I Sold My First NFT, and It was Magical
Is it a bubble? No. It is the beginning of an era
NFT took the world by storm.
Many people in crypto community seems to have a new way to get rich, and it is by flipping NFT.
What is NFT by the way?
NFT is the Non-Fungible Token, which literally means unique or one-of-a-kind token. This “token” word refers to any digital object. It can be a music, video or image. This token can’t be replaced by something else, it can only be traded to someone else. It creates the sense of scarcity and rarity for the token holders.
And since it is rare, it has monetary value.
A lot has been written about how NFT is the next big thing for the crypto space, and why it will disrupt the mainstream fine art collecting ecosystem. But despite the non-fungible nature of a NFT, the price of it is driven by its community.
Buying a NFT is not only owning a digital creation. It means joining into a community full of people with shared passion and vision. That is the recipe to be a NFT artists.
However, entering the NFT market was disastrous. I was scared of what would come of it, and how little guidance there would be. I remember that my first encounter was early 2021. I know OpenSea is the largest platform to buy and sell NFT but I never take it seriously until this June.
In June 2021, NFT market is going wild. People start making much money selling NFT.
Of course I am tempted to do the same. So, I have my idea of minted one. I have decided to start selling my first NFT. Then I saw the light switch turn on and things got really interesting.
I download TrustWallet, connect my wallet to OpenSea, make a collection and upload images. I think I am ready making some bucks but no one buy it, until August.
For the record, I am not a digital artist. I am just regular worker with salary. I think that’s the why.
After uploaded dozen images that isn’t sold, I thinking of flipping it instead. I start researching some new NFTs, joining their Telegram channel and following their twitter account. After I have enough information, I buy one NFT in Weird Whale collection. With the hope of making some profit, I place it into an auction.
That is the interesting part. Four days later, someone bought my NFT and I am making hundred of dollars in profit!
This is a wild experience. It is magical. The profit from NFT is twice more than my monthly paycheck. That is a prove that someone can make a decent living selling NFTs on the side. With that being said, of course the thought of quitting my 9-to-5 job is there. But, I am not sure it is a wise decision.
What I have learned from this whole experience, is that for someone with no artistic background, you need a strategy. You need a plan. You need to know where you are going to put your effort, because we don’t know NFT will last longer.
Is NFT a bubble? No. It is the beginning of an era
You may think that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are yet another bubble in a world full of bubbles. Owners of $70 million JPG might not look so clever obviously. How can easily-replicated image files that can be screenshotted at ease have a long-lasting value?
Many sceptics think this is just another pyramid scheme to come out of crypto, which, let’s face it, has a long and checkered history when it comes to dodgy schemes.
With this in mind, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) can be observed as a bubble very nearly to burst. But, is it true?
We are the generation who owns “nothing”
Digital technology like iTunes, Spotify, Netflix and all the rest of it make us own nothing.
We are now living in the world where stuff isn’t an asset, it’s a burden. Our generation prefers to rent the house, the car, books, anything. This asset-light generation prizes experience over material things.
Klaus Schwab from World Economic Forum even declaring that by 2030, “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy about it.”
It turns out that people do want to own stuff. In fact, owning stuff is about as basic a human urge as there is, surpassed only by eating, reproducing and keeping safe.
But digital technology and the boom of subscription services today devalue content by focus on replicability and scalability, make ownership much harder. Now NFTs have come along and making us thinking about proving ownership again.
NFT make us “owning” not only “having” digital stuff
NFTs are a bubble, but bubbles always accompany new technology. But bubbles also serve a purpose in that they accelerate investment and adoption.
“A bubble is a bull market in which you don’t have a position.”
The first to declare something a bubble are outsiders who have missed out and left behind. How many times have the media declared that the bitcoin bubble has burst?
Now the media are declaring the NFT bubble, and it will burst anytime soon. Figures recently published by nonfungible.com show that the average price of an NFT has “plummeted” or “gone down” by 75% from a peak of around $4,000 in February to little more than $1,000 last week.
It’s a 75% correction. But, is it a bublle? No. That’s a normal life in cryptoland. A coin can be plummeted by 98%, but gone up by thousands percent hours later. It is just the way it is.
When digital revolution came along, easy and instantaneous replication meant nothing was scarce any more. Content was devalued significantly. But, blockchain made digital scarcity possible.
The NFT is essentially a digital token representing ownership. Anyone can view the art for free on Google, on OpenSea, on anything but only one person own that art and blockchain mechanism can prove it so.
That ownership saved in a blockchain (or smart contract in this matter) is now verifiable, digitally secured, potentially divisible and easy to transfer.
Artwork from Beeple called “Everydays — The First 5000 Days”, recently sold for $69m at a Christie’s auction. The artwork in fact can be copied and pasted at ease. But it has no value, even a fraction of that $69m, since the token can be replicated in any way. You only can buy it from the owner.
Is NFT a bubble? It can be, but when it burst or not, it definitely begins a new era we never face before.
