was shrunk down to 640x480 that's different. But if they are both 8k quality photos but one is the original unedited raw format and the other is an 8k jpg renamed file/dupicated, it's exactly the same pretty much.

I'm still confused LOL.

But yes, I can see how for the ultra wealthy, they might be very nit picky about having some exclusive rights to something rare so it makes it valuable but there's really no value in it, just the value assigned to it.

The utilities thing is interesting and new to me. So it sounds more like some kind of investment or stock in the company? Yes, that part sounds good if you get a piece of their successes/earnings etc.

It still just sounds like some kind of made up VIP pass / card to hand out to only the ultra wealthy who can afford it and make a big deal of it so that it becomes news and then everyone wants to try
and join that exclusivity club so they get in on the NFT stuff.

For example, if me and 100 of the richest people on the planet decided to just make something up like, a brown paper lunch bag exclusive rights only 100 copies made in the entire world! If the world found out about this brown paper lunch bag, and it spread all over the internet, news, social media, I bet everyone would be trying hard to get 1 of those 100 brown lunch bags. There is nothing inherently valuable about a brown paper lunch bag but because 100 of the richest decided to make it exclusive club of only 100 of our special brown lunch bags, it suddenly becomes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because people want to be in that exclusive 100 club distinction of the world and nobody else would be able to say they are in that exclusive group.

It sounds like NFTs are just another form of stocks or investment? Is this correct? But I think it's just made out of thin air still. Join my NFT project and you can get exclusive backstage access to something? That sounds like just another VIP pass concept.

I am a dummy and NFT will crash just like Windows 8.1 support. My money is safe in bank fixed deposit till fed do the tapering and tanturum

An NFT is a whacky made up industry. Just like ALL crypto.

And as much as I DESPISE crypto, there is one type of NFT that you should consider an investment in.

That is a VIDEO GAME NFT.

Instead of a dumb image of something stupid, you buy "something" that is used in a video game, preferably
a game that you can earn money on your investment. And if its a "good" NFT, there will be a limited number
of them and they will become more rare as time goes on.

So you should buy a STARSHIP.

I know you don't have $30,000 for a BIG one. But you CAN buy a small fighter craft for $20 and become a
meteor miner and try to find treasure. Or you can just rent it to other players and collect interest.

I am talking about STAR ATLAS

And the cash interest you earn for renting out your ship is about 10% PER MONTH

Do your research then make your decision. Space ships are a better investment than an image of an ape.

Sincerely,

The Eye

I used to think NFTs where wacko myself..sounded really crazy that someone will pay thousands of dollars for a piece of one of a king digital crap. That's until i found their application in blockchain games and the metaverse. It makes a lot of sense there. Just like money itself. A dollar note is only valued because we agree it has a value. Its the same concept. once you can create a community of people (a crypto project) who agree that an NFT has value within a certain digital world (metaverse, blockcahain game, Vip pass) you succeed in creating demand. Once there is a demand, prices will rise because the NFT is one of a kind. Its genius if you ask me. printing money out of thin air.. but what do you know, we should'nt have issues with that, the Feds do that all the time and we don't complain.

I don't know for you guys but I think that NFT will eventually make traction with Meta and other 'verses in some sort. One way or another lots of people will part money to buy some "cool avatars and digital properties". I believe that fully rigged high-polly 3D hyperrealistic products will be more valuable than "pixel art".

At the end time will judge and we will see in following years what's true.

Want to clean your money ? NFT's is the easiest way
Can't believe people still buying some monkey pics ... It's BS and always be BS unless you are cleaning some dirty $$

I am in the art niche, i sell real paintings, for me the whole NFT is absolutly pathetic, even if it did well i dont have the heart, tthe energy, the passion , to spend a fuken single second in that ballshit . I dont get how popular it gets, its just NOT my thing. BUT I AM SURE the other younger generation has the energy to make money out of this ballshit

what don't you understand?
it is a growing group of people who have decided to stop flipping houses, cars, websites or really useful assets and instead do it with random JPEGs

the real useful functionality of this is starting to take shape, discounts on artist shows, items in metaverse/games, etc...but in fact it is this, now you don't have to buy a house to resell and make a profit...just do it with any ''art'' that a group of people decided was worth 1 ETH

We don't understand because we never bought "art" in the real world. Auctions and etc.

This is just a disruption on that area, while adding more benefits for the artist and holders as explained by the person above.

Yes, it's currently hyped up and all. Similar to the dot com bubble but the fundamentals are solid and it's here to stay imo.

look at the profile pic of these stupid bastards , they all have the same type of profile pic on twitter, I am sure he paid over 4,000 on it,

buddhiststudent718 said:

look at the profile pic of these stupid bastards , they all have the same type of profile pic on twitter, I am sure he paid over 4,000 on it,

Click to expand...

Like someone said previously this is considered "ART" by large group of people. Who are we to judge it? We can just comment on it and try to make some money of it and that's it. Since beginning of time art receives critics one way or another. Someone likes it and someone not and that's how it is. Look at the "real world art(its)" and you will find same stands all over the world - Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh, they all found their audience.

I, personally, do not like pixelated art as NFTs but someone does and I am not judging them.Art criticism is here to stay.


On the financial side I consider it too volatile for my taste and my wallet. I'm pretty much into volatile things like stocks and CFDs for some time as a side gig but these are things of real value in the real world and their market can be predicted in some degree. For example oil price is driven by current politics in some region and/or globally + demand/supply at the moment (to make it simple for the sake of the comment) and can be predicted. But with NFTs no-one can tell you for sure what will happen in next 24h because. One person only is enough to make market dip with just one tweet.

NFTs have the same concept as real physical paintings. You can download da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" drawing from the internet, print it, and hang it on your wall. Or you can hire a good artist to paint the drawing. Let's say a random person, with zero knowledge of art, wants to buy a painting and you offered yours with 20$ and the Museum in Paris offered 100 million. The guy would be stunned and will probably think why would I want to pay that ridiculous amount of money for art that looks exactly the same. But for the people who know art and know the worth of the painting, it is normal.

The case is the same with NFTs. They have uniqueness, their own unique address. And the world is shifting to digital. I wouldn't say it is ridiculous to pay a good amount of money for an art that is unique and has value.

What's Value tho? How do NFTs have value?

Let's say 2 people told you they own an NFT. One person told you he owns a "bored Ape" NFT, the other person told you he owns a "happy Tiger" NFT. Which one of those do you think is more valuable?

I hope you got your answer.

You can call it digital painting. The price depends on number of factors like the rarity.

oatmeal said:

It sounds like NFTs are just another form of stocks or investment? Is this correct? But I think it's just made out of thin air still. Join my NFT project and you can get exclusive backstage access to something? That sounds like just another VIP pass concept.

Click to expand...

They aren't. Stocks and other investments like bonds, property, gold, forex etc either have their own inherent value, or are a derivative to something that has inherent value (like a stock is a share of a company's profit). A nft has neither of these things.

What an nft has is "perceived value". people thinking it has value because other people think it has value. That's about it. All an nft is just a URL on some blockchain with your wallet's address on it.

makes a screenshot*

Ashk881 said:

They aren't. Stocks and other investments like bonds, property, gold, forex etc either have their own inherent value, or are a derivative to something that has inherent value (like a stock is a share of a company's profit). A nft has neither of these things.

What an nft has is "perceived value". people thinking it has value because other people think it has value. That's about it. All an nft is just a URL on some blockchain with your wallet's address on it.

Click to expand...

ah, yes..."perceived value" is what I think I'm thinking about.
I used to be a huge comic book collector when I was a kid. The idea that a certain comic book could go up in value was intriguing to me. I guess that's the same thing. Same with baseball cards etc. These things do not actually have real value. They are just printed paper, nothing valuable in themselves. But the value comes from "perceived value" placed on those items and given it meaning so that it becomes more valuable than it really is.

So again, it's just an exclusive club sort of thing. Back then, when a X-men issue had a guest appearance from someone popular at the time....let's say Spiderman or X-Force or X-Factor made a crossover in the issue, it would create a sort of hype that raised the value of the comic book by a few dollars or more. Or sometimes if a new character made their 1st appearance in an issue, that issue would go up in value when that character became more popular later down the road because it was the 1st appearance. But all of this is just living in a fantasy world. Nothing is real. They are just fictional characters with fictional stories but yet they seem to hold great "perceived value".

So it's only worth something if other people in that particular circle/society see value in it for them. So if I took a comic book value at $300 from America and the american comic book circle of collectors and traveled to a remote village in Papua New Guinea, nobody on that island is going to see any value in that comic book for them. They would not want to buy it for $300 or whatever it converts to in their currency. The world of comic books has no value in that society and doesn' matter if I had #1 issue of Superman or something, it would be worthless except the value of the paper that could be used for starting fires or used as table mats.