What On Earth Is An NFT? We Asked A Montreal Expert So You Don't Have To

Welcome to the modern world, where almost all of us know someone with a picture of a digital monkey (aka a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT) as their Instagram photo but half of us have no idea where it comes from or what kind of value it holds.

For the sake of trying to figure out what on earth an NFT is, MTL Blog asked Montreal expert Linda Akkoyan, otherwise known as "Crypto Lia," to explain everything to us in words the average Joe can actually understand.

You can read our interview with her below.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What is an NFT?

A non-fungible token. An NFT is the future of digital ownership because it’s an asset, a contract, a leger, and so much more, all into one.

Let’s say you buy a piece from an artist, you can share its profits as the popularity of the community grows. This is going to be a tool that will decentralize the world of art and media because it’ll give immense power to artists and creators.

What makes NFTs valuable?

The artistic side is the key to understanding its popularity. But, to be realistic, there are over 50 billion dollars in the market. And just like the early faces of any technology, this gold rush creates a huge hype around the concept.

The technology is genius. This, or a future version of this, will replace real estate and luxury certifications in a heartbeat because it cannot be duplicated in any way. For the first time in history, we can create something that’s 100% authentic due to the digital signature.

WTF Is An NFT, Anyway?www.youtube.com

Some people are going to have huge collections of NFTs. Behind this collection, there’s going to be a utility — that’s what makes the project different from another project, what utility they have.

Basically, utility means the benefits you get for buying into a project. The utility has to be interesting enough for people to want to go on the marketplace, purchase that project and hold onto it.

How can someone purchase an NFT?

Most NFTs work through the Ethereum blockchain. That means if you have a wallet that can hold Ethereum, you can go on the marketplace, buy an NFT and then transfer it onto your ETH wallet.

The biggest websites for NFTs are OpenSea, Rarible and Veve.

What should someone look for in an NFT project?

There are a few things. Legit utility, a scaleable project on the medium and long-term and a visible community that you can follow on Discord or Twitter. The business strategy is very important. A community will die without a team behind it that can bring out the value of the project and long-term value will never be realized.

There are a lot of scams in this field. So my advice is to only click on the links that are provided by the official Discord or Twitter pages on the projects.

How is a community built?

Basically, the artist is going to create a collection. But then they have to have a very solid business strategy because they need to give their project utility. The collection is as great as its community, but the community is as valuable as the team behind the project.

You can have the most beautiful art and people are going to be interested in that art, but you need people behind it that are going to push and value this project and give it utility.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.