First – all this buzz and hype about NFT, non fungible tokens – what are they?

I have to admit, I’m as much a student as you are these days. Just sharing as I learn.

From my understanding, it is ownership of an asset on a blockchain that isn’t a token (fungible).

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Handshake (HNS), these are “FT” (fungible tokens) that all tokens you buy are equal.

But an NFT is on the blockchain, but not “equally valued” like coins / tokens are.

I think this is why Gary Vee loves it so much – it is more “hustle”. It is more “garage” sale, or trade show hustle and bustle of getting attention in your “stuff” and building up interest.

Maybe put another way, in “the current world” or non-blockchain world:

USD, RMB, EUR = FT / fungible tokens. All currency in that denomination is equally valued.

Baseball cards, Magic the Gathering cards, artwork, beanie babies, traditional .com domains = “nft” on a “non verifiable” or a “centralized” database (server, excel spreadsheet, company database).

Further expanding on this – I have bought/collected/traded baseball cards and Magic cards as a kid. I would buy magazines (https://www.beckett.com/ now) to see the latest prices of the cards I had. My friends and I would look at the current prices in the magazine when we wanted to trade with each other. The magazine would say this card is valued at 100, and another someone else had was valued at 50. Sure, some would argue the magazine was wrong – but for the most part, we would use this as a guide.

Think of that magazine now a blockchain. And online. And the whole world now sees who owns which baseball card, and a irreversible database (blockchain) to store the records.

No more going to a trade show or event. No more needing to use a broker to hold the cards and then hold the money.

SO THAT THERE is the value

That UNLOCKS these illiquid, physical assets that had to be sold with middle men, pricing guide magazines, and trade shows or offline auctions to a smaller local audience – now these can be sold to anyone in the world (of course that is willing to learn how to use this technology).

So what investors are saying now is – treat “NFT” as a % of your investment portfolio.
Art
Baseball cards
Domains

Now they can be a % of your portfolio in a stock investment fund.
Not just:
Stocks
Bonds
Real Estate
Startup investments

Now – more and more will put a % of their portfolio into NFT as an investment class.

Because before, it was so illiquid and “grey” (in a way) because it was centralized and not transparent.

Now there will be all these exchanges and platforms for people to buy “NFT” as an investment class.

And that is what this all means and that is why I think there is all this hype.

You’ll see investment companies putting on their investor reports the % of the fund is in NFTs, and it will be almost as liquid as stocks and bonds.

Even traditional companies will be able to invest in NFTs and not treat them as an expense or some vague intangible item on their balance sheet. It makes it more of an investment class.

Hope that makes sense – I know this is a bit outside of Handshake (HNS) but we will be making more guides and videos on Handshake NFT and blockchain domain NFTs in the near future and this is an intro and overview.