NFTs on Bitcoin
Ever since it started gaining speculation in 2010, Bitcoin has always been regarded as the main cryptocurrency to ever exist and it fully deserves the hype that has always come with it. As of recent regardless of the dominance by Bitcoin, there has been a new token in the town running away with all the hype there is, and that crypto token is called non-fungible token (NFT). Started in 2017 as a speculative theory but came to mature in the market in 2021 as they exploded in popularity worldwide NFTs have been taking off at an unstoppable rate.
What are NFTs?
Browne (2021) defined non-fungible tokens as a type of digital asset in which its ownership is recorded on a blockchain. So unlike other cryptocurrencies, NFTs are non-fungible as their name suggests and all these means is that they are so unique and cannot be replaced with anything else. Take for instance other forms of cryptocurrencies such as Stacks, Bitcoin, and Ethereum, they can be traded or exchanged for other cryptocurrencies like them, for example, Bitcoin for Bitcoin, Stacks for Stacks and Ethereum for Ethereum hence these can be clarified as fungible you can trade one for the same thing but with non-fungible tokens this is not possible, if you happen to trade them you are bound to obtain something completely different for example the person or organization that bought the famous Beeple NFT ( a 10-sec video clip) for millions of dollars cannot trade it for the same video clip since it is so unique such that it cannot be replaced.
THE BEEPLE VIDEO SNAPSHOT THAT WAS SOLD FOR OVER $6 MILLION
Source: The Verge
How does Stacks unlock the possibility of NFTs?
As of today, Ethereum has been prominent in the NFTs industry even though the whole NFT process was first popularized on the Bitcoin chain. As the global environment has been changing at a greater pace so has been the case in the cryptocurrency space, this has seen NFTs spreading to other blockchain networks such as the Bitcoin Cash. As such Mith (2021) articulated that Dan Trevio, Co-founder and Lead Developer of Boom a Stacks wallet formerly known as Webby that launched Stacks 2.0 revealed before the launch of Stacks 2.0 that Boom wallet could handle non-fungible tokens mentioning that users could store and trade NFTs using Boom. He also juxtaposed that users will also have the chance to create NFTs from scratch using Boom wallet. Currently, Boom wallet is the only platform that enables users to mint their NFTs through Stacks, and hence it has introduced NFTs to Stacks making it possible for their creation and hopefully as time passes by it will become more and more popular and will gain popularity worldwide that it solely deserves since it offers other benefits that cannot be found in other platforms, for example, it is cost-efficient meaning that it is cheap to create an NFT under Stacks 2.0 compared to other platforms.
As of yet, NFTs to Bitcoin is still a work in progress as the Stacks team is still working on it, a marketplace for collectibles called OpenRiff which was suggested in September 2020 is currently being worked on by developers from Stacks 2.0. The marketplace will be able to work without interference from its developers and sellers. This will unlock the possibility of NFTs in Bitcoin since it will allow Bitcoin to directly benefit from it. As for the users, they will benefit in that they will be able to use the marketplace by participating in the exchange of digital goods represented by NFTs living on the Stacks chain. The developers outlined that the project is going to educate users on what it means to own their digital goods and wallet creators will learn how to display digital goods.
What are the core values of NFTs?
NFTs can be anything digital (such as drawings, music, your brain downloaded and turned into an AI), but a lot of the current excitement is around using the tech to sell digital art Clark (2021). It is possible that an individual can copy or even get to download a digital file as many times as you want but NFTs are created in such a unique way that they cannot be copied hence to say the most, under NFTs there is valuing of ownership of the work even though in some cases the artist of the work can own the copyright rights unless he or she had sold both the work and the rights. NFTs are classified as unique tokens meaning they cannot be re-created however, it should be noted that there can be more than one copy of the same artwork created as NFTs say 50 copies hence appearing as trading cards.
Use cases that can get unlocked with NFTs
- Sports
One of the most important use cases of NFTs is their role in the sporting sector. The industry has been suffering for a long time due to the issue of counterfeit tickets. Blockchain can prevent counterfeit tickets through the creation of tokenized game tickets which will be issued on the blockchain network. Under the blockchain, each ticket can be similar but will have unique identifiable information which will be used to link or connect with its rightful owner hence preventing counterfeit.
2. Gaming
In the gaming sector, the concept of virtual economies and currencies is by no means new. In the gaming sector, there exist users who do not want or either do not have the intention to put in the time to unlock bonus features. NFTs allow the use of blockchain gaming which can ensure that there is securing of trade in-game assets and provide a layer of verifiability to players.
3. Art
Many artists all over the world have found it very difficult to maintain the copyrights of their work and this is where blockchain technology comes through. The technology offers proof of ownership to work and also proof of origin. Through the use of NFTs people can buy a creation and they will have all the information that is related to the work including the artist details, date of origin, etc.
4. Real Estate
Stacks enhances Bitcoin by improving its scalability, this has made it possible for the Real Estate industry to take their day-to-day operations to the next level which is more efficient compared to the currently in use system. The Real Estate industry can tokenize title deeds under Bitcoin NFTs which will be more secure and easily tradable hence removing middlemen which will result in efficiency levels being improved.
5. Fashion
Since Stacks brings scalability to Bitcoin, consumers can now digitally verify ownership of their items thus eliminating counterfeit risk. This will be done by scanning a QR code attached to the sale tag. Consumers will be able to know details such as the place of creation of the asset and so on.
6. Certifications
Course completion certificates or even degrees are usually awarded in paper form or as digital copies. All employers when looking to recruit require these documents to be attached as part of referencing before offering someone a position in a company. Minting such certificates as NFTs on Bitcoin saves time which is usually taken in verifying records. Furthermore, this provides a unique secure way for users to store records.
It remains an unknown question whether or not NFTs will be able to keep this same pace and how it will impact the cryptocurrency space. Also, will Stacks blockchain be the one that unlocks the potential of Bitcoin and dominate the NFT market? We’ll see.
REFERENCES
M.Clark. NFTs, Explained. The Verge. (2021). Accessed on: https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq
R.Browne. People are paying millions for clips that can be viewed for free. Welcome to the world of ‘NFTs’. CNBC. (2021) Accessed on: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/03/what-are-nfts-all-you-need-to-know-aboutcryptocollectibles.html#:~:text=%22NFTs%20started%20in%202017.,of%20it%20was%20about%20speculation.
J.Mith. Introducing Boom: A Wallet for STX & NFTs on Stacks 2.0. Stacks. (2021). Accessed on: https://blog.stacks.co/boom-wallet
