The mythical Nyan Cat is up for auction -
Geeko
Since February, many digital works of art have been sold in the form of NFTs, unique character tokens that are backed by blockchain technology.
Works by Grimes and Jack Dorsey's tweet have been sold for millions of dollars.
Take a look back at a technology that is revolutionizing online property.
NFTs have been on everyone's lips for a few days.
And Jack Dorsey, the boss of Twitter is not for nothing.
He auctioned off his first tweet posted in 2006 and the best bid was $ 2 million last Saturday.
The singer Grimes, the digital artist Beeple, the Burnt Banksy collective have also started using “non-fungible tokens” (NFT), non-fungible tokens in French.
Virtual objects with indisputable and inviolable identity, authenticity and traceability thanks to blockchain, and in general ethereum technology, also known as the second most important virtual currency after bitcoin.
Before we ask ourselves what the good of spending millions of dollars to buy the first ever post on Twitter, let's try to understand what these famous tokens are all about.
We tend to associate the blockchain (a technology for storing and transmitting information, transparent, secure, and which operates without a central control body) with virtual currency, especially with the recent boom in bitcoin.
But the ethereum blockchain opens up many perspectives, the extent of which we are beginning to perceive through, in particular, “social tokens”.
Unique character tokens
“On top of the ethereum blockchain, we can create what are called tokens,” explains Claire Balva, co-founder and president of the consulting firm Blockchain Partner.
They represent digital or physical assets that have value ”.
They can be the expression of a part of a business, a building, a character in a video game, a traditional currency… Basically, any asset that has value.
“For example, a basketball player turned part of his contract with the NBA into tokens on the blockchain, people can buy these tokens and if the athlete has a great career and earns a lot of money, those who bought tokens will receive part of its earnings, ”explains Manuel Valente, director of analysis and research at Coinhouse, a benchmark player in France.
You can "tokenize" buildings, an apartment in New York or Tokyo by buying a share online.
We perceive part of the rent without going through the administrative paperwork of an SCI (real estate company), for example.
NFTs are different from other tokens because they have a unique character.
This is also why we can transform tweets, memes or works of art into NFTs and organize auctions.
“Non-fungible tokens do not all have the same properties,” confirms Claire Balva.
Each token has specific characteristics in terms of its code and visual design.
In the world of video games, we can imagine representing weapons, characters or clothes with NFTs.
“This not only makes it possible to be the owner from a technical point of view but also to be able to resell these objects.
It's a whole decentralized technological universe that has plenty of new applications, ”says the blockchain specialist.
Record levels of sales
And this technology has been experiencing a real hype in recent weeks.
Sales reach record levels.
On February 18, Chris Torres, inventor of the Nyan Cat, one of the most famous memes in digital culture, was sold for 300 ETH (more than 470,000 euros).
Grimes also threw herself into the world of crypto-art.
On February 28, the singer sold her digital art collection dubbed
WarNymph for
nearly $ 6 million
, each of which has been certified by an NFT.
If you think this is just a gimmick, you are wrong.
The authenticity of the NFT is guaranteed by the blockchain, in the same way that bitcoin or ether transactions are guaranteed by technology.
You cannot pass off the copy as the original work and you can prove who its owner is.
Valuables, the tweet auction site, specifies that buying a tweet means acquiring "a digital certificate of the tweet, unique because it was signed and verified by the creator."
Whether a tweet or a simple gif is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars remains to be seen, but that's another question.
They represent a definite interest for collectors and enthusiasts of digital culture.
The world of sport has not waited to get started either.
The NBA Top Shot app allows fans to collect and trade stock from a basketball game using NFTs.
In France, Sorare is surfing the Panini madness.
The start-up dedicated to football, which raised 40 million euros at the end of February, offers player cards to collect.
Diego Maradona's card exceeds 293,000 euros, for example.
We haven't finished hearing about it.
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