Let’s remember the early days of the internet, when you weren’t about to pay for that Destiny’s Child song, choosing to instead pirate the MP3 file. Nowadays, imagine that copy of that song having value and earning you some royalties. Utopic, right?
Digital ownership is a permit to access certain data about ourselves or about something we own, be that physically or digitally on the internet. Examples of digital ownership range from your personal data to cryptocurrency and NFTs, which we will be discussing.
More and more celebrities are hopping onto the NFT bandwagon by releasing their own, with some controversial releases also dominating the internet news, such as Stan Lee’s account releasing NFTs he probably would never even have considered were he still with us.
More positive NFT stories include Grimes making millions off of the ones she released (which is suitable for the cyber-galactic princess she truly is), and Nyan Cat selling one of itself as well. These aren’t even online paying jobs, but they for sure bring in some big revenue.
Before anything, let’s refresh our brains on what NFTs are exactly, and what crypto is, and mention torrenting as well. All of these items are dominant in our internet era and it is time we came to understand them.
Torrenting
When digital entertainment started to become a reality to the average Joe, BitTorrent was also making its rounds amongst those who understood the whole digital thing. This meant that intellectual property started becoming more secure due to the conflicts that were arising between fans and creators, such as movie studios and music artists.
All of this conflict led to better platforms to be able to “rent out” property such as Netflix or Spotify, but also brought up arguments on how torrenting was an anarchical reaction to an intellectual’s property rights. Torrent is pretty much the opposite of the blockchain since you are quite literally stealing content.
Torrenting hurts not only the publishers, but against popular belief, the artists as well. Naturally, it isn’t something that can be stopped either, except when torrenting sites allow for artists to earn some on the torrent of their work.
What are NFTs?
The term NFT is an acronym for non-fungible tokens, which means these tokens are irreplaceable, there is only one, and cannot be traded for something that is the same. Unlike NFTs, bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies are fungible, which means they can be traded and exchanged for something that is the same.
So far this may sound confusing, but these non-fungible tokens work in a way where they are a part of a certain form of cryptocurrency. They are tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, which is a type of crypto supporting NFTs.
Blockchains are a system where information is recorded and cannot be changed, hacked, or replaced. You could think of them as a form of digital transaction history except it is distributed amongst every computer connected to the chain.
Previous uses of blockchain were for medical data (opening up tech careers within healthcare), royalties tracking for music, personal identity security, supply chain monitoring, and so on. These things may not seem as absurd as NFTs, but there is a future in this newer concept as well.
Non-fungible tokens are really more based on the art and collecting aspect of using a blockchain. To be more specific, they are used in fine art collecting, and are more a status symbol, because these NFTs can be copied, except the person who paid for it has some ownership over it, with the creator still retaining copyright, naturally.
The problem with digital art is that the copy is just as good as the original, minus the title and all the value being put into the original.
The basis of NFTs is that they support artists who otherwise may not be as supported. Sites like OpenSea further ease the ability for buyers to buy and for artists to sell their digital art. They can even enable a feature where they earn a percentage of the revenue every time their NFT is sold or passed on.
NFTs also work as a speculative set, just like physical art, where the value can go up in time, meaning there is some profit for buyers as well.
This world of non-fungible tokens is for collectors and crypto users alike, equaling the best of both worlds.
Essentially, NFTs are a way for people to do the right thing using a method that makes it easy for them to do so.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are actual currencies, the difference being they circulate without any monetary authority such as banks. Their use is secure, except when user information gets hacked and leaked, and their crypto gets taken, but that truly doesn’t happen often.
The basis of cryptocurrency is that it uses cryptography to secure any transactions it is used in. These currencies are digital entries into an online database, which means any transactions are recorded publicly on the blockchain. The aim of this currency is to trade it to earn profits, just like the earlier mentioned Ethereum.
If you have enough crypto in your digital wallet, you could even buy luxury goods such as Rolex or expensive cars, if crypto payment is accepted by them, of course.
The nice thing about crypto is how much safer and more trackable it is compared to currencies found across the globe.
Overall, these new digital items portray a big step towards the future and are almost critiques on the workings of the current world that have remained from the past and were thought to be the most solid way of running things.
In addition, if you understand it well you can earn off of it too.