A non-fungible token (NFT) is a special type of cryptographic token which represents something unique; non-fungible tokens are thus not mutually interchangeable. This is in contrast to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, and many network or utility tokens that are fungible in nature, – Wikipedia.
One of the main benefits of owning a digital collectible versus a physical collectible like a Pokemon card or rare minted coin is that each NFT contains distinguishing information that makes it both distinct from any other NFT and easily verifiable. This makes the creation and circulation of fake collectibles pointless because each item can be traced back to the original issuer, – Coindesk.
Christie’s auctioned an NFT-based work of art called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple. The auction started on Feb. 25 and ends March 11. The work is a digital collage of 5,000 futuristic images that Winkelmann made — one image every single day for 5,000 days — starting on May 1, 2007 through January 7, 2021. Winkelmann is a well known digital artist with a following of nearly 2 million on Instagram. He has created videos and graphics for celebrities, like Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, and displays for big brands, like Louis Vuitton, Nike and Apple, – CNBC reports.
In the 10 years since Chris Torres created Nyan Cat, an animated flying cat with a Pop-Tart body leaving a rainbow trail, the meme has been viewed and shared across the web hundreds of millions of times. On Thursday, he put a one-of-a-kind version of it up for sale on Foundation, a website for buying and selling digital goods. In the final hour of the auction, there was a bidding war. Nyan Cat was sold to a user identified only by a cryptocurrency wallet number. The price? Roughly $580,000, – The New York Times posted.
Logan Paul is diving headfirst into the cryptocurrency space with the launch of his very own non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Paul partnered to create and distribute the tokens with a company called Bondly — a peer-to-peer exchange that enables trading across any chain, and through any medium. The NFTs are built on the Ethereum (ETH) network. The set of 3,000 NFTs dropped on Feb. 19, with each selling for 1 ETH. During their first day on the market, 1,772 NFTs were purchased — with ETH being valued at roughly $2,000 at the time — for a total of roughly $3.5 million in sales. Paul sold $1 million worth of NFTs 30 minutes after dropping them, noted venture capitalist and entrepreneur Tiffany Zhong. And yesterday, sales climbed to $5 million, with a total of 2,586 NFTs sold, and 414 left to purchase before Bondly burned the remaining supply, which will never be available again. Demand was also driven by a contest whereby three buyers will receive a 1st edition pack of Pokémon cards valued at $40,000, as well a free trip to Los Angeles to attend a Pokémon card unboxing stream on Feb. 27. Information: To Be Filter.
NFTs hit the scene with crypto-kitties which almost brought down Ethereum. NFTs differ from “regular” fungible tokens in their fungibility. Fungibility is the property of being substitutable, one token is the same as another, a fungible token can be exchanged for another. In fiat currency, this is expressed as the price of money, a dollar in a bank deposit can be converted to a dollar bill at par. A dollar bill can be exchanged for another at par. Fungible tokens of the same ilk can be exchanged at par. NFTs are not fungible, each token represents a unique object or creation, a house, a piece of art, a digital artifact. One NFT cannot be exchanged for another, – Forbes.
Someone is selling a series of NFTs that bear a close resemblance to Banksy. They began listing artwork under the pseudonym “Pest Supply” on the NFT marketplace OpenSea yesterday. Banksy runs a not-for-profit company called Pest Control, which acts as an official authenticator for his artwork. One piece in the collection featured an art canvas with the phrase “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this NFT shit.” – Crypto Briefing.
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has sold his first piece of crypto art using the NFT (non-fungible token) cryptocurrency, the musician joining the booming trend where creators trade one-of-a-kind works for the special type of cryptographic token while retaining the art’s copyright. Shinoda put the digital artwork, called “One Hundredth Stream,” up for sale on the crypto-driven online marketplace Zora last week. Midway through Sunday (Feb. 7), as Decrypt reported, the composition’s highest bid came in at 18,000 DAI, a stablecoin cryptocurrency that closely parallels the U.S. dollar — meaning users valued it at around $18,000. Later that same day, Zora announced that Shinoda had accepted a bid equaling $30,000 (200 WETH), and the musician plans to donate that to charity, – Lowdwire.
Daft Punk announced they’re splitting after 28 years. Lindsay Lohan is cashing in on the crypto market. A user called “Daft Punk” on the non-fungible token (NFT) website, Rarible, minted new digital collectibles on Sunday. Rarible allows artists to sell digital art utilizing the Ethereum blockchain to keep a record of ownership. The artwork can be resold repeatedly, and the blockchain serves as a history of ownership and certificate of authenticity in one. Most NFTs are images online, and it’s becoming an extremely lucrative market for artists. The account is 100% created by Daft Punk, and 10% of any sales of these collectibles go to the creator. That includes resales. The value in these tokens is the proof of ownership the blockchain provides, like a publicly accessible guestbook. Artists who can create demand around their NFTs perpetually reap 10% of the sales of those collectibles – for as long as they are sold and resold on the platform, – Digital Music News.
Los Angeles-based artist, TED fellow and former Google artist-in-residence Refik Anadol is currently one of the hottest names in AI art. By the end of 2021 he’ll be one of the biggest names in NFT art, too. He has made buildings dream and turned a 1,700,000 document archive into a galactic constellation of data points called ‘Archive Dreaming.’ In a piece called ‘Melting Memories,’ inspired by his uncle’s battle with Alzheimer’s, he turned brain scans of people’s memories into beautiful and almost tangible textures, – Decrypt.
