What's an NFT exactly?
NFTs are records of ownership encrypting a unique piece of information into a blockchain therefore, protecting it's sensitive information from hackers. Recording ownership, but not itself the same thing. Similar to a house deed. Non-fungible tokens, often referred to as NFTs, are  blockchain-based tokens that each represent a unique asset like a piece of art, digital content, or media. An NFT can be thought of as an irrevocable digital certificate of ownership and authenticity for a given asset, whether digital or physical.

How do NFTs work?
NFTs are largely part of the Ethereum blockchain, although other blockchains have implemented their own version of NFTs. Like bitcoin or dogecoin, Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, but its blockchain also keeps track of who holds and trades NFTs.

What's a blockchain?
Blockchains are complex, but essentially they allow you to store data without having to rely on a single party  such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it and  to keep things secure and accurate. 

What is crypto art?
Art is the most common use case for NFTs, and it is no wonder that crypto art in NFT form has recently exploded in popularity. The fact that the novel blockchain technology creates conditions that now allow artists to earn tens of millions of dollars from their digital paintings attracted many creative people who could only dream about such a level of ease and accessibility before.

The biggest drivers of the crypto art landscape are the artists that create/recreate pieces to be stored over the blockchain. Although NFTs can represent numerous aspects of the digital world, the first step begins with the creation of digital artwork. Digital art can be created by using readily-available software and a personal computer in the form of GIF, JPEG, videos, 3D images and similar art forms.

While the aforementioned digital art can be easily replicated and distributed over the internet, crypto artists need to certify and mint a nonfungible-token that is linked to the authenticity of the art created. Once certified, the art can then be uploaded to various marketplaces and marketed to potential buyers.

It is important to note that crypto art is also subject to copyright laws and artists are expected to create, mint and sell unique NFTs while respecting the ownership of other artworks.

Do I have to use digital money to purchase an NFT?
The short answer is yes, sort of. I'll explian. Say you found an interesting piece of digital art on one of the websites that sell NFTs. You tell yourself, I'm going to try and buy it. You start looking around to see how much it costs. Okay, fine, you tell yourself, I can't find the cost of this thing, maybe they want me to add it to a cart before telling me the cost. You look around for the cart. Now you're really confused because you can't even find a cart to put it in. At that point, the question becomes how do people buy these things instead of why do people buy these things.

Here's one solution I've found that might make the process less complicated. Over at Opensea NFT marketplace they say they make NFT buying easier with the use of Moonpay. You can use MoonPay to buy NFTs with a credit or debit card if you live in a supported region.  The Moonpay platform helps you convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency for purchase of NFTs with an added processing fee. After checking into Moonpay, I was not comfortable answering this question with a solid yes, it is more of a maybe answer because it again boils down to how much time and patience to want to put into buying an NFT. 

On the Coinbase website you can easily convert Ethereum (ETH) to US Dollar.

Can an NFT be stolen?
A digital file or computer file  can be copied any number of times, including the art that comes with an NFT. In contrast, NFTs give you something that cannot be copied: ownership of the work (though the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, just as with physical artworks). If we use physical art collecting as an example: anyone can own a Monet print. The original, however, can only be owned by one person. Each NFT has a unique signature that verifies authenticity and any transactions related to it — who created it, who owns it, who sold it and for how much, etc. Creating an NFT is called  minting.   When a digital file gets minted, an NFT is generated and stored on a  blockchain . Blockchain technology provides a record of ownership on a public, distributed database that anyone can see. This record of ownership also allows for the original creator to always be credited and paid royalties, no matter how many times an NFT is sold or who owns it. The history of ownership, from creator to current owner, is called  provenance , and it’s a concept already in use in the art world.

Are NFTs a good investment?
Buying an NFT because you like it, or maybe even to earn (or lose) a few quick bucks is one thing. But investing in NFTs is another. Again, it's a nascent space. Even a Van Gogh painting or a rare Babe Ruth baseball card required some passage of time before becoming very valuable.

Given the digital nature of NFTs, it's hard to compare them to prized physical artworks, such as statues and paintings. On the other hand, we live in a world where one Bitcoin is worth more than $30,000, so things from the digital realm can certainly be very valuable and even sustain that value over longer periods of time.

In any case, if you plan to invest in NFTs, you'll need to dive deep into this complex world because each NFT market is slightly different. It's also pricey — trading on Ethereum can be quite costly as the network's recent congestion is causing fees to rise. Finally, you'll need to think strategically and follow the often rapidly changing cryptocurrency trends.

In short, it's possible to earn money by investing in NFTs, but you'll have to do your homework.

Why are some NFTs more valuable than others?
Just like pieces of art in the physical world, NFTs can be rare and valuable. Generally, when an NFT is sold on a marketplace, there’s a bidding process where the price of the NFT is determined by how much demand there is for it.

Art made by artificial intelligence is complex and often controversial. While some artists celebrate the immense possibilities, others grapple with creative and ethical questions, but there’s no doubt it’s here to stay.

So, what exactly is AI Art? In short, it is artwork (visual, audio, or otherwise) generated by a machine learning process—that is, a machine has "learned" some information, and used it to generate a new image. Humans may have collected the data, or written instructions for the machine to use, but the process of creation is left to the machine.

AI art happens where the machine and human come together. Mostly emerging in the mid-2010s, the most common types of AI art revolve around processing images, recognizing aspects like color, texture, and text. The models then edit existing images or generate new ones. 

Ahmed Elgammal is a professor at the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University, having founded an Art and AI Lab there. He and his team built AICAN (AI Creative Adversarial Network), a unique GAN which was trained on 100,000 images from five centuries of Western art.It was then programmed to generate distinct and original new images, with influence from previous movements.

Elgammal points out that the same thing happened with photography: “In the nineteenth century, there was this concern that everybody was using the same camera, so how could one person’s work stand out? Was there an artistic personality in the photo that would make it ‘art’?”Nowadays, photography stands as an art form in itself—is the same thing happening for AI?

AI is affecting contemporary art more and more. Whether it’s through a tool like Playform, or through an algorithm coded by the artist, here are some of the ways artists work with AI now.

Imagine yourself standing in an art gallery, admiring an abstract print on the wall in front of you. It has bold colors and intentional-looking brush strokes. You wonder what it could mean. Then, you read the label on the wall—and learn the artwork was generated by an algorithm. How do you feel? Maybe you’re frustrated that you were “fooled”. Maybe you worriedly remember that AI doomsday movie you watched. Or maybe you wonder how AI could augment your own creative process: could you make more art, explore new styles, and get access to tools you’d never dreamed of?