Who hasn’t been mystified by the idea of people selling something on line ....like a token assuring ownership....for a vast sum of money. Well I certainly have been intrigued by the process and I was hoping that this book could set me straight. And, actually, I think they have done an excellent job. I think I’m almost at the stage where I could actually create a NFT but whether I could market it and persuade people to buy it is a whole other question.
But first up, I must confess that I’ve only read the Blinkist summary version of this book. Undoubtedly, I have missed a lot of the details and nuances that would be in the original. But, I’m satisfied that I’ve got a reasonable grasp of the salient points around the creation and sale of NFTs. I’ve extracted a few quotes from the summary below, which for me, capture the essence of the book.
“A question of ownership:........an enigmatic portrait in oil on white poplar wood finished around 1500: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Currently, insurers value the work at over $ 800 million......There’s only one Mona Lisa. Sure, we can reproduce the painting as a poster, but even the best reproduction lacks something important......Reproductions don’t have the same provenance.....The tech world uses a different word to describe one-offs. That word is non-fungible. “Fungible” means that something is mutually interchangeable. [Derives from the Latin verb fungi ....meaning to perform]. A dollar bill is a great example of a fungible object....The Mona Lisa sits at the other end of the spectrum: it’s extremely non-fungible.
Well, it’s a lot easier to establish ownership and provenance–to trace what belongs to whom and who made what–in the analogue world than it is in the digital world. That’s the problem NFTs solve.....With digital products you can add in people’s urge to share, and music became virtually free overnight.....The issue for producers and creators was as simple to state as it was hard to solve: How do you establish ownership of easily copyable digital assets like electronic files?
The most revolutionary answer of all is blockchain........Say you wanted to establish who owns which media........you could create an inherently trustworthy–because unfalsifiable–record of a work’s provenance. That’s the blockchain revolution.......A non-fungible token is a record of ownership of digital assets held on a decentralized database that’s very, very hard to falsify. That’s the theory......When a digital artist sells an NFT of her work, the buyer pays for a token saying they own it. That’s it. The image itself remains online. Anyone can download it, print it out, and put it on their wall. So, why would you pay good money for an NFT?
What we’re really looking at here is the psychology behind collecting.....The core of all collecting is scarcity. The rarer a desired good is, the more valuable it becomes.......It’s documented ownership of the real thing that’s valuable.
Pretty much anything can be an NFT, but let's start with digital art.....In 2007, Beeple started a project called Everydays. The goal was to create a new digital artwork every day and hone his skills along the way......Beeple made history in 2019 by becoming the first artist to sell an
NFT through Christie's,......Beeple's work, which featured images from the first 5,000 days of the Everydays project, sold for $ 69 million......His aren't the only digital artworks which are highly sought after.
CryptoPunks, a limited edition run of 10,000 randomly generated pixelated punks, regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars......When the rock band Kings of Leon released an album as an NFT, it generated over $ 2 million in sales. Videos are another popular format.
NFTs are also changing the way digital work is funded. Selling tokens of ownership for essays, newsletters, or even tweets allows creators to monetize their work without putting it behind a paywall......When you buy a Bored Ape, for example, you get access to a members-only community-think Soho House, but online. Other brands' NFTs provide access to exclusive merchandise no one else can buy.
How can you enter the NFT market? There are two options. You can buy and sell NFTs that already exist, or you can make and sell your own NFTs.
To buy NFTs, you'll need cryptocurrency. Which cryptocurrency depends on which marketplace you're using, but the most popular marketplace-that's OpenSea-uses Ethereum for most transactions.......That means you'll need a cryptocurrency wallet. A secure option that's often recommended for folks new to crypto is the Coinbase Wallet.......Now you can head over to OpenSea and create your account......And that's pretty much it-you're now ready to browse listings and buy NFTs.
Some NFTs are sold for a set price. In that case, you'll be given a "buy now" option. Other sales are auctions,....The authors' rule of thumb is to only collect NFTs that speak to you.
Some NFTs just aren't going to explode, so pick projects you like, even if they don't make you any money......Best not to put all your eggs in one basket.
NFT’s are “minted”.....In producing your own NFTs the NFT must be added to the blockchain. If you're using OpenSea, you'll be adding your NFT to the Ethereum blockchain. Here's how to do it.......Head over to the OpenSea platform and look for the "create" menu in the top right corner.......Next, click "My Collections.".....Once you've done that, you'll need to click "Add New Item"......Finally, hit "Create".......And that's it-you've just made your first NFT!
The only limitation is copyright: you have to own the material or have a right to use it.
Getting the name of your NFT right is vital:......pick something attention-grabbing like one project's name-Bitchcoin. Or you use the file name to emphasize your NFT's uniqueness by adding descriptors like "one of a kind" or adding series numbers like "1 of 1" or "1 of 50."
Selling NFTs:.......Can't put a number to your NFT? No problem-you don't have to set a price. Instead, you can put your NFT onto the market and wait for people to send you offers, which you're free to accept or decline.
And that completes your NFT toolkit. Now you know how to buy, create, and sell NFTs. What comes next? That's for you to decide......Happy hunting!
So what’s my overall take on the book. Great! I though it did exactly what it promised to do and I certainly learned a lot. Five stars from me.