NFTs are both scarce and viral.
NFT is a digital art piece. It represents value and scarcity. The fact that it is digital allows it to propagate online fast and reach a broad audience. This increases the cultural stock of the creation increasing the value with it.
Under the hood, NFTs are a type of crypto tokens that are quickly revolutionizing industries by changing the way we share and consume art and music.
NFT stands for Non Fungible Tokens. Non-fungible refers to something of a distinct value. There are no two of the same. A good example of a non-fungible asset is a house, a car or a painting. On the other hand, fungible refers to something that is interchangeable with another unit of that same asset. A good example of a fungible asset is the Swiss franc. If I exchange my 1 franc for yours, nothing really changes. Same would be true for Bitcoin or Ethereum, they are both fungible tokens.
A non-fungible token is where things get really interesting and where the art and crypto blend. It is a way for creation to go viral while retaining scarcity and value.
How is NFT valuable?
A non-fungible token allows to create a digital certificate that represents a unique asset. We can attach these tokens to pretty much anything, including digital files – say, a photo, a video, an audio recording, or even this website.
Any art or music you create can be tokenized which will create a one-off non-fungible original of that asset. This process is called minting. Since this is still digital, one might ask what stops people from just copying the assets and using them across the Internet. As the sole owner of the underlying original, I would only say that please go ahead, copy this a million times over, and make it viral!
NFTs allow us to transcend the conflict between scarcity and abundance. We can now truly have our cake and eat it too. Content now gets to be both scarce and abundant.
By creating a rare 1 of 1 NFT that represents a potentially famous and ubiquitously consumed file, we open the doors to capturing the value of viral content. Not by necessarily monetizing each instance that content is consumed, but by the value of that original NFT going up with the cultural significance of its associated art.
It is like owning the original unique vinyl of the RUN DMC band or the Lebron James rookie card. You do not own Lebron James. Everyone everywhere gets to watch him play basketball. But as Lebron’s stock in basketball and culture goes up, so does the value of the rare rookie card you own – both of which appreciate in value over time.
How to buy NFTs?
Peppermint works with OpenSea, one of the largest and the oldest NFT marketplace. In order to buy from OpenSea, you simply need to open a MetaMask wallet. No need to sign up on OpenSea, as the MetaMask browser extension will authenticate you automatically.
Learn how to set up and top up MetaMask wallet here.
Now that you have MetaMask wallet set up and topped up, you have an option to buy the art or make an offer. The former will require the owner to accept this offer while the latter will transfer the NFT to your account after the payment. The transaction is atomic, meaning both payment and transfer of ownership can only happen together and if one fails, the other will as well.
Buy Now
If the “Buy Now” button is available, click on that. Proceed with checkout and OpenSea will ask you to authorize the purchase using your MetaMask wallet.
See how to set up your MetaMask wallet here.
Open your MetaMask extension and authorize the purchase. If you have multiple accounts, make sure the correct wallet is selected before you start the auth process.
Make an offer
When making an offer, ETH currency might not be available in the currency selector. In this case, the default selected is WETH. WETH is just a variation of ETH that is needed for the OpenSea bidding system to work.
Read more about WETH here.
Not enough WETH to make an offer?
If you do not have any WETH on your wallet, OpenSea will ask you to convert your ETH to WETH before you can make the offer. To convert, press Convert ETH, connect your MetaMask wallet during initialization, press Wrap and sign the transaction. Conversion can take up to 30 seconds. After you see the success message, you can close the popup and there you have it, your very own WETH balance.
After this, you can close the converter window and proceed. See more in the video below.
To purchase NFTs, you need to have Ethereum. Thankfully, it is very easy to set up your wallet and purchase ETH with your credit card or a wire transfer.