NFTs try to disassociate themselves from cryptocurrencies | Technology

The latest cryptocurrency crisis has also rocked NFTs. non-fungible tokenan asset whose authenticity and uniqueness are guaranteed by technology blockchain or chain of blocks, the same as digital currencies. Its greatest exponent has been the market for digital works, which reached its peak last year. However, according to NonFungible data, collected by Wall Street Journal, sales of NFTs have fallen by 92% since then and the number of active wallets, essential to dispose of the NFT, has fallen by 88% since November. Consolidated companies and other emerging ones, such as NFTespaña, want to ward off this trend by disassociating the purchase of works from cryptocurrencies and facilitating their acquisition with conventional forms of payment. The co-founder and director of the new Spanish entity, Mario Fueyo, states: “We want to decouple our services from speculation.”

The Spanish initiative is not the first, but it is one of the few that try to separate the NFT race from cryptocurrencies. Switchere, SpaceSeven or Rarible also allow users to buy NFTs with a credit card without converting to cryptocurrency and Coinbase started studying this formula after an agreement with a conventional financial company.

A token is a digital token that, like those in casinos, only has value in the system in which it operates and must be exchanged when entering or exiting, unless you want to continue playing or use it as currency with other players. In the case of cryptocurrencies, they can be exchanged: if it is equal to one euro, one currency can be exchanged for another of the same. The token of NFTs, on the other hand, are unique and indivisible, so that, in addition to the good, the asset, they represent a deed, a certificate of ownership and originality of a digital good. They can be bought and sold, but they cannot be exchanged for an equal good, because it does not exist. Of Guernica There is only one original and the copies do not have the same value.

A big difference of the NFT with an original physical work is that while it is in a space, such as the Guernica in room 205.10 of the Reina Sofía, the acquired with NFT is filed in a wallet, a digital portfolio that allows you to have it: store it, display it or market it. Copies can be made, like Guernica, but only one work will be the original.

Creating an NFT requires a platform, such as OpenSea or Mintable, where the artist uploads the digital file and generates a smart contract (smart contracts) associated with it. But, until now, this operation, based on the same technology as cryptocurrencies, had been linked to accounts of this digital money, from which the creator was paid and ownership was transferred.

The project led by Fueyo wants to dispense with this last link, shaken in the last month by extremely high volatility and marked by speculation. NFTespaña has started this May 26 with a sale of NFT that can be paid in euros, with conventional payment systems. It will require the creation of a wallet or digital wallet, but it is simplified to make it possible at the click of a button. This is how the director of the company, created at the beginning of the year, explains it: “We are the first in Spain. The wallet it is created quickly and automatically via email, Facebook or Twitter. Once you make the payment with euros, the marketplace detects that it has been done with that wallet that is already connected previously and the NFT is automatically sent”.

Exclusive tickets and participations in flats

One of the reasons for creating the new company has been to make the process easier, a complication that turns off many potential buyers. The other is to facilitate access to other services (fashion, music, videos, events…) that benefit from the advantage of technology blockchain, which is not only the cryptocurrency market, although they have become popular at the same time, but security and exclusivity. And finally, in the words of the director of the company, “totally disassociate NFTs from speculation.” The first collection went on sale on May 26 and is made up of 333 NFTs by the illustrator María Emegé.

The fields of NFTs are diverse. The music industry has already entered this world. Last March, the publication rolling stone announced the release of the latest album of Kings of Leon (When You See Yourself) with three NFT. One includes a special album, another additionally offers lifetime front row seats and band meet-and-greets, and the last offers exclusive audiovisual art.

The publishing world is also looking at NFTs as a way to personalize works, authenticated by the author, and for creators to be able to precisely know their journey.

The real estate environment has also focused on what is known as tokenization to broaden the range of investors. With this measure, the asset is divided into shares represented by the tokenvalidated by blockchain And they are transferable. In this way, you can participate in the ownership of a flat from about 100 euros and receive the income proportional to the investment made in the case of rental or sale.

Stealing from a bored monkey

But, just as a physical work is at risk of being stolen, digital ones are also exposed. The network security company Check Point believes that, “although the concepts of bitcoin and blockchain first appeared in 2008, circumstances have changed considerably since then with the introduction of Ethereum, the tokens non-fungible (NFT), the metaverse and the internet of value”. “Despite these advances,” warns the company, “enormous risks remain for users.”

Actor and producer Seth Green has been one of the victims having had four NFTs stolen this month and lost the commercial rights to his show’s cartoon lead, a bored monkey named fred simian. This NFT was quickly transferred to a collection whose owners have not responded to clarify the circumstances of the event and their involvement in it.

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The OpenSea platform, as reported buzzfeednewshas marked the token in litigation with “suspicious activity” warnings. “We do not have the power to freeze or delist NFTs that exist on decentralized blockchains; however, we disabled the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell stolen items,” said company spokeswoman Allie Mack.

Ana Mercedes López Rodríguez, professor of Private International Law at Loyola Andalucía University, warns in an article published by The Conversation the limitations of the current legislation in this new market: “The task before the legislator is highly complex, among other things, because the applicable regulations normally depend on each country, while NFTs can change hands without limit of jurisdiction through digital markets. The anonymity provided by technology blockchain it also makes it difficult for parties to an NFT transaction to invoke any form of intellectual property or contractual rights in the event of a potential infringement.”

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