For a long time in the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, one of the most sought-after areas has been non-fungible tokens. This implementation of smart contracts has a huge number of use cases and also has wide functionality. All this opens up great opportunities for NFT owners in almost any area of the modern world. In essence, a token is a specialized concept of metadata (with a description of multimedia content), a certifier, and a container for this very information. Let's try to explain how NFT metadata works and what is the definition of their standards.
There are several standards for developing NFT metadata. One of the most popular and demanded are the “ether” standards ERC1155 and ERC721. They are stored in a special peer-to-peer protocol that saves multimedia files - IPFS. With the help of pinning services (like Pinata), NFT metadata is attached to the protocol and converted from a hash to a smart contract. After that, a unique URL is placed in the storage for smart contracts and connected to the identifier of a specific token.
If the non-fungible token you need is created on the Ethereum blockchain, then you can find and view NFT metadata, as well as proof of ownership, using the well-known Etherscan service. This token ID and contract address verification service will help determine the legality of content ownership and track its location in the database.
In addition, on the platform, you can find the wallet address, the history of all transactions carried out on the Ethereum network for all time, and check the NFT metadata and various smart contracts.
Another way to check and find certain NFTs metadata is the BscScan blockchain explorer. But for this, the token must be created in the Binance blockchain only. It is clear that different services will be used to analyze different blockchains.
Above are several ways where you can read a smart contract. If the token is on the Ethereum network, then you will need the contract address to read it. Usually, it is indicated on the official website of the developer of the NFT collection. Also, almost any token can be found using OpenSea. If there is no address, you should go here, find the required NFT, click on it, and go to the “Details” tab. This is where the address of the smart contract should be. You can also click on it and immediately open the corresponding page on Etherscan.
With Etherscan, you can get a lot of information about the selected token:
Actually, this is the wrong way to ask the question. The pictures themselves are not NFTs, but only their cover, more on this later. Imagine that every NFT is an apartment, and the blockchain in which it is recorded is the Real Estate Registry. With it, you can check if such an apartment really exists, who owns it, and other information about the asset. Approximately this is how NFTs exist on the blockchain.
Here are the main differences between NFT and ordinary pictures on the Internet:
Such digital assets can be obtained in various ways and becoming the owner of a unique token is not at all difficult. For example, there are a huge number of NFT platforms that offer to acquire such an object at a bargain price. Most often, transactions here are carried out in cryptocurrency. But there are cases where dollars are used.
You can store the purchased token on any device since the main thing is to mark a unique digital certificate with blockchain data in a safe place. Many choose to store a flash drive, while someone puts the token in their smartphone or computer. In any case, the NFT itself is always available in the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) - a repository for such things. Any user can look at the token and even download its image, but the unique key remains available only to the owner.
Finding NFTs on OpenSea is easy; all you have to do is visit their website. The site will meet you with a wide variety of collections and single non-fungible tokens. There are a lot of them on the main page. And you just have to select an item and click on it. To make it yours, you need to have a certain amount of cryptocurrency to complete the transaction and pay for Gas. Click on the NFT you like and start the purchase procedure.
In addition, you can purchase a whole collection of tokens. To see if the transaction was successful. Go to your account tab on OpenSea, where the profile shows all the NFTs you have collected. You can also see your transaction in the blockchain with the well-known Etherscan. And all savings will also remain available on the official OpenSea website in the collected tokens tab.
When buying digital assets on the marketplace, we are only buying them on the secondary market. You can mint a token only by participating in the very first distribution of NFT. That is, to mint NFT means to buy it for the first time.
Some mints are free (you only need to pay for gas), but more often than not, the project sets a certain sale price. In the mint process, users buy up all the NFTs and then sell them on the secondary markets.
Another feature of mint is that the buyer cannot choose the NFT when purchasing. He just pays the price of a mint and the NFT is randomly received. It can be either the most common specimen or very rare.
The project always announces the date of mint in advance. At the appointed time, you just go to the project website. Always follow links only through the official social networks of the NFT Collection project! This is very important because scammers love to post phishing links.
A non-fungible token is a blockchain-based technology that confirms the uniqueness of a digital object, protects copyright, and keeps a history of changes and resales. The technology makes money for content creators who receive royalties. Also, NFT is an alternative to classic investments. Digital objects are rising in value and often sell for thousands and millions of dollars at auctions.
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