I Took a Course on NFTs - Let's Talk About NFTs

This course on NFTs was delivered by an #Indian software engineer, who is an employee in Netflix and also a TED speaker, he is known as Tejas Chopra. Course was taken in Upgrad, read till the end to learn more.

What did I learn? Here are some of the key highlights:

1. Why Care About NFTs

NFTs are revolutionizing the way we think about arts, collectibles and social media. Also, more interesting, they present an opportunity for creators to make more money, and more monetization avenues.

2. What an NFT is

An NFT - Non-Fungible Token - is a digital representation of real-world objects. It is basically a digital asset that can be used to represent real-world objects such as arts, music, in-game items, and videos.

They are built on the same technology like cryptocurrencies, thus, they can be bought and sold only with cryptocurrencies.

They are non-fungible in the sense that they cannot be exchanged like money. In essence, the value of one NFT doesn't equal the value of another like in "a dollar to another dollar basis". Each NFT is unique and non-transferrable with its own distinct properties that sets it apart from another. As a result, there can only be one NFT of a particular object.

The main early use of NFTs were for digital artworks/representations of original arts, which makes the ownership of an NFT extends ownership to the original artwork/item.

How NFTs Work

First, they exist on a blockchain (mostly on the Ethereum blockchain, especially at its earliest stages).

They can be used to represent just about anything, including arts, GIFs, videos, sports highlights, tweets, music, game avatars, and more.

It opens up a whole new monetization frontend for artists/artistes, as they can now sell directly to buyers without going through a third party.

How to Mint and Promote NFTs

Minting is the process of creating NFTs and making it available to a wide audience. It involves a lot of processes including:

1 - Create a Unique Asset (the digital asset that you would want to sell, e.g. in-game weapons, digital trading cards, artworks, etc.)
2 - Make your asset blockchain-compatible based on your blockchain of choice
3 - Purchase Tokens of the Blockchain of choice as some payments must be made
4 - Deposit Cryptocurrency into a Non-custodial Wallet
5 - Identify the marketplace of choice compatible with your blockchain.
6 - Select Assets, then Add Them to a collection in the NFT Marketplace.

After you have created your NFT, the next stage is to publicise it so that it is seen by a larger number of people. The following is a list of the six different ways to advertise your NFTs:

1 - Make use of social media in order to spread the word about your next NFT.
2 - Make use of the power that influencers have.
3 - Leverage the power of crypto communities on social platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, and even Hive (e.g. Leofinance)
4 - Share a tidbit/teaser in order to pique people's attention.
5 - Perform NFT drops and make your drop times more efficient by making use of scheduling tools like NFT Calendar.
6 - Engage with your community and talk about your NFT drops by using the various channels available such Reddit and Discord.

The Future of NFTs

NFTs seem to have an exciting future. First of they have found a solid place for themselves in the space of gaming, and we only expect more utility here. Additionally, NFTs are bound to be relevant in real estate especially in property sales, especially land sales (including virtual land sales). Fractional NFTs is also another interesting development we would see in the future. Other tangible properties such as cars can also become NFTs. Notably, NFTs would have a strong place in DeFi in which NFTs can be used as collaterals.

Key Takeaway

While seemingly complex, NFTs are exciting, and we can only envisage what the future hold for this exciting technology.

I'll definitely be taking more courses in the future and sharing them here. Would you like to take one too? I'll like to hear the courses you've taken recently so I can also try them.

You can take this course too and get certified here: https://app.upgrad.com/4Xxq/aijua3o3