Non-fungible but fragile: How Aleph.im helps to secure the delicate nature of NFTs.
Non-fungible is a new word to some, but not so much for others. While NFTs are currently a big part of the 2021 cryptocurrency madness, not a lot of people understand the true fragility of their favorite piece of digital art. ‘Non-fungible’ means that there is not another one like it, it is unique, irreplaceable. So what’s the issue, how are unique NFTs fragile? We take a closer look at the nature of NFTs in the below article.
NFTs — A quick rundown
Tokenised art has recently entered the digital world by the use of NFTs, (Non-fungible Tokens) taking the form of a unique string of data that is placed on the blockhain. However, NFTs do not come without their own risks; opportunist scammers and other ne’er-do-wells are looking to exploit this hot topic. With vast amounts of money flooding into the NFT market, it is extremely important to ensure that the end-users and customers are protected from those who are looking to make a quick profit at someone else’s expense.
NFT artists and consumers often do not realize how fragile their NFTs can be, even if there is no bad intentions. A common misconception is that NFTs are automatically decentralized and safe, unfortunately this isn’t always the case.
How decentralized are NFTs really?
What am I getting at here, how can digital ‘irreplaceable’ tokens be fragile? Imagine the scene, you’ve just purchased an original, highly sought-after piece of art — brilliant! Now, where would you store a one-of-a-kind piece of art like that? Definitely not at the local storage place.
Unfortunately, storing NFTs or any data directly on the blockchain can be quite cost-prohibitive. This leads to NFT creators looking for cheaper, more centralized options for data hosting, such as AWS or Google or the artist’s own IPFS gateway. While this is a cheap and efficient option, it often goes against the nature of NFTs in the first place.
How can an NFT be unique to you if you can’t access it if the server goes offline or it is switched off forever? The problem with this is that this creates a single point of failure. NFTs are only as secure as the server they are stored on, should the server hosts experience any difficulties (whether that be financial, legal, technical or a malicious operator who wishes to modify the NFTs they have created.) then the NFTs stored there become at-risk. By storing your NFT on a centralized server, you run the risk of having your NFT modified (see rug-pulling/scamming) or lost completely.
An example situation, this alleged tweet gained some traction recently. A literal “rug-pull.” All credit to @neitherconfirm on Twitter. So why do people not protect their NFTs — of which some people have paid upwards of $69M for?
Aleph.im’s solution
Store NFTs
This is where aleph.im comes in. Our most recently released dApp allows users to back-up their NFT on a completely decentralized network.
This is achieved by the use of aleph.im’s powerful decentralized services and approximately 50 active nodes.
This means that a snapshot of your NFT is taken and the unique metadata is backed-up and IPFS pinned on each node, all of which are not owned by aleph.im team members (excluding 2), but by external community members or high profile companies that use the services that aleph.im offers. Even if your NFT is already stored on the IPFS network, it will be pinned 50 more times. Meaning your NFT is secure even if any node should go offline. How about that for safety!
👉 Head over to account.aleph.im/#/nfts and follow our handy guide here.
The dApp currently supports Rarible, Superare and Opensea (except the untransferred gasless mints)
Store regular files
Do you also want to store regular old file types in the same decentralised manner? This file will be then backed-up and IPFS pinned to each Aleph.im node, you will then receive a unique ipfs.io link that will take you directly to the stored file. Not only is this now a completely decentralised file that you can share with others but you know it cannot be tampered with.
👉 Take a look at account.aleph.im/#/ipfs and follow the IPFS pinning steps here.
Almost free
For both of these features, only a small amount of Aleph tokens are required (Currently 3MB per token). This means that you can have peace of mind for a few $USD. Currently, as an incentive to promote community growth during our bootstrapping phase — the tokens are not consumed, but you will lose the aleph.im protection should the tokens leave your wallet.
Why is this important?
NFTs are more than your favourite Doge paintings. This relatively new technology is still young and NFTs are just starting to make their mark on the overall cryptocurrency universe. Who knows what the digital art landscape will look like in 5 years — but at least they can be truly unique and secure.
Overall, Aleph.im aims to decentralise not just your NFTs, but anything that can be hosted on the web. We hope that you will be part of this journey with us too.
Further reading
Aleph.im’s aims to decentralise and protect NFTs (21st January 2021)
What is IPFS and how does it work? IPFS explained in 2 minutes. (29th March 2021)
About Aleph.im
Aleph.im’s core mission is to help decentralized apps and protocols strip off the centralized parts of their stack, achieving a fully decentralized architecture. Our ecosystem achieves this by providing decentralized databases (including file storage), computation and a decentralized identification (DID) framework. You can think of aleph.im as a decentralized AWS or firebase.
