In recent months, non-fungible token (NFT) storage space has warmed up and NFTs have become a topical conversation in the cryptocurrency community. Many supporters believe that NFTs will be huge and will change everything from the art industry to online gaming. Others believe that NFTs are completely worthless and nothing more than the hype that was seen during the first phase of the Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017.
Non-fungible token assets and reliable immutability
Data shows that to date, there have been more than 5.3 million NFT (Non-Fungible Token) sales in nonfungible.com’s market history. Of all of these sales, artists, blockchain firms, and NFT dealers have sold NFTs valued at $ 414.5 million. Out of every 5.3 million sales on nonfungible.com’s list, NFTs sell an average of $ 76 per unit.
Additionally, NFTs have caught mainstream attention and on March 11, 2021, popular NFT artist Beeple sold his works at the world-famous Christie’s auction house. Christie’s online auction 20447, titled Beeple: Everydays – The First 5000 Days, sold the artwork for a staggering $ 69.3 million.
It seems like a new NFT project is being released every day and a new celebrity is endorsing their own non-fungible token collectibles. Many crypto backers believe that NFTs will be a transformative idea that will shake up a number of industries such as the arts, music, and online gaming.
Not everyone now likes NFTs, and the hype is often criticized online these days. For example, when Jack Dorsey supported the NFT application Valuables, which was created by a startup called Cent, it caused quite a stir. The Valuables platform enables people to buy a digital certificate of a tweet and sell it in the open market for Ethereum.
However, the Valuables concept has been immensely examined and discussed controversially. “What if you buy someone’s tweet and then delete them?” Software developer Jameson Lopp said after the launch. After this criticism from Lopp and many others, the Twitter account @slvtrmndi has proven that this can happen.
“Someone just deleted a tweet they sold for cents,” @slvtrmndi tweeted on March 6th.
The very next day, withtally.com’s Dennison Bertram explained how he created some NFTs that are stored in the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) and eventually disappeared.
“Funny fact,” said Bertram. “I coined NFTs for my hybrid metapunks a few years ago,” he explained. “I saved them in IPFS. I still have it. Because I also saved them in AWS S3. All the IPFS versions are gone, ”he added.
Bitcoin solved double spending, NFT reinvented it.
– Paul McKellar (@pm) March 9, 2021
Additionally, the recent Banksy-burning NFT transformation earlier this week had also sparked controversy. In an email to news.Bitcoin.com, myartbroker.com co-founder Joey Syer said the burned Banksy NFT sale raises the idea that “the only idiots on this transaction are the buyers and stunt performers themselves”.
Syer also insisted that the Banksy NFT was no other than pulling a free copy (JPG or PNG image) from the open web. “You can right-click on the same picture that floods the internet and have your own version for free,” said Syer.
‘Pulling the Rug’ creator, who hosts NFTs on Opensea, changes the images
Following criticism from Banksy NFT and the controversial debates over the sale of NFT tweets, the Twitter account @neitherconfirm told its followers that it pulled an NFT carpet trick this week. He simply swapped the pictures he had listed on Opensea for pictures of oriental carpets after the NFTs had been embossed.
“I just pulled the rug in my NFT collection on Opensea,” he tweeted. “Nobody was injured. It’s pretty easy to change the JPG even if it doesn’t belong to me or is auctioned off. I am the artist, my choice, right? A thread from someone who makes a living doing art on the value of NFTs. Any discussion of the value of NFTs is meaningless as long as the token is not inextricably linked to the artwork itself, ”wrote NFT artist @neitherconfirm.
The Twitter account @neitherconfirm added:
I [have been] in Bitcoin since 2014. My 9-5 is doing sculptural art. For over a decade I worked with a large team for one of the best-selling artists in the world. Some of the works of art that we produce sell in the tens of millions. Every work of art we sell comes with a certificate of authenticity. The paper without a work of art is worthless. The artwork without a certificate will remain the same but may not be (re) sold.
Additionally, @neitherconfirm said that if a person could legitimately get a work of art and prove it, but lost the paper, a person would likely get a new one. “A blank signature is an autograph, not a certificate,” he said. In addition, he added that each certificate of authenticity includes a title, a year of production, the artist’s name, the materials used, the dimensions, the number of items produced, the number of the item itself, the date of signature, and also the artist’s signature .
“NFTs must be supported by an immutable and permanent storage provider”
Another Twitter account called @checkmynft has also discussed such NFT issues on the social media platform. “Based on the FAQs on the Cent website, the NFTweets metadata is stored on Matic (now Polygon),” @checkmynft wrote. The author of the Twitter thread explained how Cent’s NFT platform works and how it could be made better.
“While the author, the date and the tweet content are saved on Matic, the image URL and the tweet URL are saved outside the chain on Twitter or Cent”, explains the Twitter account. “The central storage of NFT assets and metadata poses an extreme risk to the underlying value and longevity of the NFT. By storing metadata and assets of an NFT on centralized platforms, the NFTweet is very susceptible to the loss of the asset, when twitter or cent shut down. The underlying assets of the tweet will only last as long as the providers, ”added @checkmynft.
The Twitter account continued:
Storage of assets is an easily overlooked aspect of NFTs, but one that is fundamental to their value. In the case of the person bidding $ 2.5 million on Jack’s first tweet, you can see why it would be terrible if the fortune were lost due to a closure or other reasons. Without a reliable backup, the NFTweet would be essentially worthless. The metadata, tweet url, and image file should be backed up by an immutable and permanent storage provider.
Twitter account @checkmynft said that a project called Arweave provides exactly this utility by “permanently backing up NFT assets, files, apps and blockchains through a foundation mechanism.” Ardrive.io or Arweave is a project that aims to provide immutable and persistent storage.
On May 30th, 2020 Arweave wrote about the topic “NFT permanence” and used Arweave as a solution. “Often times, NFT’s actual digital assets, metadata, and code are stored off-chain on centralized servers,” explains Arweave in his blog post. “This information is sometimes carried in IPFS, but there is still a risk that it will be lost forever if the wrong disk fails or the node goes offline – just like the centralized web. Without the associated data and resources, such as digital graphics for an NFT-based artwork, NFTs become functionally worthless even to the end user. “
According to Arweave, the protocol designed by the team is supposed to store practically unlimited amounts of data permanently in the chain. “With Arweave’s pay once, save forever” data storage model, NFT developers using Arweave can be assured that their NFT’s assets will be available for hundreds of years into the future, ”the project’s blog post points out.
Another project similar to Arweave is Filecoin, an open source digital payment system designed to provide blockchain-based collaborative digital storage. In addition to those looking to improve on the NFT concept, many developers are generally using alternative chains in place of Ethereum. Blockchain competitors that could serve the NFT space include projects like Filecoin, Cardano, EOS, Tron, Komodo, Qtum, Polkadot, Cosmos, and Avalanche.
What do you think of the immutability of non-fungible tokens (NFT) controversy? Let us know what you think on this matter in the comments section below.
Tags in this story
@checkmynft, @neitherconfirm, @slvtrmndi, artwork, Arweave, Beeple, Cent, Christie’s auction, Dennison Bertram, Filecoin, image modification, immutability, immutability debate, interplanetary file system, IPFS, IPFS.io, Jameson Lopp, Joey Syart, metadata., my. com, nft, NFTs, non-fungible tokens, rug pull, valuables
Photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, ardrive.io, Twitter,
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