3 things I’m doing to learn more about NFTs

While NFTs seem to be all the rage in 2021, they really started to get interesting years ago, and by years ago I mean nine years ago. For anyone thinking that NFTs are something totally new, think again, instead this is a market that has had almost a decade to grow and evolve and in 2021, it’s safe to say, it’s hitting a critical mass.

Some people think of CryptoKitties as the first NFTs but it’s probably more accurate to call Colored Coins the true first NFTs. So wait, what are Colored Coins? Here’s a quick primer:

One could argue that Colored Coins are the very first NFTs to exist. Colored Coins are made of small denominations of a bitcoin and can be as small as a single satoshi, the smallest unit of a bitcoin. Colored Coins can be used to represent a multitude of assets and have multiple use cases including:

Property
Coupons
Ability to issue your own Cryptocurrency
Issue shares of a company
Subscriptions
Access tokens
Digital collectibles

Colored Coins exemplified a huge leap in Bitcoin’s capabilities, however, their downside was they could only represent certain values if everyone agrees on their worth. Bitcoin’s scripting language was never meant to enable this type of behavior within its network, thus Colored Coins were only as powerful as their weakest participant. For example, 3 people agree that 100 Colored Coins represent 100 company shares. If even one participant decides they no longer equate Colored Coins to represent company shares, the entire system falls apart.(Source – Medium)

Back in 2012 I can tell you, I was getting into crypto (and yes I wish I bought a lot more back then!) but I had no idea what NFTs are. I’ve been focused on domain names for so long, I missed the growth of the NFT world.

Now like many of you, I’m playing catchup and trying to learn as much about NFTs as I can, making some of my first investments like this awesome piece from SSX3Lau:

Faces SSX3Lau

I’m a big believer that when you’re learning new things, you should be a sponge and just do everything you can to learn. And right now, it’s safe to say I’m deep in sponge-mode. Since I know my readers are also interested in NFTs I thought I’d share more about three things I’m doing to learn more about NFTs in case you want to learn more yourself.

  1. Clubhouse – there are some great discussions happening on Clubhouse about NFTs, I would look for anything that Farokh Sarmad (@farokhgoodlife) is moderating, he tends to be a part of the most interesting Clubhouse rooms focused on NFTs, IMHO of course. For now I just enjoy being a fly on the wall, I don’t know enough to contribute but I do really enjoy listening and learning.
  2. Buying NFTs – like most things in life, you can learn faster by doing. At the same time, when it comes to investing this probably means wasting some money as you learn. While I’d love to think I’m making great investments out of the gate, I’m probably not, and that’s okay. I’m putting money into NFTs that I am okay losing, I see it as an educational expense at this point. From getting the Kings of Leon Album NFT, art from SSX3Lau or Top Shot cards, I’m diving in and learning from every experience.
  3. Talking with experts – I have been able to connect with people who know a lot about NFTs, and much like when I got started in domain names, just ask a lot of questions and learn from their experience. When I got started in the domain investing world I tried to spend as much time as I could talking with experienced investors, this likely made the biggest impact for me and I’ve been really enjoying doing the same in the NFT world.

Right now I wouldn’t even call myself a beginner when it comes to NFTs, I think total noob would probably be the best way to describe me. And that’s okay – I love learning and love digital assets, I like the idea of being able to live anywhere in the world and not worry about physical assets. Having an $100,000 piece of art, physically hanging in my place would be stressful for me, I like the idea of digital art a lot more.

So what’s next along my learning path? This week I’m doing a deeper dive into The Sandbox, which is on track to become the first real Metaverse where property has real value (people are buying land for six-figures in The Sandbox today). I hope to end this week with my first little chunk of land in The Sandbox, and as always, as I move forward I’ll continue to share what I learn with all of you 🕺

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton