NFT Hype Swells to New Levels

You’ve probably heard the term “non-fungible token” or “NFT” by now, because it’s the hottest trend in the blockchain space at the moment. Artists, celebrities, musicians, and professional athletes are making millions selling these blockchain assets on the internet.

Basically, an NFT is a non-fungible token that cannot be divided like crypto-assets such as bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH), which are fractional by a number of decimals. An NFT is a single asset, that is very unique and not like any other tokens in existence, unless the individual mints a number of copies of the same NFT for a collection.

In the early days, bitcoin (BTC) transactions were used to create colored coins, which are basically the very first versions of NFTs. All NFTs are tied to some kind of metadata, which could be a picture, document, comic book, animated GIF, and even real-world assets if the creator has designed a way to tether the digital world to the real world. A long time ago, Bitcoin.com reported on Rare Pepe trading cards that leveraged the Counterparty blockchain to mint NFTs and following that project came Curio Cards, digital trading cards built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Since then and especially in 2020 and into 2021, NFTs have exploded in demand and popular projects like Sorare, Cryptopunks, NBA Top Shots, Makersplace, Art Blocks, Rarible, Opensea, Hashmasks, Decentraland, and more have seen massive interest.

The NFT artist known as “Beeple” has relentlessly made money in the game by steadily becoming one of the most popular NFT artists in the space. Beeple also stole the show last week, when his NFT art sold for $69 million at the world-famous auction house Christie’s. Beeple’s NFT was the fourth-highest valued piece of art sold in 2021, outpacing auctions for artwork created by world-renowned artists such as Picasso and Lichtenstein.

Blockchains That Can Issue Non-Fungible Token Assets

Ethereum is the most popular crypto blockchain available to create NFTs. However, there are a number of alternative blockchains that can mint NFTs as well. As mentioned above, NFTs technically can be crafted on the BTC chain, but transaction fees have pushed BTC to the wayside when it comes to any type of tokenization concept.

Besides Ethereum, interested NFT designers can leverage blockchains such as Cardano, Polkadot, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Smart Chain, EOS, Tron, Flow, WAX, Tezos, Cosmos, and more. Bitcoin.com recently published a guide on how to craft NFTs on the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain and sell them in a decentralized fashion.

Every one of these blockchains has differences and a host of compatible applications that work with the NFTs. Other blockchains have varying transaction fees as well, as the cost to mint an NFT can vary depending on the network used.

For instance, leveraging a smart contract on Ethereum and using the ERC721 token standard, can cost anywhere between $40 to $100 per NFT creation to mint tokens. On the other hand, a network like Bitcoin Cash (BCH) will cost only $0.003 per NFT creation to mint Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP)-based tokens.

The thing is, Ethereum has a much larger NFT environment than the likes of BCH and the other blockchains that can mint NFTs. By leveraging Ethereum, the transaction fees will cost more than the other networks, but there are far more marketplaces and compatible wallets that work with the ETH-based NFT ecosystem. This includes artist incubators, luxury art galleries, and markets like notfungible.com, Makersplace, Nifty Gateway, Opensea, Rarible, and more.

The aforementioned guide about BCH-based SLPs describes only a few places where creators can sell their SLP-fueled NFTs. Creators should outweigh the benefits of each blockchain before deciding on which network to leverage. Other blockchains also have minimal applications and wallets that support NFTs. Just recently, Tron fans were introduced to a secondary NFT market hosted on the metaverse called Megacryptopolis.

EOS proponents can leverage things like Atomic Assets, and the Itam Store. People can also use the Worldwide Asset Exchange (WAX), a purpose-built blockchain and protocol designed specifically for tokens and NFTs. Fans of BNB, can leverage Binance Smart Chain applications to mint and sell smart chain-based NFTs.