W... WTF is an NFT? Why? Who? When?

An NFT stands for Non Fungible token. As Wikipedia explains: "A non-fungible token (NFT) is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger. Types of NFT data units may be associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and audio."

NFTs exist for that reason. It gives artist the possibility to have a unique piece, and the blockchain proofs who this piece belongs to. A Picasso in a museum is viewable for all, but belongs to someone. A song or piece of coding are more difficult to show in that museum. And the NFT world is an amazing place to show digital art!

There is also a lot to do around crypto and the envirement. The basic of NFT is ETH (Ethereum). But this is an expensive, slow and energyconsuming proces. That's why a lot of NFT Artist choose to work with POLYGON. 

Polygon is a layer and uses a different way in the blockchain.  The World Wildlife Fund UK once made the calculations that a single transaction on Polygon only produces     0,207 gr CO2  - a number they can live with. In ETH this number is a lot higher (very much higher). So of course we are fan of using the faster - cheaper and environmentally friendlier Polygon. 

How does it work?

The main thing you need, is a wallet. In real life, you use a wallet to keep your money. In the virtual world, you need a wallet to keep your virtual mony (crypto) and NFTs (cryptobased). 

I use COINBASE because it is a worldwide leader in crypto and even stockmarket-based. In my opinion, crypto is always a 'risk' so for me Coinbase is the 'safest' solution. When you buy an NFT, you can keep it in your virtual Coinbase Wallet.

Where do you buy NFT?

There are many platforms where youc an buy NFT. Probably the most famous platform (and easy to use) is OPENSEA. Making an OpenSea account is free, so it is also an easy way if you ever want to make NFTs yourself. You can link your Coinbase wallet to your OpenSea account, so you can transfer NFTs to your Wallet. If you want to buy an NFT, there are 2 possibilities: eather you buy it with a creditcard, or you buy it with crypto you added to your account and wallet.

Crypto to your account...

A coinbase account is free. You can use an account to add money (euro) and swap that money for BTC (Bitcoin) or ETH (Ethereum). As NFT uses ETH, that will be the best choice. We have chosen to use the POLYGON version of ETH (also called Wrapped ETH = WETH) on the Polygon network. That's the "currency" to buy NFT with a low gas fee. Our advice: if you only want to buy an NFT once: buy it with creditcard. If you're planning to do more in the NFT world: learn how to work with accounts, wallets, OpenSea,... and you'll get al lot of fun out of it.

We especially like the F.A.Q. that our friends from The Silly Art Collective uses on its site. You can check it here: https://www.thesillyartcollective.com/faq/