What are NFTs? Why is it called a "digital collection"? Can ordinary people play it?
In the past two years, you must have heard the word "NFT". Sometimes it is said that "NFT circles are selling at sky-high prices", and sometimes it is said that "a certain celebrity issues NFT". When you open Alipay, you can also see "digital collections". Many people are confused: What is this? Does it have anything to do with me?
Today I explain it clearly in plain language. Even if you are a complete novice, you will understand it after reading it.
First understand: What exactly is NFT?
In a word: NFT is a unique digital certificate on the blockchain.
We usually save pictures and text on the Internet, and after copying and pasting them, they are exactly the same, and it is impossible to tell which is the "original". But NFT is different. It registers every piece of digital content (pictures, music, text, and even a tweet) on the blockchain and issues it a unique "ID card" that cannot be copied or tampered with.
For example:
You find a Jay Chou wallpaper online, save it to your phone and it’s yours to repost as you please. But if this wallpaper is made into an NFT, even if you save the picture, the "genuine" certificate on the blockchain is still in the hands of the original owner, and the entire network can find out who really owns it.
Therefore, the core of NFT is not the picture itself, but the non-tamperable ownership certificate on the chain.
So why are they called "digital collections" in China?
In fact, domestic digital collections are essentially a castrated version of NFT.
Why the name change? Because NFT was initially used for speculation abroad, prices fluctuated sharply, and it also involved financial attributes, which was not allowed by regulation. Domestic platforms renamed NFT "digital collections" and imposed two main restrictions:
Public trading and speculation are prohibited: they cannot be bought and sold casually like stocks. Most can only be collected or donated, and some cannot even be donated. Most do not run on public chains: foreign NFTs generally run on the Ethereum public chain, and many domestic platforms use their own alliance chains, which is more convenient for supervision.
So to put it simply: digital collection = NFT without financial speculation attributes. The core is to send you a certificate that "you own this digital content". It is mainly used for collection and cannot be used for speculation.
Do ordinary people want to participate in NFT/digital collections?
There are two situations:
If you just like it and want to buy it for collection: absolutely fine
For example, if you like a certain artist's work or a certain animation IP, and you spend tens or hundreds of dollars to buy a digital collection and look at it happily in your hands, that's totally fine. Just treat it as buying peripherals, supporting your hobby, and don’t invest too much money.
If you want to invest and make money: give up as soon as possible
Nowadays, many people are deceived by the news of "sky-high price NFT" and think that just buying one can increase the price dozens of times. This is simply overthinking:
Finally, I would like to remind ordinary people of three risks. Platform risks: Domestic small platforms will disappear if they say no. The digital collections you buy are stored on the platform server. If the platform collapses, your collections will no longer have the risk of fraud: many scammers defraud money under the guise of "transferring high-priced NFTs at low prices". In fact, what they give you is a screenshot, and there is no on-chain certificate at all. Legal risks: A platform that secretly conducts public transactions is itself against the rules. If you participate, whether the money can come out depends on the mood of the platform, and it is not protected by law. To summarize
NFT is a good technology. It solves the problem of "ownership" in the digital world. There will definitely be more application scenarios in the future (such as digital tickets, digital copyrights, and game props can all be used). But for ordinary people, now it is:
You can have fun with it if you like, but don’t think about making a fortune from it, let alone invest your wealth into it.
Have you ever purchased a digital collection? Do you think this thing will be popular in the future? Welcome to chat in the comment area~
