Have you ever wondered why you are reading this term everywhere on the internet? Here we explain what it is about.

We all know someone who likes to collect something, be it the music of their favorite artist, coins of different currencies, souvenirs from different countries, photographs of the past, technological items, etc. However, most of these items are physically collected: the interested party buys an original object for a generally high value and adds it to his collection. Many of these objects are pirated or replicated, but as much as they do, collectors know how to identify the originals by the small distinctions and details that make them unique. Did you know that you can also collect unique, original and unrepeatable items in digital format? This is where NFTs come in.

What is an NFT?

An NFT or Non Fungible Token for its acronym in English, is a digital token or voucher that is unique and unrepeatable, basically it is defined as a digital collectible that is verified through a chain of blocks (blockchain), so that a video, image, movie, song, audio, URL or any other type of digital file, can be authenticated or cataloged as "original".

In Law, the term fungible refers to things or goods that are interchangeable and must be consumed for their use. However, if there is something that is not expendable, it means that it has unique properties, so it cannot be exchanged, replaced or copied.

Still a little confused about what we are talking about? Ok, we'll try to explain it easier:

Suppose you are a fan of a famous painter in your country and an auction of his original paintings will be held soon. The person who offers the most money will be the owner of the original paintings, and no matter how curious, pirates or merchants replicate the paintings to earn some money with their sales, none will be "the original", that is, there will never be been painted on the same canvas as the original, nor with the same tools, mix of colors or brushes as the original, nor will it have the details, smells, textures or characteristics that made it initially striking. The same happens with the NFTs but in digital format, the interested parties offer a determined sum of money to classify themselves as the sole owners of some pieces or digital files, which no matter how much they are copied.

These digital tokens are not tangible and represent an active asset or certificate of ownership of the objects or files of interest.

Examples of NFT purchases

• The Nyan Cat Gif, a famous meme created in 2011 about a cat with a cookie body flying, sold for more than US$500,000.

• The auction of a digital work of art carried out by Christie's house raised US$69 million. This piece was created by artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple.

• Jack Dorsey, one of the creators of the popular social network Twitter, sold his first tweet for more than US$2.9 million

• The famous Colombian singer Shakira launched a production of 4 audios called "La Caldera", which is estimated to have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on its first day of sale. It was announced that part of this money would be donated to her foundation Pies Descalzos to build a school in her native Colombia.

What are NFT games?

Knowing this, let's move on to the ones at hand: NFT games. These are video games, virtual realities and multiplayer platforms in which players can earn, find and/or improve collectible items that, in turn, are NFTs, so these assets can be traded and sold for real money. 

These marketable virtual items have their own digital certificate of authenticity, thanks to blockchain technology, which gives them a series of metadata that cannot be modified and that records the starting price of the token, as well as all the acquisitions and transactions that have taken place. fact of said NFT. 

Since NFTs are based on the Ethereum network blockchain, users of NFT games can buy and sell tokens using wallets and platforms that also use ERC-20 tokens . 

The principle of a game's non-fungible token is that it is a unique token that cannot be directly exchanged for another token . So collectors or players who want an NFT will have to offer a price in real money. 

How do they work?

NFT games offer the user unique collectible digital items, be it characters, consumables, cards or other items. These items, once they have reached a certain collectible value, can be sold to other players through the Ethereum network. These are known as internal NFTs, and it is the traditional way of generating income through NFT games.  

There are also play-to-earn games where players complete a series of tasks to earn these tokens, which you can then upgrade and sell for a higher price. 

NFT games have become a source of income for those gamers who understand the impact of this new technology in generating economic benefits. This combination is known as Game-fi (a mixture of gambling and finance ). 

Players can choose from different models of NFT games from a wide variety of themes . Ideally, each gamer should choose games that they are very good at, since generating an NFT with an acceptable value requires investing time and having skills in the game.