Who would have thought that former president Donald Trump will come up with his very own NFTs and also sell them out in under 24 hours? Not me certainly. However, truth is stranger than fiction and it looks like Trump has made a splash in the NFT market when nobody was seemingly interested in acquiring digital images. So is Donald Trump making NFTs great again? let’s find out
Donald Trump’s NFT collection
Trump’s NFT collection dropped at a time when the market volume of the tokens is down by 89% from its peak in January. Dune Analytics reports that the trading volume of NFTs on OpeanSea Marketplace is the lowest since June 2021. One of the most famous NFT projects, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT can be acquired now just for $80,466 which is an 81% drop from its peak value. Thus, Donald Trump’s NFTs selling out in under 24 hours is a testament to his popularity among the red-hatters.
Despite the bad timing, Trump’s NFT collection easily shot up to the top of OpenSea’s marketplace ranking, raking over $1.4 million since its launch. The collection’s trading volume is 900 ETH whereas its floor price is about 0.19 ETH which is about $230. The price has currently surpassed the original ask of $99 which is rare in the current NFT market.
Trump digital trading cards are fantasy NFT cards based on the polygon blockchain. The trading cards portray an exaggerated version of Trump showing him as a super-human, an astronaut, and a boxer, among others. There is also a certain reward program attached to the trading cards as buying 45 Trump trading cards at one go gives users a ticket to a gala dinner with Trump himself. Many are suspecting that this proposition has led to Trump Trading Cards becoming a massive hit among his fanbase and crypto bros.
Instagram never stops surprising its users with the updates and features it introduces time and again. New filters, background music for a single image or a carousel, reels, close friends for stories, live video, and much more. What started as an image-sharing social networking site has evolved with time and has become a part of our lifestyle. Who would have thought that users could sell their Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) on Instagram.
The NFT integration for Instagram focuses on the term “Digital Collectible” in preference to NFT, given the confusion across the term fungible for plenty of people. The digital collectible Instagram posts will have a “shimmer effect” to allow them to stand out from regular posts in the feed. NFTs will possibly be included in Instagram as standard posts on your Instagram feed. A digital wallet will be connected to let users share digital collectibles and automatically tag the creator and the collector.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram Head Adam Mosseri took to their Instagram handle to explain how and why NFTs will be introduced to Instagram. The reason stated by the company is to let their fans support their favourite creators by purchasing digital collectibles.
“The creator economy is incredibly important to Instagram. But one of the challenging things that we need to solve as an industry is how to help creators make a living doing what they love. Right now there are a number of different ways for creators to make money but a lot of them are unpredictable and changing rapidly. Now we think one really interesting opportunity for a subset of creators is NFTs,” Adam Mosseri, Instagram Head, says.
The pilot release won’t fee customers for posting and sharing an NFT. It isn’t immediately clear whether or not Instagram could support NFT from all four chains at launch. As per the report, Instagram will permit a small organization of NFT lovers based in the US to test the feature.
“We’re starting to test digital collectibles on Instagram so that creators and collectors can display their NFTs,” Zuckerberg told blockchain entrepreneur Tom Bilyeu. The company would be rolling out augmented reality NFTs, which he described as “3D NFTs” and appear as stickers in Instagram Stories, said Zuckerberg.f
Since the arrival of Web 2.0, we have witnessed many changes in human lifestyle, especially the ones that directly relate to the internet. Whether from static pages to dynamic web pages, social media advancement from mails to apps or from cash-driven society to electronic money transactions. Digital currency, or digital money, is a new fad that is driving people crazy and the hype it has created since its inception is absolutely unbelievable.
What is Digital Currency?
The word anatomy certainly belongs to the science that studies the structure of the body, but it goes along quite well when someone is describing digital currency. The human body consists mainly of water and organic compounds, while digital currency or digital money is any form of money, currency, money-like asset or payment that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged in electronic form, especially over the internet.
Digital currencies or electronic currencies are known for making secure, transparent and trusted payments that exist only in a virtual format and are not tangible. They are mainly divided into two territories – centralised currencies and decentralised currencies. Now, you should know one thing upfront – centralised currencies are regulated and need licenses to operate, while decentralised currencies are complicated to regulate.
The money you have in your bank accounts is called electronic money. It does not fall in the category of digital currency because you can take your bank stored money out in cash form anytime you want, just by visiting the banks or ATMs. However, you can’t do such acts in the case of digital money as it never takes physical form, unlike currencies with printed banknotes or minted coins, which makes it exchangeable only via digital pars.
Types of Digital Currencies
Cryptocurrency
Almost everyone on this planet earth is aware of cryptocurrency due to its popularity over the last few years. It is a type of digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that does not rely on any central authority, making it supremely rebellious. Cryptocurrencies are categorised into DeFi, NFT, utility tokens, and store of value tokens like Ethereum, Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Cryptocurrency uses encryption to verify transactions, and it is a digital currency with the actual value and worth, though it keeps fluctuating and volatile. It doesn’t belong to any specific nation and isn’t integrated with any one country’s economy. The first-ever cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, founded in 2009, and even today, it is a widely accepted and one of the most highly valued cryptocurrencies in the world.
Virtual Currency
Virtual currency is a type of digital currency which is not issued or controlled by a central bank. Also, in some cases, it acts as a substitute for real currency (only when it has an equivalent value), and then it is referred to as “convertible” virtual currency. They are further categorised by currency flow and classified as closed virtual currencies and convertible virtual currencies.
Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDC
Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDC is a type of digital currency issued by a central bank. The idea of Central Bank Digital Currency came from cryptocurrencies, but in reality, it differs from cryptocurrencies. The significant difference between these two is centralisation, where instead of putting money, the central bank issues electronic coins and accounts. The government backs all these coins and accounts, making the currency a fully trusted digital currency.
NFT is over the moon, but ironically no one really knows what it is and why it is creating hype all over the globe! The artwork that brought NFT term in most households of the world was Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold in an auction for $69,346,250 (38,525 ETH).
The viral news created a curiosity between people, but it didn’t create much hype on Indian soil until Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s NFT collections, which includes his father’s famous poem ‘Madhushala’, autographed vintage posters of himself, and his other works sold for a whopping $9,66,000.
Later on, Yuvraj Singh came in and hit the NFT ball out of the world by sending his NFT bat into space, which became the first-ever minted NFT ever to be sent in orbit. And this is when some intellectual people started searching for what is NFT and diving deep into the ocean of serendipity.
Until now, most people know NFT stands for Non-Fungible Tokens, and they can be traded or exchanged but only with an equivalent item. I’ll put it in an example to make it more clear to you, suppose you have digitally owned Nike Shoes, valued at ₹23k, then you can exchange them with another digital item priced at ₹23k.
Whereas fungible tokens such as Bitcoins are more like physical money, and they can be traded or exchanged. You can exchange the Bitcoin with one for another, but you can’t do the same with NFTs as they’re cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish them from each other.
In the last few months, NFT has dominated the investment sector and occupied massive space in the digital market space. The artforms that sold for millions of dollars played a remarkable role in the growth of NFTs, and it aided the marketplace to become a multi-billion-dollar industry in a short span.
In 2020, the NFT marketplace was in the initial stage, and the total investment was about $100 million, but it boomed like a missile in 2021 and reached the mark of $20 billion. Thanks to the brands like Nike, Adidas and Gucci, who invested heavily in the NFTs (in the name of limited editions) to open up new revenue streams.
NFT platforms are a kind of jackpot for artists who are associated with graphics, music, and programmable art forms. When you create an NFT, you get an option to tag it with a specific value, and it can be anything at the initial stage. A number of artists are earning millions due to NFT platforms, all thanks to the hype.
Suppose an artist tags an NFT at 0.1 Ether, but later on, when people start taking an interest in it, or it gets viral, the value of NFT can reach any number, and this is how the owner of NFT will earn. It’s simple like an IPL auction – if the player performs well in a couple of seasons, every franchise will try to get him in their team in the next auction. In simple words, yes, NFTs are definitely worth an investment.
Let’s Talk Business: How to Create NFTs in India?
NFTs are focused on specific sectors like digital artworks, images, audios, videos, and even tweets. So far, they can be bought only with cryptocurrencies, and that’s the reason people who have already invested tons of money in cryptocurrencies are the people who are incredibly excited to buy them. NFTs are worth an investment, but they have a slight risk involved. Get in at your peril, but never test the depth of a river with both feet.
Here are a few provisions and steps you’re going to need before creating NFTs.
We can create and sell NFTs on many platforms, but we recommend OpenSea and Rarible, especially when you’re a newbie to the world of NFTs, as these two are the most popular platforms for NFT trading. When we tried our hands at NFT, we went with Rarible as we got to know that they’re offering to sell/list NFTs without any gas fee, which no one else is willing to offer. Let’s get to the steps quickly before someone else uploads and sells their selfies as NFT.
Step 1:
Search “Install MetaMask” on Google and click on the first link, which will lead you to the MetaMask homepage. Then, click on the download option, install MetaMask on your browser and add it as an extension.
Step 2:
Then, visit Rarible.com and sign in with MetaMask. The page will lead you to the new window. Now, click on the Get Started option, and if you already have a wallet, then click on import wallet; otherwise, go for, create a wallet.
Step 3:
Next up, read the policy text, click on the I agree option, set a password, and click on create. Hit the next button, watch the video and click on the blurry text. Yes, it is your secret recovery phrase.
Note: Write down the secret phrase on paper and keep it safe somewhere. Never share this secret phrase with anyone.
Step 4:
Later, click on the next option. You’ll see something like this. Now, select the secret phrase words in order and click on it till you finish the task and then hit confirm, followed by all done.
Step 5:
Hit next, and then connect. Now go back to the rarible site and sign in with MetaMask. Click on create, and the page will lead you to choose the blockchain option, where you’ll see three options – Ethereum, Flow and Tezos.
Step 6:
Click on Ethereum and then choose to create a wallet. Then, choose single or multiple as per your choice. If you’ve created something very unique, then go for a single otherwise, go for multiple to sell one collectible multiple times.
Step 7:
The page will lead you to create a collectible on Ethereum. Upload your preferred file by choosing the file. Next up, set a price or select open for bids. Then, turn on the option of unlock once purchased and enter your secret phrase.
Step 8:
Turn on the free minting option to avoid gas fees and a name along with a description of your NFT. Also, enter the percentage of royalties, number of copies and click on create item option.
Step 9:
A number of small windows will appear on the right side of the screen; scroll them down and click on the SIGN option every time it appears there. Congrats, you’ve successfully created your first NFT.
Step 10:
Lastly, check your NFT by clicking on the “my profile” option. You’ll find it on the same line where the create option can be seen. Refresh the page and click on the owned option to see your first NFT.
That’s it! Now, you can share the on sale NFT with anyone by clicking on the share option.
