Yahoo Sports All I Got For the Holidays Was an NFT. Now What?
Amid exploding popularity, NFTs will be the gift of the moment this year. For the gift giver, it has several advantages: You don’t need to wrap it, you don’t need to carry it when you travel, it’s a really thoughtful gift as it can appreciate over time and it can be highly personalized.
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Trading in NFTs climbed to $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of more than 700% from the previous quarter, according to a report by blockchain analytics firm DappRadar. But not everyone’s into them, perhaps because of a lack of understanding, or just lack of interest.
Great. But what if you’re on the other end and not into them?
Anndy Lian, Chairman, BigONE Exchange and Founding Member of INFLUXO, told GOBankingRates that he, in fact, bought his staff NFT as holiday gifts this year.
“This is also because of COVID, I cannot see many of them personally. NFT becomes an ideal gift for everyone,” he said. “NFTs are here to stay, this year we may be talking about gifting an NFT as a collectible. Next year, you may be gifted an NFT that can be the actual key to a house in Manhattan. Always remember, what you see now for NFT is just the beginning. Its use case can be very broad.”
But first things first. What is one to do when gifted with an NFT?
“To receive NFT, they need a wallet and depending on where the NFT is residing. You may need an Ethereum, Polygon, Binance wallet. Just naming some of them,” Liann said.
Which brings us to the second point: How does one “accept” an NFT?
“NFTs are and can only exist on the blockchain in an individual’s wallet,” Dominic Ryder, CEO of vEmpire, told GOBankingRates. “This means unless you agree to set up a crypto wallet, you will and can never officially own an NFT,” he said. “Somebody can buy one and say it is yours for sure, but you only own that asset if you own the private keys to the wallet they are held in. So if you don’t want to accept an NFT, you don’t have to! Just don’t create a wallet or accept one to be made for you to store the NFT they have bought.”
However, he added that if you want to know how to accept the gift, he suggests creating an ethereum wallet via Metamask or Trust wallet.
“Make sure to verify any links you follow and enjoy the world of NFTs,” he added.
And if you’re really just not interested?
While NFTs are one of the biggest drivers of Defi growth and have been for some time, not everyone will want one or be interested in them, Grigory Rybalchenko, Founder of Emiswap, told GOBankingRates.
“But we can also agree that they are an excellent tool to prove ownership status on the blockchain. If you are a gamer, VR player, collector, or digital artist of any kind, then NFTs have the potential to give you something that wasn’t conceivable only a few years back,” he said.
However, Rybalchenko added that it’s also understandable that many people may not care for them because they may not be of use to them.
“In that case, if you receive an NFT that you don’t want to keep, you can reopen it for sale on a marketplace like OpenSea.io on Ethereum or AirNFTs on Smart Chain,” he said. “You can also transfer ownership to someone else, i.e., regift it. However, during all transfers, all details will be visible on the blockchain under the unique token ID or smart contact address.”
Anthony Georgiades, Co-Founder and COO of NFT marketplace Pastel Network, echoes the sentiment, saying that even if you receive an NFT that you don’t want, it’s still great news, as you can try to sell it on one of a growing number of quality secondary marketplaces.
“And if you want to keep it, well, what’s more, is that you don’t require a physical place to store them. It’s all digital and takes up no space, as opposed to those annoying piles of festive Christmas socks gifted to you by that random aunt or uncle,” he said. “And if you just want to forget about it, then your gift NFT can simply be held in your wallet, on the blockchain, for eternity while you conveniently forget you ever received it.”
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NFTs are still better than an ugly sweater
Another positive aspect of being gifted an NFT you don’t really want is that “you have more options for putting it to use than you would with an ugly Christmas sweater,” Ivan Ravlich, CEO of cyber-infrastructure company Hypernet Labs, told GOBankingRates.
“An NFT isn’t a gift you have to shove in a drawer or reluctantly bring out and put on display for visitors – it’s a personal asset that can be traded for cryptocurrencies, staked or sold for cash without the need of a gift receipt or returning to a retailer,” he said.
Overall, crypto experts recommend holding on to them as they can turn out to be extremely valuable assets over time.
Josh James, Co-Founder and COO of NFT platform OneOf, said that whether or not you’re interested in NFTs, they are a valuable gift and appreciate over time “much more than the never worn Christmas sweater from your favorite aunt.”
“When iconic NFTs dropped, virtually nobody knew how popular and sought-after they’d become. If the NFT doesn’t hold any personal value for you, I’d suggest saving it for a rainy day, donating to charity or selling it to someone who really wants it. You never know — it could turn out to be a very valuable asset,” James added.
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At the Very Least, NFTs Are Educational
Finally, as the giver of an NFT, you could simply preamble the gifting by saying it also has an educational component, enabling skills and knowledge that can be parlayed in crypto investing more broadly.
“Gifting an NFT is a trojan horse gift to learn how the blockchain works. If someone doesn’t want to receive an NFT I would recommend they still get one to learn about the space,” Garrett Minks, CTO of RAIR TECH, told GOBankingRates.
“The learnings about how wallets work, signing transactions, spending crypto are all invaluable lessons for the future as web3 and defi become more a part of our everyday lives.” Minks said. “When the tools are really easy to use years from now a majority of the alpha will be taken by people willing to learn. The best gift for 2021 is the gift of web3 knowledge regardless of what the NFT looks like.”
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: All I Got For the Holidays Was an NFT. Now What?
