4 ms·

"Non-Fungible Token". Crypto-currencies, for the most part, attempt to be fungible — all ethereum is the same and can be used for the same things. (There's a r

by pdpi 6y ago

"Non-Fungible Token". Crypto-currencies, for the most part, attempt to be fungible — all ethereum is the same and can be used for the same things. (There's a real argument to be made that BTC is not quite fungible). This is an important property for money to have. Shares in a company are fungible too, as are, say eggs (I can ask you for an egg today, I can give you another egg tomorrow, or I could give you the same one back if I haven't used it) NFTs go in the exact opposite direction. Token are unique and not interchangeable. This models things like art, or real estate. If I lend you the Mona Lisa, you can't settle that loan by returning Guernica. NFTs are really interesting in terms of the sort of applications you can build on top of them, but, as usual, the bro investor community around crypto is just milking the novelty factor for money.

j0hnM1st 6y ago
> Token are unique and not interchangeable. There is absolutely no way ensure uniqueness. Any transaction on the blockchains can be called as a NFT if anyone says the transaction id makes the NFT unique. There is inherently no difference between any other token or coin or transaction and an NFT until unless there is an on chain mechanism to ensure uniqueness of the METADATA associated with the NFT. AFIK there are no such implementations of the NFT which ensures the uniqueness of the METADATA.
- qqii 6y ago
  Current NFTs depend on smart contact platforms. A token contract (or any contract) is unique by address. To simplify the ethereum nft standard specifies that the token can only have one owner. This is what is called an NFT. NFTs don't need smart contacts, they could be part of the protocol. As an example you can create a Cardano token with a maximum supply of 1. An external representation or as you call it "metadata" only serves as a representation of the token contract address (and therefore creation address) and state of the contract which returns your public key as owner. Unless the "metadata" is another NFT it cannot be unique by definition - digital uniqueness relies on ownership by asymmetric key cryptography.
- dbrgn 6y ago
  Yeah, but the way I understand it, a bitcoin transaction cannot be transferred to a new owner, while a NFT can be transferred. You're essentially paying for some unique random numbers that can change ownership.
  - mint2 6y ago
    “A bit coin transaction can be transferred to a new owner” what do you mean? If I made a transaction with a Bitcoin in 2019, that transaction cannot be attributed to someone else in a meaningful way, only in a non-factual way.

by pdpi 6y ago

j0hnM1st 6y ago

> Token are unique and not interchangeable. There is absolutely no way ensure uniqueness. Any transaction on the blockchains can be called as a NFT if anyone says the transaction id makes the NFT unique. There is inherently no difference between any other token or coin or transaction and an NFT until unless there is an on chain mechanism to ensure uniqueness of the METADATA associated with the NFT. AFIK there are no such implementations of the NFT which ensures the uniqueness of the METADATA.

qqii 6y ago
Current NFTs depend on smart contact platforms. A token contract (or any contract) is unique by address. To simplify the ethereum nft standard specifies that the token can only have one owner. This is what is called an NFT. NFTs don't need smart contacts, they could be part of the protocol. As an example you can create a Cardano token with a maximum supply of 1. An external representation or as you call it "metadata" only serves as a representation of the token contract address (and therefore creation address) and state of the contract which returns your public key as owner. Unless the "metadata" is another NFT it cannot be unique by definition - digital uniqueness relies on ownership by asymmetric key cryptography.
dbrgn 6y ago
Yeah, but the way I understand it, a bitcoin transaction cannot be transferred to a new owner, while a NFT can be transferred. You're essentially paying for some unique random numbers that can change ownership.
- mint2 6y ago
  “A bit coin transaction can be transferred to a new owner” what do you mean? If I made a transaction with a Bitcoin in 2019, that transaction cannot be attributed to someone else in a meaningful way, only in a non-factual way.