People bought and sold digital art for the first time in a digital auction held on Tumblr in 2013. A year later, art meets blockchain technology to create the first NFT. The person who developed this is Kevin McCoy. He is a professor at New York University and a digital artist. At that time, most digital content creators were not guaranteed their reputation and rewards from content they own. This was the same situation for McCoy. So NFT was made to guarantee the creator’s rights.
NFT is an acronym for ‘non-fungible token.’ It is easy to understand if you divide it into two parts. First, non-fungible, think of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. People can appreciate its copies everywhere with their smartphones, computer, etc. However, the real work is exhibited in the Louvre Museum. Like this, digital art registered with NFT can differentiate other copies. Second, the reason for using the term ‘token’ is that it is different from ‘coin’ in how it uses blockchain. NFT uses blockchain indirectly. Token refers to the indirect use of the blockchain in this way. Using Ethereum as an NFT trading platform is an example.
The cases of making money with NFTs are increasing these days. People buy NFTs at a low price and sell them at a higher price. Historically scarce data are also selling at high prices. The first tweet written by Jack Patrick, co-founder of Twitter, sold for 33 billion dollars. Companies are using it as a marketing tool. NFT goods belonging to FNC Entertainment’s K-pop group P1Harmony are sold out. Because of the rarity, something like this can happen.
But high return comes with risks as well. Lately, OpenSea, a famous NFT exchange, was attacked on a grand scale by phishing. Countless NFTs were stolen. Based on the internet, it is not only vulnerable to hacking, but also stock exchange executives and website fraud are taking places. There are cases of counterfeiting NFTs works or fraud using periods and commas on the price. If you are trying to invest in NFTs, be mindful of security.
